Under glorious blue skies on Tuesday morning, the Fermanagh schools Kwik Cricket tournament took place at the Hunter Sports Fields at Maguiresbridge after a three-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic.

Although it was not as large as in previous years around 70 children took part in the tournament from Maguiresbridge, Lisbellaw, Aghadrumsee and Jones Memorial and as always the standard of cricket on show was a credit to the children taking part.

After the initial group which were keenly contested by all teams the semi final line up paired the A and B teams of both Lisbellaw and Maguiresbridge against each other and the two team coming out on top were the A team of Maguiresbridge and Lisbellaw’s B team.

In a tense final match Maguiresbridge lost a clutch if wickets early on and were in serious trouble but a brilliant last wicket partnership took them up to a competitive score of 245.

Lisbellaw then were steady in their reply but the Maguiresbridge bowlers kept plugging away and aided by a few brilliant pieces of catching and fielding slowly took control of the match leaving Lisbellaw with a score of 208 and a victory for Maguiresbridge by 37 runs.

Medals were presented to the winners and runners up along with the Fermanagh Kwik Cricket trophy.

Two plaques were presented to the James Rutledge from Maguiresbridge and Amy McCauley from Aghadrumsee who were adjudged the best boy and girl of the tournament.

Cricket Ireland coach Kenny Maxwell spoke of his pride that the tournament had taken place again after three years and thanked fellow Cricket Ireland coach Stephen Maxwell for umpiring along with Simon-Peter Maxwell who captured some great shots as the Photographer for the event.

Kenny said these kids will hopefully be playing cricket for many years to come and it’s great to see it up and running again.

A big thank you to the staff at Maguiresbridge PS for providing tea, coffee and light refreshments and for the use of the facilities at the Hunter Sports Fields.

Last but not least a big thanks to the schools and their teachers involved in this event as it has been a difficult few years for staff and pupils like everyone else but hopefully we’re beginning to come out of it and here’s hoping next year’s event will be bigger and better.