North Fermanagh Cricket Club built on their winning performance last weekend with another controlled and impressive display at Strabane Cricket Club on Saturday. Strabane won the toss and elected to bat first.

The NFCC bowling attack started well with David Mills and Chris Faris restricting the Strabane opening pair of J Smith (27) and R Chhibber (0).

Faris was the first of the Fermanagh-men to pick up a wicket in the third over with a beautifully delivered ball that carried to the waiting fielder’s hands.

The wickets of G Gillespie (4) and J Smith both came in the 12th over from the bowling of Timothy Beacom.

The first being caught by Scott Croft and then Smith being bowled cleanly the following ball. The introduction of S Diver (4) and P Gillespie (57) then helped to steady the ship with the former Ireland International, Peter Gillespie, putting on an impressive display with the bat.

Beacom was again the bowler to break the batting attack, bowling Diver in the 21st over.

The return of David Mills to the bowling soon saw the remaining Strabane batters dispatched back to the clubhouse.

Mills finishing with five wickets from 5.3 overs for the loss of only 22 runs. Standout fielding performances from Sam Galloway and Matthew Morrison who prevented Strabane from scoring a number of boundaries. Strabane all out for 126.

David Mills (2) and Christopher Faris (6) were entrusted to open the attack for NFCC.

After picking up a quick two runs, Mills was unlucky to be caught by A Doherty from the bowling of S Ram.

Faris soon followed David back to the clubhouse with the ball being caught by the wicketkeeper G Gillespie from the bowling of P McNamee.

Things were not looking good as the wickets of Usama Chaudhry (15) and C Lukeman (4) soon followed with Fermanagh finding themselves on 46 for 4 in the seventh over.

Calmed the nerves

Timothy Beacom (16) and acting captain, Greg Piergrosse (48*), then calmed the spectators’ nerves with a controlled display with the bat.

After the loss of Beacom’s wicket, Matthew Morrison played the unusual role for him as the supporting batter and helped Greg to add on the runs and chip away at the home sides total. With seven runs still required for the win, Morrison was bowled by Ram and Scott Croft (6*) came in to see out the required runs with Greg unlucky to finish just two runs short of his half century.

An excellent team performance, and credit also to Strabane Cricket Club, as the field was in top notch condition, even after the heavy rain the previous day.

Sunday’s North Fermanagh 2nd XI match against Enniskillen unfortunately got rained off as the heavens opened just as the first ball was to be bowled.

A huge disappointment for all involved, as many hours of preparation had been put in to get the field and grounds at their best. Date for the rearranged match to be announced.

This coming Saturday NFCC first XI travel to Coleraine in the league and then on Sunday welcome Drummond back to Kesh for the semi-final of the league cup.

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.

Anyone interested in learning more about cricket and having fun can contact North Fermanagh Cricket Club via Facebook and Instagram.