The NCU season got off with a wimper rather than a bang as two of the five Premier League games, at Cliftonville Academy and Carrickfergus, fell before the starting line, and two more, at Stormont and Shaw’s Bridge, didn’t last even one innings.

The one game that was completed was at Belmont where CIYMS overwhelmed newly promoted Derriaghy by 163 runs, but even that was shortened by the rain and reduced to 35 overs.

Some new faces at Belmont this season but it was the old guard, Ross Adair (50), Chris Dougherty (45) and Jason vd Merwe (99*) who cashed in, piling up 276/6 before hustling out Derriaghy for just 100.

A Man of the Match performance from ‘new face’ Theo van Woerkrom who claimed 5-20 to add to his 45 first innings runs.

Theo van Woerkrom who took 5-20 and scored 45 against Derriaghy. (© CricketEurope)

The weather was slightly kinder to the Section One programme with two games being completed.

At Muckamore the home side saw off Belfast by 80 runs after posting 257/6 in a full 50 over innings.

Half centuries for Luke Allen (72), Kyllin Vardhan (67) and Neil Gill (59)  in their total while for the visitors Naveem Ahmad took 4-25 and Hamza Hussain 2-59.

In reply Belfast could only manage 177, bowled out in the 40th over, their runs coming thanks to Nicolaas Serdyn who scored 72.

For Muckamore, Pavan Karthik, newly returned from Woodvale, claimed an impressive 5-43, and another new face at Moylena, Trevor Britton took 2-22.

Ballymena travelled to Laurelvale and saw the home side post 208/6 in a innings reduced to 48 overs. Mark Thornbury top scoring for the hosts with 54 while John Glass took 4-45 for Ballymena.

The game was reduced further, down to 36 overs with the DLS target set at 186, but that was 36 too many for Ballymena who were bowled out in the 31st for 149.

A top heavy batting card for Ballymena with James Kennedy (44) and Glen Adams (37) the only players to reach double figures as Abdullah Aryan took 5-50 and Mohammad Ajmal 3-20.