Club News Archives - 2005

If you have a club news item to contribute, we would be grateful if you would email it to us... To make room for new stories on the 'Club News' page, all of our stories will eventually move here to the archives but they will stay available here for future reference... 29/12/2005 First XI fixtures & cup draws available... The First XI have managed to get home draws for all of the major cup competitions but face some strong opposition across the board. They have drawn holders, North Down, in the Challenge Cup (20th May), last year's beaten semi-finalists, Limavady, in the Ulster Cup (21st May), and the current Ulster Cup holders, Strabane, in the Irish Senior Cup (17th June). In other draws, the Second XI face Portadown II's at home in the Intermediate Cup (13th May). The Third XI team open their defence of the Lindsay Minor Cup against Cooke Collegians IV's at home (13th May). The Fourth XI team have drawn Creagagh III's away in the Minor Qualifying Cup and the Fifth XI have also been drawn away in the same competition and will face Holywood III's (both 27th May). Full list of currently available Cup fixtures can be found here. 04/12/2005 Section One reprieve for Carrickfergus... The NCU Executive committee has rejected Derriaghy's final appeal against the decision to retrospectively rescind the registration of the ineligible player G. Els. This has resulted in all the league points they gained being awarded to their opponents, and as a consequence Derriaghy have been relegated from Section One. It has now been confirmed by the Union that Carrickfergus will retain their place in the Union's newly named Premier League for the 2006 season. 26/11/2005 News and pictures from Club dinner... The Club's annual dinner was held on Friday 18th November and was the usual sociable occasion, allowing the Club to honour its oustanding achievers of the season past. We now have the photographs from the night available, as well as a full list of prize-winners from the night. Full details on the dinner can be found here. 25/08/2005 Alex Adams features in Sunday Life... For anyone who missed it, there was an excellent story by Robin Walsh in the Sunday Life at the weekend, detailing the remarkable comeback to cricket of our own Alex Adams. Club members and long-time visitors to this site will know just how serious a situation Alex found himself in not so very long ago in terms of his illness but to see his remarkable comeback story laid out in black and white in the article is really nothing short of an inspiration. I will do my best to get a scan of the printed article up on the site in PDF format by the end of the week for anyone who didn't catch it in print. The article makes reference to the Third XI's recent success in the Cleaver Black Minor Cup and a special mention really must go to skipper Matt Anthony, who finally tasted sweet success in a cup final at no less than his fifth attempt! "Matt's Marauders" edged out Cooke Collegians by 18 runs in a remarkable match which saw more than 500 runs scored in the 100 overs and which ended up running over 3 days. And the small matter of 113 not out and 3 for 52 from Club veteran Joe Campbell can't be overlooked either! Not a bad day all round... ;-) 24/08/2005 Carrick young players' representative honours... The Club's warmest congratulations go to a number of our young players who have recently kept up the Club's proud recent traditions in terms of representative honours. Following on from his selection for Ulster Schools, young First XI player, Andrew Cowden was honoured with selection for the Irish Schools XI. And carrying on our long association with the Belfast XI competing in the Lord's Taverners' Inner Cities Cup, both Luke Orr and Matthew Palmer were selected at Under 14 level. The tournament was a particular success for Matthew. Having come into the squad at a relatively late stage, solid bowling performances at the group stages followed by a sensational performance of 6 for 19 in the final, saw the young left-arm spinner carry off the "Bowler of the Tournament" Award and bag a two- year sponsorship deal with Gray Nicolls. A full report on the Belfast XI's success in the Inner Cities Cup is available on the excellent CricketIreland portal. 10/08/2005 Twenty20 finals day report... The re-arranged Twenty20 finals day on 22nd July at The Green saw Carrickfergus Eagles participate in a semi-final worthy of a final. Drawn against probable favourites, the Waringstown Villagers, the Eagles posted 128, with knocks of 35 from Nazir Khan and 55 from Shane "Harbs" Singe. In reply, the Villagers began chasing down the target but, after the dismissal of top scorer Kyle Mccallan with the score on 77, they began to lose wickets regularly. Still, they put themselves in a decent position for victory coming into the last over, needing a run-a-ball with 2 wickets in hand. Sensationally, a run out in the final over saw them requiring three runs for victory off the final ball. Scoring just two, however, amazingly left the match tied. Several visits to the rulebooks later(!) and the Eagles were declared victors by virtue of having lost just one fewer wicket. Having won the other semi in reasonably comfortbale fashion, North Down were to be the Eagle's opponents in the final. A mediocre batting performance from the Eagles saw them post a total of 108 with only skipper, Ryan Eagleson, making a significant cotribution with 24. North Down made fairly short work of the chase and surpassed the Carrickfergus total with 4 overs to spare, Davy Kennedy top-scoring with 41 to take the inaugural Twenty20 title. A full report of the finals day is available on the excellent CricketIreland portal. 10/08/2005 ICC Trophy match resounding success... The Club's hosting of the recent ICC Trophy match between Holland and Oman last month was a resounding success and was witnessed by a healthy crowd at Middle Road. The weather, thankfully, held out and allowed Tonto to prepare his usual high standard of strip and the ground looked in superb shape generally. Our resident Club photographer, Desy Allen got some fantastic shots from the day, which can be found here. Whilst the success of the event was very much down to a team effort with efforts made by a good number of Club members and young players, a special word of thanks must go to a number of individuals whose particular efforts were instrumental: NCU Match Manager, our own Roger Bell, Carrickfergus C.C. Match Manager, Alex Adams, Lesley Thompson and his willing volunteers for producing a resplendent Middle Road, NCU Official Match Scorer, our own Roy Parkhill, (who, incidentally, gave up the opportunity to score the Ireland match to be at Middle Road!), and our young friend Alastair from Ballymena C.C. whose dilligent electronic scoring kept the web scorecards up-to-date. Our thanks to everyone involved in the organisation and smooth running of the match on the day for their efforts. The touranment which, of course, saw Ireland qualify for the 2007 ICC World Cup in the West Indies, was declared a huge success generally by ICC President Ehsan Mani. 09/06/2005 Vinay delivers sensational Twenty20 win... On Tuesday night, Carrickfergus Eagles became the first team to make the Twenty20 finals day, as they cruised past Dunmurry Dynamoes courtesy of a truly sensational bowling performance by Vinay Sharma. With Middle Road still sodden from the recent wet weather, the match was switched to the mat at Belfast High School, (as always our thanks go the school for being so accomodating). After just 40 minutes of play, the Dynamoes were stunned to find themselves skittled for just 28, thanks to a wonder performance from Vinay, who finished with the remarkable figures of 3.2 overs - 1 mdn - 6 wkts - 7 runs, which included a hat-trick in his second over and a wicket first ball of his third over! Our congratualtions to Vinay on his unbelievable performance... With just 29 required for victory, openers Barry Cooper and Davy Menaul made short work of the task and Davy sealed victory in the 6th over with a six. The report from this fantastic match, unsurprisingly, formed the main portion of the Twenty20 coverage in the Newsletter on Wednesday. Snaps of the match, with Vinay in action, courtesy of Des "Swan" Allen can be found here. 09/06/2005 Carrick pro's feature in South Africa awards... Carrickfergus pro's past and present were honoured in mid-May at the 2005 Mutual and Federal South African Cricket Awards. Davy Jacobs fantastic form last season which saw him finish the campaign as the highest run-scorer in South African domestic cricket with 867 runs @ 43.35 saw him deservedly pick up the "Domestic Players' Player of the Year" award. AB de Villier's sensational rise to prominence in international cricket with 967 runs @ 53.72 in just 11 tests was marked with the award for "Newcomer of the Year", following on from his Under-19 award of last year. More info on all of the awards can be found here and here. 09/06/2005 Larne & Dunmurry Twenty20 photos available... Desy "Swan" Allen has struck again with his snapping and got some nice shots of the Twenty20 victory over local rivals Larne and also from the sensational victory over Dunmurry earlier this week. More top work Des - nice shot of the Eag with Sheep and Rossco - takes me back to his modelling days! ;-) 17/05/2005 Photos from Sunday's Lisburn match available... Our own Desy "Swan" Allen was snapping away at Sunday's league match against Lisburn at Middle Road and he has managed to get some really good action shots from the day. Nice work Des! 23/04/2005 ICC Trophy practice match details... Alongside the ICC Trophy qualifying match between holders Holland and Oman, the Club is also responsible for staging a practice match in the run-up to the tournament proper. Our practice match will see Uganda and Papua New Guinea kick off their campaigns against one another on Wednesday 29th June. Any members who can pitch in to help with organisation on the da will be most welcome. Worth noting again that all the tournament latest can be found on the Cricket Ireland portal. 06/04/2005 VideoCity new scorebox sponsor for 2005... The Club is delighted to announce a new sponsor onboard for the 2005 season. VideoCity, Northern Ireland's largest independent home entertainment rental chain with 24 stores, has signed a generous five-year sponsorship deal to take over sponsorship of the scorebox at Middle Road. VideoCity have lent longer-term to the Club through their sale of tickets from the CLub lottery but this new deal represents a significant cash injection into the Club and will help immensely with our further devlopment of local cricket. VideoCity proprietor, Ivan McCombe, is no stranger to those who know local cricketing circles and the Club would like to express gratitude for his support. Of course, we would ask members and friends of the Club to acknowledge the assistance of all of our sponsors by supporting their respective businesses. Any other local businesses who wish to gain the benefits of becoming supporters of the Club and local cricket through sponsorship can get get full details here or by emailing Roger or Scott. 06/04/2005 ICC Trophy match details... As reported on the site just before Christmas (see 2004 News Archive dated 16/12/2004), Carrickfergus C.C. have been honoured with the responsibility of hosting a match from the prestigious ICC Trophy to be held in Ireland in July. We will be hosting holders and one of the tournament favourites, Holland, against Oman, who are competing for the first time in the competition. The match will be held on Saturday 2nd July and we are hoping for support from both Club members and the wider community. The Club will also be hosting a warm-up match on Wednesday 29th june, details for which are, as yet, unknown. The competition sees 12 countries participating, of which 5 will qualify for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. The 30 group stage games will be played in 19 Northern Ireland venues from 1-8 July, during which 4 of the qualifying places for the World Cup will become known. The 12 match final phase will be staged by 6 Dublin venues, with the final World Cup qualifying place being decided. The final of the ICC Trophy itself taking place at Clontarf on 13 July. Full details relating to the tournament as well as up-to-date news can be found on the excellent Cricket Ireland portal. 10/03/2005 Davy Jacobs confirmed as Club pro... The paperwork is all complete and the ink is apparently dry so Roger is relieved that we can now confirm that Carrickfergus Cricket Club's professional for the 2005 season is Free State Eagles' opening/middle order batsman, Davy Jacobs. Roger has put together a comprehensive profile of Davy for those of you who wish to familiarise yourselves. That can be found here. 10/03/2005 Shane meets hero Gilchrist... Roger received a mail from Shane recently with a snap of him with his hero, Adam Gilchrist. Shane ran into him in a pub in Auckland (shock horror!) during the recent series. 25/02/2005 Twenty20 cup draw now available... Thursday saw the launch of the Lions Sports Twenty20 Cup and a final announcement on the draw and format. The tournament will see four groups of five teams play one another in a league format, staged over five weeks in June with groups winners going into the knockout semi-finals. The semis are slated to take place simultaneously at Shaw's Bridge on Friday June 17th with the final taking place on the evening of the same day. Carrick Eagle have been drawn against Briadside Blacks (Ballymena), Dunmurry Dynamos, Larne Pirates, and Lisburn Lions (no doubt the Trumpton Tornadoes and Caberwick Cannons will be in there somewhere!). The full match details have now been updated on the cup fixtures page. The competition has received broad backing from all of the clubs in the NCU top echelons, with only Derriaghy absent (replaced by Section Three CIYMS). Further details on the tournament and launch can be found here. 20/01/2005 Youth team fixtures for 2005 now available... The fixture lists have now been updated to include the league and cup fixtures for our youth teams. This now completes the fixture lists for the coming season, with the exception of the new 20/20 cup to be announced later this week. On that topic, we had some good ideas come in for the 20/20 team name: Carrickfergus Cannons, Carrickfergus Cowboys, East Antrim Eejits, amongst those I can print without seeing the site taken off-line pending legal action! In the end, the committee have gone for Carrickfergus Eagles (should keep Ryan happy!) as our team name so, please, no more mails on that one! 10/02/2005 Suggestions for 20/20 name... AB was interviewed by Adam Coates on BBC Radio Northern Ireland's Sportsound on Saturday 29th January 2005, soon after the end of the recent Test Series against England. Roger has managed to get permission from Brian Johnston for us to reproduce the interview here. If you can see the little media interface below, you just need to wait until the file begins to stream (delay will depend upon your speed of connection) and then hit the play button once it becomes available. For anyone having trouble, or who wants to listen to the interview another time, use the link further down and save the file to disk. Mail me with problems or queries. Download .mp3 version and listen later (Right-click link and choose "Save As") Our thanks to Sportsound, BBC Radio Northern Ireland and, in particular, to Brian Johnston for giving permission to reproduce the interview on the site. 10/02/2005 Suggestions for 20/20 name... The Club was delighted to hear recently that Davy Menaul, son of former Club Captain Bobby, has decided to return to Carrickfergus C.C.. Widely acknowledged by senior members of the Club as one of the most promising young talents the Club has ever seen, Davy left in 1998 aged just 16 to take the opportunity to play Section One cricket at near neighbours Cliftonville. Having played presentative cricket for Ireland Under 15's whilst still at Carrickfergus, he went on to become a first team regular at Cliftonville and added to his string of representative honours along the way, captaining both the Ulster and Ireland Under 19 sides as well as gaining Inter-Pro and Irish Development XI honours. See here for a full profile. His undoubted talent as well as his now considerable experience at the top level make him a very welcome addition to Ryan's First XI and we are delighted to welcome Davy back to the Club. 10/02/2005 Suggestions for 20/20 name... A many of you will know, Carrickfergus have been invited to compete in this year's inaugaral 20/20 Cup competition. As well as funny coloured balls (oo-er) and pyjamas, we also need a catchy name. No doubt this will have me reaching for the "delete" key more often than not, but Roger has suggested we open this up to suggestions from the floor. He has even hinted that there could be a small Club-related prize for a decent idea we can actually use! So, anyway, answers on a postcard to the usual address: web@carrickferguscricket.org. 10/02/2005 AB de Villiers speaks about time in Carrickfergus... Many of you may have seen the recent article in the Sunday Life which featured an interview by Robin Walsh with AB in which he spoke about his time at Carrickfergus. For anyone who didn't catch that, however, you can find it here. Also, Roger has found a snap somewhere that shows that AB certainly picked up some "life experience" from Big Eagy! 25/01/2005 Update on AB's continuing Test success... Following on from his debut in the First Test against England, AB deVilliers has gone from strength to strength in the Test arena. Following on from the disappointment of defeat in the opening Test, AB took the gloves from Tsolekile and was asked to bat down the order in the Second Test in Port Elizabeth. After catching Trescothick on 18 and contributing 14 at number 7, he came into his own in the second innings. Four dismissals (Trescothick, Vaughan, Flintoff and Giles) were bound to build the confidence a little but with South Africa again on the ropes in their second innings, AB produced a match-saving knock in partnership with Shaun Pollock to earn South Africa a well-deserved draw. AB's contribution (52 n.o.) in the vital 83 run partnership saw him notch up his maiden Test half-century and the gutsy dig received well-earned plaudits from all around. After his efforts in the Second Test, AB unsurprisingly held onto the wicket-keepers gloves for the Cape Town Test. His batting contribution was relatively modest with knocks of 21 and 10 respectively but he did play a key role in some high-profile dismissals with 4 catches and a stumping in the match which assisted South Africa to a series-levelling victory. Despite solid performances with the gloves, the Fourth Test saw the return of established star, Mark Boucher, and AB relinquished his wicket-keeping duties but was retained in the side as a dedicated middle-order bat. A score of 19 in the first innings was followed by yet another switch for AB when he was asked to fill-in for injured skipper Graeme Smith and open the innings. Perhaps this was just one switch too many as AB was unfortunately dismissed for just 3 runs as England went on to take a series lead. Despite the slight disappointment of the Fourth Test, AB had done more than enough to ensure his place in the final Test at his home ground of Centurion. And were the selectors glad they stuck to their guns on this one! A wonderful opening knock of 92 from AB after a day's rain delay saw the South African's blushes spared as they managed a total of 247 all out (the next highest contribution was just 33). England's 359 first innings total appeared to have put them back in the driver's seat and in with a slim chance of victory. AB's slight disappointment at missing out on a maiden century first up was soon gone, however, as he contributed a fine innings of 109 in the second innings, sharing a 227 partnership with Jacque Kallis which allowed the South Africans to declare on 296 and set up a chance of victory. Despite a couple of scares, England managed to bat the day out and secure the draw which saw them take the series 2-1. AB's superb contribution of 201 runs saw him named as the man-of-the-match for the Fifth Test! Warmest congratulations from everyone at the Club go to AB on his wonderful achievement of a maiden Test century on his home ground. A well-deserved reward for a very talented and dedicated young sportsman. It may be his first Test century but we are quite sure from the maturity of his performances in his first Test series that it will not be his last by a long shot! Well done AB... 20/01/2005 All 2005 senior team fixtures now available... The fixture lists have now been updated to include all First, Second, Third and Fourth XI league ties as well as cup fixtures for all of the men's teams. Youth team fixture lists will be added when these are released... 20/01/2005 League table archive updated with 2004 tables... The league table archives have now been updated to reflect the final standings for 2004 in a season which, of course, saw the First XI consoolidate their Section One status, and our Third and Fourth XI's crowned champions of their respective leagues.