In Sunday’s Ulster Cup contests three of the four North West clubs to have benefitted from a home draw made the advantage count as the regions ended the day all square.

Strabane hosted a strong Instonians side and a solid batting performance saw the home team claim the honours in a high scoring game. Professional Jonathan Beukes followed up his half century in the Irish Senior Cup with a superb unbeaten 111, sharing in a 139-run partnership with Mark Gillespie who hit 62. That allowed the hosts to post a daunting 210-3 in their 40 overs but mention must be made of Ireland’s Andrew White who returned the brilliant figures of 1-6 from his 8 overs on an excellent batting track.

The NCU side looked on course to overhaul that target several times during their reply, particularly when Rory McCann who was following up his century yesterday, made 60 at the top of the order. Eugene Moleon added 38 and White 22, but Mark Gillespie turned in a match-winning performance with the ball finishing with impressive figures of 5-22, including taking 4 wickets in the same over. In this sort of form the Red Caps are capable of living with any side and if they got some consistency going, this could prove a big win for them.

Down the road at Magheramason, Bready were finding another strong NCU side, Waringstown, a little too hot to handle. The visitors batted first and Ijaz Ahmed with 61, James Hall with 43 and Kyle McCallan's 33 helped them post a healthy 191-8 in their 40 overs. Trevor Britton picked up 3 wickets at a cost of 33 runs and only a late flurry of wickets prevented the target being much higher.

Bready got off to a really poor start, wickets fell at an alarming rate as they slumped to 63-6 and it took a fighting 56 from Robert Rankin to restore respectability. Kyle McCallan bowled a very tidy spell returning 1-17 from his 6 overs although Stuart Kidd with 3-26 was the pick of the attack as the visitors won by 30 runs.

At The Rectory Glendermott celebrated their first win of the campaign as they easily overcame Derriaghy. The visitors had opted to stay in the North West following their Irish Cup encounter with Bready 24 hours earlier, but were suffering the effects of a karaoke night in their hotel when they landed on Bonds Street. Professional Aphale scored 40 of their 107 as Johnny Thompson, fresh from taking the first 6 wickets of Merrion’s batting line up in the Irish Cup, followed that up by removing Derriaghy’s top 5.

Garth Watson decided that he wanted home early as he laid into all the visitor’s bowlers, the opener sending two consecutive deliveries into Cliftonville Avenue to close out the game. He finished unbeaten on 57, which comprised 10 fours as well as those two maximums, and Wajihuddin stayed with him, unbeaten on 31 as the hosts took less than 15 overs to rattle off the runs, albeit having lost 3 quick wickets immediately after tea.

Limavady followed up yesterday’s superb win over Railway Union by being the third side to win by a margin of 30 runs as they accounted for Carrickfergus. Richard McDaid top scored for David Cooke’s side with an unbeaten 60, and with a batting line up as strong as the Roesiders, the last thing you would want to do would be to be to gift wrap an amazing 27 wides. That helped Limavady to 205-6 in their 40 overs although the track was certainly playing well enough.

Cooper and Birch both settled well as Carrick began their reply but a steady fall of wickets meant that the visitors were off the pace after those two had departed. Decker Curry was the architect of their downfall returning 4-23 from his 8 overs, but skipper David Cooke took the opportunity to give everybody bar the umpires a bowl allowing McCalmont batting at number 9 to put more respectability on the reply as he finished unbeaten on 31.

Brigade had a very facile 125 run win over a severely depleted Lisburn side, minus their prolific professional Gerhard Strydom, with a suspected broken finger. The Beechgrove outfit ran up a mammoth 237 for 5, with good knocks from Iftikhar Hussain (96), Stephen Smyth (66), and Wajahatullah Wasti (51*). For Lisburn, David and Richard Simpson took 2 wickets apiece.

In reply, Lisburn opted for respectability, and were never in any position to chase the game. They tottered along to 112 for 9 in their 40 overs, with Browne’s 13 the highest score.  Richard Wylie’s early season form with the ball continued as he took 3-25, while there were two wickets each for Gordon Cooke and Wajahatullah Wasti.

Bangor pulled off the shock of the day, with Yasas Tillakaratne turning in a match winning performance. He top scored with an unbeaten 69 in the seasiders' total of 193 for 7, receiving valuable support from Ryan Bell (28), and Mark Hutchinson (24). Steven Dunn (3-36), and Junior McBrine (2-30) both did well with the ball.

In reply Donemana were always behind the asking rate, but with their professional Azhar Shafiq at the wicket, they still would have fancied their chances. His dismissal for 69 completely changed the course of the tie, as they lost their last 6 wickets for just 12 runs, including a hat-trick for Tillakaratne.

Killymallaght’s bowlers were on the receiving end for the second time in 2 days, with North Down running up the highest total of the day – 255 for 4. Joe Montgomery scored his second hundred of the season, hitting 114, and there were good contributions from Andrew Sutherland (59), Ryan Haire (30), and Taimur Khan (20*).  Rodney Pearson (2-37) was the pick of the Mallaght bowling.

Unlike the previous day, their batsmen couldn’t put up any sort of resistance, and struggled to just 114. Rodney Pearson hit a quick 33, David Dunn (18) and Darren Moore (17), but the rest of the batting was blew away. There were two wickets each for Khan, Connell, Moreland, and the Haire brothers.

Eglinton lost heavily on their travels at CSN, going down by 105 runs. The New Zealand triumvirate of Ewen Thompson (106), Nigel Jones (47), and Reagan West (42) set them up for an imposing score of 246-7 in their 40 overs. In reply Eglinton could only manage 141 for 9, with Tim Chopra (59) providing the only major resistance. Thompson (4-29) completed a fine all round display.