HALVERSTOWN OAKS: 94 for 6
K.Hodson 20* N.Case 19* C.Johnston 18 G. O’Shea 14 T.Gayle 7
Richard 1-1-0-1 Rory 1-0-2-1 R.Newman-Jones 2-0-9-2- L.Tobin 2-0-11-1 A.Quinn 2-0-18-1
NORTH KILDARE: 98 for 2
Vishal 23* Ellis21* Rory 14
N. Case 2-1-4-2 G.O’Shea 1-0-11-0 J.Kirby 1-0-12-0 D.Drumm 1-0-13-0
A.Barber 1.3-0-16-0 K.Hodson 1-0-16-0 T.Case 1-0-22-0
Sometimes you get games like this. Push the fielders out and the opposition run lots of quick singles. Move them in and they hit boundaries over their heads. Move them to the leg side and suddenly everything goes to the off. Shift to the off and everything goes leg side. We should try to take positives from our defeats. The previous Sunday against Mount Juliet it was easy: lots of good things about the day and our cricket. It is harder to find them in this defeat. North Kildare had a strong-ish team. They had been short up to the morning of the game and I had offered them a player, since we had 12. However they filled out the team with some younger players- so both strong-ish and young-ish against our bunch of Taverners. They did have a number of older players too, but they rather fell into the “strong-ish” class. We had not had a fixture against them last year due to a slip-up on our part, so the last time we played was in 2017 when they beat us without loss of a single wicket . Finally a positive: they did lose 2 wickets this time!
Kevin Hodson and Gerard O’Shea opened our batting in lively form putting on 28 between them in an exciting partnership before the accuracy of Rosie Newman-Jones accounted for Ger. She then bowled Niall for a duck 2 balls later, giving her 2 for 9 in two beautifully bowled overs. Kevin went on to make his 20 (a positive) as did Neville Case (though a recount gave him 19!) whilst Cecil made a hard working 18- though Terry Gayle was less sure that Cecil’s innings counted as a positive following his run out. Richard and Rory for North Kildare showed that it was not all about youth with their good bowling figures and Liam Tobin was not far behind either. Our total of 94 would be tough to defend, but not impossible. However, it quickly became apparent that it was impossible to defend. Indeed it took them just 8 and a half overs to do so. Young opener Aidan Muller did fall to to the experience of Neville Case early on, but there was little joy elsewhere. Neville’s 2 wickets for 4 runs were the only ones to fall as Ellis and Vishal knocked up their 20s and Rory hit 14 in a rather brutal – but brief- battering of our bowlers. Our younger players ,Terrence and Mark , did well in the field and Terrence batted nicely, showing that our youth section has potential too. However, overall a disappointment. We will definitely have better days in the field than this.