Enniskillen Cricket Club secured their first win in North West League Four with victory at home to Coleraine on Sunday.

After a hard fought and at times nerve shredding encounter Enniskillen eventually prevailed by three wickets. It was a victory built on a superb bowling and fielding performance.

Skipper Stephen Maxwell won the toss on a glorious day and decided to put Coleraine into bat and the decision was backed up by all his bowling attack which had Coleraine reeling at 45 for 7. There was three wickets for Bibin Matthew, two each for Satheesh and Kenny Maxwell and Paul Ramsay picking up a wicket on his debut.

However Colin Manson with a quickfire 34 threatened to undo all the good work until Matthew had him caught by Nick Foy and after this the innings subsided quickly to 86 all out. A superb bowling, fielding and catching display and at the tea interval skipper Maxwell would have felt pleased with his team’s all round effort.

When the Enniskillen innings started Stephen Maxwell and Aby Theckanath opened confidently and pushed the score up to 19 without any major alarms. However, three quick wickets admittedly out to superb catches saw the two openers and David Cadden back in the clubhouse with only three more runs on the board.

Matthew and Satheesh then looked to be making the game safe before another mini collapse left the home team on 52 for 7 and in a lot of trouble. But Kenny Maxwell and James Pattison then came together and using all their experience slowly chipped away at the total and the relief was audible from the home supporters when Maxwell pulled a six over square leg to win the match, the partnership between him and Pattison being an unbroken 38.

There were wild scenes after the match with the home team absolutely overjoyed to get their first win in the league and hopefully this will inspire them to more days like this.

Skipper Maxwell commented on how the team had only got together at the end of February and how far they had come in such a short space of time. He said: “We cannot really appreciate at the moment what we’ve achieved and it’s all down to the hard work of the squad and also our members in non playing roles who have pushed us forward to get to where we are now.

“A big thanks to all our sponsors and supporters for having faith in us. I hope we can now enjoy the rest of our season and bring back a few more wins, we’re certainly capable of doing so although the tension and drama was almost too much for us all watching at the end.

“A big thanks to Coleraine for making the long trip down and giving us such a competitive and well fought match and good luck to them for the rest of the season.”

Enniskillen next take on Killyclooney at home again next weekend.

Match summary

Coleraine 86 allout

C.Manson 34

B.Matthew 3/13

Satheesh 2/20

K.Maxwell 2/21

Enniskillen 89/7

K.Maxwell 25 no

S Maxwell 12

B.Matthew 12

Enniskillen won by 3 wickets