Bangor Come Through Tricky Mallusk Test

Bangor won the toss and elected to bowl on what looked to be a tricky surface at Mallusk. The opening duo of Bates and Pyper looked to cause some early problems for the Ardent Blues openers, it was indeed Bates who got the breakthrough for the Seasiders in his third over dismissing Blesson, bowled for 1. 

Bates then carried on in his next over by picking up another wicket of the opening pair this time Joby holed out to Sam Mcmillan who took an excellent catch on the boundary for 15. You couldn’t keep Sam out of the game as a direct hit from short range dismissed the Ardent number 3 without troubling the scorers. At the end of openers Bates and Pyper’s opening spells Ardent were 33/3 off 12. It must be said although Pyper did not pick up a wicket he created the pressure in the opening overs as can be told by only conceding 9 runs from his first 6 overs. 

With the opening bowlers now off the pressure was continued upon by the duo of Prince and Simpson. Prince frustrating the batsmen as he so regularly does. It was Simpson who got the breakthrough in his second over bowling Denny for 7. Prince and Simpson continued their tight bowling not letting Ardent recover, another two wickets falling not long after Andrew Kirkpatrick stumping Manu off the bowling of Prince for 6 and Simpson bowling Anish for 9. Ardent were 67-6 off 27. A late kick on by the Ardent tail giving them some hope of making a game of it but two wickets from Kuda another each for Bates and Simpson seemed to diminish any hope of a resurgence.  

Bates 7-0-24-3  
Simpson 8-0-29-3
Samunderu 4-0-27-2
Prince 8-3-7-1

Bangor who would have strongly favoured themselves to chase down 118, didn’t get out of the blocks as expected. Losing both openers for low totals Keenan bowled for 1 and Mcmillan bowled for 6. These wickets brought skipper Parker and Kuda to the crease, Kuda taking the roll of aggressor showing his class by navigating the ball around the park and over the boundary at various times. 

Although it was not meant to be for Kuda as he was caught at square leg for a very well made 34. Patrick Mcmillan who helped steady the ship for a few overs also found himself caught. Parker was not long in following Kuda and McMillan as he was also caught for 11. A theme was beginning to occur, this brought the inform Kirkpatrick and young Simpson to the crease at 73-5 knowing that one good partnership should win Bangor the match and an important 4 points. 

That seemed to be well under control until Kirkpatrick was caught at extra cover to a great one-handed grab, the Bangor ship rocked once more. This brought James Griffin to the crease and Simpson seemed to be taking an unusual approach to his batting regularly rotating the strike and taking singles. Griffin and Simpson pushed on and it was Griffin and Simpson who led the Seasiders home for a well-deserved 4 points, Griffin 15* and Simpson 16*.

The Men’s First Eleven have a busy spell ahead of them with a double header this weekend. Firstly on Saturday they host Cooke Collegians in the league and a big game on Sunday as they travel down to Downpatrick in a semi final clash in the Junior Cup, the final of which is held at Upritchard Park at the end of the month, all support is welcome this weekend.