Sometimes, cricket is played in the weirdest places imaginable. I’ve never read of a match in a sewer or on the top of a skyscraper, but gardens, wasteland, beaches and streets have all been used. I can recall a student from Derry, who was at Trinity in the 1970’s when I was a student there, waxing eloquently about the street cricket which was played in Derry in his youth. Broken windows and other mishaps aside, the Joyces used their back garden in Bray as their pitch, and the O’Briens, the front of their house in Sandymount. Further back in time, the Gwynns, Hones, Meldons, Comyns etc. all had their front or back lawns, but they grew up on rather bigger establishments than most of us are used to today.
But try this: the top of a hill!
On the 30th and 31st of May in 1898, Trinity 1sts wandered up to the top of the Hill of Howth to play the ‘local’ club. I have very little information about the locals, but it seems more appropriate to call them a scratch team. Apparently, according to The Freeman’s Journal, the match was played on the top of ‘Ben Edir’. The students knocked up 216, of which R.M Gwynn (who was the Provost of Trinity in his later years) scored 106, while the Howth team replied with 165. This match was a two day affair, and each team only played one innings, so one wonders what they were doing the rest of the time (back then most senior matches were two innings affairs).
OK, just another boring match report without a scorecard, which no other Dublin newspaper decided to report. However, this match is a bit of a conundrum. It’s not in the Trinity scorebook. Another matter is the location, on top of a hill.
Ben Eidair( Eadair?) is one of the granite hills on the Hill of Howth. It’s the second highest point. When I was very young, I thought it was mountain. This is the highest point on the Hill everybody can see from Sandymount.
My aunt and uncle lived just below Ben Eidiar on the road from Sutton to the Summit, the route of the old tramway. As a big treat when we stayed there, we got permission to ‘climb’ up to the top of it. The first time occurred when I was about seven years old (1962). That was a great adventure. Firstly, we had to find the lane up to it, which was like a drain between two houses. Then we entered ‘the fern field’, a piece of former agriculture (ferns are waist high when you are seven). Then we met the gorse bushes, and as little boys and girls had to avoid their attack. Once clear of the danger of pikes and spikes, where the terrain steepens, our small legs brought us up to the top. The last 50 feet are a bit troublesome for juveniles. All of us must have ended up with scratched knees and shattered legs below our shorts and skirts.
Once on top, what do you see? The answer is a golf course, and another ‘mountain’, which is about 30 feet higher. My aunt called that monstrous peak Shielmartin (which was the name of a ladies’ hockey club between the two World Wars).
When I was ten I actually reached the top of Shielmartin and felt like I’d conquered Mt. Everest!
Back to cricket. That vaguely reported match must have been played on the golf course.
When I think back to my youth together with my brothers and sister, our explorations of the mountainous Howth Hills were just childish wanderings. I never knew then that a cricket match could be played on the top of ‘Ben Evir’.
There was once a team in Co. Kildare, who called themselves ‘The Bog of Allen’, but played almost all their matches at ‘Oldtown’, in Naas. Oldtown is where the Naas Lawn Tennis Club is. Unfortunately, most of the old cricket pitch is now built on. The old Curragh ground is still there. It is located just outside the northeast corner of the ‘camp’, and is, I think, used today for Gaelic sports. The old Athboy ground in Westmeath is now a soccer field.
We have in more recent years lost other grounds, such as Mount Murray in Westmeath, which is very sad, and Knockbrack in North Co. Dublin etc. But we’ve gained other grounds. Unfortunately, the Monaghan Cricket Club have to play all their home matches in Clogher, Co. Tyrone, and not in Monaghan. I know they would love to play in Monaghan! That is, I fear, a bit of a shambles.
In the meantime, I’m still looking for matches in bogs or on the top of hills.