Simpson targets Cup run for Lisburn

His dad Dean won the trophy with North and now David wants to lead Lisburn to a similar victory.

First up for them in their quest for a ninth outright Cup victory is CSNI away on Saturday and Simpson is keen to progress.

He said: “I would love to get a Cup run, whether it is in the Senior Cup or the Ulster Cup. I would really like it to be the Senior Cup. My dad always talks about the runs he had in the Cup and I’d love to do it myself.

“It would create a bit of a buzz about the place if we could get a good run and it can kick-start the other aspects of the season then as well.”

If they’re to do that, he and the Lisburn batters will need to up their game.

Lisburn have picked up just one win so far this season, beaten by CIYMS on the opening day and also going down, perhaps understandably, to Leinster League champions Clontarf and a strong Waringstown side.

“It’s been a tough start,” admitted the skipper. “We should have beaten CI and, ironically, if it wasn’t for a great performance by Nathan (Waller) who just left us, we would have won that one.

“After that, we picked up a good win away at Ballymena, which is always a difficult place to go.

“Clontarf, of course, are very, very good but we got the worst of the weather because we had to bat first, not knowing what the weather was going to do.

“Then whenever the Duckworth Lewis total was calculated, they knew what they had to get. That’s why it’s always an advantage batting second in a weather-affected match.

“Waringstown are the best team I’ve seen in the league in a number of years. They have five bowlers who have played for Ireland. Their batting is very strong too. Jonny Bushe, who played for Ireland, is batting ninth. It will take a hell of a team to beat them.

“We didn’t perform to 100% or really do ourselves justice with our batting but then their bowling was very strong and our batting will hopefully improve. I felt our bowling was okay.”

If ever there was an apt time for the batting order to find their feet, it’s surely in Saturday’s Senior Cup opener. However, winter signing James Magowan is unlikely to lead the attack, still struggling with a finger injury.

“It’ll probably be too soon for James although he should be fully fit for Ulster Cup opener at Brigade the week after,” said Simpson.

“He got word just before the season started that it was worse than he first thought and Bob Rankin has been out with a dislocated finger as well.

“It’s been like managing the A&E at the Royal hospital sometimes. I’m going grey by the second.

“We also need to get the boys back from university. Mark and Adam Berry will both be back for this week so that will be a boost for us.

“It’ll be difficult to get a result on Saturday though. CS are known notoriously as a very good Cup team and are a similar sort of side to ourselves. They will be looking to finish third or fourth in the table too and have started with one win from their first few games. They’re hoping for the same things as us so it’ll be difficult.”

And as regards his side’s batting performances, he’s hoping they’ll prove that class is permanent:

“We have players of real quality. We have guys like Bob Rankin and Craig Ervine, who is potentially the best batter in the league. You don’t play test cricket without being quality.

“We also have James Magowan and myself and others. We need to be scoring the bulk of the runs and I’d back our bowlers to be able to see it out.”