Double delight for Greer's men

Ricky Greer's men saw off Dunmurry and Cooke Collegians at their temporary Rashee Road home and the skipper believes his side should be in a stronger league position.

"We are still unbeaten at Rashee Road. Our home ground at the Cloughan has been re-developed with a lot of drainage work and will only be ready next season.

"If we had not lost two games in one weekend earlier in the season we could have been in a challenging position."

The team now has six wins from eleven with Sunday's win over high flyers Cooke Collegians particularly pleasing. The game was re-scheduled when rain stopped play with the city side in a very strong position in the original match .

On Saturday Templepatrick dispatched a Dunmurry side which has slipped down the league table in recent weeks winning by 66 runs.

Greer's men batted first and had useful contributions from all the batsmen with Bobby Smith in outstanding with 67 runs. Skipper Greer did well to make 38 and there was 18 from Richard Brown, 15 from Gareth Anderson, 13 from Artie Cambell and 16 from Chris Busby.

They reached a total of 202 for nine wickets which always seemed too much for the visitors.

Eventually, Dunmurry were bowled out for 136. But the visitors were let off the hook when two catches were dropped by the home fielders. Chris Busby took 2-22; Stephen Boyd 2-21; bobby Smith 3-32; Simon Beattie 2-29 and Ross Bryans 1-8.

Sunday's clash with Cooke was cut to 20 overs per side and Templepatrick again decided to bat first. The Ballyclare-based side did well to keep to a scoring rate of five runs per over to finish at 99 for eight wickets.

Philip Kernaghan, making a welcome return, was the top scorer with 18 not out followed by Simon Beattie 17; Chris Busby 17; and Richard Brown 14.

Good bowling and fielding kept Cooke Collegians in check as they were all out for 71 to give Templepatrick the win by 28 runs.

Busby took 1-15, Bryans 2-4, Beattie 2-17, and Smith 2-21 and there were three run outs.

Templepatrick's second team travelled to play Dunmurry seconds on Saturday only to find that the latter were unable to field a team.

Meanwhile, the U15 side collected the points without playing as Ballymena failed to raise a team in the East Antrim league.

The Templepatrick boys will go to the Middle Road ground of Carrickfergus on Friday 20th August for the final of the Graham Cup.