Brigade seal Sports Hub senior cup success

The weekend rain finally relented on Sunday morning as Brigade completed formalities against Newbuildings to win the Sports Hub senior cup for the fourth time in six years.

The Beechgrove side gave themselves a real leg-up in Friday’s first innings as they emerged from that with a 55-run success.

They rammed home the advantage at the start of Day 2- a superb bowling performance from skipper Andy Britton who took 5-18, leaving Gareth McKeegan’s men in all sorts of trouble at 114-9 when the heavens opened.

With DLS in play, the interruption meant that the innings came to a close at 4.35; the re-calculation setting Brigade just 37 to win in 20 overs on Sunday.

They did get a minor scare in the first couple of overs- losing two quick wickets to Johnny Thompson and Trent McKeegan before Cameron Melly and player-of-the-match David Barr saw them through to an 8-wicket success.

The weekend’s stop/start nature added little to the contest in fairness, and John Pierce and the grounds team at Eglinton deserve immense credit for all their work in getting the game finished.

There’s little time for celebration for the cup winners now as they have another final tomorrow night (6pm) as they play Killyclooney in the Faughan Valley Cup replay at Ardmore.