Limavady CC logoIt is probably fair to say that the 1961 North West of Ireland cricket season belonged to the Limavady Cricket Club for after contesting the Senior Cup Final against Sion Mills in August, the Roesiders continued their good performances to capture the Senior League Championship.

The season started badly for Limavady for after dismissing Sion Mills for 84, their batsmen could only knock up 71 runs. In their next fixture, a great 98 in 52 minutes by their all rounder Jack Semple, set the pattern for the remainder of the season. This memorable innings enabled Limavady to take both points from their near neighbours Eglinton. Further victories against Brigade at Beechgrove in Londonderry, against St Johnston in Limavady and against Donemana in Limavady, kept Limavady in touch with the league leaders.

In the second round of the Senior Cup competition, Limavady recorded a fine victory over Eglinton with Jack Semple breaking the batting of the village team, taking six wickets for 25 runs. Midway through the season however, Limavady suffered their second league defeat when, after scoring 131 against City of Derry, they allowed the home team to knock up 133 for 3.

The defeat however was followed up by a good victory in the semi-final of the Senior Cup competition against a strong Brigade side. Again Jack Semple, Limavady's pace bowler, had a magnificent spell of bowling, capturing 6 wickets for 37 runs as Brigade were dismissed for 82. In reply Limavady hit up the necessary runs for the loss of three wickets.

Back to the Senior League competition on Saturday 16th July and in a cup final rehersal game, Limavady (146) beat Sion Mills (91) to capture the valuable points while the following Saturday they scored a fine away win over Ardmore (61 to 68 for 2)which took them to the top the league table.

In the Senior Cup Final, Limavady won the toss and took first knock on an easy paced wicket. However, there were soon in trouble, losing a wicket to the first ball of the match. They recovered somewhat, but only totalled 94. Sion found runs hard to come by and their first innings realised only 133.

Limavady began better in their second innings and made a total of 172, mainly to Victor Love scoring a fine 62. Sion set 135 to win, batted soundly and a third wicket partnership between Brendan Donaghey and John Flood carried them to within striking distance of the Limavady score. However, a further three wickets fell before Sion knocked off the required runs to win the trophy.

With the cup competition over, Limavady set their sights on the Senior League Championship and to their advantage had only one fixture to play during August as rain cancelled cancelled many games. The fixture played was against St Johnston, who were dismissed for 38 (the lowest score of the season)in reply to 125 from Limavady.

Another win, this time against Strabane (89 to 90 for 7) on Saturday September 9 kept the Limavady side at the top of the table and kept interest in the final fixture down for decision on Saturday September 16, with Limavady only needing one point from their fixfure aqainst City of Derry to take the Championship.

However, dramatically the North West of Ireland was hit by a hurricane, which began at one o'clock on that Saturday afternoon and pounded the whole area for four hours, preventing any cricket. As a result Limavady became league champions for the first time in their history.