BREADY still have the Faughan Valley (Twenty20) Cup final to look forward to on August 28 but nothing will compare with the celebrations at Eglinton on Saturday night when Trevor Hamilton lifted the Northern Bank Senior Cup.

It was good enough that it was their first two-day win since 1996 but even better was the fact they had finally beaten Donemana. Four times (since 1988) they had faced their Tyrone neighbours in the North West showpiece game and four times they had failed. Indeed in their previous eight innings their best total was 190.

Friday’s 304 for seven rewrote the history books and when they followed up with 251 for five on Saturday, to add to their 55 runs advantage, the game was as good as over.

For 18 overs – that’s all it took for Donemana to reduce the deficit by 100 in the final innings – Hamilton admitted they were concerned and the huge crowd, which produced gate receipts of almost £2,500 on Saturday, were anticipating a thrilling finish. But, almost as quickly, it was one-way traffic as Kamran Sajid and Richard Kee were dismissed in successive overs and Ricky-Lee Dougherty was dropped in the next.

It was a stranglehold that Bready retained with the impressive Mark Fleming taking the last wicket to seal a 65 runs victory - as emphatic as anyone in Bready could have imagined.

Undoubtedly, the losers missed Andy McBrine’s 20 overs, even more than his batting, and Ryan Hunter but, don’t forget, Bready were also without opening bowler Ian Young and Hamilton put his faith in three players who had played most of their cricket this season in the Seconds.

One, Brian Crumley, ended up with the man of the match – his 42 off 48 balls in the second innings just as important as his chanceless century on Friday – Adam Warnock took the wicket of Kee, with the Donemana captain looking ominously good, and James Long scored 46 without being dismissed, including 19 off just eight balls in the second innings which took Bready’s lead through the psychological 300 barrier.

David Rankin could even afford to fail for the first time in this cup run which has yielded 452 runs because Steven Clarke’s patient 56 off 112 balls set up Bready’s late charge which yielded 62 runs in the last five overs and 34 off the last two as Junior McBrine and Sajid were shown no respect.

In contrast, Donemana needed 135 off the last 16 overs – just 11 more than Bready had scored in their second innings – but wickets kept falling and when James McBrine was run out with still 100 wanted and only three wickets left, Bready had done enough.

The winning captain, after three final defeats since Bready’s only previous success was just delighted his side’s hard work had paid off

“The work the guys have put in over the year has been tremendous and we’ve got the result. It’s no more than they deserved,” said Hamilton.