JASON van der Merwe will target a magnificent seventh when he lines up for Muckamore against Lisburn in the Gallagher Challenge Cup Final at Stormont on Friday.

The South African-born all-rounder has played in six finals over the last 10 years, two for Civil Service North and four for CIYMS and won them all. This season he has moved back to his hometown club and it is a case of his lucky charm working again as Muckamore have reached their first Cup Final since 1972. Now, he aims to continue his winning sequence.

“I’ll be trying my best to keep it going,” says van der Merwe. There’s something different about Challenge Cup (Final) days, you try to treat it as a normal game but you go for a team breakfast, you dress up a bit, there are a few more people watching. Definitely something special about it and I’d love to make it played seven won seven, especially for all those hard-core Muckamore fans who watch every week.

Van der Merwe has already played a significant part in taking Muckamore all the way in this their 150th anniversary year. In their opening match, he took two wickets and was 26 not out when he finished the match in a hurry with a four and a six, off his captain last year, John Matchett. In the quarter final against Civil Service North he hit 31 and claimed three wickets and he saved his best – so far – for the Semi-Final when he top scored with 73 against Woodvale and had another three-wicket haul.

It is is the success of his bowling, barely used in previous cup finals, that has surprised van der Merwe the most.

“Have I really taken eight wickets in the Cup,” he asks in disbelief. “I had a feeling I would get a few overs this season but I didn’t expect to be bowling my 10 overs nearly every week but I’m loving it.That means I need two more to get 10 wickets in the Cup, I would have taken that in the whole season.”

But then, that is only one of the special things happening at Muckamore this season. Only promoted from Section One at the end of last season, albeit after an invincible 18-match winning season, they will  go into the second half of the Premier League campaign third in the table and, at worst, only one win behind the leaders, if Woodvale win their final pre-split match against North Down this morning.

Van der Merwe puts their success so far down to the team spirit and all-round effort by the players.

“It’s been a proper team effort. If you look at our scorecards there have been a lot of 30s and 40s, no one has got a massive score, and everyone is sharing the wickets.

“Jamie Magowan and Curtis Moorhead have joined from Derriaghy. Jamie is one of the best keepers in the NCU and while Curtis hasn’t taken as many wickets as he would have liked, his economy is fantastic and puts the pressure on the batters and the boys have been taking wickets around him.

After seven years at Belmont, van der Merwe also chose to make the move to Moylena this season, a club he first joined 20 years ago.

“My mum is from Northern Ireland and she was getting homesick, so dad didn’t have a choice and we all trooped over her when I was 11.

“Muckamore was five minutes away from the house but I didn’t even realise there was a cricket club so close. But a year later, I joined and played for Muckamore Under 13s.

“I stayed there for about six years and my decision to return this year was because our young kids are now playing cricket, it’s a two-minute drive to the club and the wife and kids can come every week. It makes life a lot easier.

The highlight of his previous six cup finals was 98 not out and a man of the match performance in the 2016 final for Civil Service North against CIYMS, the innings, he accepts, that prompted CI to “try and get that guy”.

On Friday, that same guy could be Muckamore’s not-so-secret weapon in his favourite game of the year.