Above: the prize wicket of Faiz Fazal caught Ally Shields (first slip) bowled Kerwin Mungroo
The M1s continue to keep us all guessing as to exactly which team will show up; Mr Hyde’s boys got trounced by 8 wickets on Thursday night by CACC in the T20 cup (Scorecard HERE if you are a sadist) but on Saturday, in the sunshine at The Green, Dr Jekyll’s XI put their best foot forward and completed an excellent win against strong favourites Lisburn, much to the disappointment of their many fans. Scorecard HERE
New boys Mo Aahil (76 & 2 for 26) and Liam Hayman (90 & 3 for 36) were the stars of the show with very pleasing all-round performances. Mo (after the early run out of opening partner and star batter Ani Chore) composed himself admirably to make his first ‘fifty’ for the club whilst young Kiwi Liam, in what we think will be typical style, was more unorthodox, always busy but very effective as he included a couple of maximums on his way to the nervous nineties, in a partnership worth 132.
Sensible batting provided an unbroken 35 for the sixth wicket in an area of the game where we have struggled for a number of seasons – middle order ‘finishing’ – and the 255 was competitive if far from out of sight.
The 2022 Premier League champions floundered in the chase in the face of regular wickets – none more important than the double breakthrough from overseas paceman Kerwin Mungroo who removed his opposite number and key batter Faiz Fazal and a cracker of a delivery from skipper ‘Daisy’ Davison to clean up Nigel Jones – so often the thorn in North Down’s side in recent years.
From there the home side smelt blood and closed out an impressive bowling performance to match that of the batting innings – perhaps the most pleasing part was that new faces were the match winners – which included a superb caught and bowled from Hayman as one of his three victims to complete a memorable day.
For the other adult teams the rest of the weekend was underwhelming in terms of results, but there were still some notable performances worthy of mention.
The M2s came unstuck at Wallace Park in the corresponding Junior 1 fixture, but certainly acquitted themselves admirably against strong opposition. Scorecard HERE
Tom Crothers took 2 wickets and made 64 but the only other contribution of note came from Drew Parker with 33 as they fell 52 runs short.
The M3s on the top ground at home (first outing for the nursery ground this year) came unstuck against a useful Cooke Collegians 2s outfit (Scorecard HERE) and went down by 81 runs. Young bowlers Jaxon Dines (4 for 22) and Joel Parker (3 for 46) showed a lot of promise while the only significant batting effort was a typically hard hit 44 off just 23 balls from Josh Gilmore.
The weekend finished up with an agonising last ball defeat for the W1s against new-girls Lisburn at The Green on Sunday morning.
Once again Gracie Keenan was the stand-out performer with the bat as her 55 dominated the home total of 116. In reply Evey Keenan bowled a tight four over spell which yielded just 9 runs but the visitors had their own star player with the bat and young Rebecca Lowe dominated the innings with 72 which, after a frantic last over, just saw Lisburn over the line. Scorecard HERE
Friday night’s youth games had positive outcomes with the U13s beating Waringstown in the cup, captain Joshua Montgomery the star with 37 not out, and the U15b winning their league game in Bangor – well done boys!
Other News:
Balbriggan beat Cork County 1-0 in an Irish Senior Cup bowl-out so we travel to the north Co Dublin venue on Sunday 9th June for our last 16 tie – watch this space for details of the bus trip…
The May 100 Club draw took place on Saturday night with the following winners:
£250 Ricky Gilmore
£100 Jonny Terrett
£100 Andrew Macrory
£50 Orla McGrogan
Thanks to all for your continued support!
Fixtures for the week ahead:
27th May:
W2 vs Ballymena (a)
28th May:
M2 vs CSNI (a)
31st May:
M1 vs Woodvale (h)
W1 vs Holywood (a)
1st June:
M1 vs Cregagh (a)
M2 vs CIYMS (h)
M3 vs Cooke (venue TBC)
M4 vs CIYMS (a)
M5 vs Donacloney (a)
2nd June:
M2 vs Bready (h)
W1 vs Holywood (h)
M4 vs Dunmurry (a)
