Sion Mills Cricket Club is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

club in

Sion Mills Sion Mills is a village to the south of Strabane in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on the River Mourne. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 2,050 people. It is a tree-lined industrial village and designated conservation area, particula ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, playing in Qualifying League 1 of the North West League, having dropped out of the

North West Senior League The North West Senior League is the provincial cricket league within the North West Cricket Union jurisdiction in Ireland, which covers counties Londonderry, Fermanagh, and part of Tyrone in Northern Ireland and County Donegal in the Republic of ...

before the 2015 season. The club was founded in 1864, under the patronage of the Herdman family, the local mill owners. It has won the North West Senior League on 28 occasions and the

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

29 times. The club is remembered internationally as the host of the famous victory by

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

against the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

in 1969. In 1947, Sion Mills entered the

NCU Challenge Cup The NCU Challenge Cup, also called the NCU Senior Challenge Cup and the NCU Senior Cup, is the most important provincial cricket knock-out cup of the NCU jurisdiction in Ireland. The competition began in 1887, with eleven clubs participating in ...

and won it at the first attempt, also doing the North West "double" of league and cup in the same season. Sion reached eleven North West cup finals between 1945 and 1962, and lost only one, also winning six league titles during the same period. During the 1940s, it was arguably the strongest club in Ireland. In September 2019, the future of the club was put in doubt, following an arson attack.

150th anniversary

The club celebrated its 150th anniversary by hosting a select match at the Holm Field in 2014. Sion Mills Select consisting of past names through the years and some current squad members as well as some North West stalwarts like

Junior McBrine Alexander "Junior" McBrine (born 16 September 1963) is an Irish former cricketer. A right-handed batsman and left-arm orthodox spin bowler, he played 35 times for the Ireland cricket team between 1985 and 1994, including four first-class match ...

and

James McBrine James McBrine (born 16 September 1963 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland) is an Irish former cricketer. A right-handed batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler, he played just once for the Ireland cricket team, a first-class match agai ...

. Played an Ireland Select (selected by then

Cricket Ireland Cricket Ireland, officially the Irish Cricket Union, is the national governing body for cricket on the island of Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), and oversees the national men's and women's cricket teams. It also org ...

President Joe Doherty) led by Cricket Ireland international John Mooney and backed by another Ireland International in

Stuart Thompson Stuart Robert Thompson (born 15 August 1991) is an Irish cricketer. Thompson is left-handed batsman who bowls right-arm medium-fast. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Ireland's first ever Test match, against Pakistan, in May 2018 ...

. Some big names from around the North West and Ireland Cricket were selected. Then Ireland head coach

Phil Simmons Philip Verant Simmons (born 18 April 1963) is a Trinidadian cricket coach and former cricketer who was an all-rounder played as an opening batsman, a medium-fast bowler and a slip fielder. He is the current coach of the West Indies cricket ...

put on a display for the Ireland Select backed up by an innings of 70 for Thompson. The Ireland Select scored a 279 which they declared. Roy Silva taking 3 wickets. Sion Select fought hard through the match and their innings was dominated by Sri Lankan North West dynamo Roy Silva. Who scored a 116 consisting of 12 sixes and 8 fours entertaining the crowd. Sion recorded a win in the last over of the game.

Honours

: 26 (1 shared) **1904, 1907, 1909, 1911, 1913, 1919, 1920, 1923, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929 (shared), 1933, 1938, 1940, 1947, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1975, 1978 * County Londonderry/North West Senior Cup: 29 **1889, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1896, 1904, 1905, 1913, 1914, 1926, 1931, 1934, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1983, 1984 *

: 2 (1 shared) **1947, 1958 (shared)

References

External links

* 1864 establishments in Ireland Cricket clubs in County Tyrone {{cricket-team-stub