Fixtures galore as catch-up attempt gets underway
It’s been a very difficult few weeks for clubs, players and officials given the recent spate of weather-enforced abandonments and once again it will be all eyes skywards this weekend as the Fixture Secretary attempts to play catch-up with the domestic programme.
The senior Women’s final went ahead despite conditions on Tuesday night and it was a credit to both clubs- Fox Lodge and Bready- that a full game was played in poor weather and poor light.
It was the same story in Thursday’s Faughan Valley Cup final between Brigade and Killyclooney which saw the Beechgrove side pick up their second major trophy of the week with a cosy 7-wicket success.
The brilliant under-13 World Cup programme was also completed on Friday afternoon as the efforts of players, staff, parents and clubs were repaid with a fantastic finals day across the North West.
Friday also saw the start of the League 1 cup final at the Holm where Donemana IIs led The Nedd by a whopping 184 runs at the end of the first innings.
Ritchie McBrine smashed a 45-ball 113 (5 fours and 13 sixes) with Graham Boyd adding 65 (5 fours, 5 sixes), Mark Moore 45, Joe Robinson 38 and Adam Kelly 31 (4 sixes) in the hosts’ first innings total of 366-9.
Johnny Murray (3-54) fared best with the ball while there were two wickets each for Jon McMichael and Johnny Young.
The latter also battled hard with the bat to make 43, but the Ballykelly side has it all to do on Saturday to stay in the contest.
And after all that it’s another crammed programme of league fixtures coming up over the next 48 hours, as well as the T20 finals day at Bonds Glen.
That gets under way at 12 noon on Sunday when Donemana meet Glendermott in the Sperrin Springs final; followed at 3.30pm as Coleraine take on Eglinton in the Eric Cooke decider.
There’s a full set of fixtures in the Long’s SuperValu league on Saturday and four more rearranged matches on Sunday as clubs continue to battle for the eight Premiership places available for 2024.
The top four of Ardmore, Killyclooney, Bready and Brigade all look to have done enough to secure their places, meaning one of Coleraine, Fox Lodge, Donemana, Eglinton and Newbuildings will now potentially lose out.
It’s all set up for a very intriguing last few weeks and the fixtures for this weekend and current table are as below-
Saturday 5 August (12 noon)
LONG’S SUPERVALU LEAGUE
Glendermott v Newbuildings
St Johnston v Coleraine
Bonds Glen v Bready
Fox Lodge v Killyclooney
Ardmore v Burndennett
Strabane v Eglinton
Ballyspallen v Brigade
Sunday 6 August
T20 CUP FINAL DAY (At Bonds Glen)
SPERRIN SPRINGS FINAL (12 noon)
Donemana v Glendermott
ERIC COOKE FINAL (3.30pm)
Coleraine v Eglinton
LONG’S SUPERVALU LEAGUE (12 noon)
Fox Lodge v Ballyspallen
Bready v Strabane
Ardmore v Bonds Glen
Burndennett v Newbuildings
LONG’S SUPERVALU SENIOR LEAGUE- CURRENT STANDINGS
| TEAM | PLAYED | WON | LOST | NO RESULT | BONUS PTS | TOTAL PTS |
| 1-Ardmore | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 28 | 168 |
| 2- Killyclooney | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 26 | 166 |
| 3-Bready | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 162 |
| 4-Brigade | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 31 | 151 |
| 5-Coleraine | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 121 |
| 6-Fox Lodge | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 119 |
| 7-Donemana | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 30 | 110 |
| 8-Eglinton | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 23 | 103 |
| 9-Newbuildings | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 21 | 101 |
| 10-St Johnston | 7 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 74 |
| 11-Strabane | 9 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 21 | 61 |
| 12-Bonds Glen | 8 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 50 |
| 13-Ballyspallen | 8 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 8 | 28 |
| 14-Glendermott | 9 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 23 |
| 15-Burndennett | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 13 | 13 |
