BREADY CLAIM FINAL SPOT AS BOWLERS RESTRAIN STRABANE

It may be 13 years since Bready last collected major silverware but the Magheramason club won’t be concerned with omens at the moment having made it through to the final of this year’s Northern Bank Senior Cup following their win at Strabane on Saturday evening.

Trevor Britton’s side went into the game in decent form having moved into the top three in the league with a hard fought win at home to Killymallaght last week but was meeting a team who were taking the domestic competitions by storm so far this term.

Peter Gillespie’s men currently share top spot in the league with Limavady with six wins from as many matches and were favourites to win through to the Blue Riband decider at Eglinton at the end of next month. It has long been said that form counts for nothing in cup matches of course but even so it was a major surprise when visiting skipper, Trevor Britton, won the toss and elected to field.

That decision was the talk of the ground for the first two hours and many thought that the reasoning for the bold call was a combination of overhead conditions and a pitch that looked as though it might have a bit in it. In his post match comments however the skipper suggested that having seen Strabane chase down big totals several times this season, he already knew they could do that, so he went with a hunch to see if they could set one.

Niall McDonnell, who has been in superb form for Strabane over the past few weeks opened the innings with Kevin Martin and after an hour the Bready supporters were looking at each other in bemusement as the home side laid an excellent foundation. McDonnell played his shots whilst Martin anchored the partnership and although the former enjoyed something of a charmed life as he benefitted from a dropped catch and a missed stumping he was soon acknowledging another half century.

After 25 overs, Strabane had reached 116 without loss and a total of 280 looked on the cards. McDonnell was then first to depart when he gave Chris Dougherty a second stumping chance which was gleefully accepted, having contributed an excellent 78 whilst his batting partner followed soon after for a dogged 37.

That brought professional Jonathan Beukes and skipper Peter Gillespie to the middle and at that stage Bready played their Joker, introducing all their spin options to the attack over the next 15 overs. From scoring at six an over the home side couldn’t buy a boundary and got totally bogged down in the face of some excellent bowling and fielding from the visitors. The normally reliable Mark Gillespie was also unable to work his side out of the web as for once, all three failed to up the ante at the right time.

Where once Strabane had threatened to bat Bready out of the tie, they went into the final over still short of 200 and when they should have been looking to score as close to 80 runs as possible in the last ten overs, they had managed just 35 before the last 6 balls. Three wides from the penultimate delivery and a six hit from the last enabled them to post 207 for 6, but whatever they were saying publicly, the Red Caps knew the same as the rest of us that they were light. Trevor Hamilton with 3 for 43 did best with the ball but in truth all the bowlers pulled it back in the second half of the innings having taken a bit of treatment early on.

The tea interval was interrupted by 30 minutes of persistent rain after which Bready began their reply and it wasn’t long before they were on the back foot. David Rankin went leg before to Phil Eaglestone for just 6, shortly after Chris Dougherty had edge one behind to Paul McNamee again to Eaglestone to leave them 30 for 2.

That brought Steven Clarke and professional Con De Lange together and the pair steadied the ship in good style. Clarke looked well set until Gillespie introduced Tommy Barr into the attack and in his first over the Strabane spinner threw a long hop that the Bready lad could have hit anywhere he wanted, and he hit it straight down Ciaran Patton’s throat at deep square. Clarke’s reaction was that of a man who knew he was leaving work early and left Bready at 105 for 3.

Strabane’s tails were up momentarily before another big moment in the match took the wind out of their sails. Con De Lange, having made 46 drove one from Mark Gillespie hard and high at the Strabane skipper in the covers but the normally reliable former Ireland player lost sight of it for a split second against the backdrop and the chance was gone. Whether that in itself would have been enough to claw the hosts back into it is highly debatable, but with it went any hope of finding out.

De Lange and David Rankin rattled the remainder of the runs off as they liked and the only thing missing was that both fell agonisingly short of personal landmarks, De Lange finishing unbeaten on 97 and Rankin on 46 in a thoroughly deserved win. Trevor Britton’s side will now wait until Sunday evening to find out who will be in the opposite corner at Eglinton next month when Donemana host Limavady in the other semi final at The Holm.

There was supposed to be two matches in Division 1 of the Billy Henderson Properties league on Saturday as well but the Glendermott v Limavady game will not now be played until nearer its scheduled date as the Rectory side were missing key players due to holiday.

The one game that was played saw another upset as Killymallaght held their nerve to get the better of Brigade in a low scoring encounter at Beechgrove. Iftikhar Hussain made 34 and Nick Donnell 21 as Brigade were busted for just 87 all out, Wesley Ferguson claiming figures of 4 for 13 from his 5 overs.

Once again Killymallaght were indebted to skipper Gareth McKeegan as he returned to haunt his former club by making 32 as the visitors reached 45 for 1, needing just 43 to win. From there, Killymallaght contrived to lose another 7 wickets and at 79 for 8 it would have been a nervy away camp before they eventually fell over the winning line with 2 wickets to spare.

This was a very poor result for the former league champions who would have gone joint top with a win but a great coup for Killymallaght who with 6 points now in the bank will surely feel that they are safe from relegation already.

It will also of course make up for their ten wicket hammering from Brigade in their 20 over replay game last month and in the process put an end to any thoughts that Brigade may be about to launch a title challenge.