A long-time Civil Service North follower told me on Saturday, after the Stormont side had been bowled out for 79 by CIYMS, that “I have never seen worse”.
He obviously had forgotten about the day they were shot out for 38 at Downpatrick in 2007 or the 45 at home to Waringstown three years later. It wasn’t even CSN’s lowest Premier League total at Belmont – that is still 75 back in 2018. But the class of 2025 would admit it was pretty bad.
There were mitigating circumstances. For example, Mark Ellison, their leading runs scorer, was on holiday and while they have a trio of fast bowlers on the injury list in Matthew Foster, Jordan Neill and Finn Lutton, only Neill, Ireland’s latest international, would have significantly boosted the batting.
The other big factor was that they lost the toss and, on a green pitch were, unsurprisingly, inserted. Before the second over was complete, wickets had outnumbered the runs with Paddy Beverland and Ellison’s replacement in the opener’s slot, Seb Yeates, both back in the pavilion. Ryan Hunter followed three overs later.
It should have been 17 for four by the end of the sixth over but Sean Davey was dropped, a straightforward chance at mid-off before he had scored. It was not a costly miss, because although the New Zealander hung around for another nine overs, he added only five runs before he gave a catch to mid-on, which was not missed by opposite number Hermann Rolfes.
Rolfes had been taken out of the attack by that stage - with figures of 6-1-7-3 - his third wicket that of Adam Leckey, who was one of only two players to reach double figures. RBAI’s Schools Cup winning captain had only three scoring shots in his 22 balls, two of them clearing the boundary.
Meanwhile, at the other end, Mark Best bowled nine overs straight through and added the wickets of Stuart Thompson and James West to his tally to reduce the visitors to 39 for seven.
The spirited resistance came from Harry Dyer who, against everything that had gone on before, hit a run-a-ball 36, with six boundaries. But that couldn’t last and Ben Snell, who had replaced Rolfes, had him caught at deep mid-wicket, the ball after hitting the third and final six of the innings.
Jacob Mulder was the only other bowler, CI needed to use and he bowled the occasional medium pacer, even being called for a wide on height. It was leg spin that took the final wicket, however in the 26th over, a finish so early that the umpires ruled there was still an hour’s play before the tea break.
That proved more than enough for CIYMS to knock off the runs despite the loss of another make-shift opener, Mulder, in the first over.
Jake Egan was in a hurry to make inroads into the total and hit 23 off 11 balls before he was bowled by Leckey but that was CSN’s only other success and Chris Dougherty, who did not get off the mark until 28 runs were on the board (he had faced only eight balls) and Rolfes added the remaining 53 runs to complete victory in the 12th over.
CSN, who play in the only other league game on Saturday, are in a much more tricky position. They are at home to a resurgent Muckamore, on the back of their stunning win against Lisburn and will have to win and hope North Down do not beat Woodvale at Ballygomartin Road on Sunday. There is virtually nothing in the run-rate between CSN and North Down, so if both win, or lose, the margin of victory will decide the sixth place.
