However it seems to be a bit like the economic recession when exactly the worst is and when are we due a change for the better.
Once again the TCH Down Democrat Challenge Cup was decimated by the rain which apparently has the happy knack of arriving at just the wrong time of the week. Just when you think you have turned the corner down it comes again. Then of course we have a beautiful Sunday just to rub salt in the cricketing wounds.
The air of depression is palpable all around, nowhere more so than at Saintfield were captain Richard Owens is by now a desolate man. With June fast approaching the local side have yet to manage to take to the pitch this season and the fixture backlog is reaching crisis point:
“We were looking forward to hosting the Down Democrat Challenge Cup holders’ at The Demesne but it was already a lost cause by Friday evening, in spite of the fact that we had a dry day. The end of the ground nearest the hockey pitch was still unplayable.
We hope it picks up before next weekend when we are due to play Drumaness away on Saturday and then the rearranged cup tie on Sunday. Some might think that our best chance to progress is to hope for rain and then knock them out in bowl out, but this is certainly not what I want. I would prefer to take our chances with them if it means getting a proper game of cricket.”
Dundrum were left in a similar predicament when their tie against Instonians was also called off on Friday evening, with it went the chance of facing Ireland international Andrew White who will be away with the Irish team preparing for the Twenty20 World Cup by next weekend.
Of the 8 ties scheduled to be played last weekend only two made it as far as getting to the middle. One of these the match between CIYMS and Lurgan as Belmont was called off after 13 overs. I suspect that Lurgan will be slightly disappointed at this outcome as the Premier League side had made only 21 at this stage.
After waiting around for a further three hours the inevitable happened and they will do it all again next Sunday.
With Uprichard Park unplayable Bangor switched their match with North Down to Comber. Comber seems to have two things in its favour; one it seems to have a micro climate all of its own and secondly in The Green, one of the best squares and drainage in the NCU ably looked after by Raymond Moreland.
Even they were not exempt from the rain but a result was possible. Batting first and in a rain interrupted innings Bangor made 140 all out. This was in the main built round an innings of 55 from professional Yasas Tillikaratne. Peter Connell fresh from his five wicket haul against Worcestershire was overshadowed by Timur Khan with an excellent 6 for 15.
It was however to be Connell who turned into the unlikely hero with the bat as North Down’s much vaunted batting line up struggled to reach the adjusted 144 required for victory. At 118 for 8 it looked like a major shock was on the cards, but Connell and his opening bowling partner Gavin McKenna added an unbroken 29 to see the “home” side through.
Courtesy of the Down Democrat
