Jubilant St Johnston boys clinch Championship title

Burndennett went into the final round of matches in pole position knowing that a win for them at Drummond and a St Johnston victory at the Boathole would see Mark Roulston’s men promoted for the first time in their 40-year history.

Co-leaders Glendermott could only look on and hope that one of the others slipped up as they went to Creevedonnell but the Rectory boys kept their part of the bargain with a win that was hardly as comfortable as it might have been.

Not for the first time this season Roy Silva was the difference between the sides as he went on the attack straight away for the visitors.

The Sri Lankan was already more than 500 runs ahead of his team mate Simon Killen in the divisional run-scoring charts ahead of Saturday’s league closer and he turned that advantage into closer to 650 with another big ton.

Silva clubbed nine fours and 13 sixes in his knock of 137 although Alan Johnson with 28 was the only other contributor of note to their total of 223 all out.

Stephen Scroggie with four wickets and Jack Glenn (3) fared best of the bowling unit as the home sside managed to keep all bar Silva in check.

Creevedonnell’s reply started modestly with Silva and Curtis Ross picking up a couple of wickets each however Brian Dougherty was in good form with the bat for his team.

The ’Donnell stalwart top scored with 44 while Don Dougherty added 23 allowing the Curryfree Road men to close to within 39 runs at the end.

Their job done Glendermott handed the baton to St Johnston and the Donegal side were also up to the task despite giving their supporters a real scare along the way as well.

Bonds Glen were the visitors here and they were soon struggling to cope with Ian Macbeth’s team’s attack.

Nathan Cole and Ryan Macbeth were both on target early for the Saints while Kushpal Singh and Jassi Wallia took over in the middle as the home side dominated.

Young Macbeth, incidentally, passed the 50-wicket mark for the season in the course of the game - a stunning effort from the teenager - and although Roy Robinson defended the fort manfully for the Bee Gees with 37, a final total of 102 all out looked like an easy target.

Thoughts of that were soon dispelled however as Derek Curry took up the challenge and three early wickets for him had the home side in trouble at 43-4.

Rammohan Goud steadied the ship with 23 but when he went to leave his side 64-5 it still wasn’t over.

It was left to skipper Macbeth to take the Saints over the winning line which he duly did, however they needed more than 32 overs to do it on a nervy afternoon in Donegal.

The win guaranteed St Johnston a promotion/relegation play-off place at least.

After both St Johnston and Glendermott won, all eyes now turned to Drummond to see if Burdennett could fulfil their destiny and clinch promotion for the first time in their history.

To be fair they couldn’t have picked a harder venue to try to seal their first ever Championship title and never at any point in the afternoon did Drummond look like they were there to make up the numbers.

The visitors were given a good platform by Mark Doherty and Ross McCay with Doherty batting beautifully against the guile of a useful home attack.

McCay, Gerard McAuley and skipper Mark Roulston all kept the opener company at various times during the innings and not even a couple of rain interruptions were allowed to affect his concentration.

Fittingly, Doherty passed his century before finally falling to Johnny Martin, 13 fours in his brilliant 101 that allowed the title-chasers to post 214 for 8 in their 50 overs. Martin was the pick of the home attack with four wickets while Dylan Holmes added a brace and at the half way point it was difficult to know who was in front.

One thing that was for sure was that much depended on how the home side approached the chase and it didn’t take long to realise that they were up for it.

Chris Moore, Jamie Millar and Kyle Morrow all contributed to a very useful start - the openers putting on 55 for the first wicket and the second pairing doing likewise - and a huge travelling support were starting to look nervous.

The wicket of Millar for 38 got Burndennett back into it but by that time Ricky McDaid looked set and joined by Stevie Moore, the home side’s crucial partnership began to look solid.

One by one they eased past the landmarks, under 100 to win, under 50 to win and once they got it down below 30, the Boathole was suddenly buzzing as the Saints sensed it maight be their day.

McDaid and Moore were now in total control and as an onlooker you had to wonder what sort of league race it may have been had we saw this Drummond the whole way through.

For some time before the final runs were hit Burndennett players and supporters knew they had come up short at the last fence.

Their batting had looked competitive but when Drummond’s batsmen asked the question of their attack, the answers simply weren’t there.

Fair enough, batting had become slightly easier in the afternoon’s drying conditions but truth to tell the home side fully merited a convincing eight-wicket win.

It was hard luck on Roulston’s men who really stepped up to the plate in the second half of the season and to go from first to third in a couple of hours will have hurt them for sure.

It is the Saints who lifted the Championship title then and who will now replace Fox Lodge in the Premier Division next season.

Without wanting to finish on a negative note it has to be recorded that the game between Sion Mills and Killyclooney did not take place following the news that Sion’s ground issues are as yet unresolved.

Word has it though that an agreement with the owner may be quite a bit closer than first thought and there is now every hope that the Holm field will be open for business again at the start of next season.

The Tyrone side were unable to fulfil the final two fixtures of the season after being locked out of their own ground by the owner.