🏏 Weekly Round-Up – Another Huge Week for Balbriggan Cricket Club!

🚨 WEEKLY ROUND-UP! 7 wins from 8 matches 💪 Big performances, first centuries, cup wins, and young stars shining across the club! 🏏💥 ✅ Women’s 1s: FOUR wins in one week ✅ 13-year-old Ollie Richardson hits his first 💯 ✅ Men’s 1s & 3s roll on in league & cup ✅ U7 Blitz showcases the future of the club 🙌

W2s vs Terenure – Wednesday

Our Women’s 2s had another excellent win last night at home in Jack Harper Park against Terenure CC 🥳

Our young ladies bowled first and skipper Erin used 8 bowlers as everyone bowled and fielded superbly – including our 2 sub fielders 💯

There were 2 wickets each for Anna Vezhakattu and Marisa Curtis, and one for Zoe Harper, with excellent support from skipper Erin Knight, Robyn Claxton, Maya Maritz, Mia Keenan, and Eshaal Mirza who all bowled superbly and gave away nothing to the opposition.

Terenure batted well and completed their 20 overs, finishing on 89 for 5.

Balbriggan then took their turn to bat and openers Kayla Hughes and Iseult McDonnell got us off to a great start with a 40-run partnership before Kayla was out for an excellent 18. Iseult was then joined by Eshaal Mirza and the two young ladies batted superbly to bring home the win in the 14th over! Iseult finished on 30* and Eshaal on 27*.

Match Scorecard: View here

Another brilliant win for our young team and the group is going from strength to strength 💪

Keep working hard Girls 💯

Women’s 1s vs The Hills – Thursday

Our Women’s 1st Team put in an excellent performance last night to take home the win against The Hills CC and make it 2 wins in 2 days for our Women’s Teams.

Balbriggan skipper Tess Maritz won the toss and asked The Hills to bat first. We got off to an excellent start with an early wicket for Ella Marsh. Abbi Harrison started well for The Hills but was out to a brilliant catch by Robyn Claxton off the bowling of debutant Tamsin Hope – the first of 2 wickets for Tamsin.

Madison Landsman bowled superbly again with 3 wickets for just 15 runs conceded, but the star of the bowling effort was 14-year-old leg spinner Marisa Curtis who took 3 wickets and only conceded 4 runs to again show that she doesn’t look out of place at Premier League level as we bowled out The Hills for 64.

It was Balbriggan’s turn to bat and the run chase went smoothly as we chased down the score for the loss of just 2 wickets. Lara Maritz with 36* and Ella Marsh with 24* brought home the win for the Brig!!

Match Scorecard: View here

Men’s 1s vs North Kildare – T20

Our Men’s 1st Team kept their winning run going last night as they ran out winners over North Kildare in a T20 clash at Jack Harper Park.

Skipper Greg Ford won the toss and decided we would bat first. Connor Fletcher went early but Cam Rowe and Chris De Freitas then put together a brilliant 110-run partnership before Cam was out for 43.

More wickets fell as new batters were forced to go big from the start but Chris kept going and ended up with a brilliant 87* off 52 balls. A total of 171 for 5 was a little less than hoped for earlier in the innings but still a big score for North Kildare to chase.

We started well with the ball through Dylan Lues, Matt Hollard, and Seb De Oliveira keeping the score down. After 10 overs, North Kildare were 63/3 and Balbriggan would have been confident, but some big hitting from Abdul Aryan gave the Brig a scare.

Then Chris De Freitas came on to bowl and the “Golden Arm” made the breakthrough – the first of 3 wickets – and Balbriggan wrestled back control of the game. Matt, Jordan Hollard, Seb, and Dylan Lues all took wickets as North Kildare kept pushing for a win.

The visitors ended up 20 runs short – a win for the Brig to keep confidence high going into Monday’s Fingal Derby away to The Hills CC.

Match Scorecard: View here

3 wins from 3 in the cups for Coach Andre, Greg and the lads.

Women’s 1s vs Phoenix and Clontarf – Away on Saturday

🆚 Clontarf

Our Women’s 1’s had an exceptional day yesterday at The Phoenix Park as the ladies came away with 2 wins from 2 in the days double header against Clontarf CC and Phoenix CC

Our first game was against Clontarf who had beaten hosts Phoenix in the first game of the day and Brig skipper Tess Maritz won the toss and asked Clontarf to bat first , Clontarf Started Well and were 50 for 1 before an excellent spell of bowling from Erin Bond turned the game around as she took the wickets of 4 of Clontarfs top 5 batters.

All the bowlers bowled well and kept the runs down and were backed up well in the field as Clontarf reached 106/6 off their 20 overs.

We then took our turn to bat and after an early wicket and a rain break , we were given a revised target of 87 from 15 overs , Ciara Gibson and Skipper Tess batted well to get us within 25 of the target before Ciara was out for a well made 22 , Madison Landsman joined Tess and they brought home the win with an over to spare , Tess unbeaten on 25 and Madison 16 not out.

Match Scorecard: View here

🆚 Phoenix

There was a very quick turnaround before we headed out to play the hosts Phoenix , Phoenix won the toss and asked us to bat first ,

Ciara Gibson and Lara Maritz opened the batting and put on a superb partnership to score 96 before Lara was out for an excellent 49 from 42 balls. Tess joined Ciara and the runs kept flowing as the ladies looked to up the scoring rate , Tess made 23 from 14 balls and Madison With 18 from 10 balls , Ciara Gibson was the last wicket to fall for a superb 60 which was the mainstay of our score of 165 for 3 off our 20 overs.

Phoenix took their turn to bat and early wickets for Lara and Ella Marsh put us on top , however an excellent partnership by Zara Craig and Siuin Woods put Phoenix in the game at 70 for 2 off 9 overs ,

But again the game was turned around as Craig and Woods were dismissed in consecutive balls , Craig run out by Ciara Gibson and the next ball Madison bowled Siuin Woods to put the Brig in control .

From there we bowled and fielded excellently with Marisa Curtis and Erin Bond picking up wickets and Ella Marsh with 2 , Phoenix finished on 114 for 7 off their 20 and a win for the Brig by 51 runs

Match Scorecard: View here

2 sensational wins for Tess and her squad. Coach Chuka Uba will have been a happy man!

Next up for the Ladies is an away trip to top of the table Merrion on Thursday , Merrion are a powerful side but the girls will be full of confidence after yesterday and look to put it up to unbeaten Merrion at Anglesea Road

Men’s 3s vs Trinity – Saturday

Our Men’s 3s made it 2 wins from 2 in the league so far as they defeated Dublin University 2s at Jack Harper Park Yesterday

The visitors won the toss and decided to bat first , Balbriggan made early inroads with wickets for Aadi Wankhade , Ryan Keenan and Hamza to have the students 58 for 5 , but a solid partnership by opener Kunapalli and Captain Aidan Muller helped DU to 165 for 8 off their 50 overs.

All the Balbriggan bowlers bowled well and gave little away , Aadi and Ryan with 2 wickets and 1 each for Hamza and ali Shah.

We then took our turn to bat and an excellent opening partnership by Ryan Keenan and Nithin Thambi put Balbriggan in control , there was a wobble with 3 quick wickets falling but Punit Kapoor and the ever green Adrian Harper batted exceptionally to bring us to the win by 6 wickets with time to spare.

Women’s 2s vs Mullingar – Sunday

Balbriggan received a walkover as Mullingar CC conceded the fixture.

Bank Holiday Monday Review

We had 3 teams in action on Monday and there was lots of positives from all 3 team performances.

Men’s 1s vs The Hills

Our 1s made the short trip to The Vineyard to play The Hills CC where Skipper Greg Ford won the toss and asked the Hills to bat first ,

Matt Hollard and Seb De Oliveira opened the bowling and they immediately got stuck into the Hills top order , Matt Made the initial breakthrough and Dylan Lues and Andy Darroch then came on and took wickets to reduce the Hills to 69 for 5 , The Hills recovered to 111 before Andy Darroch made the breakthrough again for his third wicket.

From there Matt Hollard and Seb returned and Matt swept away the last Hills wickets to finish with superb figures of 5 for 46 with the Hills all out for 135.

Our chase had a little wobble before Greg Ford and Chris Defreitas steadied the nerves with a quick fire 72 run partnership , Greg was out for 35 but Chris kept going and with Dylan Lues , brought home the win. Chris finishing unbeaten on 55.

Am excellent win to get our League season up and running

Match Scorecard: View here

Men’s 3s vs Pembroke

Our 3s made the trip to Pembroke and skipper Niall McElearney won the toss and decided to bat first, There was plenty of partnerships as all the top order made starts , but Skipper Niall held things together with 78 and backed up by late hitting from Ali Shah with 43 and Chuka Uba with 21 brought us to a very good total of 238 for 9 from our 40 overs.

Pembroke then took their turn to bat and it was an excellent bowling effort from the Brig , Aadi Wankhade led the attack with 3 wickets for 18 from , Chuka Uba with 3 for 25 and wickets for Druhan Knight , Rog Kear and Nithin Thambi , All the bowlers made scoring difficult and eventually bowled Pembroke out for 136 for a full points win.

Match Scorecard: View here

Men’s 5s vs Sandyford

Finally the 5ths were at home at Jack Harper Park against Sandyford CC ,for Balbririgan we had two 13 year olds opening the batting in Ollie Richardson and Jacob Philip , the two boys settled quickly and put on a wonderful partnership of 165 before Ollie was out for an incredible 109 , a first Century in Senior Cricket for Ollie and hopefully the first of many , Jacob kept going before eventually being out for a brilliant 44 , Balbrigan Kept going and were all out in the 38th over for 213.

After tea Sandyford took their turn to bat and Balbriggan stuck to the task well and kept taking wickets , but Sandyford eventually chased down the score to get the win.