Dundrum win derby in fine style

Dundrum win derby in fine style

10 July 2019

DUNDRUM welcomed Drumaness to The Meadow for the local Section 3 derby on what turned out to be a glorious July day. 

Dundrum, keen to maintain their unbeaten run, won the toss and put Drumaness into bat.

Neil Walsh, the Drumaness captain, and Paul Fenton opened the batting sensibly against the Dundrum’s bowlers, coping with Stuart Campbell’s pace and the spin of Tom Crudgington, to put on 25 without loss off the first 10 overs. 

Neil Reilly, brought into the attack to replace Campbell, and bowling a tight stump to stump line, managed to trap Walsh LBW in his second over. 

Darren Oldroyd joined Fenton at the crease and soon tried to up the run rate, scoring three boundaries in one over and constantly looking to attack.

Reilly and James Martin, backed by some sharp Dundrum fielding, did well to contain the attacking Oldroyd before Tom Crudgington, brought back for an over before drinks, deceived the batsmen with the flight and had him well caught at first slip. This left Drumaness 60 for 2 half way through their innings, and the match evenly balanced.

After drinks, Fenton batting steadily, was joined by Gary Walsh as they attempted to build their innings against some tight bowling from the Dundrum attack. 

The pair accumulated runs with Walsh driving well through the off-side until a change in the field saw him immediately attempt to hit Cameron over cover only to be bowled. 

This left Drumaness on 116 for 3 off 33 overs. In his next 12 balls Cameron took four more wickets, all bowled, for only four runs. 

At the other end, Martin finally had Fenton caught behind for a well-fought 48. Drumaness had stumbled from 116 for 2 to 139 for 9, which was a good fight back from Dundrum after some determined batting from Drumaness. 

All Dundrum’s bowlers had performed well. Campbell only conceding 17 runs in eight overs, and no one going for more than 29 runs in their overs.

The pick of the bowlers, however, was Cameron who returned figures of eight overs, 5 for 24. Conor Moag, standing in for the absent Terry Hutley, also did great work behind the stumps. Again, Dundrum had performed well in the field.

In reply, Cameron and promoted wicket-keeper Moag batted steadily against the Drumaness attack, running well for singles and dispatching the bad ball to the boundary, for a partnership of 85 after 20 overs. 

After drinks, the opening pair attempted to increase the tempo but Cameron edged Robbie Noade behind, ending a fluent 43. 

Then, almost immediately, Moag was caught and bowled, again by Noade, for a steady 30. This left Dundrum on 92 for 2, still needing 47 to win. 

Four overs later after a mini-collapse, Dundrum had lost another three wickets, two more to Noade and one to Gary Walsh, leaving the hosts 113 for 5 and requiring another 26 to win. 

Drumaness sensed an opportunity. Dundrum supporters, with memories of recent seasons and having seen Drumaness 116 for 3 only a couple of hours before, looked on nervously from the boundary.

However, this season Dundrum bat deep and Neil Reilly and Scott Symington knocked the required runs off in three risk-less overs, winning the game with an all run four to the long Dundrum boundary.

Dundrum won the well by five wickets with 11 overs to spare. Now half way through the season, this win makes it six from six for the team and leaves them eight points clear at the top of Section 3.

Massive thank you to Dave Williams and Jeff Maguire for marking the book. And thank you to Rhys Phillips for keeping the scoreboard up to date. We would also like to thank James Orr, who the last few weeks has been cutting the outfield and doing a number of jobs behind the scenes which do not get noticed. Thank you to everyone, we appreciate all the work you put in.

Match sponsored by Murdock’s Today Store, Dundrum.