It’s a mixture of league and cup action for Division 1 sides in the North West this weekend and no doubt where the focus of attention will be as both Limavady and Donemana attempt to make it through to the last four of this year’s Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup. Elsewhere, Bready will hope to keep the pressure on the top two in the league when they travel to winless Glendermott, Fox Lodge will want to build on their recent victory over Limavady and Killymallaght host Eglinton having beaten Brigade at the weekend.

LIMAVADY V MERRION

All of a sudden from looking almost invincible, David Cooke’s side now find themselves with their title charge and this competition to keep them occupied between now and the end of the season. Out of the Club Turf Ulster Cup at the first hurdle their defeat at Donemana on Sunday was a bitter pill but that will surely have helped to focus minds ahead of this contest. It’s not hard to get the feeling that the Irish Senior Cup has been at the top of the Roesiders’ wish list for the past couple of seasons and having fallen short at this stage last time everyone will know their job on Saturday. Two high profile defeats in their last three games isn’t exactly an ideal preparation for such a tie but with so much at stake you can be sure that the skipper will try to turn that to his side’s advantage.

It wasn’t difficult to work out what went wrong for them at Donemana on Sunday, when the scoreboard reads 7 for 4 or 24 for 5 you can hardly blame your fielding so that feted top order of Curry, McGregor, Moore, Riddles, McDaid, Cooke et al owe themselves one this weekend.

Merrion aren’t short of one or two big names themselves and Limavady will have to be very wary of professional Matt Petrie who is very capable of causing them plenty of problems. Along with the likes of Dom Joyce and Ben Ackland they have the nucleus of a very strong side albeit they have been below par domestically this season. The visitors won’t be inconvenienced by the underdog tag this weekend but with Limavady needing to the up the ante substantially they should have enough to see them through.

DONEMANA V CIYMS

With a senior cup final appearance to look forward to and their name back in the title picture there will be no shortage of confidence in the home dressing room ahead of this one. The hosts were mightily impressive in that win on Sunday and whilst their batting can be explosive, their bowling attack, which in truth has looked a little light at times, was superb early on. Stephen Dunn continues to improve at a rate of knots and in tandem with Azhar Shaffique caused no end of problems to some of the best players in the country. James and Junior McBrine just relish these types of occasion and the newest kid on the McBrine block, Andy, looked an awesome prospect in his man of the match performance last week. Ahead of young McBrine’s efforts in the cup win, coach Noel Dunn who knows a thing or two about talented young cricketers suggested that “if there’s a better 16 year old cricketer anywhere in Ireland he’s hiding”. Throw in the likes of Richard Kee, Graeme Boyd, Dwayne McGarrigle, Jordan McGonagle and Dale Olphert, plus the fact that the surroundings take a bit of getting used to and you will see the problems that CIYMS will be facing. That said, the Belfast outfit travelled to Bready in the Club Turf cup on Sunday and went away with a win so they will hardly be overawed. Derek Heasley has seen it all before in the North West and Johnny Hewitt is a very dangerous player who will need to be kept at arms length by the hosts. If both sides play to their potential, Donemana would win so there’s every chance of seeing both North West representatives making the last four.

KILLYMALLAGHT V EGLINTON

What a tremendous result for Gareth McKeegan’s team on Saturday when they avenged an earlier ten wicket defeat by Brigade to pick up their third win of the season in a low scoring game at Beechgrove. Whilst there is no doubt that ‘Mallaght rely almost exclusively on Derek Bland and skipper McKeegan for their runs there is so much to be said for the unending fight they show and the fact that they are happiest when in a scrap. Gary Mitchell leads the bowling well but here again there is no evident strength in depth yet they just keep getting the basics right. With 6 points in the bag Killymallaght are safe already and that makes them a very dangerous opponent from here on in.

Eglinton probably have a lot more quality and in players like Craig Averill, Stuart Thompson, Bobby Rao, Johnny Gardiner, Nigel Thompson, Richard Stewart and Andy Christie they should be pressing for a top four finish. They may well do that of course and although they will know that anything less than 100% commitment will be costly, they should win this.

GLENDERMOTT V BREADY

Desperately looking for their first points of the season, Glendermott are a club without sorrows to seek at the moment. Gordon Montgomery and Johnny Thompson apart they have failed to come up to scratch in the top flight and although they remain capable enough of pulling off a result there has been no sign of one so far. Worryingly for The Rectory side they are being beaten comfortably by most teams and their batting effort at Limavady last time out was a humbling experience.

Bready, fresh from their cup win will go into this positively brimming with confidence and in the knowledge that with Limavady and Strabane’s crown slipping, they can keep the pressure on if they string a few wins together. With an array of batting that will be at home on Glendermott’s excellent track and a bowling attack capable of smothering the best around it would be a major surprise if the visitors didn’t claim a win.

FOX LODGE V COLERAINE

The other side still to claim a point, Coleraine, travel to Ballymagorry on Saturday to take on a Foxes side that has improved out of recognition as the season has progressed. They beat Limavady fair and square in their recent league game having lost out twice to Donemana by the narrowest of margins and they enjoyed a very goof Club Turf campaign before another narrow defeat on Sunday. Brian Allen has been excellent for them and professional Darryl Brown is really starting to enjoy himself after a nervy start but to be fair, Gary Neely’s side have all been contributing to their success.

Poor old Coleraine are just desperate for any win that would get them off the mark and yet despite being able to call on a decent pool of quality themselves, it hasn’t happened yet. Obviously the longer it goes on the worse it gets but Vischal Chopra will be hoping that his boys can get their first points sooner rather than later. Unfortunately for them, it still looks like later for now.