Date: 31 May 2008

Venue: Cloughan

Ballyclare 1st XI v Belfast High School 1st XI

On the warmest Saturday morning of the summer, so far, Ballyclare High School 1st XI were almost at full strength to welcome Belfast High School to the Cloughan; only A. Blain was unavailable. For Belfast High School full Irish International, Paul Stirling opened the batting for them and what an honour it was for the Ballyclare High School players to compete against one of the best young cricketers in Ireland. Paul when asked why he was playing this match said ‘It was my duty to turn out and play for the school’, what a role model he was to his fellow schoolboys. A couple of days previous, Paul was on Sky TV playing for Ireland against Northants in the Friends Provident Championship.

Stirling was not to disappoint and powerfully scored boundaries around the ground. He did play and miss against J. Dailly who returned figures of 2 for 17 off 5 overs. But Belfast High School’s, Stirling, had notched up a century in only twenty overs, punishing loose bowling, ably supported by D. Pearson (26) and P. Kane (17).

J. McCrea bowled well on the artificial, returning 3 for 39 off 5 overs, but it was H. Glover who got a ball to rise sharply to Stirling, who top edged to deep fine leg for the young McCrea to take an excellent catch. On Stirling’s departure the Ballyclare bowling and fielding tightened up and they restricted Belfast High School to 25 runs off the last 5 overs, for them to finish on 176 for 7 in the 25 overs.

J. Dailly (Captain) and C. Jennings as openers needed 7 runs an over and they both set about the task in a disciplined manner, scoring 66 in 10 overs before Jennings was caught off the bowling of Belfast High School’s captain R. Spence. R. Smith came to the wicket and was quite sore on Spence’s third over, hitting two 6’s and two 4’s but again Smith holed out being cleaned bowled, playing across the line off Stirling. J. Dailly kept up the momentum and impressed the on-looking Templepatrick first XI cricketers.

Good partnerships kept the chase together as Best (6) and McCrea (14) supported Dailly who moved on to 79. However, disappointingly Dailly had to retire as he had to leave at 12.15 to go and play for Templepatrick first XI in Dungannon, which robbed him, no doubt, of a maiden century and record for Ballyclare High School. Thankfully the other Ballyclare batsmen were becoming more focused and H. Glover (8 no) and C .Stevenson (8 no) kept their composure to reduce the total to one run required from the last over. With debutant Stevenson facing Stirling, the Belfast bowler pushed through four ‘dot’ balls before Stevenson connected with the fifth ball and stuck a four through point.

What a win for Ballyclare High School! This must have been the largest total ever chased by the School 1st XI and how sweet it was to defeat a team that included a current full International player.

This sets up the Ballyclare HS 1st XI to travel to Foyle College in the semi-final of the Division 1 McCullough Cup, a cup competition for the top ten teams in Ulster. The match will hopefully be scheduled for the week beginning Monday 9 June 2008.

Team: J Dailly (captain), C Jennings, R Smith, A Best, J McCrea, D Clarke, W Stevenson, C Stevenson, H Glover, A Patterson