Opening Day Defeat for the Firsts

Muckamore left Bangor very much deserved winners on Saturday with a 160-run win at a sunny Upritchard Park but on another day, it might have been a tighter affair.

New first eleven captain Jonny Parker wanted to get off to an aggressive start and inserted Muckamore in on a hard & true wicket relative to the mid-April start. On another day with some fine tuning to the bowling department and eliminating some simple dropped chances, the Muckamore scorecard could have had a very different look with not many runs on the board and the middle order exposed early in the innings. 

However, with some luck and below par fielding Muckamore managed to navigate themselves to 37 before Chris Walton picked up the first wicket. Kuda Samunderu fresh from landing in Bangor after his around the world trip from Cape Town on Friday, took a sharp catch at square leg. Chris was just getting started dismissing the talented Wilson cheaply before finishing off his marathon 10 over spell with Magowan edging behind to stand in keeper Adam McCusker to finish with 3-33 from his 10 overs, a quite brilliant spell of bowling. In the next over Josh Bates picked up his first wicket clipping the off stump of Stephenson leaving Muckamore in a slightly precarious position of 91-4 after 20 overs. 

The match at this stage was finely poised and was there for the taking for both teams to stamp their authority over the opposition. Bangor over the next 10 overs kept things tight conceding just 30 runs but crucially picking up no wickets. From then on Muckamore controlled proceedings with Gordon & Allen batting diligently and risk free to give themselves a platform to score quickly making use of a strong North Down breeze and short boundary to pile on the runs in the later stages of the innings. Captain Parker made use of 5 bowlers during this stage of the innings to find a breakthrough, but it never came until Josh Bates returned to dismiss Gordon 7 runs short of a deserved century. At this stage the score had accelerated to 249-5 but Allen continued to bludgeon the ball to all corners as the Bangor bowlers toiled. Josh Bates, Bangor’s charismatic talisman had other ideas picking up two wickets in two balls but sadly couldn’t pick up a hat trick to finish on a well-deserved 4-36 from his 10 overs. Allen ended on 88 not out as Muckamore finished on 285-7 off their 50 overs. 

After a two-year absence the traditional Cricket teas made a welcome return and with hearts and stomachs full, Bangor set out to chase down Muckamore’s score. Bangor made a solid start when comparing to Muckamore’s start with Bangor in a similar position as their counterparts after 10 overs with the score on 39-1 and Keenan & Samunderu looking well set. Tragedy struck with Kuda looking well set for a big score when he found the mid-on fielder with what can be best described as a long hop. Keenan continued well, showing good intent to score against some tight bowling on a wearing pitch. However, when he fell for 37 just after drinks and the score on 78-4, Bangor were very much up against it. So, it proved with another 2 wickets falling quickly and despite some lower order hitting from Escott and Walton, Bangor were well short in their chase finishing on 125.

With some luck and better fielding, it might have been a different story but there are certainly positives to take and room for improvement which will come from time out in the middle. Bangor are on the road twice next week with a visit to Derriaghy on Saturday and Ballymena on Bank Holiday Monday, both games starting at noon.

Muc 285-7
S Gordon 93, Lu Allen 88no, J Magowan 41
J Bates 4-36, C Walton 3-33

BCC 125ao
J Keenan 37
S Gordon 4-23, R Keates 2-15, P Karthik 2-38

Muckamore won by 160 runs