Robinson Services Premier League Round-up (09-05-2022)

Lisburn are now the only unbeaten team in the Robinson Services Premier League after another weekend of action.

The Wallace Park side beat Cliftonville Academy by 10 wickets in a rearranged, rain-affected encounter on Friday night as Faiz Fazal (50*) led the way for Callum Atkinson's men who chased a target of 72 with four overs to spare.

There were four fixtures on Saturday with another rearrangement between Waringstown and Carrickfergus on Sunday – here's what happened!

CIYMS beat North Down by 6 wickets
These are two teams that will almost certainly be challenging at the top end of the table come September and in what was a repeat of last season's Gallagher Challenge Cup final, CI came out victors by a margin of six wickets. Batting first at The Green, North Down overseas professional Neil Brand carried his bat through the majority of the innings to score a superb 110* from 122 balls – a knock which included eight fours and two sixes. Alistair Shields (27) and Tom Mayes (36) played supporting roles to Brand as the home side posted 242/8.

Ross Adair has started the season in fine fashion with both his new club and for the Northern Knights, and the destructive opening batsman continued in that vein, smashing 96 off 63 balls to set the platform for success. He bludgeoned seven trademark maximums during a 129-run partnership with Chris Dougherty (89*) before being caught off the bowling of Peter Davison (1-26). Dougherty saw the job through to the end as CI picked up a crucial four points and improved their league record to three wins from four matches.

Waringstown beat Cregagh by 10 wickets
Defending champions Waringstown cruised to a comfortable victory at the Cregagh Memorial Recreation Ground as they bowled their hosts out for 60. Graham Hume (2-6) had early joy as he bowled the dangerous Jay Hunter and followed it up shortly after by picking up the wicket of Mark Johnston. Aaron Johnston's side struggled to put any significant partnerships together against some extremely testing bowling from a quality attack, as Ben Snell (4-12), Ross Allen (2-7) and Jamie Gibson (2-13) all combined to deny them any momentum.

It was always going to be a simple chase for Waringstown with Adam Dennison (18*) and captain Lee Nelson (39*) capping off an impressive afternoon for the Villagers.

Woodvale beat CSNI by 81 runs
Woodvale picked up their second league win of the season as Ruhan Pretorius inspired them to victory over CSNI at Ballygomartin Road. CSNI made early breakthroughs after winning the toss through stand-in captain Luke Georgeson (3-41), who dismissed both James Hall (9) and Harry Warke (21) to leave Woodvale sitting on 42-2. That had brought Pretorius to the crease and although wickets continued to fall around him with regularity, he was able to keep his composure and ended just shy of a century after being caught off the returning Georgeson.

Chasing 210 for victory, the Stormont side collapsed from 46-0 to 49-5 as Paul Robinson (3-20) and Aditya Adey (2-7) put their side in the ascendancy and they were able to get the job done despite a spirited partnership between Chris McMorran (26) and Corin Goodall (38) provided some resistance.

Instonians beat Cliftonville Academy by 7 wickets
Instonians picked up their second win in a matter of days as they followed Wednesday's triumph over Woodvale with another against Cliftonville Academy. Max Burton (40) top-scored for the visitors after they were asked to bat, finishing their 50 overs on 194/8 with Instonians captain Andrew White (3-31) pick of the bowlers.

Brian Anderson (1-26) picked up the early wicket of Oliver Metcalfe (11) but that brought James Metcalfe (53) to the crease alongside Adam Ly (69*) and the duo put on a partnership of 101 before the former was trapped lbw by Burton (1-33). Cade Carmichael (36) scored at a fluent rate to get his side to within touching distance of victory and Ly finished off the job with 12 overs to spare.

Sunday
Carrickfergus beat Waringstown by 5 wickets

In a thriller that went down to the very last ball, half-centuries from Jacques Snyman (54) and Jeremy Lawlor (52*) helped Carrickfergus to victory over Waringstown in this rearranged league fixture. A perfect weekend for Waringstown would have brought them level on points with North Down, Lisburn and CIYMS and they scored 142/6, with contributions from Morgan Topping (51), Greg Thompson (34) and Lee Nelson (29).

Topping ran out Carrick captain Michael Gilmour in the 3rd over but Snyman and Lawlor then got to work, putting on a partnership of 66 before the former was caught off the bowling of Kyle McCallan. CJ van der Walt followed soon after but Lawlor remained and dealt with the pressure of the situation, scoring a single off the last ball of the innings to bring the points back to Middle Road.

Robinson Services Premier League