It was the irony of all ironies that Brigade's Stephen Smyth was given the Man of the Match award by adjudicator John Wright (hon secretary of the Irish Cricket Union) at Anglesea Road last evening, after the North West club had swept aside hapless Merrion by 95 runs to go through to next month's final of the Irish Senior Cup, sponsored by Royal Liver.

Smyth, of course, received an official five-year suspension from representative cricket and was banned from club cricket until the end of next season only last Tuesday. He was allowed to play in this match as he exercised his right to an appeal.

In fact, there was no other contenders for the top individual honour. After Mark Simpson had won the toss and elected to bat, Smyth stroked 71 runs off as many balls in an innings which included three sixes and four fours. Smyth was dropped twice, but put the escapes firmly behind him to make the most of the Merrion fielding, which was patchy at best. The only other Brigade batsman to score many runs was Brian Sturgeon, who shared in a useful opening stand of 32 with Willie Wilson, before putting on a further 22 runs for the second wicket with Smyth.

Angus Fleming was Merrion's most successful bowler, ending up with 3 for 45, while Ed Joyce and Richard Dowse bowled economically and took a brace of wickets each. A total of 199 looked attainable as long as the weather held, but Merrion's aspirations rapidly began to look hopeful, rather than realistic.

Gordon Cooke and Gregory Wilson removed Gus and Ed Joyce with only 15 runs on the board. Joey Morrissey resisted with tenacity, but could get nobody to stay with him, and soon the path from the pavilion to the middle and back became commonly treaded.

Morrissey top-scored with 30 and of the rest only Richard Dowse and Stephen King reached double figures. Gordon Cooke, Gregory Wilson and Simpson were the major destroyers. Brigade now meet Limavady at Beechgrove next month in (another) all North West final.