The dust has settled now on another fascinating domestic cricket season and there are plenty around the North West who will be glad of the chance to draw breath.

It wasn't a particularly congested fixture schedule in 2014 however some very unseasonal weather in June and July and a reluctance to set replays for midweek turned the last month into a frantic dash to get matches played.

Had we got half the rain in August that we got in the heart of the summer, this season would have gone into December.

Given the predicted scheduling of matches for 2015, and the fact that some grounds (Bready, Strabane, and Eglinton) may not be available for league games for up to 3 weeks during the T20 World Cup qualifiers in  the peak period of July and August, it is an issue the North West needs to take very seriously this winter.

Asking players and officials to turn out every Saturday and every Sunday for a month at the end of the season is quite simply too much.

Whether the answer is shorter format midweek replays for rained off matches is open to debate but this season there were matches carried forward for 6 weeks from their original date and that is totally unacceptable.

One of the things that continues to come up in conversarion is the fact that today's demands on players are unrealistic. The majority have committments of one kind or another and you ask any player over the age of 30 and he will tell you that he relies heavily on the understanding of a partner to play as much as he does.

Bar a handful of people, cricket in the North West is an amateur sport but the demands are now semi-professional at the very minimum.

Personally speaking, time demands were the reason that I had to stop umpiring and although I probably do a lot more hours now, at least I can do them from home. For the players that's the price that has to be paid if you want a successful personal or club career but it doesn't have to be as bad as it is.

Why, for example did we do away with T20 league replays? The NCU followed our lead with this and yet despite the fact that it was clearly working, we went back to 50 over replays. One of Cricket Ireland's drives is more quality T20 cricket so this literally makes no sense at all.

At their recent AGM our Belfast bretheren embraced 11am starts from 1 July. It is a bold step and one that the North West isn't ready for yet but the time has come for 12 noon starts throughout the season.

The issue of schools cricket has often been offered up as an excuse for this not to happen but lets be honest here- what ratio are we talking about? Yes the Schools Cup is the exception to the rule and allowances should be made for that but what other competitions require our senior cricketers?

Surely diving from a schools match to a senior match is hardly ideal preparation for a young player anyway? The fact is that most senior sides are at the ground for their matches shortly after 11am and they'd much rather be playing as hanging atound. Interestingly our match schedule for 2015 looks like being the busiest for years.

 Because of that we have two choices- do nothing and hope that it doesn't rain all summer and continue to play every Saturday and Sunday or sit down and agree the changes needed to avoid another ludicrous fixture schedule.

With the rant out of the way it is also a good time to recognise the end of not one but two fantastic North West careers- those of Mark Gillespie and Junior McBrine.

It seems both have decided to retire from senior cricket at the end of this season and they will leave huge voids to fill for their respective clubs.

Both are cricket legends in the North West and have been the epitome of all that the game here stands for.

If you ever want to find out from the horse's mouth what type of sacrifice is required at domestic level, either of these two will tell you.

Fittingly they will both bow out with a winner's medal- Junior in the cup and Mark in the league and their contributions to the history of Donemana and Strabane Cricket Clubs will stand the test of time.