Gloomy weekend for Donaghcloney witha three team loss

Heavy defeats for the first and third eleven were disappointing in their size, while the seconds made a mess of what should have been a routine win.

Fielding first at the compact pitch at Derriaghy the first eleven had little answer to Derriaghy overseas player Aphale with 110, who was ably supported by 85 from Lewis and a 50 from Andrew Kenny.

On a small pitch with a decent track this would be considered a reasonable target, however Donaghcloney never looked like troubling the total, and despite a quick 63 from Mansing Nigade and Matthew Lyttle contributing 30 Donaghcloney fell to 156 all out to stay rooted to the bottom of Section 1.

At the Factory Ground the second eleven fell to a 4 wicket defeat by a Derriaghy side that hadn’t won a game this season in a game littered with uncharacteristically bad shot selection, fielding and bowling from the home side.

While a number of the batters made starts with a few scores reaching 20 no-one was able to push on and get a big score to hold the innings together and while the total of 145 looked competitive in 35 overs the visitors made reasonably light work of knocking it off inside 30 overs.

Over at Banbridge Academy the thirds were falling to the most disappointing result of the day, with a number of youth returning after the exam break a decent game was expected.

However the hosts were bowled out for just 32, with no-one breaking into double figures, and Bangor were able to reach the target with little bother, just one wicket falling to a direct hit run out.