It's not often that 'our wee school' can boast at being Northern ireland Champions, but that's exactly what we can do tonight after out Kwik Cricket Team won the NI Finals tournament at Stormont!

The team, consisting of six boys and two girls, were unbeaten throughout, and behaved themselves impeccably in every circumstance.

The team travelled to Belfast, with three players who had made it to the final, only to lose out, in each of the past two years. However, this time the final hurdle was passed without incident!

In the group stages the team faced Victoria PS(Newtownards), Brooklands PS (Dundonald) and Fairview (Newtownabbey) and passed the test without any incident-in fact they managed to rattle up some fairly impressive scores!

In the semi final stage they met local North West Rivals Eglinton PS and solid bowling saw them restrict them to a score of 222. Donemana reached the total with two overs remaining, and only a loss of wickets could see them lose. With Gary and William arriving to face the remaining overs this was never likely, and the team strode assuredly into the final, led by captain Joe Robinson.

The final, a repeat of last year's final, petered out into an emphatic win after a stunning display of bowling by Donemana left Campbell College (Belfast) with a score of 176-26 less than they started with! A highlight of the innings was a hatrick from Timothy Dougherty! This left the young Campbell players with a real loss of confidence, however they played gamely on throughout and handled themselves with great manners and maturity. Donemana batted with great assurance throughout and, finally could declare themselves Northern Ireland champions.......not bad for a little village school of just over 100 children-especially when you compare the backgrounds of the other schools. The children involved should be rightly proud of their achievement......how many people can say there were ever a Northern Ireland champion at anything..??

Special mention should go to our two lady members of the team-Kim and Sheree-in both the semi and final, we played against teams with 7 boys and 1 girl, whilst we played with 2 girls and 6 boys, and on both occassions, the girls produced wonderful performances.

The children not only played great cricket, but were so well behaved and sporting in their behaviour that everyone involved in school should be rightly proud of them too!

Special thanks go to the parents who helped out on the day-Sonia, Sylvia, Diane and Margaret, and the event sponsors ASDA.

The team now will hopefully travel to Nottingham for the National finals-we are awaiting confirmation of a place, and then we'll have to look for funds!!!!!