Davy Scanlon may be biased in preferring 40-over games rather than 50 overs at his time of life, but the Bready captain insists more good than bad has come out of the three-year experiment to play senior league cricket in the North West over the shorter distance.

Approaching his 38th birthday, understandably Scanlon does not fancy playing 100 overs every weekend — and definitely not double headers — but he claims there are positives for everyone and he sees no point in returning to the pre-pandemic programme of fixtures.

“We’ll review at the end of the year and see where we go,” says Scanlon. “It is working in some of the ways that we looked at it in that more players are more likely to stay at their clubs because they are playing senior cricket and clubs can bring in Tier 5 pros that will help develop their clubs — because they have to be a coach.

“That has really hurt smaller clubs because they were bringing players from other counties who weren’t allowed to coach, now if they bring a pro they have to be a Tier 5, which is a Level 2 coach.

“Personally, at my age, I’m in favour of 40 overs, with a couple of weans and a wee baby in the house, so it’s great to start at 12 o’clock and get back home by six. Previously I’ve been in cricket grounds where you are not finished till after nine. So it was brought into help the players, although with the young players needing to play 50-over cricket, I suppose it’s a toss up between the two.”

What does need tweaked in any review is the decision to carry forward only the points from the first round of games against the teams in their same second group — either the Premiership or the Championship.

Bready went through the first seven rounds undefeated but still found themselves 19 points behind Newbuildings, who had lost one game — because Bready had a ‘no result’ and, therefore, no points against Ardmore.

“Rain doesn’t help the way this system works at the minute, but it wasn’t working pre-Covid so there’s no point going back to something that wasn’t working, so we will just have to get our heads together and think about it at the end of the season,” added Scanlon.

Their points deficit was compounded last Saturday when Bready suffered their first (non-T20) League defeat for three years, going down to Coleraine by eight runs at Sandel Lodge, but the champions’ captain insists the League is not over yet.

“Newbuildings are the team to catch but we have them here next week and they have a tricky double header this weekend with Brigade in their rained off game on Sunday,” he said.

“We just have to get back on another winning run, starting at Donemana, and get them all played.”