League Champions 2010

Section 2 League Champions 2010

After a long season Donaghcloney 1st XI were crowned Section II champions after winning an impressive 15 games from 17 played in the league. The league was decided at Templepatrick where the Cloney went about their business and claimed another home and away scalp in the season. The only games lost all year were a 2 night game against Millpark when Stuart Kidd produced an exceptional bowling spell of 6 overs 6 for 9 and the only other loss in the league was the very first game of the season against Academy which was reduced to 30 overs due to the April showers.

There has been a total of 29 players who togged out for the 1st XI this year and every single one of them made a contribution no matter how small. There were a few youngsters who got their first taste of senior cricket notably Alan Thompson who impressed with his tidy off spin at Cooke Collegians, Peter Moates a talented left hander with a good eye in his head, Richard Lylttle who has been impressive all year for the 2nd XI behind the stumps and when asked to step up to the 1 st didn’t look out of place. Matthew Lyttle showed real promise with both bat and ball regularly contributing with the bat in the middle order and taking the new ball at the start of the innings. Young Ben Daley from the under 13’s also played against Academy in a twenty 20 fixture and didn’t disgrace himself at all.

Timmy McClure accepted the Ulster Bank award from NCU Chairman Roger Bell for his 'Hat-Trick' of wickets earlier in the season against Larne

The season however belonged to the old heads. Neil Carson coming back to play for Donaghcloney made a huge difference and he formed the backbone of the batting throughout the season. Stephen Hanna came back from an ankle injury early season and showed what a talent he really is. Continually he was the ‘go to’ man to get wickets and very rarely did he let the side down. His spin twin Gary Knox was Mr Frugal with the ball in his hands. Bowling tight and accurately he is a great example to any young spin bowler of how to bowl with guile and precision forcing the batsmen to make mistakes.David Marshall who was also struck down with illness during the early part of the season soon found his stride and was the perfect foil for the up and coming Jonny Stephenson as the opening bowling partnership. More often than not they got the early wickets and opened the door to the opposition middle order. Colin Martin was a massive influence while on the pitch. His contribution with both bat and ball cannot be understated with runs and wickets at vital stages proving to be the difference between winning and losing on several occasions. Old head Lyness Topping proved he was still up for the challenge with runs throughout the year and even a wicket in the one time he was asked to bowl. Timmy McClure was Mr consistency with the ball throughout the year and topped the season of with a hat-trick against Larne ripping out their middle order and ensuring another win for Cloney when things were just starting to look close. Keith Martin stood behind the stumps all year leading the side where byes were infrequent and there were one or two catches he was very proud of. While talking about catches it would be remiss not to mention the fielding throughout the season. Some fantastic catches were taken. Gary Knox against Cregagh, Stephen Hanna against Dungannon, Chris Clarke against Instonions and Peter Moates against Millpark to mention just a few. Johnny Clarke played a total of 9 times for the firsts in 2010 and didn’t get a bat or a bowl. Never once did he complain and he arguably was one of the Cloney’s best fielders saving 10-20 runs every week in the covers and claiming a couple of fantastic run outs.

That was 2010. 2011 will bring new challenges and hopefully we can come together as a club again to reproduce some of what we saw last season.