CONGESTION LOOMS AS WEATHER WIPES OUT CUP PROGRAMME

With four first round ties in the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup still outstanding the last thing the local cricket association needed was the total washout of Saturday's Northern Bank senior cup programme.

There is no provision within the competition rules to allow for any reduction of overs and therefore the five outstanding ties must now be played out in full on consecutive days or evenings from whatever point they are started. That is sure to lead to a very congested few weeks for those involved, particularly since the other three main cup competitions are also now up and running.

That said, of the quartet of local sides still to play their first round ties in the All-Ireland competition- Brigade, Limavady, Strabane and Bonds Glen, only the former have an outstanding Northern Bank fixture as well.

Limavady are already through to the last eight having accounted for The Nedd in midweek in workmanlike fashion while Strabane had a walkover at the weekend as they had been drawn to play Ballyspallen who have withdrawn from the league.

Bonds Glen had already lost to Bready in the second round in a game brought forward as the Bee Gees had a wedding in the camp on Saturday past. The Bob Kerr and Club Turf competitions are quite different from the North West's own cup rules in that they can use Duckworth Lewis or indeed a bowl out if necessary in order to get a result in their matches.

The difficulty in the domestic competition now is that if the rain continues for any length of time it could take weeks to clear up the backlog. With Ireland meeting Pakistan in two One-Day Internationals in Belfast next week, organisers have been forced to re-schedule those outstanding Irish Senior Cup ties.

They had originally pencilled in next Sunday as the reserve date for rained off matches however as things stand the games between Civil Service North and Bonds Glen and North Down versus Brigade won't now be played until 5 June.

Strabane's tie at Railway Union will go ahead this coming weekend albeit the home side will field without Trent Johnston and Kevin O'Brien and the visitors without Niall McDonnell all on International duty. Limavady will travel to the Hills on the same day.

Incidentally, talking of the Roesiders there was some good news for Andrew Riddles' team this weekend when it emerged that their overseas professional Adnan Akmal has arrived in the North West; the Pakistan International making his debut in yesterday's Club Turf Ulster Cup game at home to Lisburn.

The wicket-keeper batsman comes with a big reputation and is the brother of former Limavady professional Kamran Akmal. He has been in and out of the Pakistan team over the past 12 months and said that he feels that a good summer here will put him back in the International spotlight.

Akmal is sure to get plenty of opportunity to impress over the next few weeks as clubs battle the impending fixture backlog caused by the recent bad weather.