North Fermanagh Cricket team welcomed the return of Bready Cricket club to the NFCC Grounds, Kesh. After another busy week by the grounds’ team at the club, the pitch was looking fantastic, however, with the heavy rain on Friday it was decided that the game would be played on the artificial wicket.

Graeme Fitzpatrick, NFCC Captain, lost the toss and was forced to bowl first. Scott Croft and David Mills opened the bowling and started well, restricting the opening Bready pair of C. Allen (7) and A Fleming (3).

Mills was the first to strike with a beautiful ball that kept straight and caught the Bready Captain, Fleming, LBW in the sixth over. P. Robinson (55) was the next to the crease and caused the Fermanagh bowlers problems with his excellent shot play around the ground. The remaining Bready batters struggled to find runs with excellent pressure being put on them from the NFCC fielders.

The run count was still ticking over as the NFCC bowlers struggled with the wet conditions with a number of wide balls. Fitzpatrick, however, was the standout bowler of the innings picking up four wickets for 23 runs from his six overs. Bready finishing on 126 from their 30 overs

In reply, NFCC started well with T. Beacom (22) and D. Mills (18) quickly getting the run rate going and confidence was high in the team.

Unfortunately, wickets soon started to fall and runs harder to come by. With the NFCC team needing to score quicker the batters started to strike for the boundary and a number were caught.

The Bready bowlers kept the pressure up with only a few wayward balls being the difference between the two bowling units. With six overs remaining and requiring over 30 runs the task seemed well out of reach for the two tail enders, Ben Duffy (19*) and Dave Hardy (4).

However, Ben was at the top of his game and excellent running between the duo, with Dave helping to rotate the play and keep Ben on strike. Unfortunately, the pair came up short with NFCC finishing on 123 for 9 from the 30 overs.

This coming Saturday sees the North Fermanagh 1st team welcome Burndennett to Kesh. On Sunday the 2nd team travel to Newbuildings.

Training continues Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6.30pm at the ground in Kesh. Anyone interested in participating are welcome to attend and give cricket a go, experience is not required, and all are very welcome.