Waringstown captain Greg Thompson claims the best signing Waringstown made last winter was James Cameron Dow.

The Ireland international – who played in Ireland’s second Test match against Afghanistan in 2019 – is the new head coach at The Lawn and Thompson credits him with Waringstown’s unbeaten start to the season.

“The delayed start, due to the weather, probably wasn’t a bad thing for us as it allowed us to get together for an extra couple of weeks and work hard in training,” says Thompson.

“When we sat down in October, JCD was keen to impress on us, and us on him, that we expected to be missing Graham Hume and James McCollum for large parts of the season due to international and inter-provincial call-ups so we had to expand our squad and put a focus on Ben Snell, Matthew Daly and Rory Bessell  and others like Josh Froggatt and Seb Best will get opportunities as well.

“With Kyle (McCallan) retiring it was an opportunity to move forward and our young guys to step up and they have done that in the first few matches. But we are not looking at next week but the next few seasons and it’s important that not only the young guys get the opportunities but those behind them see the opportunities are there and want to work hard to get their turn.”

Waringstown are in a five-way tie at the top of the Premier League table but with a match in hand over the others and are still without James Mitchell “still a couple of weeks away with a twisted ankle” and Ross Allen “working in England”.

Apart from Hume, who has been told by Cricket Ireland to sit out tomorrow’s Irish Cup tie against Newbuildings, Waringstown will be without McCollum with a knee injury – although he will play for Northern Knights at Stormont on Monday – and Lee Nelson who has damaged his shoulder and could be out “for significant amount of time”.

Cameron-Dow, will make his second playing appearance of the season but Thompson stresses: “JCD is here for his coaching and while he will play this weekend, going forward he is our coach and will do most of that from the sidelines, that’s his preference, he doesn’t want to be taking up a position of someone who could be gaining experience for future seasons.”

Tomorrow’s action is a first ever meeting between Waringstown, the most successful team in the Irish Cup with six wins, and current North West Premiership champions Newbuildings.

“It will be a good challenge,” admits Thompson, “they have a few experienced guys in Johnny Thompson and Gareth McKeegan but they have shown faith  in their youth programme as well.

“The Irish Cup is a special trophy, the club has enjoyed it throughout their history and we have had four successes in the last 12 years, so looking forward to starting with a win but Newbuildings will prove tough opposition first up.”

The game is one of four Irish Cup ties in the North West with Carrickfergus going into Donemana’s den, while Eglinton travel to North Down in the other all-Ulster tie, one of three games in the NCU.

Cliftonville Academy and Derriaghy are both in what looks an extremely competitive National Cup competition – the former make the long journey to Cork – which includes five-time Irish Cup winners North County who, along with Ballyspallen, have received a first round bye while St Johnston have a walkover after Co Kerry withdrew.