Shane Dadswell played what is sure to be one of the innings of the season but ended up on the losing side as Woodvale inflicted the first league defeat on defending champions Instonians. 

Dadswell was last man out for 137 – second top score was 17 – as he showed that class batsmen can play on any surface. Woodvale won a huge toss on an soft, uncovered pitch, and Instonians slumped to 139 for nine with Ashwin Shetty taking four of the wickets. 

But Dadswell had already taken control and with No 11 Freddy Pearson, promoted from the Seconds, added another 70 for the last wicket. Pearson faced eight balls, without scoring! Dadswell finished with 13 sixes and just three fours. 

With the pitch drying out all the time under the sun, Woodvale found it much easier to bat and lost only two wickets in the chase. Finn Restieaux, opening the batting, hit 62 (six fours and three sixes) and Ludwig Kaestner finished the job in style with 91 not out, from 78 balls, hitting five fours and seven sixes.

Laurelvale felt the full force of Steve Stolk’s bat at The Lawn, the Waringstown professional hurrying his side to an emphatic nine wickets victory with more than 41 overs to spare. 

After bowling out the visitors for 91, Stolk hit 85 not out from just 35 balls, an innings which included six fours and eight sixes. After the early loss of Sam Topping, the 20 year-old South African shared a second wicket stand of 85 in 33 balls with Adam Dennison who faced just five of them.

Adnan Malik scored 40 for Laurelvale but after he was fourth out, the last six wickets fell for 13 runs, Waringstown captain Greg Thompson finishing with six for 18 from nine overs.

It looked like another quick finish at Wallace Park when Lisburn, needing 188 for victory, brought up the 100 in the 12th over with all 10 wickets in hand. 

But they needed another 20 overs to get over the line as Cliftonville Academy produced their best bowling performance of the season, taking seven wickets. CA skipper Matthew McCord dominated the visitors’ innings with 79 from 63 balls (nine fours and four sixes) and Anwar Khan provided late resistance with 42 in a last wicket stand of 46 , the second highest partnership of the innings. 

Lisburn were still without both Adair brothers and Ben Calitz, but Johnny Waite again stepped up and hit 67 from 41 balls, with nine fours and three sixes. When McCord made the breakthrough, young Callum Lowe was promoted to No 3 but there was to be no procession to victory. Alfie Wylie took three of the wickets and it needed a patient 36 not out from James Hunter and No 9 Ewan Wilson to hit the winning boundary.

Neil Brand powered Muckamore to a nine wicket victory at Moylena, hitting an unbeaten 74 from 41 balls, with seven fours and six sixes. The CI bowlers were helpless to contain him as the home side reached their target of 133 in just 16 overs. Marko Bates also reached his 50 in a first wicket stand of 130 but couldn’t quite see the job through. 

Brand and Aditya Adey each took three wickets as CI were bowled out in the 39th over, with only three CI batters getting into the 20s. Their last six wickets fell for 22 runs.

Civil Service North swept to a five wickets victory in another low scoring game at The Green, reaching their target of 115 inside 20 overs. 

After James West dominated the opening partnership with Marc Ellison, Ashwin Hebbar stayed to the finish, with an unbeaten 42 from 33 balls. 

Adam Leckey was the early destroyer for the visitors as the in-form North Down top order collapsed to 42 for four and although captain Tyron Koen and Harry Zimmermann added 54 for the fifth wicket, the last six wickets fell for 18 runs.