All-rounder McBrine takes top award

North-West Cricket Union chairman, Andrew Fleming, presents the Danske Bank "Performance of the Round" Award in the Senior Cup to Andrew McBrine (Donemana)..

The Irish international scored an unbeaten 65, sharing an unbroken fifth wicket stand of 78 with his father, Junior, who was undefeated on 28 as Donemana reached their fourth successive final.

McBrine was the unanimous choice of the judging panel, beating off the challenge of the Brigade duo of Gareth McKeegan and Digvijay Amarnath, who scored half centuries as Brigade overcame Bready by five wickets in the other semi-final at Magheramason.

Brigade and Donemana will meet in the final for the third successive season, with the two-innings showpiece taking place at Strabane on Friday-Saturday July 18-19.

While the next McBrine to come out of Donemana may not be too far away.

While the Senior Warriors were in action in the Inter-Pro Series, the next generation of cricketing stars were in action on the top field at Bready.

Eight teams were battling it out for the right to be crowned North West Under 11 Kwik cricket champions.

The sides were Ballyspallen, Coleraine, Bready A and B, Killyclooney, Ardmore, Fox Lodge and Donemana.

In an exciting, well supported event, Donemana just beat off the challenge of Bready A to collect the trophy.

The event was organised by Brian Allen from Cricket Ireland and Trevor Hamilton from the North West Warriors.

Meanwhile the draw for the quarter-finals of the Eric Cooke Memorial Plate was carried out at the weekend; competition sponsor Dan Penny doing the honours before Saturday’s fixtures got under way.

Competition rules state that teams finishing third in their T20 group would have home advantage in the last eight phase and the draw was as follows: Newbuildings v Burndennett; St Johnston v Drummond; Killyclooney v Glendermott and Creevedonnell v Bonds Glen. Dates for these ties to be confirmed.