THE PRESIDENT’S LOG: EPISODE 3 - A SUMMER OF BREAKFASTS!

22 May 2022

The breakfast theme was given such an airing in the last blog, that it was suggested to me that I might entitle this series, “A Summer of Breakfasts”. I will continue to provide culinary references, but they will be less frequent. On Saturday, Michael Dwyer, Martin Russell, and I had our usual breakfast prior to the game between The Hills and Dublin University. I rediscovered that I don’t like mushrooms cooked in olive oil, but the lovely scones, jam, and cream that I was given by Helen Farrell when I arrived at The Vineyard more than made up for the lapse with the mushrooms.

I had a chat with Ger Siggins, and I forgot to mention in a previous blog that Ger had given me some local history books from his late father’s trove of memorabilia. Maintaining the historical theme, Conor and Shelley Hoey had the misfortune to ask me about the derivation of some of the placenames in Fingal, and this involved a lengthy discourse on names such as the Man-O-War and Balrothery etc. After that soliloquy, I resumed my steps, and I was reminded of Matt Dwyer’s comment regarding the cricket games that we attended together. When he went home, he had to de-clutter because his brain had become overloaded as a result of the barrage of information to which he had been subjected during the course of the day.  

A cricket match was being played, and with both teams having a chance to qualify for the semi-final of the Sports Hub League Cup, it was a very tense affair. The tension was accentuated by frequent breaks for rain during the second innings, but the two umpires handled a difficult game in a very calm manner, and The Hills won it eventually by 5 runs.

I was asked to attend the Schools’ Finals during the week, and both of them were on the same day. Unlike Boyle Roche’s bird which could be in two places at the same time, I was relieved to hear that the Senior Girls’ Final between Mount Sackville and St Andrew’s was a T20 game, and it would be possible to assist at that game before going to Anglesea Road for the Senior Boys’ Final. Prior to the commencement of the Girls’ final, I spoke to Robyn Lewis who was coaching the St Andrew’s team, and to Mary Taaffe who was accompanying the Mount Sackville team. Mary mentioned that she had played cricket for Clontarf but was too modest to refer to the fact that she had also been a very distinguished hockey international, which I only found out when I went home and did some research. The Mount Sackville had a fair sprinkling of players from Phoenix CC, and it was good to meet up with Helen Caird, the President of Phoenix CC, who was supporting her club members. After an interesting game, Mount Sackville emerged victorious, and this was the first occasion that the school had won the Senior Girls’ Cup which has been competed for since 1979. Having thanked the parents and teachers for their support of cricket in schools, and complimented Isobel Joyce on the work which she is doing as Development Officer, I headed for Anglesea Road where CUS was playing Blackrock College.

I met with David Carroll, the author of Dauntless Courage, John and Jody Morgan and Alan McGinty, Principal of Blackrock College. I also talked to Robbie Stanton who according to the Merrion CC website is the oldest player to score a century (107*) for the club. The Tonge Brothers starred in this game for CUS, and CUS’s dominance of Senior Boys’ Schools cricket continues. This level of success is attributable to a very strong commitment to coaching under the guidance of Stephen Tonge, Kevin O'Herlihy, Nicky Kenny and Jarryd Chetty.

28 May 2022

The last games in the Sports Hub League Cup were played on Saturday, 28 May, with North County and The Hills being the main contenders for the second qualifying place. I went to The Vineyard to watch The Hills play Terenure, and with all due respect to the opposition, bonus points were going to be of crucial importance. The Hills scored  259 runs which included a brilliant century by Levon Shields, but there was a feeling that a lot more runs were needed if maximum bonus points were to be secured.

The Ladies section of The Hills CC had organised An Afternoon Tea Party with a Prosecco promotion courtesy of Sage and Stone, Duleek. Many of the people who attended this event had never been to The Vineyard before, and we told them that this was the closest approximation that there was to heaven on earth. The sun was shining, the outfield was magnificent, the food and drinks  were great, but in heaven, Terenure wouldn’t have scored as many runs. The Hills won by 36 runs but hadn’t accumulated enough bonus points.

On Sunday, Michael, Martin, and I headed for Comber to watch the T20 IP games. We stopped at the Carrigdale Hotel and bearing in mind some comments that I was eating too many fried breakfasts, I opted for poached eggs and crispy bacon. Martin must have had similar advice because he only had the small breakfast, but Michael continued to lead by example, and had fresh fruit and yoghurt. As we passed by Banbridge, we had a blast of The Star of the County Down, and soon we were in Comber, the home of North Down CC.

Before the start of play, we participated in a very important ceremony. Brian Stirling returned David O’Connor’s cushion which had been in Brian’s possession for almost a year. David Griffin, President of Cricket Ireland, ensured that all the correct protocols were observed, and Martin Russell was another witness to the handover. 

We met Junior and Norma McBrine, and as we were talking, we saw Simon Corlett in the distance. Junior mentioned that he and Simon held the record for the best 8^th wicket partnership for Ireland. In the interests of complete disclosure, I checked this out and the details are as follows: In the Ireland versus Scotland game, which was played at Coleraine on 18 July 1987, the 8^th wicket partnership between A. R. McBrine (102) and S. C. Corlett (53) accumulated 150 runs.

As we watched the first game between the Munster Reds and the North- West Warriors, to paraphrase Garth Brooks, “a thought crosses my mind” that the people watching on the live stream are better informed that those of us who are present at the game.  It might be unrealistic to expect a PA system and an announcer, but a sheet of A4 paper with the names of the players and their numbers would enhance greatly our enjoyment of the games. A highly motivated Munster Reds team batted superbly and scored 206 runs. Scoreboard pressure was always going to be a factor and the North -West Warriors ended on 106 runs.

With at least 1 ½ hours between games, there was plenty of opportunity for chat, and Simon Corlett, a fully paid-up member of the Bowlers’ Union, gave us some fascinating/controversial (delete whichever is not applicable) thoughts on modern cricket. On a general level, he argued that bowlers have been reduced to cannon-fodder because current regulations and modern batting equipment mean that the contest between bat and ball is heavily weighted in favour of batsmen. He is in favour of ball-tampering, opposed to the restrictions on the number of overs which a bowler is allowed to bowl (why  aren’t batsmen asked to retire when they have scored 50 runs?), and he thinks that fielding restrictions prevent bowlers from setting their preferred fields. In addition to these comments, he provided us with some wonderful insights on bowling techniques, and he is available at Comber on most Saturdays if people wish to have an extended dialogue with him.

We also had a chat with Robin Haire, the North Down stalwart, and he asked us to send his good wishes to Brian Gilmore, Michael Murphy, Mark Cohen, and Paul Coghlan with whom he had played on the Ireland U19 team in 1979. Brian Gilmore has since provided me with some additional information on a very successful tournament in which Ireland beat England North, England South, and the Netherlands before losing to Bermuda in the final. Brian mentioned that in the final against Bermuda, a ball went through the stumps without dislodging the bails at a crucial juncture of the game.

Back to the present after that digression, the game between Leinster Lightning and the Northern Knights was also a one-sided affair. Lightning had an opening stand of 99 between Andrew Balbirnie (58) and Simi Singh (40) which provided a solid platform, and while its final score of 176 runs was less than might have been anticipated, it was enough to give the Lightning a comfortable victory.  The spinning trio of Simi Singh (4 for 21), Gavin Hoey (3 for 17) and George Dockrell (1 for 33) ensured that the Northern Knights ended on 137 runs. At the end of the second game, we had a few words with the Leinster Lightning players; we wished Andrew Balbirnie well for his forthcoming nuptials, and we headed for home after watching two matches in which some good cricket was played, but excitement was confined to our off-the- field conversations. 

Planning permission was obtained to travel to The Maws for the Alan Murray Cup game between North Kildare and The Hills, but with the weather forecast being very poor, it was decided to hold the permission in reserve for a more opportune occasion which as it happened was the following day when Ireland Women played South Africa Women at Sydney Parade. After the quibble about the lack of information for  spectators at the IP games, there was no such issue at this game as Heatley Tector, with his infectious enthusiasm, kept us fully informed throughout the day. I was in the exalted company of David Griffin, President of Cricket Ireland, and Arthur Vincent and David O’Connor, past Presidents of Cricket Ireland. Before the game commenced, I met Mark and Martha Maguire, the proud parents of Jane Maguire who was making her debut for Ireland Women.

South Africa won the toss and opted to field. Gaby Lewis (52) and Leah Paul (47) gave Ireland a wonderful start with an opening partnership of 98 runs. The momentum was not maintained, but Ireland ended up on 143 runs which was deemed to be a competitive total by the cognoscenti. During the innings break, David O’Connor’s famous cushion was returned with due pomp and ceremony. Rachel Delaney took a wicket with the first ball that she bowled, and with Jane Maguire bowling three very disciplined overs, South Africa had a very poor return from the first Powerplay. Ireland took wickets at regular intervals, and it was tremendous to behold the affirmation which players gave to each other for a piece of good fielding, and the enthusiastic manner with which the fall of each wicket was greeted by players and spectators.  At the end of a wonderful day’s cricket, Ireland Women had won by 10 runs. It was a privilege to be present at this game, and huge congratulations are merited by the players, the coaching staff and all who were involved in staging the first of the T20 matches.

Early on Saturday morning, there was a phone call from Fergus Carroll asking me if I would assist with the preview on NEAR FM of the Sports Hub semi-finals. This was done without too much fuss, but having been involved in previewing the games, it was deemed essential that I attend one of them, so I made my way to Castle Avenue for the Clontarf versus North County encounter.  Gerry Murphy was in charge of operations because Dónal O’Sullivan, the Clontarf President, was at Lord’s, and I renewed acquaintance with Colin Siller, Clontarf’s Director of Coaching who had assisted in the coaching of the Ireland U13 team many years ago when I had a family member on that team. North County won the toss and opted to bat first. Jonathan Andrews (48), John Mooney (39*) and Malcolm Nofal (31) did the bulk of the scoring with the bat, and there was a very healthy (?) helping of Extras (42) to leave North County on a total of 233 runs. The champagne moment of the first innings was an absolutely magnificent catch by Eoghan Delany off the bowling of Ruan Cronje to dismiss Eddie Richardson.

In reply, Clontarf’s opening pair of Fionn Hand (26) and P. J. Moor (64) had a partnership of 75 runs; the second wicket partnership between Moor and David Delany (35) brought the score up to 120 after 21 overs, and it appeared that Clontarf would achieve its target with the minimum of fuss, but Fingal teams have never believed in the concept of a lost cause. Wickets began to fall regularly, and when the ninth wicket was taken, Clontarf needed 8 runs to win. Amidst all the carnage, John McNally who had come in at No. 6 was showing a cool head which belied his youth, and Michael Granger who came into bat at No. 11 had been helped off the field earlier as a result of an injury. Granger faced 2 balls, scored 1 run, and McNally hit two fours to give Clontarf victory after a very exciting game of cricket.

I am very conscious of the fact that these epistles are becoming longer and longer so I will attempt to bring some measure of discipline to bear on future episodes even though that may be difficult with the amount of cricket to be looked forward to in the coming weeks.