Braidmen come up just short, despite Aphale 'ton'

This latest defeat leaves the Eaton Park men sitting narrowly above the drop zone.

Aphale, batted for 125 balls and struck seven boundaries in his knock of 115 and was eventually out caught on the long on boundary when trying desperately to get Ballymena what would have been an unlikely but extremely valuable four points.

As has so often been the case this season Ballymena made life very difficult for themselves with a lacklustre performance in the field for the first hour of the match, allowing the Instonians opening batsmen, Stevenson and Jacobs, to both record centuries and in the process set a record opening stand for the club of 246.

Despite this record stand however Ballymena were not too despondent at half time and were confident of batting at the required rate of five runs per over which would have seen them pass the Instonians total of 255 and record their fourth win of the campaign.

With Aphale in blistering form it was purely a case of the rest of the Ballymena players giving him the support he required. The Kennedy brothers did just that - with David, he added 56 runs, James, 50 and Robert, 66 and the brothers looked in little trouble when at the crease but an unnecessary run out led to the dismissal of David, a very questionable LBW decision saw the back of James and Robert was unfortunately run out when he seemed to lose his bearings as the ball trickled back towards his stumps.

With overs running out, Aphale, more than ever required someone to occupy the crease and Michael Taylor, was the only other player who seemed happy to do just that and the pair added a valuable 26 for the eighth wicket.

As the Ballymena innings entered the 48th over and with the time limit for bowling the quota of overs now exceeded (which should have resulted in penalty runs being awarded to the home side) Aphale had to clear the boundary ropes and that proved his downfall, perishing at long on when only 12 runs were required for victory having made a superb century.

Ballymena will take to the field on two occasions this week.

First up they come head to head with relegation rivals, Downpatrick, on Thursday evening. The match is a rearranged game and so will be a 20 over match starting at 5.30pm.

On Saturday the town side are at home to Waringstown, starting at midday.