Apologies that the column hasn't been updated for a while but it's been a fairly hectic start to the season and over the course of the past few weeks my laptop had a nervous breakdown.

There have been a few noteworthy events since then of course and the one I wanted to start with was the withdrawal of Burndennett's 2nd XI from Qualifying Division 4.

Obviously it is always disheartening to lose any team from the league and it is clear that several others are also struggling to fulfil fixtures further down the rankings. The strange thing about it though is that every time something like this happens, the first question always seems to be- what is the North West/ Cricket Ireland doing about it?

Now I have no doubt that Andrew Fleming would love a magic wand but the reality is that he hasn't got one. For the past 18 months the Union has been setting up a coaching structure the likes of which have never been even thought about before.

From the Warriors, to the Warriors Academy to the Regional Development Squads and that isn't even considering all the under-age programmes being maintained by Cricket Ireland through our Development Officer Brian Allen- the availability of coaching has never been so plentiful.

The problem is though the old adage about leading a horse to water; if young people (or old people for that matter) don't want to play cricket, you can't force them.

Unfortunately there are so many counter-distractions around today that most participation sports are affected and it is much more difficult for us as our game takes up a full day at a time. Everybody is looking for a simple solution but clearly there isn't one.

Like it or not it is the clubs themselves who hold the key to this. They need to invest resources in attracting new players the same way that most others are doing in the schools and clubs and then they need an infrastructure to keep them there. Go to some grounds around the North West on a Friday night during the summer and you'll see all kinds of events going on- clubs showing a willingness to tackle the apathy that exists for cricket generally.

That is the backbone of any club structure in any sport. After that it comes down to simple maths to establish how many teams you can put out on a weekly basis. This is by no means a dig at Burndennett by the way- their situation differs in that they based their 2nd XI on player promises that were never fulfilled.

It is sad to see a club that at one point had 3 teams now down to one but they are strong and they can easily repair the damage. Here's wishing them well that they do.

******************************************************************************* The fall-out from what was a good showing from North West Clubs after Sunday's Irish Senior Cup and Ulster Shield first round ties would suggest that a third of the country feels that the region is one more becoming the pace-setters in Irish club cricket while the rest are putting it down to merely a freaky weekend.

As is usually the case, the truth is likely to be somewhere in between the two points, although how far along that line I wouldn't be sure. I was at the St Johnston match on Sunday and there was nothing “flukey” in it while reports from the 'Green would suggest Ardmore were more than a match for County.

Obviously having been so far off the pace in the past decade in the All-Ireland competition it's going to take more than two or three unexpected results to change the thoughts of many. For me though, and this is only a personal opinion, more and more North West players- particularly the younger ones- are benefiting from the specialised coaching and general preparation that they are receiving from the new regime.

Guys who might never have come under the radar in the past, including those young lads at St Johnston are now availing of the opportunity and are much better players because of it. It's the same in the senior ranks too- Is anybody telling me that the likes of David Barr and Jason Milligan aren't twice the players they were 18 months ago?

The Warriors have improved leaps and bounds collectively (even allowing for Monday's hiccup) and clubs are improving as a result of their players improving. It is just the first steps however and 90% of the work is still in front of us.

Still, the shoots of recovery under Bobby Rao and an extensive team of coaches have maybe just started to show.

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Huge congratulations to William Porterfield on his maiden County Championship for Warwickshire.

All in all, the perfect end to an excellent week for Irish and NW cricket.

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And finally, I need to clear up some confusion in relation to Nigel Jones and his wayward sense of direction. At the start of Sunday's match between St Johnston and Civil Service North the visitors took the field with only 9 men.

They fielded a couple of subs for what everyone believed was going to be a few minutes, however as time went by the story got out that the two lads might be a while yet. One of the CSN fielders told the Saints that...”our skipper and another player have somehow landed in Donegal Town (which is about 35 miles away for any City slickers) but they're on their way..”.

Now everybody knows that Nigel Jones is the club captain however what wasn't made clear was that the Irish International was unavailable for the Saints game.

So when it appeared on Twitter that he was lost in Donegal, Jonesy promptly responded that he was actually still in Belfast.

The real story here is that Charlie Beverland was skipper for the day but instead of being at the toss at the Boathole he was sitting outside the 4 Lanterns.

Lost in Translation/Lost in Ballybofey....sure what's the difference.