WHITE CITY: 133 for 7
B.Berrigan 43* M.Ffrench-Davis 27 P.Oborne 27
B.Berrigan 5-0-28-1 P.Oborne 4-0-32-1 A.King 3-1-19-0 A.Beard 4-0-38-0 W.Coles 1-0-17-0
HALVERSTOWN: 134 for 2
G.Bayer 66 D.Ruddock 39* D.Bursey 19*
D.Ruddock 5-0-23-2 Sean Conroy 4-0-35-2 K.Hodson 1.1-0-6-1 M.Bursey 5-1-15-1 J.Maher 4-0-16-1 Sahab 7-1-9-0 D.Drumm 4-0-10-0 D.Bursey 1-0-13-0
Mickey Ffrench-Davis, a shape-shifting Leprechaun, made his second appearance in 8 days at Halverstown, this time as a White City All Star. However, the boot was firmly on the other foot as Halverstown demolished a lighter weight White City than usual. Late defections and the timing for the fixture, facilitating Peter Oborne's trip to Colombia for his son's wedding (so he says), left them struggling- and a Halverstown team bruised by last week's encounter with rampant leprechauns took full advantage.
Peter was on the back foot from the start as, for the toss, I offered him a choice of German eagle or map of the (current) EU. The German eagle triumphed, of course, and I put them in to bat (also of course). Danny Ruddock, eager to keep the Alan Ruddock Memorial Trophy in Ireland, bowled furiously despite not playing since last year's game. At the other end Sahab bowled with incredible accuracy, conceding just 9 runs off his 7 overs. Indeed it was hard to fault any of our bowlers -well, except maybe Dave Bursey, but his daughter Michaela more than made up for him. Sean Conroy took 2 valuable wickets, John Maher again demonstrated his natural bowling ability and Kevin Hodson dismissed a still slightly mystified Peter Oborne. Kevin also took a good catch from Michaela to dismiss Alex Beard. For the All Stars Brian Berrigan ,well, starred with 43 not out. Other notable scores were Mickey and Peter, both 27, and Tim “Shippers” Shipman fell to a catch by John Maher, his second in 2 games for the club, from Sean Conroy for 12.
We thought it a sporting declaration but perhaps it was just a case of nothing left in the batting tank that saw the innings end at 133 for 7- or they were keen to get stuck into Karen Plewman's delicious tea. Perhaps out of politeness, conscious that White City had a flight to catch, our batsmen polished off the required runs in just 17 overs. Gunter, in unbelievable form of late, hit a magnificent 66 with Danny supporting nicely with 39 not out. Dave Bursey, perhaps worried by what I might write about his bowling performance, contributed an impressive 19 not out. 20 boundaries were struck and what was a rapid and very clinical victory, so unlike the extraordinarily tight games that have been the norm. Last year was more typical, where we needed our last man, TP, to hold out against some very aggressive bowling to secure the draw and retain the Trophy. As my wife Jeanette pointed out -and I reminded them, perhaps a little ungraciously- White City's name does not appear on the trophy except in it's name- since they donated this magnificent piece of old Cork silver in memory of Alan Ruddock. Perhaps next year... if they all have their passports in order.
