On Saturday I left the Division 1 dogfight for survival to record itself and I drove up to Kenure to see which team would most likely accompany Phoenix into the top flight, which would be the winners of the match between Rush and Pembroke.
Rush have lost Dan van Zyl to rugby, while Pembroke had to do without skipper Allan Eastwood, off to Toronto with the Irish team. The 'Broke's bowling is OK without Eastwood, as is the Russian batting without van Zyl, but the Russian bowling might miss the steadying influence of Dan van Man, especially as Shahid got the yips midway through the season and can hardly pitch the ball on the cut strip.
Lionel Jansen won the toss and asked Pembroke to set a score. Brian O'Rourke and Theo Lawson started steadily against Saadat Gull and Amir Iqbal, and it wasn't until first change Eoghan Conway appeared from the town end with his left-arm over that anything happened.
O'Rourke missed a straight one and was lbw for 10 out of 38. Stand-in skipper Steven Moreton played second fiddle while Theo Lawson tucked into Conway and Jansen, and with drives and flicks off his legs reached fifty out of 87 in the 22nd over.
Golden arm Alan Butterly was introduced into the attack, and soon had Lawson caught and bowled for 55. Drinks were taken at 96-2, whereupon Moreton got a move on while Ryan Hopkins loitered, unusually without much intent, until he was caught by Conway off Butterly for 9 with the score on 128.
Danny Barclay took a while to get going, by which time Moreton had slowed up. The scoring rate was still under fours as the 40 over mark was passed, and Moreton finally reached his half-century after 30 overs at the crease. Conway returned from the Loughshinny end and had Moreton caught by Butterly for 56 with the score on 199.
Barry McCarthy came in and drilled the ball back along the pitch to Conway, who fumbled it onto the stumps with Barclay, on 43, out of his ground. Jansen and Conway bowled well at the death, only Rohit Bahl getting much joy with a couple of boundaries in his 15.
When last man Bill Whaley nicked Conway through to Paddy Sheridan in the final over, Pembroke were 237 all out, about thirty short of where they should have been. Jansen returned figures of 3/44, Conway 4/40, and bras d'or Butterly 2/26 in five overs.
Barry McCarthy unsettled Michael Donnelly with a short ball into the shoulder, and next over Donners edged Bill Whaley to Bahl at slip. Eoghan Conway and Lionel Jansen found no difficulties with the Pembroke seamers, clattering along at fours until Paul Lawson's off breaks slowed their progress.
Andy Leonard tried his leggies from the town end, and Conway duly slogged him to Paul Lawson for 44 out of 81. Tipu Gull was his usual Steady Eddie, but Jansen had slowed up, and groped his way to 49 in the 28th over when he was well taked by Bahl at slip off Leonard. But Rush needed only 115 off the last twenty overs with seven wickets in hand.
Shahid Iqbal went 4, 6, W, caught by Hopkins off Lawson, Patrick Sheridan contrived to be bowled by Moreton, Butterly made 10 before holing out to Whaley off Leonard, a good catch, and Rush were in danger of making a mess of things. Gull and Niall Mullen put on 39 together, but at nowhere near the required rate.
Lawson (1/30) and Leonard (3/44) had bowled out and Moreton was in the middle of a very tidy spell with his leg breaks. 43 were required off the last six overs when Barclay appeared from the Loughshinny end with his gentle off spinners. Tipu lofted him to the longest boundary on the ground where Bahl judged the catch nicely, and Gull was gone for 40.
Also on 195, Mullen swished Moreton to Whaley, and with the greatest respect there was no way Nicholas Donnelly, Amir Iqbal and Paddy Monks were going to get the runs in the less than five overs remaining. They tried, of course.
Amir swung Barclay to Theo Lawson, and next ball Donnelly lofted Barclay to Andy Leonard at long on. Had Lennie accepted the catch, Danny would have had 3/0 to finish the innings. But he spilt it over the boundary. Donnelly then took a single and Monks put up a catch that Lennie did hold.
So Rush were 203 all out in 47 overs, and Barclay had 3/7 to go with his skipper's 2/27. Pembroke thus slipped into second spot in the table and will be promoted if they beat Cork County in their last fixture. I get the distinct impression that Rush won't be too bothered about that - their youngsters aren't yet ready for Division 2, let alone Division 1.
The texts told me that there were all sorts of goings on in Division 1, so I drove to Rathmines to get more details. There I met a few umpires as well as players, and we discussed how many new umpires had switched from playing to standing because their eyesight/hearing/speech were no longer good enough for the former. We christened them the pinball wizards.
Yet again I fell asleep in front of the irrelevant bits of Match of the Day (after the highlights of our win over the Cloggies), and awoke ready for a trip to Cabra. Big Sam, at his best when pooping parties, should manage Old Belvedere.
The visitors, Cork County, had managed a last ball win at Terenure the previous day, and were up for the win that would guarantee their place in Division 2 next year. Belvo needed to win to have any chance of staying out of Division 3. County won the toss and put Belvo in.
Ahmed Dar and Syed Ali kept Bruce Koch out and picked up runs from the odd loose delivery from James Duggan. When Ali was lbw to second change Simon Ridley for 11, 20 of the 38 total had come from the ever-reliable Ernie Extras.
Brucie had had enough after six overs for nine runs and retired to the infield for the remainder of the innings. Ridley started leaking runs, but Andy Saul put in a good shift from the Castleknock end with his off breaks, and the other Andy, Wooton, later trundled his away floaters from the city end for only 33 runs.
Dar ran himself out for 34 just before drinks, and Sameer Dutt played on to Saul for 26 just after drinks. That was 113-3, and Simmi Singh and Srikkanth Sharma played patiently to take the score to 147 in the 39th over when Sharma was lbw to Matt Reed for 17.
If County could keep Belvo to 200, they'd be in with a decent shout of a win, but to chase many more would be quite difficult with the lush outfield taking a good stud in readiness for the rugby season. However, Simmi Singh put Belvo in a very good position with some excellent batting.
Mainly with flicks and drives (you play off the back foot at your peril in Cabra) he dominated the addition of 82 runs in the last 11 overs, none of his partners getting into double figures, until he ran himself out off the last ball for 74 of Belvo's 229-8.
Ernie was second top-scorer with 39, and Ridley (2/70) and Reed (2/46) suffered a bit at the end. Those not fasting for Ramadan enjoyed a really nice tea, but Ross Durity's enjoyment lasted only into the second over when he was lbw to Singh for 1. Ridley and Des O'Leary stayed on the front foot and out of trouble, but couldn't get up to threes, let alone the required four and a halves.
Ridley perished, caught for 19 trying to force Saadaf Raza's leg breaks, and after drinks at 71-2, O'Leary and Koch tried to up the pace. They had got to 96 when Koch was run out for 20, and when skipper Robert Duggan was bowled by Hilal Asad one run later, that was that.
O'Leary completed a fine fifty, but after Ridley and Koch, nobody stayed with him. Wickets fell quickly and cheaply until Andy Saul managed to score ten and garner a bonus point when he saw the score to 130. Five more and County were all out in 42.1 overs.
The chief beneficiary of the collapse was Asad, who finished with 5/24. Raza (1/29) and Sharma (1/36) completed their sets of ten. County had run out of puff literally and figuratively. A happy Belvo now have to beat Rush and hope that County get next to nothing from their last two games.
Cheers,
Stu.
