LEPRECHAUNS: 259 for 7
I. Smiley 79 M.Ffrench-Davies 39* R.Harris 36 N.Wilkinson 27
I Smiley 3-0-6-3 S.Gallagher 9.4-2-28-2 M.Goodwin 4-0-19-2 N.Wilkinson 3-0-9-1 D.Williams 9-0-28-0 Hunter 4-0-33-0 A.Kerr 5-0-42-0
HALVERSTOWN: 172
G.Bayer 81 J.Maher 32 J.Threadgold 23
G.Barnes 2-0-22-2 J.Maher 4-1-14-1 B.Maher 3-0-16-1 K.Hodson 4-0-25-1 Sean Conroy 4-0-35-1 D.Drumm 6-0-40-1 J.Threadgold 8-0-14-0 M.Ronaldson 2-0-16-0 G.Bayer 3-0-27-0 J.Browne 5-0-42-0
7 is considered a lucky number, the number of perfection, security, safety and rest.
There are 7 days in a week; 7 notes to the diatonic scale; a menora has 7candles; the opposite sides of a dice always equal 7. There are 7 colours of the rainbow: Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. And so did we. I was bowled out in the penultimate over, by former Halverstown captain Stuart Gallagher to make it worse. Gunter held up 7 fingers to me: 7 balls left, could you not hold out for just 7 more balls to draw the game and gain the moral victory? Gunter had a point since he had played a remarkable, hard fought and exhausting innings on a really hot day to score 81 runs and in comparison my task seemed modest.
Leprechauns batted first and put up a total which I have never seen before in Harristown: 259 runs on the board for 7 wickets before Charles Lysaght finally declared, with Smiley's 79 the pick whilst former player Ronan Harris scored 36. A quickfire 37 from Mickey ffrench- Davis at the end finished off a tough day in the field for us despite good fielding and 5 very good catches- 2 by me, one each by Nassau Greene and John Maher and a stupendous catch by Brian Maher. The Mahers also turned in excellent bowling figures too in their 1st game for us. John Threadgold bowled very tightly too but the surprise package was Graham Barnes' two wickets!
I laid out the strategy: we would have a go for a while and see how it goes before we defended to bat out the draw. How long would we give it a go? John Threadgold suggested one over. I should have listened to his advice! After John's own 23 and Gunter's amazing knock only John Maher scored anything significant with a fast and exciting 32. What would we have done without the Maher boys?! At the end the our wickets fell in quick succession.
You would have guessed that Stuart Gallagher would have been our nemesis: Charles bowled him for nearly 10 gruelling overs and we struggled against him- though it was Smiley who caused problems in the end with his 3 for 6.
After last year's thrashing Leprechauns got their revenge. Who would have thought lovable leprechauns so ruthless? But Gunter was wrong, by the way. There were 8 balls left. My own lucky number as it happens.