One of the most talked about clubs over the course of the winter was undoubtedly CIYMS and who was going to be playing for them this season. Not a week seemed to pass without another story or rumour emerging about the latest signing.

Now that the season has started we can see that the club has undoubted put together an exciting array of talent, which if it gels on the field will certainly be up there challenging on all fronts. Equally the knock on effect is that 6 players who may have entertained hopes of first eleven cricket are now playing on the seconds.

The impact of this was certainly seen in a big way as CI second eleven began their campaign in Junior League One with a resounding 362 run trouncing of Bangor seconds. Batting first CI posted 404 for 3 and the star of the show was Michael Hingston with 207 not out.

Hingston perhaps more than most has suffered from the influx of new players and indeed was originally the first eleven captain; a role he subsequently stepped down from and he is nothing if not frank about that decision:
�Realistically with the players that have been brought in I am not good enough to be in the side and I made that clear. Indeed if you look at my statistics I am not a good enough player to be playing in the Premier League. I am reconciled to that fact and am happy to add whatever value I can to the seconds.�

For Michael this is his first double century, with his previous highest score being 118. In partnership with Liam Jenkinson the pair added 247 unbroken for the 4th wicket. When I asked him about the innings, given that it is something most players would only dream about he was modest in the extreme:

�To be honest I don�t think I played that well, not sure that that much actually came out of the middle of the bat! Certainly at the start I was being outscored and at no stage did I really feel in and I would have to admit that the bowling was a bit all over the place, which in many ways made it more difficult to concentrate.�

Carrying your bat through the innings is one thing but to also get a double hundred in limited overs cricket is a rare feat. In all his innings contained 26 boundaries and 4 maximums. I asked him did he feel that it put pressure on the big names on the firsts:

�Not really, as I said earlier I have no real ambitions around playing in the Premier League. I am 30 now and I am happy to be scoring runs and enjoying my cricket. I am looking forward to playing in a strong seconds, let�s see where it goes from here.�