56 Dundalk Town, Tuesday, June 7, 2011 www.dundalkdemocrat.ie The Chequered F1ag CRICKET DkIT Cricket/Dundalk Cricket Club A Formula One blog by Stephen English www.stephenenglish.ie University of Ulster Racing gets redefined THE ripples from race control’s decision to penalise Marco Simoncelli for his actions at Le Mans that led to a crash by Dani Pedrosa continue to be felt in MotoGP. too strong for DkIT Last weekend Barcelona played host to the Catalan Grand Prix and the effects of the decision to apportion all of the blame on the Italian and issue him with a drive through penalty have led to numerous factors coming into play in Spain. Joy as Sunil selected for Universities team The first factor, and obviously most serious, is that during the three week gap between the French and Catalan races Simoncelli UNIVERSITY of Ulster stroked received numerous death threats from Pedrosa fans. The former their way to the semi finals of 250cc world champion was so spooked by these threats that he the Inter Varsities Cricket Cup, was forced to bring body guards to Barcelona in an effort to ensure as DkIT’s cricket club went down his safety. Thankfully nothing came to pass over the course of the by 100 runs to an exceptionally weekend, except for booing and jeering in Marco’s direction, but strong UU team which included the fact that such threats were made, shows just how dangerous it three internationals! can be to make knee jerk decisions without definitive information To get so far in so strong a available to race control. competition in its first year was The crash in France was not a clear cut incident. Even three a wonderful achievement by the weeks after the event it is still impossible to say with certainty local students. whether Simoncelli was to blame or if it was a pure racing incident. Having been put to bat first As a result it is difficult to see how race control could make the UU posted the huge total with decision that they made. a run rate of 7.55 an over before The second factor is that the crash also will have a lasting being bowled out in 45th over. M influence on the racing in MotoGP in the future. The decision set a Heaney and G Thompson built a precedent, and a troubling one at that. When race control handed huge partnership in early overs as down the penalty to Simoncelli they announced that the Gresini they scored half centuries with 70 rider was punished for making an “illegal overtaking move”. and 86 runs respectively. G Kidd The fact that he stayed within the confines of the white lines and A Nixon contributed equally that define the circuit and was ahead at the time of the incident with 47 and 29 runs. make it very difficult to see just how his move on Pedrosa was Sajjad Haider from DkIT illegal. Simoncelli is an aggressive rider and one who will always took the wickets of Heaney and look to make a move wherever possible. By giving him a penalty Thompson totaling his four to for the crash race control made an attempt to muzzle Simoncelli restrict the visitors. Ravi Duhoon in an effort to ensure that his aggressive streak is tempered with and Justin John claimed 2 wickets thoughts of the consequences of his actions on track. each while Sunil Kumar and Raj Unfortunately however by punishing Simoncelli the precedent Duhoon shared one wicket each. has now been set and any questionable or “illegal overtaking Chasing the high total, DkIT felt moves” now need to be punished. The decision to punish Simoncelli the pressure when they lost two was clearly motivated by a desire for him to clean up his sometimes early wickets of Bonny and Ravi untidy riding habits but it will now have a long lasting impact on in just three runs. Having trained the quality of racing in MotoGP. in Mumbai, pro pace bowlers Penalties handed out in Catalunya Graham and Gilmore took the This was illustrated perfectly on Sunday in the 125cc race. home side’s early wickets. Championship leader Nico Terol led into the last corner from Johan Batting at number three, Sunil DkIT Cricket Team, Back row L-R: Sajjad Haider, Raj Duhoon, Stephen George, Sunil Kumar (Vice Zarco. Kumar stood his ground and Captain), David Kelly, Bonny John. Front L-R: Jiwan Jodhani (Captain, WK), Ranjeet Kumar, Ravi made a brilliant century but Zarco was gunning for the first victory of his career and was Duhoon, Justin John and Ganesh Pun. clearly riding with a win or bust mentality but it seemed that regular wickets kept falling at the Terol had done enough to take his second victory in front of his other end. Sunil made 104 while the wickets, running five on Duhoon. most important in the club’s home crowd of the season. The Aspar rider though made a strange Sajjad with 18 runs was the only one occasion. No need to hit Last Monday saw Dundalk CC short history when it plays the decision entering the final corner, a notoriously fast right hander in other batsman to reach double boundaries for Dave when you travel to Leinster Cricket Club in first round of two cups. On which overtaking is next to near impossible. figures. DkIT were bowled out for can run like that. Rathmines. Saturday 11th, Dundalk travel to Terol entered the downhill fourth gear corner with a relatively 154 runs in the 32nd over. Newcomer Cathal Myles hit Next Friday June 10, one of Halverstown for the Dick O’Neill secure lead but he was adamant not to let Zarco take the lead. Terol Despite losing the match an undefeated 12. Also starring the highlights of the year occurs Cup hoping to improve on hugged the inside defensive line into the corner but he started to Sunil’s effort has been recognised for Dundalk were the Wallers, when the Taverners embark reaching the semi final last year. push wide as the corner progressed leaving the door open for Zarco by the Colleges and Universities Mark and Adam, Peter and on their annual all-singing, all- And on Sunday, Dromiskin will to attack him as they moved towards the exit of the corner. With Sports Association of Ireland. He Kalkeran Kieran, Liam Gaynor, dancing bus tour to Armagh for see the visit of closest neighbours Terol getting onto the power his momentum took his bike towards will now represent and play for Iqbal Hussein, Gerry McKeever, a match on the picturesque Mall. Halverstown for what should be the exit kerb with Zarco gaining on him and drawing level. Irish Universities Cricket team in Brian Kirby and captain Michael The bus leaves at 4.15pm from a very hard fought debut in the Zarco’s Derbi was slightly ahead of Terol when he started to flare the coming weeks. Hughes. outside The Spirit Store. Leinster Junior Cup. Buy your his elbows and push his rival ever closer to the outer extreme of the On the news, Ciara Patterson, Prior to the match there had Next weekend is one of the tickets early! kerbing and towards to the grass. By placing himself on the outside Sports and Societies Officer, DKIT been a very successful special of the corner due to his line entering the turn Terol had left himself said: “It is a great achievement for coaching session for beginners. with nowhere to go when Zarco started to drift towards the outer both Dundalk IT and for Dundalk On Sunday, Dundalk CC had a Milk Cup squad pick up sponsorship cheque edges of the corner. IT’s first ever Cricket Club, to fine win over Civil Service in the Zarco pushed Terol past the kerbing and into the grass in what have a student represent them in Phoenix Park. was undeniably a hard move by the Frenchman who crossed the the Irish Universities. The sports The home team put up an line first to take, what he thought, was his first Grand Prix victory. and societies office would like impressive 209 in their allotted Race control though determined that they had to act on Zarco’s to wish Sunil well in his future 35 overs but Dundalk were not aggression and within two minutes they had decided that the Ajo games with the Irish Universities fazed and picked off the Civil Derbi rider had committed an illegal overtaking move, the same Cricket Team”. Service attack to win by a handy penalty that befell Simoncelli in France. two wickets. Zarco was given a 20 second penalty as punishment and his Hectic week for Included in the Dundalk first victory transformed into a sixth place finish in an instant. The team were Brendan Watters, precedent set at Le Mans left race control with no option but to Dundalk Cricket Mithun Matthews, Eddie Bosano punish Zarco otherwise there would have been justified complaints Andrews, Waleed Shahid, Ranjit that Simoncelli was signalled out for punishment. The ripples from Kumar, Cathal Myles, captain Le Mans were felt in Barcelona and could be felt throughout the Club Jiwan Jodhani and Ashan Shah rest of the season and beyond. FOUR games of cricket - one in who followed up his excellent Busy weekend for motorsport fans Dromiskin and three in Dublin - 56 in Dundalk’s memorable win This weekend is one of the most action packed on the motorsport in six days were on the menu for the previous weekend in their calendar, in fact the weekend is so full of racing that the action will Dundalk cricket players in the inaugural Leinster League match start on Wednesday! This is one of the few occasions in the last last week.