St Johnston progressed to the second round of the Northern Bank Senior Cup on Friday evening when they beat Creevedonnell in an entertaining contest played out in glorious sunshine.

The Saints had set a stiff ask of 202 for their hosts on Thursday evening but Charlie Elder's team will be disappointed that they let slip a very promising situation as they finished 21 runs adrift at the end.

It had all looked so different when Elder and Ellis McGarrigle had taken Creevedonnell to 74 without loss before the skipper played all around one from Andrew Fleming. Gareth Faulkner joined McGarrigle at that stage but he was happy to play second fiddle to his teammate who opened his shoulders in a 42 run partnership of which Faulkner contributed just 8.

Still, at 116 for 1 the Saints would have been making plans for a weekend without cricket as the winners travel to Bonds Glen tomorrow (Saturday). The turning point came however when Rammohan Goud removed McGarrigle for a very well played 63, as after that only a stubborn resistance from the other McGarrigle, Leighton, who made a very good 32.

The rest unfortunately offered little as Ian MacBeth claimed the bowling honours with 4 for 32 and his brother David and Rammohan Goud claimed two apiece.

Creevedonnell

E McGarrigle b Goud 63
C Elder b Fleming 41
G Faulkner st D Fleming b I MacBeth 8
S Scroggie lbw b Goud 0
L McGarrigle b D MacBeth 32
R Gibson b I MacBeth 2
L Gibson c&b I MacBeth 0
B Dougherty c A MacBeth b I MacBeth 3
T Nelson run out 6
J Turner not out 8
G Turner b D MacBeth 5
Extras 12
Total (all out, 39.1 overs)180

Bowling- R Goud 8-2-24-2, J Robinson 8-1-39-0, D MacBeth 4.1-0-21-2, A Fleming 6-0-26-1, A Kumar 5-0-37-0, I MacBeth 8-0-32-4