Two innings each of 12x 8 ball overs, reversing batting 2nd innings. Normal rules applied.
CHAPELIZOD 1st Innings: 86
J.Habbington 25 W.Barr 10* J.Egan 10
D.O’Ceallaigh 1-0-8-1 K.Hodson 2-0-13-1 J.Murphy 2-0-13-1 G.O’Shea 2-0-20-1 J.Kirby 2-0-8-0 A.Barber 2-0-12-0 D.Drumm 2-0-13-0
HALVERSTOWN 1st Innings: 82
K.Hodson 30* D.Drumm 12* J.Murphy 12 D.O’Ceallaigh 6 R.Hodson 5
T.Case 2-0-12-2 M.Glynn 1-0-3-1 Harri 1-0-5-1 J,Egan 1-0-5-1 W.Barr 1-0-1-0 M,Case 2-0-9-0
CHAPELIZOD 2nd Innings: 86
Stephen 20 Harri 14 * J.Egan 11 T.Case 10 N.Case 10
A.Barber 2-1-11-2 J.Murphy 2-0-11-2 D.Drumm 2-0-14-2 K.Hodson 2-0-7-1
G.O’Shea 2-0-13-0 D.O’Ceallaigh 1-0-8-0 J.Kirby 1-0-16-0
HALVERSTOWN 2nd Innings: 14
A.Barber 4 S.Rix 3* K,Hodson 3
D.Thomas 2-0-6-5 T.Case 2-0-4-3 M.Case 1-0-3-1
Last year in my account of the same game I wrote about Surgeon-Major Reynolds, past pupil of Castleknock College and winner of the Victoria Cross at the battle of Rorke’s Drift in the Zulu Wars- the subject of the epic film “Zulu”. Last year I likened Halverstown to the heavily outnumbered and besieged British troops. This time we were again out-gunned and out-fought, thanks to reinforcements Chapelizod had -from our own side. John Egan, not surprisingly, struggled to get a team together after playing 4 games in 4 days. He was 3 short- a lot of extra troops were required. I had the bright idea of asking the Case family to play for them en-masse: Neville and young Terrence and Mark. They were delighted- and so were we initially since the game got to go ahead. We were less delighted later.
The forecast was for heavy rain later in the afternoon so we agreed a 2 innings game of 12 by 8 ball overs with teams reversing batting order for the 2nd innings. Otherwise rules of cricket applied. That way everyone might get some batting and bowling before the rain. With the Cases due to arrive late I put Chapelizod into bat first; well, it was that nice kind of game, or at least it was at that stage. We had quite a strong Oaks team, I thought, with just a couple of beginners. Chapelizod put on a fair total of 86 for their 1st innings and I was pleased with our bowling and fielding. We looked sharp, even though wickets were at a premium. Deaglan turned in the best bowling average in that innings and not too far behind was James Murphy- in his first ever game of cricket! It boded well.
In batting we were a bit profligate with our wickets, enduring 3 run outs. However, Kevin’s 30 not out, my own 12 not out and – yet again a name to note- James Murphy’s 12 took us to a respectable 82. The warning signs were there, though. Terrence Case took 2 for 12 and Mark bowled a tidy 0 for 9 off his 16 balls whilst Willie (“Ten Teams”) Barr, M. Glynn, John Egan and Harri all looked good.
Chapelizod’s second innings score was exactly the same as the 1st, even though they were now strengthened by replacement Dylan Thomas- a man more of power than poetry- who damaged us badly last year. Again we bowled and fielded tidily with both new boy James, who bowled incredibly well, and Andy taking 2 wickets for 11 and myself also with 2. We now needed 90 to win- very possible we thought. No one could have forecast what came next- and we know now how the Ireland team felt at Lord’s. It was a massacre. Wickets tumbled so fast that we didn’t know who was in next. The rain came down, but our umpires didn’t hear our suggestions that we call it a draw or appeal the light …or something, anything! It was wet and miserable but I am not sure it explained our grand total of 14 for the second innings. Andy top scored with 4. Yes, 4. We had 5 ducks (how appropriate). Chapelizod needed just 5 overs and 3 bowlers to wipe us out: Dylan Thomas did not go gently into that dark night but certainly left us raging against the dying of the light as he took 5 for 6, all 5 of them clean bowled. Unbelievable. Also unbelievable was the bowling of one young Terrence Case. We could not handle his looping, accurate bowling and he took an extraordinary 3 for 4 with his younger brother Mark taking a wicket also. The good news is that Halverstown has some real talent coming along, the bad news is that it wasn’t in our team that day!