The NCU Challenge Cup, also called the NCU Senior Challenge Cup and the NCU Senior Cup, is the most important provincial
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
knock-out cup of the
NCU jurisdiction in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. The competition began in 1887, with eleven clubs participating in the first competition,
North Down eventually beating
North of Ireland in the final at Ormeau.
The Cup is open to teams playing in the Premier League and Section 1 of the
NCU Senior League
The Northern Cricket Union (NCU) Senior League is the provincial cricket league within the NCU jurisdiction in Ireland, which covers counties Antrim, Armagh, Down and south Tyrone of Northern Ireland. The league was formed in 1897 and is curre ...
. It is sponsored by Arthur J Gallagher and marketed as the Arthur J Gallagher Challenge Cup.
Matches consist of one
innings
An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). Innings, in cricket, and rounders, is bot ...
per side, with fifty
overs bowled per innings. Where matches are interrupted or delayed because of weather, the number of overs may be reduced to a minimum of 20.
Duckworth Lewis is employed where a match is interrupted after it has started.
The most successful club in the competition is North Down with 32 victories (1 shared)
CIYMS are the current holders after beating Civil Service of Northern Ireland in the 2022 Final
List of finals
Source for finals up to 2002: J. Clarence Hiles (2003), ''A History of Senior Cricket in Ulster''. Comber: Hilltop Publications Ltd.
1880s
1890s
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Summary of winners
See also
*
NCU Senior League
The Northern Cricket Union (NCU) Senior League is the provincial cricket league within the NCU jurisdiction in Ireland, which covers counties Antrim, Armagh, Down and south Tyrone of Northern Ireland. The league was formed in 1897 and is curre ...
*
Ulster Cup
The Ulster Cup was an annual football competition held by the Irish Football League for senior clubs.
History
Beginning in 1949, it was held on fifty-one occasions until being suspended after the 1998/99 season and discontinued after a one-of ...
*
NCU Junior Cup
The NCU Junior Cup is a provincial cricket knock-out cup of the NCU jurisdiction in Ireland. The competition began in 1891 and is open to teams playing in the Sections 2 and 3 of the NCU Senior League and Section 1 of the NCU Junior League (which ...
*
Leinster Senior Cup
*
North West Senior Cup
The North West Senior Cup or North West Cup is a senior football competition in Northern Ireland run by the North West of Ireland Football Association. Senior and intermediate teams from the North West FA's jurisdiction (which covers County Lon ...
References
CricketEurope archives
External links
Northern Cricket Union
{{Cricket in Ireland
Irish domestic cricket competitions
1887 establishments in Ireland