Mixed fortunes for North West Academy sides

There’s a really busy time of things upcoming for the region’s underage sides this week and they experienced contrasting fortunes with a defeat for the under-15’s and a win for the under-17’s in in Monday’s opening round of Interprovincial fixtures.

The 15’s lost by 125 runs to the NCU at Bonds Glen, mostly due to a wonderful innings from the visitors’ Ryan Hunter who made a superb 142 in the Belfast outfit’s massive total of 302-5. Harry Dyer added 34 and George Palmer an unbeaten 25 as the young Knights racked up the runs with Charlie Downey (3-31) faring best for the home side.

The North West lads never really threatened to chase down the huge target but TJ Boyd’s 37 along with cameos from James Bell (27), Sam Macbeth (22) and Jake Montgomery (19) helped them to a decent effort in reply as they made 177.

At Newbuildings, where the Belfast side also provided the opposition, the 17’s posted a total of 167 courtesy of an excellent 74 from in-form Scott Macbeth. James McKillop’s 17 was best of the rest as Roy Ellerby (4-26) and Max Shannon (3-26) did the bulk of the damage with the ball.

Still, it was to be enough for the North West in the final reckoning as Macbeth, McKillop and Josh Wilson all picked up three wickets apiece as the NCU team were dismissed for 105 in reply.

The 15’s and 17’s are in action again on both Wednesday and Friday as the season bursts into life over the coming days and weeks.