Young and old steer Donemana home

Despite the fact that for quite a while it had seemed that the sodden outfield would take the game into a fifth evening, the Holm men had youngster Gary McClintock and stalwart of the game in the North West Junior McBrine to guide them home, after what turned out to be a difficult evening for them.

Credit the umpires Noel Ward and Nigel McElwee and both captains Iftikhar Hussain and Richard Kee who decided that while conditions were far from ideal, and indeed perilously close to unplayable, they would try to get a result.

And anyone thinking that the Holm club would easily knock off the required 61 runs was to be sorely mistaken as Trevor Britton and in particular Johnny Thompson tore into Richard Kee’s men with a tremendous spell of bowling.

Kamran Sajid and Ricky-Lee Dougherty found the going tough in the first couple of overs and had added just four to their overnight score when the former was caught at mid-off by substitute fielder Gareth Connor.

Richard Kee was next in, however the skipper was lbw for the second time in the match having made just 2 and when Trevor Britton bowled Graeme Boyd in the next over you could see Brigade’s tails go up.

Ricky-Lee Dougherty had moved very patiently on to 28 before Thompson knocked over his off stump and it was absolutely game on three balls later when the same man trapped Dwayne McGerrigle leg before.

That handy finish looked a long way off as Donemana slumped to 57 for 5 and worryingly for the Tyrone side it had taken the best part of nine overs to add those 14 runs. Donemana’s plan was crystal clear by that stage- see off Thompson and Britton and open an end when those two were finished as Iftikhar Hussain could only bowl from one of them.

As good a spell as he has bowled this season, Thompson finished with 4 for 32 while Britton was the perfect foil as he claimed 1 for 14 from his 10.

With the bowling now nowhere near as imposing however, Junior McBrine and Gary McClintock then set about steering the ship home.

McBrine’s 23 not out took 55 balls showing the importance of the occasion while 15-year-old McClintock belied his tender years with a vital 16 not out that was worth its weight in silver to Donemana.

What had promised to be a superb final after just seven runs separated the teams at the end of the first over turned out to be exactly that despite two days of rain in between.

James McBrine was given the man-of-the-match award for his stunning spell of bowling on Saturday but individual awards matter little to this team.

While both sides and everyone involved in the showpiece final congratulated Bready CC for doing a magnificent job in hosting their first ever and certainly not their last senior cup final.