Following a hiatus from touring due to the pandemic, the Leprechauns are back on the road with a return to Amsterdam for the Flamingo’s Centenary Festival at the beautiful VRA Cricket Club Ground where the quadrangular series will see the Leprechauns will take on the hosts De Flamingo’s, the MCC and the Free Foresters from the UK.
The tour starts today on the 29th of June on 3 consecutive days to July 1st with the Leprechauns playing 3 games at Amstelveen sports grounds with 2 x 50 Overs Clashes and a 40 Overs clash to end the week. The bi-annual Flamingo’s Centenary Festival celebrates 100 years of the Flamingo’s Cricket Club who were hosted at Lord’s earlier in the year with Irish captain, Andy Balbirnie making a huge century in a high-scoring affair.
The Leps have assembled a very strong touring party with representation from 11 Irish clubs in a squad of 14 players. The veteran of Ireland’s glorious 2007 Cricket World Cup run, Kenny Carroll leads the bigger names in the squad alongside the interprovincial players with four young Leinster Lightning stars in Gavin Hoey, Mitchell Thompson, Mikey O’Reilly and Theo Dempsey giving a real quality to the touring party.
Leprechauns President Dick Forrest said,
“We are all so pleased that having had to delay the centenary celebrations due to the covid pandemic that things now allow for easier travel for us and we are most grateful to Wulf van Alkemade and our counterparts in the Netherlands, De Flamingo’s, for inviting us back to Amsterdam this year. The trips in 2017 and 2019 have gone down in our folklore and everyone involved in the Leprechauns is hugely excited at the prospect of a third Dutch with new rivals in a historic first clash for Leprechauns vs our English counterparts in the MCC. Our touring squad has a strong focus on the next generation and developing players with some of the old reliable names as well. We know with the level of cricket we’ll face at the beautiful VRA ground that we have an elite side and I’m confident we’ll be able to compete strongly in Amsterdam again.”
Squad in Full:
Robert Forrest, Captain* (Clontarf)
Adam Chester (Phoenix)
Andrew Leonard (Pembroke)
Bill Whaley (Pembroke)
Andy Kavanagh (The Hills)
Theo Dempsey (Phoenix/Leinster Lightning⚡)
Michael Brady (Leprechauns)
Mitchell Thompson (YMCA/Leinster Lightning⚡)
Mikey O'Reilly (YMCA/Leinster Lightning⚡)
Hugh Kennedy (Merrion)
Kenneth Carroll (Railway Union)
Gavin Hoey (Trinity/Leinster Lightning ⚡)
Jonno Andrews (North County)
Travelling Support Staff:
Dick Forrest, President (Phoenix)
Ronan Harris, Scorer (Phoenix)
David Cooke (Leprechauns)
Mark Collier (Clontarf)
Cian Nulty (The Hills)
Philip Black (CSNI)
Fixtures:
All at VRA Cricket Ground, Amsterdam
Wednesday June 29th vs De Flamingo’s - 12pm (50 Overs)
Thursday June 30th vs Free Foresters - 11am (50 Overs)
Friday July 1st vs MCC - 10am (40 Overs)