Waringstown aiming for first trophy win

Firstly, it is on home turf The Lawn; secondly it provides an opportunity to put the first piece of silverware in the cabinet as they chase after a treble.

What should have been a festival atmosphere with finals day scheduled for 9 July has been somewhat undermined by the weather.

Their opponents are Lisburn who overcame Carrickfergus’ challenge with a fine all round display in the semi-final.

Captain Adam Berry is well aware that the spotlight falls on his side now after the magnificent display last weekend by the club’s second eleven in winning the GMcG Junior Cup.

“Last weekend’s performance was a great boost for the whole club and we will be looking to follow up. It’s seems like a while since we won the semi-final but it was the start of a good run for us as we notched up four wins back to back.

“The only disappointment was last Sunday when we did not really turn up against CIYMS.

“It has also been some time since we appeared in a final and we feel that really we have nothing to prove. We will be taking the attitude that we simply are going out to enjoy ourselves. We know it will be tough at The Lawn it always is, but these are the games that as a player you aspire to play in.

“Just as losing becomes a habit so can winning; we want to play the same brand of cricket as we did against Carrick and in the group games earlier in the season. We know they have dangerous players in the likes of Greg Thompson and Adam Dennison will obviously be on a high after his performance this week.

“We also know that Saturday will be no pushover against Carrickfergus but again we will target the win, whoever comes out on top in that one will probably be looking at going on to finish in the top four.”

Few would have thought that at this stage of the season North Down would be looking at Saturday’s game at The Green against Derriaghy as a season defining moment. Whilst Pieter Malan has seemingly been scoring runs for fun the results have not been coming and defeat would leave them joint bottom with their opponents.

If CIYMS can repeat the performance of last weekend when they recorded two victories suddenly we may be looking at them mounting a belated challenge for the league, their clash with Waringstown next month may no longer be just another end of season fixture.

Realistically Derriaghy need to win one of their two games at the weekend; if they don’t and CSNI repeat their cup final victory over CIYMS an 8-point gap will have opened up at bottom, meaning they will need to win their last three to stay up.