T20 cricket gets season underway

Connie McAllister, North West Cricket Union President, presents the Q4 league trophy to Maghera captain, Alfie Stewart in 2017.

In Group A, Brigade entertain Burndennett and Fox Lodge take on Killyclooney. Group B sees Eglinton come up against Bond’s Glen and St Johnston travel to Strabane. In Group C, Donemana host Glendermott while in Group D the match of the day takes place with Ardmore visiting Bready and Ballyspallen face Coleraine.

Following the news there would be five new teams in the Long’s SuperValu Leagues 1-4 this season, two of the region’s newer clubs, Letterkenny and Maghera, continue to progress since joining the Union.

Both clubs are among the quintet of new teams; Letterkenny adding a second XI for both league and cup competitions in Division 3, while Maghera will have a second string involved in the latter stages of the Division 4 ranks.

The Donegal side will continue to play their first XI matches at Drummond (League 1) while their Seconds will play home matches at the Strabane Academy ground. The man who is looking after the cricket side of things is former St Johnston player, Rammohan Goud who enjoyed a successful senior career at the Boathole. ‘Ramm’ spoke about what prompted the decision to add a second team and paid tribute to both the NWCU and his former club.

“When Letterkenny entered a team in the league in 2020 it was a case of testing the water,” he said. “I joined the following year along with several other players and although we needed the first couple of months of the season to gel, we were excellent from then until the end of the summer and deserved our win.

“We have plenty of good young players around the club but for now it makes sense for those lads to play their youth cricket at St Johnston, both logistically and for the facilities there.

“The background then to the seconds was that, in total, we have over 40 players registered this year. As well as the younger lads we had up to 60 players involved in our indoor winter league and quite a few of them wanted to play white ball cricket.

“League 1 will be very tough but we feel that we can be competitive. Our second team will have a nucleus of six or seven regulars with the rest of the places rotated to give everyone a chance.”

It’s a similar story at the bottom of the Glenshane where another well known sporting figure, Alfie Stewart, is helping to drive Maghera forward. An Irish League career spanning more than 20 years has given the now 58-year old a new lease of life and Stewart admits that he is thrilled to be playing competitive cricket in his own parish.

“Maghera is pretty much in the wilderness in terms of cricket, but certainly not in terms of passion and desire for the sport,” he began, “At the outset I have to say that Maghera CC already had a great group of people running the club, doing all the hard yards in terms of organisation and admin.

“There has been a lot of progress and it has been a feature of our cricket that we have competed wherever we’ve played. League 2 last year was tough but I have no doubt we’ll take the experience and stay competitive this season.

“It’s been great for us as a club to get the chance to play at the likes of Eglinton, Sion, Limavady and all those iconic grounds around the North West. Trust me, those are our Old Traffords and Anfields - grounds we only read about before, but now getting the chance to play at regularly.

“Our goal remains however to continue to compete. That’s the key - winning is great - we all love to win - but to have this group together and keep competing in North West competitions is enough of a goal for now. We’ll keep working at it, on and off the field, and see where it takes us.”