JOHN FLOOD'S cricket career started shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. A much-talked about player on and off the field he had the gift of bowling leg breaks with uncanny precision. He bemused many and undoubtedly he was responsible for many of Sion Mills' post war successes.

He was a vital part of the 1947 Sion Mills team which won the Northern Cricket Union Senior Cricket Cup at the first attempt. In 1947 the County Tyrone team also won the North West Senior Cricket Cup and the the West Senior League. While bowling averages are not so readily accessible as those relating to batsmen, one recalls that during the 1947 season Flood finished the season with more than 120 wickets - a feat never performed previously and hardly likely to be repeated. One also recalls his 9 wickets for 23 runs in the 1945 North West Senior Cup final against Brigade.

His finest batting performance, which clearly emphasised his superb ability as an all rounder of exceptional ability, was a memorable 130 against Brigade in August 1947. He also scored 101 against St Johnston on 5 July 1952.

He won his only Irish Cap against Yorkshire in 1948. He played until well into the nineteen seventies for Sion Mills when he retired from the game although he acted as an official umpire for several seasons after he had stopped playing.

BRENDAN DONAGHEY was an unusually gifted teenage batsman who played in the 1955 North West Senior Cricket Cup final for Sion Mills at the age of 14. Son of an accomplished cricketing father who was an outstanding pace bowler for Sion Mills in the pre Second World War era, Brendan's international career was limited to three matches allegedly due to problems over his availability and a certain lack of communication between player and the Irish Cricket Union. As a result his representative career never blossomed in the way it should have. His highest score for Ireland was 37 against Worcestershire in 1966.

He scored 8 centuries however in local senior cricket including one in the North West Senior Cup final for Strabane, whom he joined in 1963, against Ardmore in 1965. He finished his playing career in senior cricket with North Fermanagh in the early nineteen eighties.

Brendan Donaghey (left) going out to bat for Sion Mills with Aubrey Finlay.

JOHN COCHRANE played for Donemana when they re-entered North West senior cricket in 1944 and it wasn't long before they became the team to beat. In fact they had five successful League Championship wins between 1948 and 1952. Much credit for their early success goes to the McBrine brothers - Bobbie, William J and Alex - but without doubt their star all rounder was John Cochrane.

A member of a family that has done a tremendous amount for cricket down through the years (his grandfather played for Donemana in the 1888 North West Senior Cup final and later was a key player in the all conquering Clooney team of the early 1900s) Cochrane's skills were obvious as a opening right handed batsman, slow left arm bowler and outstanding close wicket fielder. He scored the first of his seven centuries in 1953 (100 not out v Ardmore) and is one of only two North West players to have scored two centuries in the final of the North West Senior Cricket Cup competition (101 not out v St Johnston in the 1959 final which incidentally Donemana lost and 112 v Brigade in the 1964 final).

He took innumerable wickets in his career and was one of the big successes of the North West team in the early years of the Guinness Cup competition. International recognition was gained in 1969 when he was selected for Ireland v MCC and Ireland v Combined Services.

After a long and distinguished career with the Donemana club John moved to live in Portrush in 1973 and in 1974 joined the Coleraine club where his vast experience helped the then relatively new Bann club win many a fixture until his retirement from the game in the early 1980s.