NW CRICKET: Andy Britton stars as Brigade seal fourth Senior Cup in six years

The champagne is flowing as Brigade celebrate their Sports Hub Senior Cup success against Newbuildings. (Photo: Lawrence Moore)

It was a bit of a start/stop weekend, poor weather on Saturday forcing the game into a third day, but Sunday proved an anti-climax with the Beechgrove side by that stage needing only 37 runs to win.

The weekend began well for Britton's outfit as they dismissed Newbuildings for 178 and eventually claimed a 55-run lead to take into the second innings, but it took an assault on the final four deliveries of the day by Ryan Macbeth to finally give the Beechgrove men the upper hand.

Britton’s side had put themselves in an excellent position having won the toss and bowled first, but then lost their way in the final overs of their innings before Macbeth hit Hanu Viljoen for three sixes and a four from the last four balls.

Brigade's David Barr collects the cup final 'Player-of-the-Match' trophy from North West Chairperson, Brian Dougherty.

Newbuildings struggled early on in the face of good bowling from Scott (4-32) and Ryan Macbeth (2-14) as they were reduced to 58-3 before a valuable 69-run stand between Ryan Hunter and Ross Dougherty got them back on track.

Hunter hit seven fours in his 57 and Dougherty added 40 with skipper Gareth McKeegan chipping in with 25, batting at an unfamiliar number seven. But any chance of a late fightback by last year’s beaten finalists was undone by a superb 10-over spell from David Barr, whose 3-32 saw the first innings close on 178.

Barr then swapped ball for bat as he and Adam McDaid added a 111-run stand for Brigade’s second wicket.

Conditions weren’t conducive to quick scoring after a couple of afternoon showers to the extent there were more sixes hit in the last four balls than in the day’s previous 572 (plus extras).

Two sets of brothers on winning Brigade team, Scott and Ryan Macbeth and David and Ryan Barr.

Barr was solid as a rock for his 113-ball 58 (5 fours) while McDaid’s 53 took 101 deliveries and contained five boundaries.

Cameron Melly made 33 and skipper Britton (16) stayed with him to get Brigade’s noses in front before ‘Turf’ played his hand late on to finish 24 not out from six balls.

Only 41 overs’ play was possible on Day 2 but it was enough to put Brigade in complete control. Newbuildings started behind and were soon in trouble as a fired up Britton led from the front with a superb spell of new ball bowling.

Jason Dunn (23) was the only resistance of note as Britton and the Macbeth brothers, Scott and Ryan, saw the village side lose eight wickets before they had a lead of 25 runs overall. The Brigade skipper bowled his 10 overs straight to return stunning figures of 5-18 with Scott chipping in with 2-36.

Brigade's Andy Britton who took five wickets in the NW Senior Cup Final at Eglinton. (Photo Desmond Loughery/Pacemaker Press)

Newbuildings’ batting had folded but with rain around, the message had clearly gone out to the tail-enders to dig in; and they did!

Charlie Downey faced 50 balls for his 12 while Trent McKeegan made 13 not out from 51, that pair and Gregory McFaul (6*) adding just 32 runs in 18 overs before McFaul sent the last ball to the boundary.

The ploy worked well to an extent, the rain wiping out the rest of the day’s play, h. However with DLS now in the mix, the Newbuildings innings was timed out at 114-9 in the 41st over, meaning Brigade just needed those 37 to win and it was pretty much done from there.

The stop/start nature added little to the contest but John Pierce and the grounds team at Eglinton deserve immense credit for their work in getting the game finished.

And there’s little time for celebration as Brigade have another final on Monday night (6pm) when they play Killyclooney in the Faughan Valley Cup replay at Ardmore.