LITTLE JOY IN ULSTER CUP AS ONLY FOXIES SURVIVE

With Strabane and Bready both having qualified for the quarter finals of the Northern Bank senior cup before Saturday's total washout, the only unresolved issues for local clubs in that particular competition are Sion Mills' game at home to Donemana and Killyclooney's trip to Fox Lodge, both of which have been carried over to this coming Saturday. Obviously the fact that the quarter finals are pencilled in for Saturday week means that scheduled league matches will be moved from this Saturday and although the Strabane v Bready contest will go ahead as planned this weekend it is expected that the Fox Lodge v Donemana game will start next midweek.

Thankfully conditions weren't as bad on Sunday, allowing all the first round games in the Ulster Cup to be completed, but if truth be told it was a less than convincing performance all round from the North West sides. Strabane travelled to Carrickfergus and would have been favourites to progress despite the absence of Peter Gillespie and Martin Deans but a disappointing performance from the top order was their undoing. Kevin Martin returned to partner Niall McDonnell but within the first hour the Red Caps had been reduced to 43 for 5 as the hosts' professional Ross Gelderbloem got among the batsmen. Mark Gillespie and Barry Scott combined to get the visitors back into it; Gillespie in particular taking the fight back to Carrick as he made 64 while Scott contributed 33. The game had been reduced to 37 overs a side on the back of the indifferent weather and although recovering to some extent, Strabane's total of 167 for 9 was probably still below par. Gelderbloem finished with 4 for 32 and the South African was soon to prove equally adept with the bat as he anchored the NCU side's reply. Despite losing a couple of fairly early wickets themselves, Carrick's overseas man ensured that the advantage wasn't lost and supported by Mike Taiaroa his unbeaten 63 steered them home to a comfortable 7-wicket win with 2 overs to spare.

Bready drew the short straw in the opening round as they had to travel to Shaws Bridge to take on the current cup holders Instonians. The Belfast side has real quality in the ranks again this season but it was the visitors who made by far the best start. Brian Scanlon was promoted to open the batting and certainly made the most of his opportunity as he and David Rankin laid into the home attack. Scanlon hit 7 fours and 3 sixes in making 58 off 54 balls while his opening partner added 41 in even time as the Magheramason side raced to 112 without loss inside 16 overs. Despite boasting a more than useful middle order Trevor Hamilton's side has seen some strong situations disappear spectacularly this season already, most notably at home to Brigade in the league where they went from 95 for 2 to 99 for 7 but if that collapse was dramatic then what followed on Sunday was even worse. Bready couldn't cope with the left arm spin of the home side's new professional Farooq Iqbal and from 112 without loss they were all out for 147. Farooq bowled 8 overs and returned the stunning figures of 5 for 9 as the North West side, themselves a noted exponent of the slow stuff, were given a taste of their own medicine. Instonians wasted little time in rattling off the required runs as Rory McCann made a composed half century, Andrew White made 31 and skipper Eugene Moleon added some entertainment with a hard hitting 36 not out in a 7-wicket win. Bready will have few complaints at going out to a side of this quality but they will certainly need to address those middle order deficiencies if their domestic ambitions are to remain intact. On the plus side for them Marc Fleming again bowled well to claim 2 of the 3 wickets to fall and he looks very composed at this level.

Donemana took their leave of the competition too but Richard Kee's men gave North Down an almighty scare before coming up just short. The Comber outfit got off to a blistering start as former Glendermott player Neil Russell led the charge against the Holm side's attack. The big opener thumped 6 fours and 7 sixes, three of those maximums coming in one over off Donemana professional Kamran Sajid, on his way to a 46-ball knock worth 83. Ian Moran and Johnny Terrett weighed in with 50 and 42 respectively and at 232 for 5 a huge total looked on the cards. Ritchie McBrine then tidied things up for the North West side however and the visitors would have been disappointed to have lost their last 5 wickets for just 23 runs. That left the hosts chasing 255 and despite losing wickets along the way they were rarely too far off the pace. Graeme Boyd made 36 at the top of the order and Sajid added 39 before James and Andy McBrine looked set to help their side to an unexpected win. The former made 33 but the match turned on a magnificent piece of fielding from David Kennedy who took a snorter of a catch to dismiss the younger McBrine when he too was on 33. In the end the difference between them was just 15 runs and the fact that none of the home batsmen went on to 50, however this was a cracking effort from Donemana.

It wasn't all doom and gloom however and Fox Lodge managed to buck the trend as they hammered Muckamore in a one-sided contest at Ballymagorry. The home side won the toss and put their visitors in and it wasn't long before they were in bother, as Darryl Brown got loose on the top order. Peter Bates remained defiant as he made 29 and Neil Gill held things together in the middle with a solid unbeaten 33 but despite a cameo from Richard Keates worth 24 only one other player got into double figures. Andy Britton bowled well to claim 2 for 23 but Brown was irresistible and returned figures of 5 for 19 from his 7 overs. Chasing just 127 the Foxies were able to stroll it and despite losing skipper Brian Allen for 22, the South African turned in a complete man-of-the-match performance with an unbeaten half century. Jason Milligan was with Brown at the end, unbeaten on 33 in a 9-wicket romp. Things are likely to get much tougher for Fox Lodge in the quarter finals as they were paired with Donemana's conquerors North Down, however with home advantage they will feel that they have every chance of progressing.

Division 2 action this weekend was confined to just a solitary game as two sides yet to record a win this season, Burndennett and Sion Mills had the day to themselves. Sion batted first and made 152 all out, Ryan O'Neill top scoring with 30 while Johnny McGranaghan added 28. Ross McCay claimed 3 for 16 and John Devine 3 for 23 as the struggling home side bowled reasonably well. Unfortunately however they had no answer to Sion's Nigel O'Neill who returned match-winning figures of 7 for 26 as Burndennett came up 57 runs short. Sion's first win of 2011 comes at a good time for them as well as they get set to host Donemana in Saturday's senior cup clash.