TITLE BACK AT BEECHGROVE AFTER SOGGY END TO RACE

The 2011 Billy Henderson Properties senior championship was decided on Tuesday evening in a fashion befitting the entire season with players huddled around, hands in pockets as the rain tipped down. The “climax” of the campaign was unfair on Limavady as the Roesiders stats will show two points less than the new champions and one game less played, but unfortunately those are the breaks. In a way it was unfair on Brigade too; Mark Simpson would much rather have raised the trophy at the side of a worn pitch as opposed to changing out of civvies for a ten minute photo shoot at the weekend. But the reality is that the elements were on top for most of the summer anyway and their dominance on Monday and Tuesday night was little surprise to anyone.

This was a season that the North West will hardly rush to make a “best of” DVD. Things went wrong; fixtures dragged on for months and towards the end it looked like we had almost given up. Limavady did remarkably well to keep the pot boiling as long as they did; losing Chris Moore to injury for the whole season, Decker Curry to suspension half way through and then their professional Adnan Akmal to International duty just as things were getting interesting. They will feel aggrieved that they were left with two nights of incessant rain in which to chase down those final, defining 199 runs set by the senior cup winners but no matter what two nights they had been left with in the past fortnight, the result would have been the same. Just ask Creevedonnell.

On the flip side there were plenty who feel that Andrew Riddles’ side dodged a bullet when the North West gave them the points from their unplayed game with Donemana, particularly given that the Union ruled exactly the opposite in another, almost identical case around the same time. That was the straw that broke the back of the Holm side’s own title challenge and coupled with the loss of their Ireland under-19 players during the World Cup qualifiers, a superb start that included an opening day win in Strabane Park was to count for nowt. Richard Kee’s men surprised a few pundits this year and despite a very familiar look to the first team squad they were certainly potential title candidates until fate played a hand. Their senior cup final loss to Bready showed how important those new, youthful faces have become in the Tyrone village but you just know there will be other years.

Strabane, defending champions and looking for their third title in as many years didn’t have their sorrows to seek and while Niall McDonnell was (and will continue to be) a superb addition to the side, their attack was way short of meaningful resistance. Martin Deans and Phil Eaglestone are an excellent new ball pairing but it went belly up after that. Mark Roulston had a really good first season at his new home but Mark probably thought that he would be sharing fifth bowler duties as opposed to be thrown a cherry with a prominent seam for a full ten overs. Skipper Jonathan Beukes bowled very little and Peter Gillespie none at all and both were seriously badly missed. Mark struggled a little too and that created far too much pressure on the supporting cast and to be honest it never looked like working at any stage. With a batting line up the envy of the country the Red Caps will look to add a bowler over the winter and will take some catching next time if they do.

Fox Lodge flattered to deceive, coming into the season with a trumpet fanfare, not, I hasten to add from the Ballymagorry men themselves but from those who were weighing up the all-round talents of Johnny Robinson, Jason Milligan, Andy Britton, Andrew McGinnis and Darryl Brown as well as the class of Brian Allen. The Foxies came up short too; the wheels coming off in style at home to Donemana when they managed to lose from a position of being 50 without loss chasing 115. The experience, you would think won’t be lost to them.

Bready's season was all about cups and when they were good they were very good. This was the year that the Magheramason side stepped up to the trophy-winning plate and we will see now what it does to the confidence levels. The league campaign was another matter, indeed they were like two different teams at times but while they have plenty of depth at the club they really need to beef up that brittle middle order. Brian Crumley and Marc Fleming had very good senior seasons and the bowling had good balance, especially when Craig Young played. Rankin and Clarke were excellent again and Sabir proved a good choice of professional so it could be an important winter at Magheramason.

Coleraine enjoyed a very good run too, their marvellous blend of youth and experience catching the eye of many onlookers and while you would reason that they should be able to keep their youngsters at Sandel Lodge there will be no guarantees with the more experienced players, and time alone will tell about that. With another season under their belts you can only see more improvement and the future doesn't look half bad although careful consideration needs to be given to Mohammad Salman's replacement.

Glendermott have work ahead of them as well after finishing the season with less than a whimper, replacing Smyth and possibly a new professional high on the agenda there while the relegation shoot-out between Bonds Glen and Eglinton will go to a nervy weekend. With heavy cloud littering the sky the Bee Gees with their two extra points in the bag are in the driving seat, but the villagers have two cracks at their game with Strabane, so no chickens will be totalled just yet.

Despite how we got there, you would have to say that Brigade are deserving champions. The Beechgrove boys went through a real rocky patch in June that seemed to have wrecked any ambition they may have had but in the latter half of the season they were easily best. The batting looked at little dodgy at times, particularly when Mattie Moran was missing but despite the reservations they were indebted to Ata-Ur-Rehman on quite a few occasions to blast them out of trouble. The former Pakistani Test player did exactly what it said on the tin and was the difference between winning it and not. Mark Simpson thoroughly deserves to step up and claim the silver trophy from Billy Henderson this coming weekend but it is such a pity that they were denied the fitting finale that all those efforts deserved.

After this weekend's relegation and promotion business is sorted out, that will be it for another season. Ground repairs can begin while the kit bags will be deposited into winter hibernation before it all starts again in the spring. Let's just put this one down to experience and while the North West's new “think tank” can't guarantee us any sunshine, hopefully they can put something in place to ensure that we're better prepared the next time Noah needs another ark.