All 3 teams win in a great weekend for DCC

Mansing gets 56 not out to DCC to beat Victoria

It was a pleasure to host Victoria this weekend for the first time in many years in a league competition. The weather was perfect for cricket and their was sense of anticipation for the local derby. Victoria won the toss and elected to bat. The Donaghcloney opening bowlers of Lecky and Stevenson were soon rewarded for their accurate bowling. Steven Lecky made the initial breakthrough when D Reiman nicking one to keeper K Martin  with the 3rd over of the innings. Lecky claimed 3 more quick wickets and Victoria were 4 down with only 9 runs on the board. Jonny Stevenson was toiling away from the factory end, swinging the ball away from the right hander and past the outside edge on numerous occasions. His first 5 overs went for just 10 runs and kept the pressure on the Victoria batsmen. G McClure who was carrying a hamstring injury dug in and refused to go down without a fight. He had fought his way to 33 when S Hanna lured him into a false shot and C McCrum took the simplest of catches. Hanna also took the wicket of S Maxwell finishing with 2 for 17 and J Stevenson wrapped up the innings by having ex Donaghcloney man S Copeland caught at mid off by Alan Harland to finsh with figures of 2 for 16. S Lecky the star of the bowling attack  ended  up with figures of 5 for 21 from his allotted 10 overs. Victoria were all out for 87.

This should have been a simple run chase with but Victoria were determined not to give up and showed great team spirit. A Harland was first to fall and when he was bowled by Khan in the 3rd over for 3 and K Dempster soon followed the same way for just 8. The in form J Dowds was  caught and bowled without scoring and all of a sudden Donaghcloney were 23-3 and looked under pressure. With their tails up Khan and Ajmal continued to bowl well and C MCrum and M Lyttle were the next victims. Now Donaghcloney were 52-5 and the 36 runs required for victory seemed an uphill task. S Lecky who has been in good for with the bat as well as the ball was the next Cloney batsman to be sent back to the pavillion. He failed to trouble the scorers and donaghcloney still needed 29 for victory with only 4 wickets left. Mansing who was still at the crease took control and showed what a class batsman he is. He punished anything too short or full and raced to his 50 with 8 boundaries including two huge sixes over long on. Fittingly Mansing guided the ball through extra cover for 4 to win the match and finish on 56 not out.

It was great to play Victoria again and we hope them the best of luck for the rest of the season. The clud would also like to thank Sidney Alexander for his ball sponsorship this week. Match Scorecard

Donaghcloney II took on Cregagh II on Saturday in a reduced 30 over match as a result of an early rain shower. It was Donaghcloney won the toss and elected to bat first. They you got off to a flyer thanks to the two Richards batting together and were quickly on 32 after the first 4 overs before Richard Clydesdale was caught behind. Stephen Lyttle and son Richard then put on a quick stand of 25 before Stephen was run out for 12. Richard Lyttle followed soon after, by being trapped LBW after on 30 and Jonny Dowd’s made 1 before being caught leaving the score on 58-4. A steady partnership followed between Rory Woods 47 and Gareth Copeland 42* to see Donaghcloney through the middle overs before Rory woods was finally caught in the 25^th Over. There was then some late hitting from Mark Campbell 15* to bring Donaghcloney to a respectable score of 171-5 in there allocated overs. Cregahs chase started slowly with some tight bowling up front from William Fisher 2-10 in his 6 0vers. However from then one Cregah were in control of the match scoring runs at quick rate with only the occasional wicket from Donaghcloneys bowlers keeping the match in an even balance. Justin Joy finished with figures of 3-34 and brother Jobin 0-43 in their 6 overs. Rory Woods failed to get into a rhythm and went for 32 runs in his 4 overs. This left Cregagh needing 30 runs of their last 4 Overs. Mark Campbell then bowled his 2nd last over for 10 runs including some harsh wides leaving the visitors a relatively straight forward 20 of 18 balls to win the match. Colin Derby then turned to Richard Lyttle to bowl who off his 1 st ball was hit for 6. The next ball was then hit to the boundary for an easy single. Colin Derby through the ball back into the bowler and Richard Lyttle noticed the inform Cregagh batsman was not in his crease and swiftly took the bails off to the umpires surprise who was then left with no choice but to give the batsmen out. This seemed to reach havoc with Cregagh as they struggled to regain momentum after this. Richard bowled the rest of the over for 2 runs and then Mark Campbell bowled his last over for 7 runs and one wicket to finish with figures of 1-36. This left Cregah needing 5 to win of the last over with 2 wickets left. They started with a quick single to the boundary before a stumping of the next ball thanks to quick reactions from young Gareth Copeland. Cregagh number 11 then entered the crease and hit the first ball down the ground only to be stopped by bowler Richard lyttle who once again ran the non-striker out of the crease as he was short of his ground. Donaghcloney had been let out of jail in this instance and escaped with a crucial 3 run victory. They now play Waringstown III on the 19^th July in a top of the table class.