Broken printer forces Ballyspallen to concede rain-hit match to Eglinton

Eglinton were awarded victory over Ballyspallen after a broken printer prevented the home club from producing a required Duckworth-Lewis-Stern sheet during their rain-interrupted North West Cricket Union Premier League match. BBC Sport reported that the concession followed the competition's regulations, with no further ball bowled after the stoppage on Saturday.

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Ballyspallen were hosting the match in Northern Ireland and bowled Eglinton out for 159 in 48.1 overs. The home side then reached 19 in the first two overs of its reply before rain arrived. With playing time set to be reduced, match officials determined that a DLS calculation was needed.

The required sheet could not be printed because the printer at Ballyspallen was broken. That meant the revised-match documentation could not be supplied to the teams and umpires. Rather than resuming with an adjusted target, the match ended through the competition's rule covering a home side's failure to provide the DLS paperwork.

North West Cricket Union regulations require the host team to concede immediately when it cannot produce a DLS sheet for both sides and the umpires. The rules place responsibility on the home club to provide a computer containing the necessary software, a compatible working printer, enough paper and ink, and an operator able to use the equipment.

The union's regulations also require that setup to be operational before the match starts. In this case, the equipment failure had a direct effect on the result: Eglinton received the win even though Ballyspallen's chase had lasted only 12 balls and there was no resumption after the weather interruption.

The concession denied Ballyspallen an opportunity to pursue what would have been their fifth Premier League victory. They remained at the bottom of the table after the technical problem brought the match to an early conclusion. Eglinton, having posted 159 before the rain and printer issue intervened, left with the victory under the competition's playing conditions rather than through a completed chase.