McMillans Shine at Upritchard

Bangor 3rds notched up their fourth victory of the season after their initial opening day loss to a strong Carrickfergus team.

Saturday was the first step away from the shortened T20 format that has been in force since last year. The 3rds marked the occasion with a slightly lengthened 25 over league match against Lurgan 2nds.

Lurgan opted to field and immediately struck to remove the in form Iain Chapman in the first over with only 2 runs on the board.  A slight flurry of players looking for pads could be witnessed as Sam McMillan went out to join father Paddy, aka Raspo, in the middle. In Sam’s inaugural year for the senior club this was first time the two had batted together in senior club cricket.

What followed was a masterclass in how to establish a dominating partnership with a flawless display by the sorcerer and his apprentice. How long the apprentice remains in that position is yet to be seen. Raspo and Sam used the full 360 degrees of Upritchard Park to keep the score moving along nicely at around 7 runs an over.

The partnership was finally ended in the 20th over of the match with score at 136 and Raspo departing for 79.  Sam continued the innings where he was soon joined by Matt Piits who made, what turned out to be an invaluable, quick 24 runs. Sam was caught off the last delivery of the innings for 52 selflessly thinking of the team rather than the red inker that his father would surely have taken.

The team went out to field buoyed up by what they thought to be a commanding score. The next 25 overs reminded everyone of the many twists and turns that are seen in a game of cricket as Bangor regularly took wickets but didn’t seem able to stem the runs accumulating.

Fellow senior debutant Max Escott showed maturity beyond his years with an accurate spin bowling display, despite the opposition batsmen trying to upset his rythem with exaggerated movement at the crease. Max ended with very respectable figures of 5-0-32-1 which were very similar to Sam McMillan’s return of 5-0-32-2.

The senior members of the team didn’t let the youngsters take all the glory with Andy Hare and Iain Chapman taking three and two invaluable wickets respectively. Combined with some great commitment in the outfield to save boundaries and turn twos into ones the game was delicately poised with two overs to go.

The equation was simple. 11 runs for Lurgan to win or 2 wickets for Bangor to find. Fittingly the McMillans got back in on the action with Sam first taking a sharp catch in the slips off Matt Pitts’s final over (5-0-25-2) before Raspo got a stumping of the sixth ball of the same over, to bring the Lurgan innings to a close 7 runs short, much to relief of the rest of the team.

A good day to be a McMillan!