Tim’s quickfire 22 is good but not good enough for Donaghcloney

DONAGHCLONEY slumped to a disappointing defeat to Woodvale in a rearranged league match last Friday.

Batting first, Woodale lost their first wicket with no runs on the board. Jonny Stevenson dismissed the Woodvale skipper Tim Browne with his first ball, thanks to a superb diving catch by wicketkeeper Keith Martin.

Woodvale recovered somewhat, and at 56 Steve Hanna took the first of his three wickets. His nine overs cost only 24 runs, and at 100-5 wickets, Donaghconey were hoping for quick wickets to wrap up the innings for around 140.

It was not to be, as Bunting, Connolly and Dempster all batted sensibly to see the score over 200.

The innings eventually closed 208 for 9 wickets - a competitive, but gettable score.

Apart from Steve Hanna with 3-24, Tim McClure put in a good spell, taking 1-42 in nine overs. His analysis was somewhat spoiled by conceding 16 runs off his last two overs.

David Marshall, Jonny Stevenson and Mansing Nigade each picked up one wicket.

Donaghcloney began their innings disastrously. A hesitation between Mansing Nigade and Bruce Topping resulted in Nigade being run out for nought.

Worse was to follow, as Bruce was LBW and Keith Martin caught, both without scoring. David Marshall and Jonny Stevenson followed, leaving ‘Cloney reeling on 24 for five wickets.

Batting at number six, Steve Hanna tried to revive the innings, batting for over an hour for 18, before being narrowly run out. He received good support from John Dowds, Matthew Lyttle and Robert Lyttle, but at 82-9, it didn’t look like 100 would be attained.

However, Tim McClure had other ideas, and smashed a quickfire 22 not out, including two 6 hits and two boundaries. The innings closed on 119, when Robert Lyttle was bowled for 12, leaving Woodvale the victors by 89 runs. Remarkably, Woodvale conceded 41 extras, 29 of which were wides.

This was another poor batting performance by ‘Cloney. Surely the top order cannot fail so badly again?

Saturday’s game at Downpatrick was washed out, leaving Donacloney to look forwad to the NCU Senior Cup second round match away to Laurelvale on Saturday May 25.

This will be a stern test, but if the batsmen get going, it is well within ‘cloney’s ability to win.