Newbuildings kept alive their hopes of winning the Long’s SuperValu Premiership for the second time in three years with a last-gasp one-wicket victory over Brigade in a low-scoring thriller at Beechgrove.
Despite bowling out the home side for just 82, Newbuildings collapsed to 76 for nine to leave the last wicket pair of Trent McKeegan and Gregory McFaul to score the remaining runs and claim a valuable 20 points.
McKeegan needed just four balls to finish the job, hitting the first ball of Davy Barr’s over for six, and a single won the game to leave them 20 points behind joint leaders Eglinton and Donemana with a game in hand.
It completed a superb all-round match for McKeegan, who had bowling figures of five for 26 in his eight overs, including three of Brigade’s star batters, Davy Barr, leading run-scorer Scott Macbeth and professional Marcello Piedt.
Newbuildings now need a maximum of 46 points from their final two games which are against Ardmore and Killyclooney, who were relegated on Sunday when they lost to the outgoing champions at The Bleachgreen.
Strabane will replace Killyclooney in the Premiership in 2025 after only remaining challengers St Johnston lost to Burndennett on Sunday.
However, while the Red Caps could celebrate winning the Section Two title, they failed to double up, losing the Butler’s National Cup Final to Rush in Cork.
Rush, now four-time winners of the competition, amassed 281 for eight in their 40 overs, and although Strabane reached 96 for two in reply, the loss of Aaron Gillespie, Rhys Logue and John Mooney in the space of five overs ended their Cup dream.
BUTLER’S NATIONAL CUP FINAL
The Mardyke: Rush 281-8 (J Doyle 89, J Barnes 43 not out, N Totakhil 41, F McGee 30; A Mullen 2-23, N Nawar 2-44, T Boyd 2-44)
Strabane 155 (34.1 overs, A Gillespie 41, U Azhar 29, L McGarrigle 21; N Totakhil 4-19, A Abbasi 3-14)
Rush won by 126 runs
LONG’S SUPERVALU PREMIERSHIP
At The Bleachgreen, Ardmore (23 pts) beat Killyclooney (2 pts) by 6 wickets
The Bleachgreen: Killyclooney 136 (34.3 overs, J Wallace 36, J Connor 33, A Neil 22, W Finlay 21; C Brolly 4-20, H Zimmermann 2-25)
Ardmore 139-4 (21 overs, D Singh 51, R Gaur 44; M Gordon 2-14)
At Beechgrove, Newbuildings (20 pts) beat Brigade (5 pts) by 1 wicket
Beechgrove: Brigade 82 (29.2 overs, D Barr 25, M Piedt 21; T McKeegan 5-26, R Dougherty 3-20)
Newbuildings 83-9 (24.4 overs, R Dougherty 20; D Barr 3-16, S Macbeth 3-17)