Nigel Jones happy as CIYMS kick off new season with a win

Irish international Cameron-Dow, who took 47 wickets in all competitions in 2019, missed an opening day Robinson Services Cup victory over CSNI with tonsillitis.

He will return for today’s clash against Lisburn at Belmont before CIYMS travel to Ballygomartin Road the following day.

Captain Nigel Jones was pleased with how his side performed in their first game back against tricky opposition.

“With it being the first game back after so long without cricket, there was always going to be the chance of some rust,” he said.

“With T20 cricket, it can be a bit of a lottery if you don’t turn up mentally, even if you have a strong team.

“In fairness to the boys, they turned up and we were keen to put on a show.

“It was great to get a win against a pretty decent side in Civil.”

It was a team effort that secured victory with John Matchett (34), Jason van der Merwe (29*), Chris Dougherty (23) and Jacob Mulder (20) all chipping in with the bat.

With the quality at his disposal, Jones says he has confidence in everyone to step up and do a job.

“The two boys at the top have done it now for a few years for us consistently and generally get us off to a good start,” he added.

“You could then pull a name out of a hat between about five of us with where we bat, especially in T20 cricket.

“The view for me this year was for me to slide down a bit and either if we get off to a poor start I can hopefully rectify things or at least have a bit of fun coming in later, which appeals to me at this stage.

“Jason is a good fit at four and then we can have Jacob or Mark Adair at three when he is back with the other behind me.”

Van der Merwe will have even more responsibility on his shoulders this season with no overseas professional present in the middle order and Jones taking more of a backseat.

“We talked about it last year even when we were in a normal season about him having more responsibility,” said Jones.

“We were waiting for him to click in terms of consistency and he has certainly shown that in the last season-and-a-half and deserves to be our number four.

“He’s a key person for us, accelerates the innings well and is full of confidence.”

Woodvale will enter the cup clash with nothing to lose and confident after beating Lisburn by 19 runs last weekend.

The process for Jones and CIYMS tends to be focusing on their own performance rather than anything to do with the opposition, and nothing is different about that this time round.

“We aren’t going to worry about them in terms of who we are playing but it’s important we focus on ourselves and respect them,” he added.

“We will be keen to play some positive, aggressive cricket and hopefully get the win.”

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