BONDS GLEN

Hats off to the Bee Gees and despite all the pundits, this one included, feeling that they were certain to go back down, Gary Hamilton's side were to have the last laugh.

Make no mistake about it, theirs was some achievement and not only have they survived relegation but they have now given the North West a quandary as to whether it is they or Glendermott who go into next season's Ulster Cup competition.

It will come as no surprise that their stats are dominated by Gihan Dilruk and how the hard-working committee at the Glen must be thrilled that they stuck to their guns and waited for the Sri Lankan to arrive.

By the time he got here they looked in trouble and after understandably taking a week or two to get his bearings. they looked doomed. And then they beat an out-of-sorts Bready to change the mood in the camp, and after that never looked back.

They had Eglinton in their sights and applied the pressure to the villagers by beating Glendermott shortly afterwards before turning their attentions to Andy Christie's side. That win was huge as it took the wind out of their opponents sails but the Bee Gees then showed their fighting qualities when they responded to Eglinton's defeat of Fox Lodge by hammering Strabane the next day.

At the end up there was actually very few people surprised when they clinched the deal by beating Bready on the final day. Dilruk's return was pivotal although it was by no means astonishing, 530 runs at an average of just over 40 and 26 wickets at just 14 runs apiece.

Richard Hepburn was his main ally, 378 runs at 22 a time and 22 wickets at 28 but there were no superstars and this was most definitely a team effort.

Johnny Haslett made 319 valuable runs, but how is this for a stat- for a team that finished with 5 wins, no-one scored a century and apart from their overseas man there were only 3 fifties in total, one each for Richard Rodgers, and Roy and David Robinson.

Nobody bar Dilruk and Hepburn went over 20 wickets either although Leslie Curry, David Robinson and Colin Hall all went close.

And yet the Bee Gees will proudly host the likes of Brigade, Donemana, Limavady and Strabane again in 2012- what a fantastic achievement that is.


BATTING
G Dilruk 14-1-530-40.77-94- 6x50
R Hepburn 20-3-378-22.24-4

J Haslett 319 runs

BOWLING
G Dilruk 95-364-26-14.0- best 6-4
R Hepburn 135-622-22-28.27- best 3-23
L Curry 19 wickets, D Robinson, C Hall 17 each