Lisburn Seconds earn an important league win

Opening the bowling for Lisburn were the returning from holiday, Richard Booth and regular new ball partner Graeme Browne.

Both bowled extremely tidily and the opening batsmen of I Arthur and G Ouldfield found runs hard to come by.

Booth lured Arthur into a false shot and young Nathan Booth took an excellent catch at extra cover.

Former NCU interpro player John Gilliland came in at 3 and was looking in good touch until Ricky Finlay rolled back the years and took a sharp chance at slip.

The wicket of Gilliland was Nathan Doak’s first for the 2nd XI and hopefully will be the first of many.

Young Doak (1-22) and Derek Suffern (2-35) continued where Booth and Browne left off by bowling accurately and Suffern was rewarded with 2 further wickets, a catch by Graeme Browne and a caught and bowled.

Neil Doak was then introduced and took 2 wickets in his 8 over spell (2-33) including a great catch on the boundary by Jonny Ritchie, a safer pair of hands in Junior 1 would be hard to find, and with the returning Browne (2-10) and Booth (2-34), the North Down innings closed on 136 all out.

North Down ever indebted to batsmen B Burgess and J Gilmore who batted well during their innings and scored 42 and 38 respectively.

The Lisburn innings started with the regular opening partnership of Ricky Finlay and Michael Turkington.

Both were intent on scoring quickly and were quick to dispatch any ball that was off line, in fact the 50 partnership was brought up in the 9th over.

Finlay had reached 43 (6 fours and a six) before a poor call from Turkington meant that he was run out.

Turkington had reached 59 (again 6 fours and a six) before he was bowled by K Malone. With 20 required, Glenn Halliday (15*) and Graeme Browne (5*) saw the team home with 18 overs to spare.

So an important win for the seconds and keeps up the momentum going into the last weekend of July, where two fixtures are scheduled, away to Muckamore and home to CIYMS, both 11am starts.