ARMAGH ended up with no game in NCU Section Two this weekend as their fixture at home to Cooke Collegians was eventually abandoned without a ball bowled after a pretty miserable Sunday lunchtime at The Mall.
The wicket, square and outfield were all in grand condition despite the persistent rain through Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday morning but despite hopes that it would relent to allow some play the two captains Gareth McCarter of Armagh and Richard Johnson of Cooke Collegians eventually agreed that the prospects for a complete game were fairly bleak and shook hands on the game being abandoned.
The Armagh captain explained that it had been a tough call on Sunday morning about how to react to the inclement weather. “Obviously we didn’t want or intend for Cooke Collegians to have a wasted journey but we genuinely did think there was a more than decent chance of getting some duration of game played. Unfortunately the rain got even heavier and the square might just have been unplayable and while the late afternoon did stay quite dry the conditions for cricket would have been absolutely miserable. Obviously we don’t want to have weekends without a game and that’s maybe why we pushed a bit further to play today but we will just have to move on.”
Next weekend Armagh travel to Saintfield for an NCU Section 2 fixture. Saintfield struggled in the league last season and only retained their place after a relegation play-off but have had a much better start to this campaign and will certainly provide a tough opposition for the Armagh side. The game starts at The Desmene at 1pm.
Meanwhile, Armagh’s Colts team had a great win in the first round of the Colts Cup at home to Laurelvale after a strong performance with bat and ball. Asked to bat first, Armagh racked up a strong score with Robin Sinton the mainstay of the innings but also getting brisk support from captain William Dougan, Adam Marshall and Johnny Morton.
With the ball Armagh were equally impressive with Sinton, Morton, Jordan Wright, Stuart McCall and Kyle Marshall amongst the wickets with a highlight a spectacular catch from Christopher Jennings as Laurelvale battled bravely to complete their twenty overs. However they could not prevent Armagh’s progression to the next round where they will host Saintfield.
