Bangor made their third trip in three weeks to Donacloney and while it was ‘one all’ in the previous cup matches between these two sides, the league is the bread & butter, and this represented a massive opportunity for Bangor to register their first win in the league this season.
Regular skipper Jonny Parker was absent for the game with the captaincy reigns passed over to last season’s captain Adam McCusker. Donacloney Mill won the toss and inserted the visitors in on a slow and rough looking surface that would offer plenty for the ball throughout the match. Openers Keenan and Samunderu have had solid enough starts to the season with both batsmen in the runs but still looking for their first big score of the season, strode to the wicket looking to get off to get a good start. Unfortunately for Keenan, he fell early doors and despite a fast start from Martin he too fell to leave Bangor in a sadly familiar state of two down for not many runs. McCusker’s dismissal then followed to a sharp catch at short cover and Samunderu was very unfortunate to follow shortly after to a rank full toss, leaving Bangor 18-4 in the 7th over and staring down the barrel at a disappointing loss.
McLarnon was joined by Prince at the crease and both men set out to steady the boat and play low risk Cricket, playing the ball on its merits and waiting for the eventual bad ball to score runs. Both men batted diligently with great patience on a difficult pitch to move the side out of the mire and be 71-4 at drinks in the 25th over, a partnership of 53 runs. Drinks breaks are an opportunity for a side who have lost momentum to reset and go again and that is exactly what Donacloney Mill did when Prince (18) and McLarnon (34) fell shortly afterwards and on a tricky pitch none of the new batsmen down the order could get themselves in and unfortunately Bangor collapsed to 79 all out.
A fast start with the ball with early wickets was needed when Bangor took to the field with experienced seamers Walton & Bates handed the new ball. Left hander Kennedy edged Walton in the 1st over landing short of Prince at slip who stopped the ball to his right and noticed Kennedy out of his crease and threw down the stumps to be run out to the shock of the batsman, Bangor had their fast start they wanted but knew they needed more to wrestle back control of the match. Attacking fields were set along with an attack minded approach from the Donacloney Mill batsmen was either going to yield wickets or runs and sadly for Bangor it was runs as the next wicket to fall to the bowling of Walton didn’t come until the 9th over at which point the score had moved to 48. Despite a further wicket from Prince in his first over, the contest was more or less over and Donacloney romped home to a 7-wicket victory.
Bangor will be disappointed with this loss and must re-discover their confidence and form quickly to rescue their season as we move away from the initial stages of the season. Bangor are on the road once again and face a very difficult challenge at high flying Lisburn who are top of the table in the Premier League in the 2nd Round of the Challenge Cup, a game that the team will go out and enjoy the day with a return to Upritchard Park and league action coming the week after.
