Bad day at the office for North West sides in Irish Senior Cup

It's been a fairly similar picture in recent years, a far cry from the 1990's when local sides often dominated this competition.

Dynamics have changed since then of course but Brigade’s heavy defeat at North Down on Saturday will not have gone unnoticed in terms of impact.

The Beechgrove side won four domestic cup competitions in 2021 but are now out of two competitions at the first hurdle this time, and have also started their league campaign with a defeat as well.

Perhaps the Waterside club's involvement in this year's European League has created a stop-start feel to the new season and they are clearly struggling with injuries among their bowlers, but these are testing times for Andy Britton’s men.

Donemana and Bready are among those who will try to capitalise on that domestically, and the Holm outfit will be pleased to be in the hat for the next round of this competition.

William McClintock’s side-winners of this competition in 2000- accounted for Cork Harlequins in emphatic fashion at the Holm courtesy of a hard-hitting 61 (5 fours, 5 sixes) from the skipper’s twin brother Gary.

An excellent lower order cameo from Billy Dougherty who clubbed 5 sixes and a four in his 37 saw the last two wickets add a very valuable 47 runs as Donemana set a target of 174.

Brandon Kruger bowled well for the Munster side to claim 4-18 with skipper O’Reilly chipping in with 3-76.

‘Quins never really threatened in reply; O’Reilly with an unbeaten 16 and Barend Vosloo (15) the best of their 76 all out. Dean Mehaffey (4-36) and a super 8-over spell from Jordan McGonigle (3-5 from 8 overs) kept the visitors at arm’s length.

Bready and Eglinton were both in Dublin for their respective first round ties but neither really threatened to cause what realistically would have been an upset on their travels.

The Magheramason side posted 136 as they batted first at Claremont Road with Irosh Samarasooriya top scoring on 37. Ian Young (20) and Davy Scanlon (15) chipped in with cameos while Curtis Campher (5-27) dominated with the ball for YMCA.

The hosts wobbled a bit in their reply despite Jack and Tim Tector getting them on their way with 38 and 35 respectively. It took an unbeaten 7th wicket partnership between Tom (22*) and Rory Anders (16*) to finish the job and send their side into Round 2.

Gregory McFaul (2-20) and skipper Scanlon (2-26) did their best to keep the North West side in the hunt.

Eglinton travelled a bit light and found things no easier at Rathmines as they lost to Leinster by 7 wickets.

Tommy Orr’s 36 was much the best of the villagers’ 89 all out- only Mattie Mills (14) contributing anything of note elsewhere in the order. Saquib Bahadur (4-12) and Gareth Delany (3-26) did the bulk of the damage for the hosts and the same two players topped the batting returns as well.

Delany made 19* and Bahadur 18* with Ben Mitchell chipping in with 17 in a cosy success.

Coleraine didn’t fare much better on their travels as they lost heavily to Merrion by 212 runs.

Former Irish international John Anderson was in great form for the southerners - hitting 10 fours and two sixes in his 101 - after North West Warriors batsman Stephen Doheny had made 86 at the top of the order.

Swapnil Modgill (69) and Jack Carty (47) helped pile the pressure on the Bannsiders as the hosts posted a mammoth 341-5; Rory Knox (4-77) faring best of Coleraine’s attack.

Anish Sidhu’s 5-12 left the reply in all sorts of trouble- Varun Chopra (30), Ben Johnston (30) and overseas man Ravindra Karunaratne (28) the best of a total of 129 all out.

And so to Brigade and a bitterly disappointing 10-wicket defeat at Comber.

Home skipper Ally Shields was to prove one of several thorns in the Waterside men’s side, picking up five wickets as Beechgrove side were restricted to 174 all out.

Kyle Magee was best with the bat as he made 55 (5 fours, 1 six) while David Barr added 49.

Those two took the score to 107 for 2 at one stage before Shields and Mayes (3-41) intervened, and the final target looked well below par for the NCU team.

Shields then traded ball for bat as he and Ani Chore both made 77 not out; the skipper hitting 9 fours and a six, while Knights’ keeper/batsman Chore hit 6 fours and a six in the maximum win for North Down.

Things were hardly that much better closer to home, and certainly not at Ballymagorry as Fox Lodge lost to The Hills by 9 wickets.

No-one in the home ranks managed to get to double figures as Dylan Blignaut tore through the Foxies’ order to finish with figures of 7-12. Tomas Rooney-Murphy added 2-12 as the Ballymagorry side were bowled out for just 29.

Levon Shields made a quick 23 before he was dismissed by Adam Walker as Jeremy Bray’s charges sailed into the next round.

Newbuildings did buck the trend courtesy of a Ryan Hunter century as they saw off Carrick at Foyle View Arena.

Hunter made a classy 115 (12 fours, 3 sixes) and with Johnny Thompson chipping in with a quick-fire 66 not out from 38 balls, the home side posted a daunting 312-5 from their 50 overs.

The visitors reply got off to a solid start with Jacques Snyman (90) leading the chase. The South African hit 14 fours and 2 sixes in his classy knock- but once he was out you sensed the writing was on the wall.

CJ van der Walt hung around to make 42 but Ross Hunter ended up with three wickets while Jared Wilson, Jason Dunn and Gary Mitchell all claimed two as Carrick were bowled out for 201.

In the final game of eight, Ardmore lost out to Instonians by 22 runs on DLS.

The visitors were indebted to a bit of a middle-order rally as they recovered from 25-3 to post 197-8 in the 43rd over before rain intervened.

Cade Carmichael made 45, Shane Getkate 33, and both James Shannon and James Metcalfe scored 28 apiece. Dharm Singh, Tyron Koen and Rachit Gaur all claimed two wickets each for the Bleachgreen side.

On the restart, the hosts were set a revised 185 in 36 overs and despite 38 from Harry Zimmerman, they were off the pace early on.

Ciaran Curley in at 7 changed the complex of the match with a quick 54 (3 fours, 4 sixes), but once he went, so too did Ardmore’s chance.

Andrew White claimed 3-26 and James Rose 2-42 as Instonians did enough to go through.