Newbuildings lead the way

Pride of place went to Newbuildings who shouldn’t even have been in the competition in the first place; the North West new boys only offered an eleventh-hour invitation following the withdrawal of The Nedd.

Not only that but they saw off Malahide to boot, the Leinster side were not that long ago lifting the senior championship and the win went no small way to showing the progress that Newbuildings have made in a very short space of time.

That game was played at Donemana and the big crowd watched Chris Cooper’s boys in top form with the bat as Stephen Wallace led the way with an excellent 75. McCausland with an unbeaten 48 and Wes Ferguson with 45 helped Newbuildings to an impressive 263 for 7 and they never lost control after that. The Waterside men’s reward for the win was home advantage in an all-North West second round with Gordon Cooke’s Drummond.

Another side who were in impressive form were Burndennett; Mark Doherty’s team with a stunning 10-wicket win over Donaghcloney despite being set a target of 204. Skipper Doherty batted really well to make 56 not out but his efforts were put in the shade by Stephen McCay at the other end. “Ski” has always been capable of days like this and he was certainly at the top of his form here, blasting 18 fours and 5 sixes in his unbeaten 140. Burndennett look a different model from last year to this and they can look forward now to a home tie against Balbriggan with plenty of optimism.

Sion Mills too have started brightly and Ryan O’Neill’s men came out on top in a nail-biter at Bangor. The hosts could manage only 84 all out as Lee Finlay’s 4 for 8 had them on the back foot but the Tyrone men made heavy weather of the reply and lost wickets regularly themselves.

They still needed six runs with the last pair at the wicket and were then dealt a cruel blow when those two were penalised for running on the pitch with Bangor awarded five penalty runs as well as having the two that they scored scrubbed off. Thankfully for the visitors the batsmen held their nerve however and Sion can now look forward to a home tie against Old Belvedere who were too strong for Killyclooney on Saturday.

Ardmore went out as well, finding a strong Civil Service South side too hot to handle but Drummond with Gordon Cooke in magnificent form eased through by three wickets at Downpatrick. Eglinton still haven’t even managed to get a game as Karl O’Doherty’s men found out on Friday that their trip to Wicklow was being called off as their scheduled opponents, Oakhill, couldn’t field a team. Here’s hoping they finally get a run out on Saturday.