Armagh v Woodvale 18/05/2008
Armagh’s topsy-turvy season continued in the same vein as the fantastic victory over Muckamore was followed by a crushing home defeat to a strong looking Woodvale side. Andrew Bratten won the toss on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon and chose to bat on a wicket that looked hard and had provided the second XI with plenty of runs the previous day. Unfortunately Armagh’s start was not good as Michael Villiers was dismissed second ball to an in-swinger from Connolly and things got worse as Colin Russell was caught at cover off McKeown. David Bullick then was unfortunate to get caught close on the leg side off a rising delivery leaving Armagh perilously set at five runs for three wickets. However, the recovery started when the in-form Gareth Robinson was joined by the returning Mark Elliott in his first game of the season, and despite the tricky situation both players were happy to counter attack and punish any wayward bowling. Elliott in particular was harsh on anything short while Robinson delighted the Sunday crowd with several cover drives of great quality. Both men passed their half-century in quick succession and the stand was worth an excellent 133 when Elliott was caught by the Woodvale wicketkeeper for an excellent knock of 60, containing five boundaries and 3 “sixes”. The loss of Elliott slowed Armagh as new batsmen struggled to get to grips with the tricky conditions, with Bratten falling quickly to a caught and bowled off the spin of Johnston. Robinson was still batting beautifully though and was really unfortunate to be adjudged run out when attempting to run two to the boundary as it looked like a really close call. Gareth had scored 79 runs including 8 boundaries and one huge six that sailed across the road and towards Jenny’s Row. Armagh scrambled their score up to 186 in the final overs with some hits from Carberry, Whitcroft and Lester but in truth a decent score could have been a bit stronger.
After a hectic tea interval, Woodvale started strongly with Johnston and David Connolly; previously of Dunmurry both hitting the ball very hard around the ground. They had reached 25 in no-time when Johnston was fantastically caught by the diving Colin Russell at cover off the bowling of Lester. The spectacular catch didn’t really bring Armagh back into the game though as Connolly was joined by Nigel Palmer and the two batsmen were able to build steadily while bringing out some big shots whenever they needed to. The Armagh bowling wasn’t exactly bad, but they struggled to get themselves into a rhythm against the right-left hand partnership. David Bullick bowled tightly and Mark Stinson was devoid of luck as Woodvale plundered their way to the winning target in just over forty overs for the loss of only one wicket.
After the game Andrew Bratten said that “although Gareth Robinson and Mark Elliott batted really well, we felt at tea that we had left about twenty odd runs out on the field that would have made our score a lot more competitive. Saying that it mightn’t have made any difference as we didn’t bowl well enough and in fairness their two batsmen batted just as well as ours did. There is no shame in losing to a Woodvale team that will definitely be competing for honours at the end of the season, but we have to concentrate more on using our strengths with the ball and in the field. We did it at Muckamore and won, we didn’t today and lost”
Armagh will surely need all the strengths at their disposal this weekend as title favourites Ballymena come to The Mall. Featuring a star-studded batting line-up with the three Kennedy brothers (Robert scored a century against Armagh in 2006, James scored a century on the Mall last summer and David has been the top batsmen in Section 1 of the NCU for 4 out of the last 5 seasons with North Down), plus Carl Williams and the fantastically talented Steve Lazarus. With the ball they are no slouches either with Glass and Adair forming an effective opening pair followed by plenty of spin options. Armagh are missing Gareth Robinson this weekend as the in-form opener is unavailable, but should be boosted by the return of Philip Doyle, Timothy Gillespie and a new professional player. Saturday’s game should be worth seeing, and starts at 1pm.
Division 1, Section 2 2008
Armagh v Woodvale
18 May 2008
The Mall
Division 1, Section 2
Result: Woodvale win by 9 wickets
Points: Armagh 0 Woodvale 4
Toss: Armagh
Umpires: Cyril Vennard, Reggie McNally
Scorers: Stuart Wilson, R Palmer
ARMAGH
G Robinson run out 79
M Villiers b Connolly 0
C Russell c Palmer b McKeown 2
D Bullick c Cleland b McKeown 0
M Elliott c Kirkpatrick b Cleland 60
A Bratten * c&b Johnston 3
W Carberry b Cleland 8
A Whitcroft run out 8
S Lester not out 7
G McCarter + DNB
M Stinson DNB
Extras (b 9, lb 8, nb 0, w 2, p 0) 19
Total (8 wkts, 50.0 overs) 186
M McKeown 6 2 11 2
D Connolly 4 0 18 1
S Donnolly 10 3 12 0
I Cleland 10 0 53 3
J Burnside 10 3 24 0
S Johnston 7 0 30 1
T Browne 3 0 21 0
FOW: 1-0 (M Villiers) 2-3 (C Russell) 3-5 (D Bullick) 4-138 (M Elliott) 5-145 (A Bratten *) 6-168 (G Robinson) 7-172 (W Carberry) 8-186 (A Whitcroft)
WOODVALE
S Johnston c Russell b Lester 12
D Connolly not out 96
N Palmer not out 59
A Kirkpatrick *+ DNB
P Robinson DNB
T Browne DNB
S Bunting DNB
M McKeown DNB
I Cleland DNB
J Burnside DNB
S Donnelly DNB
Extras (b 0, lb 2, nb 0, w 19, p 0) 21
Total (1 wkts, 40.2 overs) 188
A Bratten * 2 0 14 0
S Lester 10 2 40 1
M Stinson 9 0 48 0
D Bullick 10 3 24 0
A Whitcroft 7 1 30 0
M Villiers 1 0 15 0
M Elliott 1.2 0 15 0
FOW: 1-25 (S Johnston) | 
