COLERAINE and Waringstown, the champions in the North West and NCU respectively, experienced the joy and heartache of the bowl-out in yesterday’s RSA Irish second round action.

The other six ties were played to a result but only 10 overs were possible at Coleraine and 16 at The Lawn.

After the regulation five deliveries each at the unguarded stumps, Coleraine and YMCA, one of the favourites to win the all-Ireland competition, were deadlocked at 2-2.

Both Albert van der Merwe, the YM captain and former Ireland off spinner, and Gordon Cooke missed with the first balls in sudden death but when Tom Fisher missed with the visitors seventh delivery, Coleraine professional Killian Vardhan hit to send the North West side into tomorrow’s quarter final draw.

But the atmosphere was totally different for the home side at Waringstown where umpires Noel McCarey and Alan Neill ruled that a section of the outfield at deep mid-wicket was probably unfit for play but they were happy for Waringstown to bat for their 10 overs if both teams agreed.

But Kevin O’Brien, the Railway Union captain, who would have been defending a victory target of 83, refused the match and was one of the three Railway Union bowlers to hit the stumps in a 3-1 victory. James Hall was the successful bowler for the Villagers.

It is the second round in a row that Railway have knocked out the NCU champions in a bowl-out, Instonians their victims in the previous round at Shaw’s Bridge.

In the action which went to a finish, St Johnston caused the shock of the day, beating Premiership side Strabane in the all-North West clash in Donegal.

A fine all-round performance by the Championship side — Jassi Wallia was top scorer with 56 in the Saints’ 220 and Rammohan Goud was the only bowler to take three wickets but Strabane’s batting failed, bowled out for 170.

Cup holders Clontarf won the other game in the North West, beating Fox Lodge by nine wickets, thanks to an unbeaten 157 by opener Bill Coghlan.

But the Foxes had only themselves to blame, putting down at least four acceptable catches as the Leinster Lightning opener hit 11 fours and 14 sixes to see Clontarf to their revised target of 255 in 48
overs, with 26 balls to spare.

Coghlan shared a first wicket stand of 209 with Mark Collier, who made 58, and dwarfed Tabish Khan’s whirlwind 131, which included 11 fours and nine sixes.

There was no luck for the two North West teams in Dublin as Bready and Ardmore both returned beaten from visits to The Hills and Merrion respectively.

Ardmore, despite scoring only eight runs in their first nine overs, in pursuit of a mammoth 293, put up a remarkable fight thanks to veteran Decker Curry.

The North West legend scored 101 from 119 balls with 11 fours and two sixes and put on 202 with his captain, Adrian Murphy, who is no slouch, scoring 97 from 120 balls with three fours and nine sixes.

But the damage had been done in the first 57 overs of the match as Ireland international John Anderson top scored with 91 (14 fours) and Ardmore then lost their top three in first nine overs.

Bready did well to restrict the Leinster champions to 192 for seven with Ernest Kemm and Ryan Barr each taking three economical wickets but a horror batting collapse saw them slump to 78 for nine.

David Scanlon’s 49 not out from No 10 reduced the margin to 59 runs.

Meanwhile Donemana’s first round conquerors Cork County lost to Pembroke.