Holywood Cricket Club 1881

Safe travels to our Overseas Player Thinus Gouws as he returns to Pretoria 🇿🇦 . Thanks for everything you’ve done for the Club and the example you continue to set as a player and person. See you soon in a few weeks back this side.

Well done to Dan Fletcher’s M2 who won Jr League 7 yesterday after a tie against their nearest rivals. In a match where the Winner would also won’t he League, it all came down to the final ball bowled by Prabhu Gopinath. With 2 runs needed, a nice stop from Puskar Pun kept the Dunmurry batters to only 1 run and a tie was the result. A small margin between winning the League and coming 2nd. Well done to the Team and well deserved.

Club barbecue! Be there at 3pm 06/09/26. Seapark 📍

Well done to Thinus Gouws whose 108 for the M1 (264 for 10) v BISC (126 for 10) in their final match earned him Player of the Match sponsored by moorcroftfoods, a Newtownards based provider of Biltong, Boerwors and other delicious foods. Well done to the M1 on their 138 run win. Elijah Harte took home the dreaded Ostrich Shirt.

Congratulations to the M1 who completed their Mercury Security & Facilities Senior League 2 Season unbeaten with 14 wins following their final match, a 138 run win v BISC on Saturday 22nd August. The M1 also won the LVS Bowl T20 Competition.

An outstanding achievement by the Players, Captain James Hemmings and Coach Steve Kruger whose attention to detail, focus on high standards and consistency, realisation of incremental gains, and engagement with the Players and wider Club created great unity and enthusiasm.

Well done everyone 👏

Join us this Saturday at Seapark for the last M1 match of the Summer. Hopefully the team can finish with a win to go unbeaten in the League for the Summer. Good luck guys. All support welcome.

Thank you to the for its continued great coverage of our Club.

On Saturday, Holywood 2nd XI won the NCU Minor Qualifying Cup by beating Victoria 2nd XI at The Mall, Armagh.

Batting first, Holywood were led by Richard Hope, whose 49 runs made him the leading run-scorer in the competiion, with 210 from three innings. Further contributions came from Puskar Pun (27), Shah Ata (30) and Dan Fletcher (27).

The total of 190/6, from 30 overs, seemed about par against a disciplined Victoria team who fielded well and saved many boundaries.

After a delcious tea generously provided by Armagh CC, Victoria were put under pressure by Holywood’s Ali Khan Sherwani, who was on a hat-trick in the opening over. But Victoria’s Muhammad Bhandara fought fire with fire, striking the ball fiercely and leading Victoria to 59/2 after 7 overs.

At that point, Madison Landsman began a fine spell of leg-spin bowling, which quickly included the wicket of Robert Black, the left-hander bowled through the gate. Richard Snodgrass took a fine catch at extra cover to remove Viswanathan Vanaraja. But still, Victoria stayed in touch with the required run-rate as Bhandara reached 50 off 31 balls.

At the start of the 12th over, Bhandara went searching for one too many and was stumped off Landsman’s bowling. This brought to the crease Rithwik Mandody, who swept aggressively to put Holywood back under pressure as Victoria reached to 129/6 off 20 overs.

The breakthrough was made by Puskar Pun, whose tidy off-breaks slowed the scoring and eventually led Mandody to sky one to Landsman on the boundary (133/7 off 22.1 overs).

Holywood returned to their seamers, whose controlled lines created pressure and led to a tight run out by James Atkinson.

In the end, Holywood won by 16 runs. Both teams recognised they had fought a tight game in which each team had been in front at various stages. A proper cup final!

The M2 moved to the top of their League with a 152-run victory over Belfast 2nds at Seapark on Sunday 9 August.

Batting first, Holywood were ruthless in making 316 for 3 off 28 overs before the rain arrived. They were led by Richard Hope, who made a superb 163 and was well-supported by Aman Tariq (55) and Joe Keith-Cotton (44*). Richard was also indebted to Michael Harte, who was selfless in sacrificing his wicket to avoid Richard being run out.

After a break for rain, Belfast were set a revised target of 226 off 20 overs. They swung hard but were bowled out for 73. The key wickets were taken by Andrew Sinnamon (3 for 25), Angus Pakenham (2 for 13) and Matthew Marks (3 for 2).

Well done everyone on the M1 for their 6 wkt win against Ardent Blues yesterday and especially to Aman Tariq as Player of the Match sponsored by moorcroftfoods, providers of Biltong, Boerwors and much more in Newtownards. Elijah Harte was recipient of the dreaded Ostrich shirt.