On Thursday I drove up to Derry for the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup Final in Strabane, using my EazyPass to get through the Westlink and Boyne bridge tolls. I checked into the White Horse and waited for the North County boys to arrive. Why the White Horse? Well, Conor Armstrong had negotiated a good deal with the hotel.

Just after half nine they arrived from Strabane, in three taxis, costing them £25 a cab. That and two the next morning more than wiped out any saving they'd made on the rooms! Like the professional sportsmen they're purported to be, they had a few beers before retiring.

The morning was fine in Strabane, though Junior told me that the rain would arrive around two in the afternoon. André Botha won the toss and opted to bat. Half an hour later the County innings was in a mess, with more ducks than a Chinese takeaway menu.

First, Reinhardt Strydom dragged a wide long hop from Steve Dunn onto his stumps: 3/1. Then Richie Lawrence drove too soon at a widish half volley from Dunn, and gave Jordy McGonigle an easy catch at mid off: 10/2.

Finally, André Botha wafted at Andy Britton, and the ball flew high to second slip. Dwayne McGarrigle was just too big for the ball to miss him, and he grabbed it at the second attempt: 11/3. Adrian Murphy got his head down, worked the ball around, and steadied the ship.

It was hard going, though. There was one over when Conor Armstrong hit three successive fours off Steven Dunn, but the normally free-scoring County batsmen had made only 44 runs off the first 15 overs. Azhar Shaffique had replaced Britton, but Dunn bowled his ten straight through.

In the eighth over of his impressive spell, Dunn brought one back from outside off to hit Murphy's pad, but umpire Alan Neill decided that it hadn't come back enough to hit the stumps. The Donemana agony was short-lived, when Shaffique found Trevor Magee more obliging than his colleague: Murphy lbw for 11, and County 46/4.

John Mooney was in no trouble at all, and Conor Armstrong was beginning to find enough bad balls to despatch. County had reached 67 when Junior McBrine was introduced into the attack, and immediately hustled one straight through Mooney's inadequate defence.

Ciaran Garry kept Armstrong company while he reached his fifty just before drinks at 78/5. He then began to bat more positively as the drizzle started. The ball started to get greasy, and the umpires decided that enough was enough at 2:15, with the score on 106/5 off 32 overs, Armstrong on 64* and Garry on 18*.

The rain got heavier, the northeast wind keener, and play was abandoned for the day, to resume at 11 a.m. on Saturday (or as soon as possible afterwards). I repaired to the White Horse, to be joined later by most of the County side. I reckoned 200 would win them the match, while 180 might be enough.

I enjoyed the craic as I dined with the Armstrongs, regaling Dara and Conor with stories, most of them true, about playing against their old man. Tom told just as many stories about this mad Englishman who played for Civil Service, all true.

Saturday was bright and breezy, and we reached Strabane to find the ground in surprisingly good condition, in no small way due to the efforts of the Strabane club members. Their hosting of the final over two days in trying circumstances was exemplary.

The start was delayed for only fifteen minutes, and Armstrong and Garry struggled against lively seam bowling from Shaffique and Britton. Junior replaced Britton from the pavilion end, and lured Armstrong into an injudicious sweep which twin brother James hung on to at square leg: 113/6, Conor out for a fine 68.

The situation was worsened three runs later when Garry also lost patience with Junior and was stumped for 20. Denver D'Cruz joined Dara Armstrong, their job being to get as many runs as possible, never mind whether it was 140, 160 or 180. With eight overs to go, 200 was out of the question.

The pair ran their singles, picked off the boundaries, and had a slice of luck when Richard Dougherty sportingly admitted to bungling a stumping of D'Cruz that umpire Magee had given out. Two more stumping chances off Junior went a begging.

In the last over Dara Amstrong hit Junior straight back over his head for six to reach 30, but next ball he underclubbed and found only the safe hands of Andy Britton. Three more runs were added before the last ball, which D'Cruz (16) skied back into the even safer hands of Junior.

The North County total of 165/9 (10 extras) was twenty short of a good score. All the bowling figures were good: Britton 10-1-25-1; Dunn 10-3-29-2; Shaffique 10-1-41-1; McGonigle 10-3-19-1; and Junior 10-0-46-4. Junior's and Shaffique's figures suffered from having to bowl the last few overs when it was MFI: everything must go.

Azhar Shaffique opened with Graham Boyd, and they kept out André Botha and Denver D'Cruz for a few overs. Shaffique even hit Botha for successive fours: same shot, one off the edge through third slip and one off the middle through cover.

Then Botha slid one past Boyd's defensive shot to hit middle and off. Boyd 6 and Donemana 19/1. It should have been 21/2, when James McBrine drove through extra cover, and completed two easy runs. I was watching Dwayne Harper pursue the ball, pick it up and return it to Boatsy.

I was amazed to see James set off for a third. Despite his short, fat, hairy legs pumping as fast as possible, there was no way he was going to beat Harper's throw. André took the ball, removed the bails and was as surprised as the rest of us when umpire Neill said 'not out'.

André kept his mouth shut, which was more than several of his team did, and it took several overs and some interventions from the umpires for John Mooney to calm down. Dwayne Harper replaced Botha, and immediately picked up Shaffique for 18 out of 28, strangling one down the leg side to Dara.

Dale Olphert played one lovely cover drive off Harper, but perished sort of repeating the shot, skewing it high to third man where Eddie Richardson completed a very good catch. That was 36/3 in the 15th over.

Figures of 3-0-7-2 aren't enough to get you another over for County, and Richie Lawrence took over from Harper at the pavilion end with his off breaks. Lunch was taken after 20 overs with Donemana on 47/3, James McBrine on 16*.

After lunch D'Cruz returned from the scoreboard end, and kept James from getting onto his favoured front dog by whistling the odd one very briskly past his ample chest. One was no-balled by umpire Magee.

It wasn't above shoulder height, and I do wish umpires would keep their arms by their sides and let fast bowlers bowl. If you don't want any aggro (aggression, not aggravation), go and umpire ladies' synchronised swimming. That was my opinion when I was an (international) umpire, and it hasn't changed now I'm a parochial 70-yarder. While James was being kept honest, Junior inexplicably missed an innocuous Lawrence off break to make it 52/4. Dwayne McGarrigle joined James and worked the ball around for a while before adopting his more usual pugnacious approach.

He hit boundaries off Richardson and a six off Lawrence , and the batting side reached 83/4 off 30. If you follow the old adage of doubling the score after 30 overs, Donemana were home and hosed, and their supporters certainly thought so. But all of a sudden things went very quiet.

McGarrigle had already survived a hardish chance to D'Cruz (Garry's inexperience showed again – he should have made it his instead of deferring to the pro) when on 18 he swished Richardson to Mooney: John Boy was in no mood to drop it.

91/5 became 91/6 when James (30) made a complete hash of André's away swinger, padding up, and was gone before Alan Neill could get his finger out of his pocket. Donemana are a good side, but their 8, 9, 10, J are no match for County's, particularly not against County's bowling.

And so it proved. Jordy McGonigle and Richie McBrine had looked the competent batsmen they are until Boatsy slipped fielding the ball out on the extra cover boundary. Jordy reckoned there was a second run, but Richie didn't. Richie was right. That made it 97/7.

McBrine had a go at Lawrence , but found Murph's Bajan buckets on the boundary. Richard Doughety swung at Richardson and missed. Andy Britton popped a simple catch to Adrian Murphy, and it was over: Donemana 112 all out in 39.4 overs, including 15 extras.

The County bowling figures were as impressive as were Donemana's: Botha 8-3-17-2; D'Cruz 8-0-23-0; Harper 3-0-7-2; Mooney 5-2-10-0; Lawrence 9-1-25-2; and Richardson 6.4-0-25-3.

Conor Armstrong was Roy Torrens's Man of the Match, and who would disagree with the big feller? John Boy had a special mention for brother Paul, and promised to wake him up in the middle of the New Zealand night with the good news.

Between 1982 and 1993 the competition was the preserve of NCU clubs, with only St. Johnston and Phoenix breaking their monopoly. For the rest of the century the cup went to the NW apart from North Down's third win. The 21st century has been an LCU affair, only Limavady's third win spoling things.

North County have now won it five times in eight years, and become the first club ever to retain the trophy. It's the job of the other 31 clubs to become as good as County – not to change the regulations – not to whinge about their 'professionals' – not to moan about their 'overseas' players.

Irish cricket will be stronger if four or five clubs in all three provinces can play at the standards set by County. My view is that will only happen if there are two All-Ireland leagues of eight clubs. Yes, it will cost money. Yes, it will mean some unpleasant truths coming home to some unwilling alickadoos. Yes, it will wreck the cosy provincialism that prevails in too many quarters.

On Sunday it was a case of After the Lord Mayor's Show. I took the toll-free route to Rathmines to watch the WMK Section A relegation vitaller between Leinster and Rush. The Leinster boys had managed to mop up much of the standing water in the outfield, and by bringing in the rope from the Gulistan Terrace back gardens, a game was possible.

Leinster won the toss and inserted Rush. Will Lennon had success with the first ball he pitched, getting Fintan McAllister caught behind for 4. Lionel Jansen added 26 more runs with Eoghan Conway (12) before the latter nicked off to Keeley Todd.

Nazeer Shaukat failed to score or to get his pad out of the way of middle, and it was 36/3. There then followed some good batting by Jansen and Tipu Gull and poorish bowling as Rush reached 70/3 at drinks.

Jansen got into his stride and passed 50, taking a particular liking to Asif Hussain's dibbley-dobbleys and to the 35 yard boundary down towards Duffy's wall. Seeing as I'm a 70-yarder, I stayed where I was near the pavilion - I might have noticed too much on the short side.

Then all changed with the score on 121 in the 36th over. Golden-arm Mark Jones was purveying his leggies, and fooled Jansen (70) with a half-tracker that pitched outside leg and hit middle. Shahid came in determined to hit Rush to 200.

He swished at skipper Anton Scholtz's straightbreaks (Jonesey had got the 'Thanks, Mark'), and looped it over Ian O'Herlihy's gloves. Next ball he got a much better connection, but only found Jonesey at long on (it would have been a lost ball in Rush). 129/5 became 129/6 when Tipu was dropped by Lennon at cover and then picked up one-handed at mid wicket by Todd. Scholtzy didn't have time to buy a raffle ticket, as Niall Mullen marched down the wicket to him and was stumped, before Keegan Clarke did likewise: 135/8.

Wasim Akhtar, who won the Irish Cup match in Rathmines with some some superb hitting, could only loop the ball to cover, and Eoghan Sheehan became O'Herlihy's Michelle as he was stumped off Scholtz for Anton's Birmingham Six-for.

Rush had subsided to 145 all out in 45.5 overs, with 14 extras. Scholtz had 6/31 off 8.5 overs, Todd 2/23 off 10, Lennon 1/24 off 9 and Jones 1/11 off 3. Probably the best bowler was Byron Vermaak, with 0/11 off 8.

The conditions were ideal for los tres amigos (I must find out what that is in Urdu), and Nazeer, Shahid and Tipu bowled excellent spells. But Jason Molins was in good nick, and Craig Mallon at his most dogged.

Not long after Jason had swatted the smallest six of his career, he played down the wrong line to Tipu and was bowled for 33 out of 55. Anton Scholtz's luck ran out when he top-edged a pull off Conway , and the left-armer pouched the skied return catch: 71/2.

Ian O'Herlihy came in and immediately started working the ball beautifully off his legs. Mallon battled on, eventually succumbing lbw to the returning Nazeer for 39 out of 113. Mark Jones padded up to Nazeer and was despatched by the younger of the Kray twins.

Once in the safety of the pavilion Jonesey gave out yards about the decision. Mark, you're like the happy hooker: you've been chunged lots of times before, you'll be chunged lots of times again; it may be better to be loved, but it's a living.

That was the end of Rush's success. Todd (8*) kept the impressive O'Herlihy (39*) company until 146 was reached off the first ball of the 47th over. There were 21 extras. Naz took 2/24 off 10, Tipu 1/26 off 10 and Shahid 0/26 off 9.1.

That leaves things very interesting at the bottom of section A. Rush and Leinster each have 2 wins; each can expect a third win when they play Malahide. Assuming bonus points against the Village are equal, to survive Leinster must garner 5 more points from their remaining three games than do Rush from their remaining two.

I shall probably be 70 yards away from the top of the table clashes, although next Saturday's Rush v Merrion fixture looks as if it might be worth watching. Don't worry – I shan't miss a single chung.