CRICKET: Campbell in Irish squad for U19 World Cup

While Ireland’s preparations have been hampered by having 5 of their 6 warm up games washed out, they will face England in two youth ODI’s games at Leicester on July 18 and 20. They depart for Australia on July 25th for a training camp in Darwin ahead of the start of the World Cup.

They will play warm up games in Brisbane against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka before the tournament proper gets under way for them on August 12 against England.

Another disappointingly wet weekend for cricketers in the North West resulted in all four of Coleraine’s teams being unable to play a single match on Saturday. The Fourth XI has now had no matches for four weeks – since June 4th – and in Intermediate 4, there are no second chances to play those fixtures and no points for a “no Result”.

The Thirds haven’t fared much better – they last played on the 16th June (a game which was finished on the Wednesday evening as a result of rain interruptions). They now have 3 outstanding fixtures to fit in, with more rain forecast at the weekend to cause a further backlog. They do hope to play on Monday, Tuesday and/or Wednesday evenings this week in a rearranged match at Limavady.

The Seconds have been waiting for four weeks too for the semi final of the Intermediate A Cup at Sandel Lodge against Donemana. This has now been rescheduled for Sunday 15 July as the home fixture list backs up even further – they have two outstanding league fixtures to be played at home and one other away, with little or no prospect of a window of opportunity.

They did however have a ‘bowl out’ for their place in the Ulster Plate Final which took place in the rain on Sunday morning, as it was adjudged that there was no reasonable prospect of even a 10 over game being played against Muckamore on a soggy Coleraine cricket field. As a result the Coleraine side was very disappointed to lose 1-0 in a competition where they had had great hopes of silverware.

The First XI has also been struggling to get scheduled games played, although the team did wait patiently last Saturday to play a T20 game at Bonds Glen on an artificial wicket, as this was the last chance for either team to gain points from that rearranged fixture. They were also due to play the postponed Semi Final of the Northern Bank Senior Cup this weekend; only they were still awaiting the result of a quarter final which should have been played on June 16th.

That game has just been completed on Sunday at Beechgrove where Brigade beat St Johnston. The semi final is now arranged for Saturday 14 July at Sandel Lodge and, weather permitting, should prove to be an exciting game.

The league fixture against Limavady which the 1st XI was due to play this weekend had to be rearranged as the Seconds’ Cup games took precedence and will be played as a 40 over game starting on Monday with the two following evenings to complete it at Sandel Lodge. This will see them up-to-date with their league games, but as the ongoing saga of poor weather continues to wreak havoc on the cricket season we will all have to wait and see if they can maintain this position.

The Firsts were scheduled to play two league games at home this coming weekend adding to the pressure of fixtures waiting to be played at Sandel Lodge as they too will be rescheduled as the Cup games will be played there on Saturday and Sunday instead.

Altogether this has been a frustrating season so far for cricketers and their supporters as the weather is crucial for the smooth running of a busy fixture list and it has caused many headaches for those trying to reschedule games for the Club and its teams, but everyone is still hopeful of some better summer weather to come.