North Down marched into the second round of the Irish Senior Cup with a 10 wickets win which, sadly, exposed a very weak Brigade side.

Just two months ago, Andy Britton’s side were representing Ireland at the European Club Championship and the T20 Cup is now their only knock-out trophy available to them, even before May is out, with this defeat following the first round exit in their defence of the North West Senior Cup.

Without Graham McCarter yesterday and captain Andy Britton able to bowl only two overs, the visitors had no answer to North Down’s in-form openers, captain Alistair Shields and last year’s Player of the Year Ani Chore.
Both finished 77 not out as the NCU side chased down their target of 175 in less than 29 overs. Chore offered a return catch to Ryan Macbeth in the ninth over but that was spilled to complete Brigade’s unhappy day.

Veteran Ifti Hussain, well caught by Andrew Haire on the boundary, and Adam McDaid were both back in the pavilion with only 40 runs on the board and the only two positives for Brigade were young Kyle Magee who hit a classy 55 and Davy Barr who ensured a solid start with 49.

But they lost their last six wickets for 34 runs as Shields brought himself on and took five for 30. It was the beginning of the end.

On a day when nine of the 11 games resulted in home wins, Woodvale will be disappointed they couldn’t get past Balbriggan at Ballygomartin Road.

Five batsmen reached 20 but Michael Warke’s 33 was top score as they were restricted to 172 for nine and despite four wickets by Carl Robinson, the north Dublin side won by three wickets with four overs to spare.

Instonians were the other team to win on their travels. With club legend Dixon Rose, undoubtedly looking down after his death on Thursday, the Shaw’s Bridge side defended a revised, rain-affected target of 186 in 36 overs to beat Ardmore by 22 runs.

For the second successive game, Cade Carmichael top scored for Instonians and Shane Getkate, in his first club game of the season, hit 33. Skipper Andrew White was the most successful bowler as Ardmore slumped to 95 for seven and only an eighth wicket stand of 58 between Ciaran Curley and Harry Zimmermann prevented a rout.

Lisburn were the big NCU winners on the day, bouncing back from their first league defeat last Saturday to beat Malahide by four wickets.

In another fine team performance, five bowlers took wickets – with David Simpson and Mark Berry, remarkably, both missing out – and although Faiz Fazal again top scored he was out caught behind for 48, one of four catches for former international Fintan McAllister who also ran out Jonny Waite to end the opening stand at 78.

Fazal followed shortly afterwards with still 100 needed but without panic Lisburn timed their chase to perfection, easing home with 16 balls to spare, Glenn Halliday again keeping a cool head, with an unbeaten 20.

Civil Service North failed to become the first team to beat Clontarf this season, going down by six wickets at Castle Avenue.

David Delany continued his superb form with the bat to hit a match-winning 70 after taking four wickets as CSN were bowled out for 196.

Donemana and Newbuildings were the only winners on another desperately disappointing day for North West sides in the first round of the Irish Senior Cup.

All three teams who travelled to Dublin lost although it was Fox Lodge who hit the all-time low, bowled out on their own pitch for 29 by The Hills.

In contrast, Newbuildings posted 312 for five with Ryan Hunter hitting 115, with 12 fours and three sixes in their victory over Carrickfergus.

While Hunter’s marathon used up 47 overs, Johnny Thompson needed only 38 balls to hit an unbeaten 66 (four fours, seven sixes) as Newbuildings crashed 100 off the last nine overs.

Jacques Snyman launched the Carrick reply in similar cavalier fashion but after scoring 90 off the first 133 runs, in 23 overs, his dismissal effectively ended the contest, the remaining seven wickets falling for 68 runs.

Donemana looked to be under par after being bowled out for 174 in 34 overs by Cork Harlequins, last season’s All-Ireland T20 Cup finalists, but Dean Mehaffey and Jordan McGonigle shared seven wickets and the visitors made the long trek home, beaten by 98 runs.

YMCA’s 36, in 2006, was the lowest Irish Cup total before yesterday but with a top individual score of eight, Fox Lodge undercut that by seven as they were bowled out in just 15 overs, Dylan Blignaut taking the second best figures in the last 20 years of the competition, seven for 12. The Hills knocked off the runs in 26 balls.

The highest total of the day was Merrion’s 341 for five against Coleraine at Anglesea Road. The competition’s second leading run scorer, John Anderson scored his seventh century and North West Warriors opening batsman Stephen Doheny hit 88.

Coleraine were bowled out for 129 with skipper Stephen Hutchinson playing only as a bowler after breaking two fingers in the Bannsiders T20 Cup game last week.

YMCA celebrated their homecoming to Claremont Road with a four wickets success over Bready, with International Curtis Campher taking five wickets as the visitors were bowled out for 131, and Eglinton lost to Leinster by seven wickets after being dismissed in 30 overs for 89.