Some things never change. Chris Dougherty top scores for CIYMS against Waringstown and Tom Mayes takes six wickets in the same match.

On Bank Holiday Monday last year, Dougherty scored 61 at The Lawn and Mayes finished with six for 27. It has happened again with the one-time Ireland international batter hitting 70 and the two-time international bowler taking six for 31. On both occasions, Mayes took the last four wickets to hurry the innings to a conclusion.
The big difference this time was that  Mayes was on the winning team as CIYMS collapsed from 207 for six, in pursuit of Waringstown’s 267 for nine, to 237 all out.

That, though, should not be allowed to overshadow a superbly constructed century by Morgan Topping who batted for all but five and a half overs of the Waringstown innings, first in partnership with Adam Dennison and Graham Hume and then, crucially, for the ninth wicket with James Cameron-Dow, who was only playing in the match because Sam Topping was ‘rested’ after twisting his knee in Saturday’s opening day win.

Topping was given a life on 35 when Charles Swart reached the ball at deep cover, diving forward, but could not hold on, but that was a rare false stroke and he duly brought up his century in the last over. He was caught in the deep for 105, having hit nine fours and two sixes and ensured a competitive total for his bowlers to defend.

In the absence of younger brother Sam, new Waringstown professional Steve Stolk was promoted to open and for the second successive match he reached double figures but then got out. On Saturday, it was a wrong call by Morgan Topping that led to him being run out, but at Belmont he hit his first two balls to the boundary, made it three from the fifth and then hit a full toss straight to mid-on from his eighth.

Waringstown will be hoping that he is saving his runs for Saturday’s huge Irish Cup clash at The Lawn against Pembroke.

It was all going so well for Waringstown when they reached 140 for four after 30 overs but four overs later it was 159 for eight, as Topping watched his partners play three terrible shots.

First skipper Greg Thompson holed out to deep mid-wicket, next ball Mayes skied to mid-on and although Matthew Halliday kept out the hat-trick ball from John Matchett, in the next over he dashed down the wicket to Alex Armstrong and was stumped.

It needed the cool head of Cameron-Dow to restore order to proceedings for the Villagers and with Topping added 106 match-winning runs, 45 from his bat with four fours and two sixes.

The  stand was harsh on the CI bowlers who had stuck to their task with Satish Suresh coming back particularly well in his second spell, deservedly picking up Topping’s wicket, while Adam McCormick, on his debut after his move from Cregagh, dismissed Stolk and James McCollum in his first three overs to enjoy the perfect start.

Matchett, as he so often does, proved the golden arm in the middle of the innings, and finished with four wickets, while Carson McCullough and Armstrong both kept it tight.

CI, bowled out for 230 on Saturday by Lisburn, needed another good start – Jake Egan and Paddy Beverland had put on 110 for the first wicket - to threaten Waringstown’s total but by the eighth over, they had crashed to 21 for three.

Admittedly their batting order was disrupted by Egan having a stiff hamstring that forced him off the field for the last 65 minutes of the Waringstown innings, so Matchett had to open with Beverland. It didn’t work as Graham Hume dismissed Matchett and Dougherty, batting at No 4, and McCullough were having to perform a rescue job.

To their credit, they added 76, thanks to McCullough being dropped at mid-on, when 13 but James Mitchell, the unlucky bowler, did get his man eight overs later – with no help from a fielder - and Egan was finally allowed to come in at number six.

He scored a run-a-ball 17 before being bowled by Greg Thompson but when Dougherty’s 85-ball innings was ended by Cameron-Dow – a pretty useful bowler to be introduced in the 32nd over – it was 157 for six and it looked like game over.

Suresh and Jack Snell, against his boyhood club, didn’t agree and they added another 50 to keep everyone interested. The return of Mayes, though, settled the contest and four superb yorkers were much too good for the remaining batters and it was all over with 14 balls unused.

It’s been a tough start for CI – their next league game, against North Down, will be a truer test of how their season will pan out - while it’s two from two, as expected, for Waringstown and a titantic Cup test against one of Leinster's best is updoming. Should be a thriller.