On Sunday Enniskillen hosted Bready 4s in the first round of the cup.

Due to the volume of rain over the past ten days it was a testament to the grounds team in the club that the pitch was playable.

Indeed several members had been up at the ground from 9.30am preparing the wicket and it shows the commitment and passion that they have for the club.

There was showery conditions around and with this in mind captain Stephen Maxwell won the toss and put Bready into bat hoping that the overhead conditions would help the bowlers to make an early breakthrough.

And he was rewarded by Satheesh who got rid of one of the openers with a superb inswinging yorker to clean bowl him.

However a further breakthrough remained elusive and runs were starting to flow until Kenny Maxwell got rid of the other opening bat with a delivery which spun and bowled him behind his legs.

But the Bready batsmen then accelerated and despite further wickets for the excellent Satheesh and one wicket apiece from Bibin John, Alastair McFarland and Chris McVitty the total eventually ended up on 235/7 after the 30 overs.

After the break and another excellent spread the home team set out in their reply of the mammoth total.

Needing to score at eight runs per over from the start they suffered a huge blow when David Cadden was unluckily run out from a direct hit in the second over and a further set back almost immediately when Kenny Maxwell was out of a brutal delivery which pitched on a length and reared up causing him to glove it to the keeper leaving the home side 12/2 .

However, there followed a great partnership from Aby Theckanath and Alastair McFarland of some 53 runs. Theckanath and McFarland played bravely in the face of some hostile bowling taking several blows to the body as a result.

However when McFarland departed after a well crafted 23 several other batsmen got in but just couldn’t push the scoring along at the required rate.

Another direct hit run out accounted for the dangerous McVitty and despite Theckanath reaching his third half century in as many matches and cameos from the skipper Maxwell and Satheesh (13 and 17 respectively) the innings came to an end on 134 in the 28th over.

Disappointment overall for the local team but the truth be told they allowed Bready to make too big a total and the bowling in general was not up to the high standards they have set in recent weeks.

However the team must dust themselves down again and get back to their league programme next Saturday against Maghera 2s away.