It is back to league fixtures this coming Saturday in the Long's SuperValu North West senior divisions 1 and 2 and thankfully despite last week's miserable weather all of the weekend's Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup games were played to a finish.

 It may have been a poor showing for local clubs in terms of progress to the second round of the country's premier cup competition however down at Limavady there was no time to reflect on what was a dreadful day as the championship favourites prepared for another big one this weekend.

In the spotlight this week is the Roesiders' opening bowler Andy Britton who moved to the Hunter Grounds during the winter after a couple of seasons at Fox Lodge. The pace bowler has been something of a precocious talent over the past few seasons but to many observers hasn't quite fulfilled his potential.

Britton is still just 23 years of age however and has time on his side and as he took a break from nets to talk to us earlier this week there was no doubting that the player himself seems to have taken on a new lease of life.

“I'm really enjoying my cricket at the moment, probably more-so than at any time in the past couple of years and I'm finding it really easy to get motivated even for practice” he began.

“It is no indictment on Fox Lodge; everyone at the club was very good to me when I came there from Donemana but it's just so different at Limavady and I love the intensity. I'm learning from the likes of Dekker Curry and that is helping me a lot- I bowl at Dekker as much as I can in the nets as I work on my line and length to quality left-handers and to be honest he has told me that it is helping his game too so it's ideal for both of us”.

On the subject of leaving Ballymagorry I asked Andy if that had been a difficult choice for him and he was very forthright in his assessment. “Jonny Robinson is one of my closest friends and it was difficult to leave in the year that he became skipper. Realistically though I play cricket because I want to win trophies and I hadn't won anything since I left Donemana three years ago. I broke into the Donemana first team at a time when Azhar Shaffique was coming to the end of his peak so when I moved to Fox Lodge, I felt Darryl Brown was able to bring me on.

"When it became clear that Darryl wasn't coming back I knew it was time to move but to be honest I was ready for a new challenge even before that. Limavady wasn't my only option either; I had talked to another North West club and one in the NCU but once Andrew Riddles wanted me to move there it became an easy choice. While helping Limavady to compete for all the top honours is the reason I came here, my personal motivation is to work my way back into contention for Ireland”

Britton made his full Ireland debut under current coach Phil Simmons in an ODI against Kenya in 2009 but hasn't featured since and the opinion has been expressed more than once since then that his heart isn't in it. The player himself refuted that out of hand however and was unequivocal in his hopes of a recall.

“I played for Ireland when I was 19 and if I'm honest there were circumstances that I would have handled differently had they happened today. Things are always easier on hindsight and I had to take time away for personal reasons however if I had that time over again I would change the way I went about it. In helping Limavady in the trophy hunt this year I hope to force my way back into the picture again at International level but I'm fully aware that it is my performances on the pitch that will have to do my talking for me.

"Make no mistake about it though, I desperately want a chance to prove myself with Ireland and watching Graeme McCarter show what can be achieved on his Gloucester debut last week has focused me even more”.

Turning to the Roesiders' season, Andy was upbeat about their expectations despite losing in Strabane at the start of the month and then their horror show in Dublin on Saturday.

“We were a number of players down against Strabane but even then could still have won it had we not dropped their pro three times. With our own overseas man (Zeeshan Malik) now available, and Stuart Thompson hopefully coming back into the side we have a far more compact look and I expect us to kick on from here. We have to put the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup out of our thoughts now but that might be no bad thing as we eye the league and cup in the North West”.