Johnny Thompson produced a Man-of-the-Match display as Newbuildings won the Senior Cup for the first time in their history with a five-wickets win over Donemana at Beechgrove.

Newbuildings were struggling at 158 for 8 replying to Donemana’s first innings of 173, but ‘JT’ made a vital 47, with two of his three sixes taking his side into the lead as 21 runs came from the 46th over bowled by Gary Neely.

They do things differently in the North West and the bizarre regulations in place meant the second innings would be reduced to 34 overs after time lost on Friday, despite having Sunday as a reserve day.

Donemana quickly wiped out their 18-run deficit but Trent McKeegan removed openers Gary McClintock and Rumesh Buddhika in quick succession to put his side firmly on top.

Thompson then took centre stage again, dismissing Ray Curry, Dean Mehaffey and first innings top scorer Levi Dougherty – the innings in tatters at 81 for 7.

David O’Sullivan’s 26 got the Tyrone side to 126, meaning a modest target of 109. However, it looked far away as they collapsed to 45 for 4 and 64 for 5.

Newbuildings though had the comfort of overseas professional Samarth Seth still in the middle and he and Thompson, who else, guided them home with an unbroken stand of 47.

Seth, who top scored with 58 in the first innings, made an unbeaten 46, signing off the season in style – he flies back to India on Monday – with an aggregate of 997 runs.

“Our professional Samarth has been tremendous,” said a proud Newbuildings captain Gareth McKeegan after lifting the trophy. “We will be so sad to see him go but hopefully he will be back. As a player he is simply amazing.

“JT is a match winner. I’ve said it before but he is one of, if not the best all-rounders in North West cricket. He may be in his 40’s but he’s still a fantastic player who loves the big occasion.

“This feels really good to finally win the cup after the disappointments of the last two years. I don’t know if I could have gone up there and given another losing speech, but thankfully I didn’t have to.

He also paid tribute to the incredible support – a crowd of almost 2000 yesterday as they drank Beechgrove dry!

“They’ve been unreal. They get behind us everywhere we go. Over the last two days they have been amazing, never stopping shouting and supporting us.”