The NCU Gallagher Challenge Cup final is Andrew White’s happy place. Ten times from 2000 to 2019, the Ireland international graced the stage but after his joint longest gap between finals, he gets a chance on Friday to pick up his sixth winners’ medal. Ominously for Waringstown, he has been man of the match in three of his winning appearances.

Now 45 years old, and 11 years since the last of his 232 Ireland matches, he is still a key figure for Instonians, underlined by the updated NCU averages this week where he is second in the list of leading wicket-takers this season.

Last Saturday he took three Waringstown wickets as the Shaw’s Bridge side won the top of the table Premier League clash at The Lawn to move into pole position to claim their second title in three years. With victory last week in the T20 Cup final, today they are going for the second leg of a possible quadruple; they play Phoenix in the All-Ireland T20 semi-final on Sunday.

To remain in contention, however, Instonians must end a four-match losing sequence in the Challenge Cup final, dating back to 2013, the last time these two sides met in the decider. There will be three, possibly four survivors from that game at The Green and while White is the only Instonians player still around, Greg Thompson, Adam Dennison and, if called up, Phil Eaglestone, were all on the winning side that day for Waringstown.

Waringstown lost the following year’s final to Civil Service North but have won their two finals since, against CSN in 2018, when Dennison scored 145, then the highest score in the 50-over showpiece, until overtaken by Morgan Topping’s 150 two years ago – when Dennison scored 109.

Dennison, who did not bat when he was in the Waringstown line-up as a 14-year-old in 2011, has not been in that sort of form recently – his last 50 was two months ago - but then not many of the Villagers top order have. Only Topping, who scored 84 last Saturday, and James McCollum have reached 500 runs this season, scraping into the top 20 of leading run-scorers, yet Waringstown have lost only three 50-over games because they can boast they bat all the way down the order.

Tom Mayes famously scored 137 against Muckamore, to rescue his side from 61 for six – he also top scored against Lisburn - and Thompson is surely one of the most dangerous and free-scoring No 6s in the league. New South African professional Daniel van der Merwe shared a 180-run stand with Mayes that day but he has had a new role for the last month. Promoted to No 3 for a 25-over match against Cliftonville Academy at the start of July, he hit 19 off 13 balls, kept his place and then crashed 87 off just 36 in a 50-over game against North Down. Against Instonians, he went in first with Sam Topping.

White tempted him into a false shot last week and if he fulfils that role again on Friday you can be sure the veteran will be brought into the Instonians attack early.

Only 10 runs separated the teams at The Lawn but neither side will be reading too much into the result. For a start, Waringstown served up a turning pitch that played into the hands of the four Instonians slow bowlers and a much more pace-friendly Stormont pitch can be expected on Friday.

However, slow left armer Cian Robertson has been the stand-out bowler this season – his 45 wickets, 11 more than White - and he comes into the final in a real purple patch, not just for Instonians but also for the Emerging Knights in the just completed two-day Future series. James Lambert, on Junior Cup final duty last week and James Magee, both missed the League game but are the likely replacements for the other two slow bowlers from last week, the unavailable Ben Rose and David Agnew who is away with Ireland U15s.

Waringstown seem certain to be without injured international Graham Hume, who will be a huge loss – and not just for his bowling – but Mayes is in superb form with the ball – he has 24 wickets at the second lowest average of 15.46, just a fraction behind Robertson, and Mitchell has also stepped up. Captain Thompson has the third best strike rate in the NCU this season with a wicket every 22 balls and Ross Allen is the club’s leading wicket-taker with 27.

Neither side has played at NCU HQ this season – with both finalists at home in the league match and Civil Service North in the bottom four post-split – so it could be a case of which team adapts best to the conditions.

Instonians changed tact with their attacking batting approach last Saturday, whether adapting to the surface or with respect to the Waringstown opening attack – scoring only 29 in the powerplay – but with free-scoring players like new international Cade Carmichael, Neil Rock and Shane Dadswell it will be a surprise if they can contain themselves for too long on the biggest stage of the season.

Carmichael goes into the game with 904 runs to his name – 77 more than the next best – and Rock’s strike rate of 172 can be matched only by Dadswell, just two slower. Rob McKinley will attempt to hold an end up and then White and captain Nikolai Smith will follow in the middle order to complete a formidable top half.

White has seen it all before, starting out with a man of the match performance in 2000 with North Down, the first of four consecutive finals for the Comber side who also won in 2001 and 2003, the latter a two-innings final against Waringstown with White scoring 84 and 54 and taking four for 59 in his 20 overs.

He had to wait until 2009 for his first final with Instonians, but his unbeaten 50 was enough to help his new side beat his old side and claim a third MoM and it was North Down again who were on the receiving end in 2012 when White’s 57 not out was upstaged by James Shannon’s 99 not out.

But that was White and Instonians’ last success in the final with Waringstown winning the following year by 87 runs and CIYMS seeing off the Shaw’s Bridge side in the next three odd years. Smith, in his first final, in 2017 top scored with 67 and Olly Metcalfe, one of five survivors from 2019, outscored his team-mates that year.

It’s a final that is too close to call and it may need more than one class act to win it for his side. But there are no shortage of candidates who can do that in what promises to be a showdown to savour.