Friends' triumph in Sherrygroom Cup final

This long standing Cup has been reorganised this season into two League competitions with each school playing five other schools on Saturday's. All school teams from the U12XI, right up to the 1st XI, played for a total of 34 points per match.

In the Sherrygroom League 1 Friends' played Royal School Armagh, Grosvenor Grammar School, Royal School Dungannon, Banbridge Academy and Down High School. Against all five schools both the 1st XI and U15XI were undefeated which meant, that together with some fine supporting performances from the junior teams, Friends' topped the League with 144 points.

In the final round of the Competition each team from League 1 played the team in the same position in League 2 – in Friends' case they played fellow table toppers Ballymena Academy in the final of the Sherrygroom Cup. In the home matches Friends' 1st XI limited Ballymena to 140 runs for 6 wickets off 24 overs. The pick of the Friends bowlers were Brice Bailie who took 4 wickets for 35 runs, Kingsley Beckett claimed 2 wickets for 21 runs and Robert Cumins secured 2 wickets for 25 runs. In response, after the initial loss of Adam Glass for 29 runs, the Friends' batsmen Steven Allen and Patrick Ferguson batted well scoring 45 and 50 not out respectively, meaning that Friends' had won this fixture by 9 wickets. In the other home match the Friends' U12 XI were unlucky to lose a tight match by 16 runs.

Meanwhile in Ballymena the Friends' U15XI had restricted Ballymena to 100 runs off 20 overs. Friends' reached this target with several overs to spare due to some good batting from Peter Ferguson, who scored 43 runs and Andrew Allen who scored 47 not out. The Friends' U14XI also won their match by 95 runs with Peter Bell scoring 68 runs and the U13 XI won by 25 runs with Aaron Martin top scoring with 55 runs.

Overall Friends' School had therefore defeated Ballymena Academy by 32 points to 2 points, thus providing a fitting conclusion to a highly successful season of cricket.