Coleraine and Donemana claim T20 cups
It has certainly been a season of two halves this year- non-stop sunshine for the first eight weeks and incessant rain ever since- and it was the latter again on Sunday as the Sperrin Springs and Eric Cooke T20 cups were decided by bowl-outs.
Hosts Bonds Glen did everything in their power to play cricket but they got just a handful of deliveries bowled in the first match before rain took care of everything else.
Donemana went on to win the Sperrin Springs bowl-out on a 2-1 scoreline; Glendermott’s Bob Robinson hitting the stumps with the first ball of the shoot-out with William McBrine equalising for Donemana with the last.
North West Warriors and Ireland all-rounder Andy McBrine made the difference in sudden death as he hit to claim the trophy for the Holm team.
The second match- the Eric Cooke final- went straight to a bowl-out after more rain with Eglinton’s Mike Erlank and Coleraine’s Stephen Hutchinson swapping hits to make the score 1-1 before Gareth Burns won it for the north coast team with a last-ball strike.
In the All-Ireland T20 semi-finals, Brigade were edged out by Balbriggan in the last over in a keenly contested affair.
Batting first, Scott Macbeth made 46 and Iftikhar Hussain 39 with Adam McDaid chipping in with 26 in a total of 130-9 from their reduced 14 overs.
Despite early wickets from Ryan Macbeth and Josh Wilson reducing the Leinster side to 38-3 early on, an excellent partnership between Cameron Rowe (73 not out) and Greg Ford (63) helped steer them over the line with 5 wickets, but just four deliveries to spare.
No play was possible in the Women’s semi-final between Fox Lodge and CSNI- that fixture will now be reversed and played next week at Stormont.
In the Long’s SuperValu league, Newbuildings were the big movers this weekend after a huge win at Glendermott on Saturday was followed by a 6-wicket win at Burndennett on Sunday.
Fair play to the home side for hanging around and working to get a game in after rain had looked like putting an end to proceedings with ‘Dennett 60-2 after 13 overs.
Niall McDonnell was unbeaten on 35 but with ‘replays’ able to go down to 10 overs a side, the hosts did their bit to clear up after the showers with Newbuildings set 71 to win in 10 overs.
Johnny Thompson made an unbeaten 42 (2 fours, 3 sixes) and Mark Hanna added 26 as the visitors got there with 8 deliveries up their sleeve to move into fifth place in the table.
Bready made very hard work of beating Strabane after losing six wickets for 15 runs as they chased the Red Caps’ 130-7 in a reduced 26 overs.
Kevin Gallagher top scored with 37, Aaron Gillespie made 31 and Usman Azhar 21 for Strabane with Irosh Samarasooriya and Gavin Roulston picking up two wickets each.
David Rankin hit 38, Irosh 21 and Roulston 19 to break the back of the chase before the Magheramason side fell down a hole.
An unbroken 8th wicket stand between Dean McCloskey and Jamie Magee- the latter batting at a very unfamiliar Number 9- steadied the ship as Bready went top of the table with a three-wicket verdict.
