North Fermanagh Cricket Club recorded their fourth straight victory against an experienced and skilful Strabane side in their first match of a double header weekend at the NFCC Grounds, Kesh.

Greg Piergrosse, NFCC Captain, won the toss and decided to allow his bowlers to step up to the plate and show their skills with the ball.

Graeme Fitzpatrick, vice-captain, opened the bowling and restricted the Strabane batters to just a single run in the first over.

The visitors, however, quickly got into their stride and R. Raorane (40) and K. Raina (40) put on a steady display with the bat until the 11th over when a super ball bowled by Matty Morrison was dispatched by Raorane only to be caught superbly near the boundary by Ian Wilson.

K. Purewal (23) then came to the crease and continued to add the runs to Strabane’s tally with some crisp strokes hit to the boundary.

Ben Duffy then removed Purewal with a deftly bowled ball that caught the batter LBW. J. Gillespie (13*) showed his years of experience with the bat making it difficult for the Fermanagh bowlers to work around his defence.

David Smith, returning to the Fermanagh side for the first time this season, bowled Raina with a precision ball that cleared the bails from the stumps. S. Narayan (12*) partnered Gillespie for Strabane’s remaining overs with the visitors finishing on 135 for 3 of their 20 overs.

In reply, North Fermanagh opened with David Smith (60*) and David Mills (0). Mills was caught behind early in the second over from a R. Raorane ball that turned well off the wicket.

This brought Matthew Morrison (63) to the crease. The crowd at the NFCC Grounds were then provided with a fantastic batting display. David Smith displaying great skill and flair whilst in contrast Matthew continued to impress with his power play that we have come to appreciate over the previous matches.

The required runs were quickly knocked off and it was not until the 14th over that Morrison was caught on the boundary by J. Gillespie.

C. Faris came to the crease and working with Smith whittled down the remaining runs.

A crisply hit boundary from Faris sealed the victory for the North Fermanagh team with four overs to spare. An outstanding man-of-the-match performance from David Smith and a super team effort from all the players involved

Sunday saw NFCC welcoming a strong Coleraine team to Kesh for the final T20 match of the league. Fermanagh captain for the day, Graeme Fitzpatrick, won the toss and again chose to open with his bowlers.

The bowlers kept the run rate to a steady five or six for the first 10 overs with Graeme collecting M. Hutchison (12) early in the seventh followed shortly afterwards by J. Muller (9).

This led to the introduction of P. Wallace (51) and T. Graham (35) who settled in well and made it hard work for the bowlers and fielders alike. Coleraine finishing on 158 for 6 of their 20 over allocation.

Fermanagh started well with the bat and D. Smith (29) and D. Mills (23) both dispatching the ball to the boundary with easy. After Mills was bowled from a fast ball from A. Block.

M. Morrison (18) again worked well with Smith to add to the score but after the loss of Smith Fermanagh struggled to add runs to the board with the Coleraine bowlers limiting opportunities to score.

The Fermanagh team lost wickets and apart from a hard worked 20 from Graeme Fitzpatrick the rest of the team struggled. Fermanagh finishing on 106 for 9.

Next Saturday sees North Fermanagh returning to Newbuildings for the first match of the 30 over league. Training continues, as usual, at the club on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.30pm. Anyone interested in participating are welcome to attend and give cricket a go, experience is not required, and all are very welcome.