Impressive chequered start by City of Derry

The City of Derry season can be defined to date as being akin to the curate’s egg, good in parts.
Bench seat to perpetuate the memory of deceased City of Derry club stalwart Bill Donaghy took place with club and family members present.Bench seat to perpetuate the memory of deceased City of Derry club stalwart Bill Donaghy took place with club and family members present.
Bench seat to perpetuate the memory of deceased City of Derry club stalwart Bill Donaghy took place with club and family members present.

All three teams embarked on the current crusade harbouring hopes rich with expectation, and to greater or lesser degrees, success of a kind acknowledged their endeavours.

For the statisticians, the bottom line is points accumulated, for the realists, any game can turn on a calamitous or fortuitous wick, depending on your standing at the time.

The state of the parties played out as follows: City of Derry ‘A’ had played 6 games, won 2 and lost 4 which translated into 16.5 points.

Two 6-1 victories over Limavady and Ballycastle respectively helped nudge the team towards a respectable fifth place in the league table.

The jewel in their crown however was the trip to Dublin to cross swords with Crumlin in the Irish Cup.

This southern side had a pedigree that instilled awe from twenty paces and could boast two full internationals in their line-up.

The Derry team fought heroically throughout and the 21 end game was decided on the last throw in their favour.

Cue celebrations, euphoria doesn’t even come close and unsurprisingly, the game was replayed continuously on the way home.

Another brilliant performance was the execution of the infamous ‘Hot Shot’ in their game against Ballycastle.

To the uninitiated, a “Hot Shot” is achieved when all four bowlers capture full points with their eight deliveries, an event I’m told is as rare as spotting Haley’s Comet.

The four candidates for the bowling ‘Hall of Fame’ were B Lyttle, J Ross, R Donaghy and J Campbell.

By comparison, the ‘B’ team and Lisnagelvin have worm’s eye views of proceedings. Again for the statisticians, the ‘B’ side played 6, won 1 and drew 1.

They sit unflatteringly and inadvertently in eighth position, proof positive of the old adage, lies, damn lies and statistics.

Lisnagelvin prop up their division and the gods at the outset seemed to have turned their faces against the club’s third team.

In their opening game of the season, Lisnagelvin won handsomely against the much fancied Riada side but were left devastated by the news that due to a misinterpretation of the rules, the team had forfeited full points to their opponents.

Some measure of compensation lay in store however when the side were awarded seven points by virtue of Letterkenny failing to re-schedule a rain affected game against Lisnagelvin within the allotted time frame.

As the scripture goes the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away!

Prior to the commencement of the home game against Ballycastle, the dedication of a bench seat to perpetuate the memory of deceased club stalwart Bill Donaghy took place with club and family members present.

The simple solemnity of the occasion was in perfect keeping with the nature and character of Billy.

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