Lurgan v Armagh Sat 3rd May
Armagh suffered a chastening ten wicket defeat at the hands of a rampant Lurgan in the First round of the TCH Down
Democrat Senior Cup on Saturday at Pollock Park despite managing to post a very competitive score with the bat.
Lurgan had somehow managed to avoid the rain that had hit Armagh over the week and had bright sunshine, albeit
bitterly cold with a harsh wind sweeping across the ground. The home team won the toss and decided to bowl first,
decision quickly rewarded when former Armagh trialist Chris Courtney dismissed Phil Doyle without scoring.
The returning Gareth Robinson and Colin Russell recovered the situation quickly with the latter finding the boundary with
some fine shots, before a dreadful collapse saw Armagh slump to 70-6 just after drinks. However, Captain Andrew Bratten
led a fightback in tandem with Mark Stinson then Simon Cardwell that took Armagh back into a decent position as the
innings progressed. Bratten led from the front, striking two boundaries and two “sixes” as he passed fifty and Armagh
closed on 155-9 on their 50 overs. Second team captain Cardwell provided vital support in a 39 run stand striking
the ball to the boundary on three occasions.
The consensus was that Armagh had battled themselves back into a decent position, but the target looked small
straight away as Lurgan tucked into a mixture of short and wayward bowling. Only when David Bullick and Mark Stinson
came on to bowl was there any degree of control but at that stage batsmen Johnson and Van Nierkirk were well set as
both raced towards half centuries. Left arm spinner Timothy Gillespie was unfortunate not to pick up a wicket as he bowled
five good overs, but Lurgan were undeterred as they reached the victory mark with twenty overs in hand.
Andrew Bratten was naturally frustrated after the game with the margin of defeat. “I thought we batted well and put a decent
score on the board, but Lurgan blew us away when they batted and we didn’t do enough with the ball or in the field to stop
them. It is an aspect of the game we will have to take a serious look at before next Saturday’s game at Muckamore.”
ARMAGH
P Doyle b Courtney 0
G Robinson c Haire b McCollum 8
C Russell c Chambers b Van Nierkirk 43
D Bullick c Haire b McCollum 0
M Steenson c Haire b McCollum 1
A Bratten * st Haire b Sloane 51
G McCarter + c Maxwell b Van Nierkirk 1
M Stinson c McCollum b Grieve 12
S Cardwell st Haire b Sloane 23
K Edgar not out 2
T Gillespie not out 2
Extras (b 4, lb 1, nb 0, w 8, p 0) 13 Total (9 wkts, 50.0 overs) 155
C Courtney 6 0 33 1
P Maxwell 6 2 9 0
M Van Nierkirk 10 5 18 2
C Grieve 10 1 36 1
N McCollum 10 3 23 3
M Sloan 8 0 32 2
FOW: 1-0 (P Doyle) 2-59 (G Robinson) 3-59 (C Russell) 4-59 (D Bullick) 5-64 (M Steenson)
6-70 (G McCarter +) 7-106 (M Stinson) 8-143 (A Bratten *) 9-153 (S Cardwell)
LURGAN
M Van Nierkirk not out 66
S Johnston not out 68
S Cardwell 3 0 22 0
K Edgar 1 0 12 0
A Bratten 6 0 42 0
D Bullick 6 0 25 0
M Stinson 5 0 19 0
T Gillespie 5 0 17 0
G Robinson 0.4 0 16 0
(b 1, lb 2, nb 0, w 19, p 0) 22 Total 156 (0 wkts, 26.4 overs) | 
