Mixed fortunes for Lisburn

On Saturday they travelled to Moylena to play bottom placed Muckamore and won their sixth match of the season by 8 wickets. However, on Sunday they went to Waringstown and lost their postponed game by the massive margin of 9 wickets.

Saturday saw a straight forward win at Muckamore; with the home team having to win to remain in the Premier League they began in disastrous form losing four wickets while scoring just 31 runs in the first 9 overs. A recovery took place when opener Baguley and number six McGowan added 65 for the 5th wicket but using up 29 overs in the process.

James Magowan, bowling medium pace instead of spin in the absence of Darryl Brown, proved to be the man of the match when, after taking the first and third wickets to fall proceeded to run through the Muckamore middle and late order to return the remarkable figures of 7 for 25 in his 8.4 overs as the home side were dismissed for 146 in 47 overs.

David Simpson also performed well with 3 wickets for 25 in his 9 overs as the two pace bowlers were too much for the very brittle Muckamore batting line-up. Richard McConkey recorded figures of 0 for 48 off his 10 overs while Craig Ervine had 0 for 16 off his full allotment of 10 overs in a fine all round bowling effort by the Lisburn attack.

In good conditions, Lisburn began their reply in fine style with Robert Rankin and Richard Simpson taking the responsibility. They were quick to punish the bad ball adding 92 for the first wicket and setting Lisburn well on the way to victory.

Simpson was first out in the 21st over for a good sound 36 while Rankin began to strike the ball with more purpose with Craig Ervine as a partner. The pair put on a further 23 before Robert was caught at long on for an excellent 63 off 63 balls.

The back of the chase was now broken but Ervine and James Magpwan took their time in scoring the remaining 31 runs to win the game. Craig Ervine, requiring 46 to record his 1000 runs for Lisburn this season but when the winning score was reached at 148 for 2 he remained 28 not out, still 18 short of his momentus target. James Magowan also was not out on 12 as Lisburn cantered to an easy 8 wicket victory with 17 overs to spare.

The ‘boot was on the other foot’ on Sunday morning when Lisburn travelled to Waringstown to take on the Premier League leaders. They found things very difficult on a slow turning wicket and soon lost two prime wickets in Robert Rankin and Craig Ervine. Rankin was caught off McCollum for 7 while Ervine, still short of his 1000 was also caught for just 1 as Lisburn reached 9 for 2 after 4 overs.

James Magowan was next to go, bowled by Lee Nelson for 16 and an over later Richard Simpson, having batted for almost an hour was bowled by Kyle McCallan for 13 as Lisburn slumped to 46 for 4 in the 18th over.

Lisburn captain David Simpsom was also dismissed cheaply before a mini recovery came in the shape of Adam Berry and Jonny Bell making his first senior appearance of the season. The pair batted sensibly adding 20 for the 7th wicket before Adam was caught behind the wicket for a valuable 17 with the score on 84.

Jonny Bell continued his innings to top score with 22 before he too succumbed, top edging a sweep and being caught off the spin of McCallan leaving Lisburn precariously poised on 109 for 8. Peter Ferguson managed a very useful 15 before Lisburn were all out for a mediocre score of 120 in 47 overs leaving their opponents with a relatively simple target to stay top of the Premier League.

Waringstown did get an early scare when they lost James McCollum off the first ball of their innings, lbw to Davey Simpson but that was the end of the Lisburn threat as James Hall and Adam Dennison seemed to be able to score at will off all the Lisburn bowlers and without much fuss they saw their team through to the required 121 in just 16.4 overs.

James Hall remained 81 not out while Dennison was also undefeated on 29. Davey Simpson was the only wicket taker with 1 for 30 as Lisburn were brought back to earth with a bump on the end of this severe 9 wicket defeat.

Lisburn’s rearranged game against Instonians due to be played in the Park last Bank Holiday Monday had to be postponed again because of the weather and will have to be rescheduled as a 20/20 later in the month.