Walton Shines on a Tough Day at the Office for the Firsts
2 min read
Bangor fell to another heavy defeat at a blisteringly hot Donacloney Mill on Saturday. The margin of 113 runs again points to failings with the bat that have dogged the Bangor season so far. Bangor will hope for better performances with the willow in their remaining seven fixtures, starting with a difficult trip to league leaders, Derriaghy on Saturday.
The home side won the toss and elected to bat, knowing that the conditions would make it hard to field for 50 overs. Record temperatures meant that the young Bangor side were in for a long hard day as the Donacloney batsmen looked to set a winning score. The Bangor bowlers had other ideas and they began to make immediate inroads. Walton struck in his first over, only the second of the match by bowling Derby through the gate. When he dismissed the Donacloney skipper Matthew Lyttle who edged to George Prince at slip, Bangor had Donacloney at seven for the loss of two wickets.
Not to be outdone Adam Simmonite was bowling well at the other end. He claimed the wicket of the dangerous Leckey, smashing the ball into the stumps of the hapless batsman. The fourth wicket partnership of Kennedy and Shindi took the score from 23 to 45 before Chris Pyper moved one away from the Donacloney professional Shindi who snicked behind to Griffin. This brought Max Lyttle to the wicket and proved to be a turning point in the match. Scoring at only a run a ball and without doing anything really special, the fifth wicket put on 130, taking the score to 175 with both Kennedy and Lyttlepassing their half centuries, scoring 51 and 69 respectively.
Just when it looked that the match was being put out of Bangor’s reach, the visiting team rallied. The comeback began with the reintroduction of Walton who took three wickets in quick succession. Lyttle and Kennedy both fell to fine catches by Chris Pyper, while Walton brought up his five wicket haul by bowling Cunningham dismissively. It was an amazing spell of bowling and just reward for the young bowler who has become a mainstay of the side. Simmonite was keen to add to his tally and he got the next two wickets bowling Sinton and trapping Lockhart in front. Donacloney had now lost 5 wickets for only 19 runs. When McClure was run out five runs later, Donacloney had completed their innings on a very achievable 199.
Although this was only four an over, such are the fragilities within the Bangor set up at this time, it was always going to be a tough ask. The task was made even more difficult by the fact that Michael Martin was unable to bat due to illness. Throughout the innings only Mark Nixon, Josh Bates and Chris Walton managed any form of resistance and Bangor were dismissed for a dismal 86, meaning that the home side ran out comfortable victors by a wide margin of 113 runs.
