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

References

CricketEurope archives

External links

Northern Cricket Union
{{Cricket in Ireland Irish domestic cricket competitions 1887 establishments in Ireland