VILLAGERS FIGHT FOR SENIOR SURVIVAL BUT FOR HOW LONG?

Despite the concerns caused by an ongoing fixture backlog the next two weekends are going to feel like a couple of real cup finals for everyone involved at Eglinton Cricket Club. Sunday week of course is an actual final when Andy Christie's team cross swords with new senior cup holders Bready in the Faughan Valley decider at Beechgrove but before that they have arguably more pressing business to deal with as they finish off an ongoing game at Limavady before travelling to Bonds Glen for that crunch showdown.

No-one can say for sure that the winners will stay up and the losers will be relegated but its long odds on that will be the case therefore there is sure to be plenty of tension in the air. The two sides have been totally cut adrift by the rest this season but the concerning feature is now the fact that this is becoming a pretty frequent occurrence.

Every year for the past five or six it has been two teams left to slug out relegation and for the past few, Eglinton have been one of them. The loss of key players hasn't helped the cause of course but the reality is that only really Craig Averill is now missing from the ranks for them and despite a reasonable start to 2011 they're now bang in the thick of it again.

The reason for bringing this up at this time is not to look for whys or wherefores or to preview the weekend contest in any way but rather as part of an overall look at North West cricket which we know is in need of a serious overhaul. Unless the villagers can blow a hole in Limavady's title hopes they will go into Sunday's game locked together with the Bee Gees and unless something miraculous happens between now and the first week in September, one of them will be relegated.

Both clubs have brought in overseas players this season which means that realistically, one of them has paid someone just to keep them from being relegated and the other has paid someone and not even managed that. I know there are a lot more people than me who can't see the sense in spending fistfuls of notes just to try to survive in a league where you're obviously not comfortable, unless of course you're intending to spend a whole lot more in the future.

Granted, money is nothing new in the game and you could point to other clubs who would be in the same situation if they weren't paying players but the difference there is that those sides are competing week on week and are challenging for all the various trophies which patently means something to them. If and when the money dries up they may be in exactly the same situation as Eglinton and Bonds Glen are now but only time will tell.

Regardless of all of that there is a pretty simple way around the current madness although it will require North West clubs to be strong and do something we're not particularly good at and endorse change. It would be easy to go to this year's AGM, shrug the shoulders and vote to do it all again and then this time next year sit here and lament the same stuff all over again as the bottom two are marooned once more. Or, we could put a bit of meaning into senior cricket in the North West from top to bottom and introduce a third senior division.

At the minute we have a maximum of eight teams in the top flight with any chance of taking a hand in the title race so despite making a hash of it last year we need to put properly thought out plans for an elite league to our clubs. We need to present it in such a way that clubs know they will have games every week as we have seen already that unless they are provided with answers, they will not want to know. Fill the blank Saturdays with a new format Ulster Cup or T20 elite but just don't shake your head and trust to luck.

Strangely enough the 8-team league should then open things up for our current Division 2 clubs who if anything, are currently even worse off. Anyone not contesting the promotion spot (and lets call a spade by its proper name here- how many really want to go up?) is left with nothing to play for in the league after the halfway point. If they're out of the cups as well, and bearing in mind the early cup rounds are all played at the start of the season, some clubs spend July and August just going through the motions and playing for pride.

But what if there was relegation from Division 2; wouldn't that make things a bit more interesting? Obviously you would have to give everyone a year's grace to prepare and the second and third tiers would only have six teams but the Sammy Jeffrey would then be extended to 12 sides and we would have room for that long anticipated domestic T20 tournament. Just as a very loose suggestion then how would it be if from the 2013 season we had a set up (names based solely on current standings) something like- Division 1- Brigade, Limavady, Donemana, Strabane, Fox Lodge, Bready, Coleraine and Glendermott. (50 over league games, and featuring new Ulster/ All Ireland T20 competitions), Division 2- Eglinton, Bonds Glen, Creevedonnell, Ardmore, Drummond, St Johnston. Division 3- The Nedd, Killyclooney, Sion Mills, Burndennett, North Fermanagh and Crindle.

Division 2 and 3 matches would be played in a 40-overs per side format which appears to have the full support of the clubs involved and there would be promotion from both leagues 2 and 3 and relegation from 1 and 2. Naturally a certain amount of refinement would be required but it looks like we will be going to an 8-team top flight at some stage therefore rather than just shepherd the rest into one meaningless division, why not see if we can do something a bit more interesting .

Without doubt I realise the prestige that is attached to playing in Division 1, the participation in the Irish Senior Cup and the bigger games and for that reason any change is likely to be met by resistance from those in the red zone but it will make for a more competitive league when everyone has something to play for. Strangely enough the Division 2 clubs who would be most likely to challenge for promotion were in favour of the 8-team top flight last year so maybe there is a certain amount of acceptance that it is the way to go. Anyway, time will tell and its just a thought for now but with the rule change meeting drawing ever nearer, clubs now really have to be looking at what direction they want to go over the next few years.

Finally today with things getting so tight at the top there still appears to be some uncertainty about the outcome of the Limavady versus Donemana match where the visitors voted against turning up. According to sources within the Union the Roesiders will be awarded the points and Donemana will be issued with a mandatory fine once the hosts submit a scorecard saying that the visitors didn't turn up. At the time of writing it appears that Limavady were unhappy at having to do that, stating that the North West was formally notified by Donemana that they wouldn't be appearing, therefore they feel that having left the decision to the Union in the first place, it shouldn't be up to the club to enforce it. It gets no easier, does it?