On Saturday at their home ground at the Erne Integrated College, Enniskillen Cricket Club embarked on their journey into Section Four of the North West League with a pre season friendly against Maghera Cricket Club.

It was a fine day with sunny periods and the pitch was in great condition given the inclement weather earlier in the week, a testament to the grounds keeping team led by Club President James Pattison who worked tirelessly over the week to ensure the fixture would go ahead.

Maghera won the toss and elected to put Enniskillen in to bat in a 20 over match and the Enniskillen batsmen struggled initially on the slow and low surface.

But, initially with Chris McVitty, and then through David Cadden and skipper Stephen Maxwell, they steadied the innings from a precarious 28 for 4.

Then Kenny Maxwell and James Pattison hit out to good effect scoring 40 off the last five overs and bringing the score up to a very respectable 108 for 8 at the end of the 20 overs.

After an impressive spread for mid innings tea Maghera opened their reply and got off to a flier with their openers punishing some short bowling from the Enniskillen attack.

However, they eventually got a breakthrough when Satheesh had one of the openers caught thanks to a spectacular catch by Harry Thompson and gradually the Enniskillen attack started to get a measure of control.

Further wickets followed for Satheesh bowling Maghera’s talisman Alfie Stewart and a deserved wicket for young Theo Reynolds on his debut but Maghera had plenty in reserve and comfortably got home by the margin of seven wickets.

It was a great match played in the best of spirits and Enniskillen thanked Maghera for travelling down to play and wished them good luck for the season ahead.

For Enniskillen, however, the result was almost secondary on the day as the team were able to give some 15 different players a run out, a lot of them for the first time.

Also it was their first competitive match played at their home ground and they thanked the Erne Integrated College for all their support and help, working along with the club to achieve this.

A big crowd turned up to see the match and the club thank them all along with their scorers and umpires for the day and finally there was a massive thank you to Tina Maxwell who coordinated the catering and put on such a fantastic spread for us.

A massive step for the club and they now look forward to their first league fixture against Newbuildings on April 30.

Match summary

Enniskillen 108 for 8

K Maxwell 25, J Pattison 17no, C McVitty 14

Maghera 109 for 3

Love 82no. Satheesh 2/30

T Reynolds 1/7

Maghera won by 7 wkts