Armagh v Downpatrick 30/08/2008
Armagh hosted Downpatrick in what looked to be a make or break league game at the bottom end of the league table as the home side needed to win some of their matches pretty quickly while their illustrious opponents were having a nightmare season by their own standards in their first ever Section Two campaign. The match was only given the go ahead late on after the Armagh groundstaff had worked on Friday night and Saturday morning to make the game go ahead. In the continued absence of Bratten, David Bullick took on the captaincy and when successful at the toss chose to bowl with conditions likely to be difficult for batting.
Bullick took the new ball together with Kulkarni and runs proved to be at a premium. The first wicket came about when the two combined with the Armagh pro taking a quite superb catch in the gully to dismiss Linehan. Gelston and Mullan consolidated before Stinson removed the latter with an excellent return catch. Colin Russell was having a rare bowl and was making opportunities happen throughout with his trademark swing bowling, and picked up a deserved wicket when Downpatrick captain Cunningham was smartly caught by Villiers at mid wicket. Boyd got his first wicket on the Mall when he bowled youngster Carson and Bullick surpassed the earlier catches when he took an amazing diving caught and bowled to remove Magowan. Kulkarni came to the fore after this in his return spell as his pace and line was of too high a quality for Downpatrick to contend with, clean bowling Ferguson and Gelston and having Bassett brilliantly caught behind by Gareth McCarter. Unfortunately for Armagh though the final pairing of Ringland and Tate used their top level experience to play a composed partnership and take the score up to 146 before Matthew Steenson ended it in the final over. Those extra forty runs would end up being hugely crucial in the final reckoning.
With a gettable target Armagh wanted a steady start with Villiers and Robinson returned to the top of the order with the former looking in pretty good touch as he knocked the ball around. Robinson fell early to a catch at the wicket and then a collapse was sparked with the Armagh top order losing the four big wickets of Villiers, Russell and Kulkarni and Bullick inside ten runs as Downpatrick turned the screw. Mark Elliott smashed a couple of big shots against his hockey teammates, but when he and the hard working Phil Doyle were dismissed then the writing was really on the wall for Armagh at 71-8. To their credit, Armagh hung around and made things difficult for the visitors with Mark Stinson and Gareth McCarter spending some good time at the crease and making Downpatrick try everything to get the breakthrough. In truth though their defiance was only delaying the inevitable as Armagh narrowly failed to break the hundred for the second game in a row and fell to the defeat that virtually.
Despite the crushing defeat, Armagh were positive after the game although more so about their bowling and fielding effort than that managed with the bat. David Bullick thought that “the team did really well and were one ball away from dismissing Downpatrick for 102 which would have made for an entirely different fixture. However, their last wicket pair had the biggest stand of the day and that made all the difference”
Scorecard can be found here!
This weekend could see Armagh’s relegation from Division 1 Section 2 mathematically guaranteed as they face two home games against Saintfield on Saturday and then a re-arrangement with Holywood on Sunday. However, the team aren’t looking at these matches as being dead rubbers by any means and will be giving their all to try and pull off a remarkable great escape. Saturday’s match starts at 11:30am and Sunday begins at 1pm. | 
