Johnny Morton

Yet another superb batting performance from Jacques Snyman helped send Carrickfergus top of the Robinson Services Premier League table following a 25-run win over CSNI at Stormont on Saturday. After winning the toss and electing to bowl, CSNI picked up an early wicket when Michael Armstrong edged a Luke Georgeson delivery to wicketkeeper Archie Johnston and shortly after Iain Parkhill was forced to retire hurt.

Snyman had already made his way to the crease and deployed a more watchful approach to reach his half-century but from there accelerated in his typical aggressive and brutally effective style. The South African international put on a stand of 176 for the third wicket with Alex Haggan (42) in 20 overs – which he contributed 132 of – reaching a magnificent 164 from 111 balls before he was caught off the bowling of Andrew Cowden.

That would be the first of four wickets for Cowden (4-84) while captain Ben Adair finished the innings off with a hat-trick, but not before Carrick had set the home side a total of 306 to chase.

CSNI were 27-2 inside four overs when Georgeson (30) and Paddy Beverland (104) came together. The pair put on 85 before the former was dismissed by CJ van der Walt but Beverland marched on and made the game interesting heading into the final 10 overs after a partnership of 71 with Corin Goodall (40).

When Beverland's excellent innings was brought to an end by Armstrong (3-71), the game was all but over and Carrick eventually sealed the four points with CSNI finishing on 280/8.

Waringstown are hot on their heels and sit second only on net run-rate after their gutsy four-wicket victory against Lisburn. Faiz Fazal (128) has picked up where he left off in the 2019 campaign, putting in a number of important performances for the Wallace Park outfit, and this was no different.

The opener almost carried his bat throughout the whole innings, dismissed as the ninth wicket by Graham Hume (2-43) after striking 14 fours and one six from his 142-ball stay at the crease. Chris Burns (50) provided crucial support to Fazal and his contribution helped Lisburn reach 240 all out.

Waringstown found themselves in some early trouble at 37/3 as Josh Manley (3-41) had James McCollum (10), Andre Malan (7) and Morgan Topping (0) all caught before Adam Dennison (27) was run out and Greg Thompson (8) was trapped lbw by Matthew Humphreys (2-45). Their score was just 81 when captain Lee Nelson (48) joined Graham Hume (93*) and the duo put on what turned out to be a match-winning partnership of 98.

Hume has already showed his class with both bat and ball since his winter move to The Lawn and he ended the game with a second maximum – adding to eight fours – to help his side get over the line with 11 balls to spare.

Woodvale will be hoping to build some momentum after an eight-wicket win over North Down at The Green moved them up two spots in the table. Half-centuries from Aniruddha Chore (80) and Peter Eakin (50) helped North Down reach 214 all out with James Hall (3-37) the pick of Woodvale's bowlers but he was well supported by Aditya Adey (2-23), Pavan Karthik (2-24) and Ruhan Pretorius (2-33).

Hall produced a superb all-round performance by scoring 93* - which included 13 boundaries – to secure a big win for the Ballygomartin Road men. He put on an opening stand of 98 with Harry Warke (49) before being joined by Pretorius (42) to finish off the job and secure a comfortable win.

Elsewhere, defending champions CIYMS improved their record to three wins from five league matches by beating Instonians at Shaw's Bridge. Chris Dougherty (66) was the driving force behind CI's final total of 209 alongside captain Nigel Jones (52), who were both dismissed by Cian Robertson (3-38) while James Magee also picked up three wickets.

Instonians got their chase off to a solid start through Nikolai Smith (16) and Jack Dickson (75) before the former was trapped lbw by James Cameron-Dow.
James Hunter (34) continued his good start to the season but when he was caught off the bowling of Chris Robinson (4-25), the wickets began to tumble at regular intervals. The home side would lose nine wickets for just 44 runs with Carson McCullough (2-27) and Jacob Mulder (2-29) helping bowl Instonians out for 164.

The Robinson Services Premier League continues next Saturday with the fixtures as follows: 
CIYMS v North Down
Instonians v Lisburn
Waringstown v Carrickfergus
Woodvale v CSNI

Robinson Services Premier League