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Pembroke v YMCA: Division 1 match on Saturday 20th August at Sydney Parade

Saturday started off as a beautiful sunny morning.  I drove down to Sydney Parade and basked in the warm sunshine as I set up my cameras.  I chatted to the umpires, Kevin Gallagher and Del Boy McGeehan, as we anticipated a must-win game for Pembroke and visitors YMCA in their bids to avoid relegation to Division 2.

YMCA won the toss and decided to bat, not a difficult decision to make, and as each team made its final preparations, low cloud rolled down the Dublin mountains to render the ground overcast, the conditions much cooler, and there were even spits and spots of rain.  Bill Whaley came in from the Sydney Parade station end while Barry McCarthy followed up from the Sandymount station end.

Reinhardt Strydom mixed defence with attack, favouring the pull shot rather than playing straight, while Lee Cole dug himself in and waited for the bad ball to hit.  Allan Eastwood, nursing a hamstring injury, found himself in the unfamiliar region of the slips, and simply didn't see one that whizzed past him.  Strydom pulled McCarthy in his third over to reach 16, and attempted to repeat the shot to a ball that wasn't that short.

Eastwood, who had been moved from slip to short extra cover, pouched the catch.  In came Etesham Ahmed, who is always positive, and he and Cole moved the score on to 59-1 after 15 overs, with the bowling power play completed.  In the 17th over, bowled by Eastwood off a shortened run-up, the second pull was again the batsman's downfall, Shammy skying Eastwood to Darren Nicol for 28 out of 72.

So far so, normal.  I had talked to Rainy Strydom, who reckoned that the track was a typical Sydney Parade product, two-paced with variable bounce, and that if his team could graft their way to 200, that should be enough for the 20 win points.  No sooner had grafter Albert van der Merwe joined the grafting Lee Cole, than the spots of rain turned into a persistent heavy drizzle, necessitating the players coming off and the covers coming on.

After ten minutes the rain stopped, no overs were lost, and the game restarted.  Eastwood was generating plenty of pace and bounce from his shortened approach, which made me wonder why he had ever bothered to run in over twice as far for the sake of an extra yard and less control.  Stephen Moreton had tried his leggies from the Sandymount end without worrying the batsmen, so he gave off-spinner Paul Lawson a go.

Lawson, much taller than Moreton (who isn't?), immediately got more purchase and bounce from the ones that did bounce, and was much more of a problem for the batsmen.  On 31, Cole swung what was slightly overpitched but not a half volley high to long off, where Theo Lawson turned from the 30 yard circle to take an excellent catch over his shoulder.  That was 87-3 in the 24th over.

van der Merwe took a single and faced up to Eastwood's next over.  He was bowled for 6, much to Stretch's delight, it was 88-4 and drinks were taken.  Eastwood then bowled a yorker to Alan Lewis which Lewie dug out, but the backspin took it onto the stumps, and New Zealand's favourite rugby referee was gone for a duck.

Another former Ireland captain, Angus Dunlop, immediately nicked Eastwood to Whaley at slip and when, three overs later, Sameer Dutt edged Paul Lawson to Whaley, YMCA were 93-7.  Three runs later Rob Garth edged Eastwood to Rory O'Keeffe, deputising behind the stumps for the sick Rohit Bahl.

Carl Hosford is a better bat than a number 8, and Jonny Harte is a more than accomplished number 10.  They advanced the score to 107 when Hosford, well down the track to Moreton, got an X-rated lbw decision from Del Boy.  I hate to report it, because I've loads of time for Del as an umpire: I suggest he gets out the Tippex and whites that one off his cv; then the ones that remain can continue to look pretty good.

Yaqoob Ali whacked a four, then Harte, reprieved when Paul Lawson just didn't react at mid off to a none too difficult catch, was bowled by Moreton off the first ball of the 41st over, YMCA all out for 112.  They had lost their last nine wickets for 40 runs in 24 overs on a pitch that wasn't easy, but wasn't that bad.

Eastwood took 5/18 off his ten – it should have been 6/17 with a couple of balls at Ali for number seven.  I though Paul Lawson bowled really well for his 2/14 off nine, and Moreton took 2/19.  We knew that Phoenix had rolled Merrion for 101, so Pembroke had to graft their way to 113 to stay ahead of Phoenix and leave YMCA in deepest doggy doo-dah and needing a miracle to stay in Division 1.

In Rainy Strydom's first over, Ryan Hopkins took a single after scoring a four, there was a wide, and then one to Darren Nicol that rapped the pads and produced the upraised digit of Kevin Gallagher.  Looking through the long lens, I thought it had pitched outside leg, but Kevin was in a better position than I was, so it is he who should be believed and not I.  Having studied the photograph, I'm now convinced that Kevin was correct.

Hopkins bats only one way – if it's there to be hit, particularly on the leg side, he'll hit it.  In Garth's second over he played a superb pull shot into the high fencing at square leg, went for the next ball and mis-hit it straight down Rainy's throat.  Next over Moreton was bowled by Strydom; four overs later Barclay edged Strydom through to Cole, and Pembroke were 25-4.

Jono Hickey and Theo Lawson saw Pembroke through to tea, when we learned that Phoenix too were twenty-odd for four.  I hadn't realised it at the time, but up in the Park they had decided to take tea after the match had concluded.  A score update of 55-4 indicated a Phoenix fight-back.

After tea, van der Merwe replaced Garth from the Sydney Parade end, while Strydom continued his shift with immediate success, trapping Lawson very lbw.  Hickey took the game to van der Merwe, hitting him for a straight six followed by two fours, but then was bowled shouldering arms to one from Strydom that nipped back in from outside the left-hander's off stump.

In the same over he bowled Paul Lawson, his sixth wicket out of the seven to fall.  Barry McCarthy and Allan Eastwood saw off Strydom, who finished with figures of 10-4-11-6, a quite excellent spell.  YMCA tried to bring back Rob Garth, but the umpires wouldn't let the U19 bowl for another two overs, forgetting the half hour off he'd had during tea.

Never mind, the ball was thrown to Jonny Harte, who induced the false shot from Eastwood, caught by van der Merwe.  Sameer Dutt took over from Strydom, bowled McCarthy and then had O'Keeffe lbw.  Pembroke were all out for 60, 10 of which were extras, in 22.1 overs in one of the most inept pieces of batting I've seen.  We all cast aspersions on Sydney Parade pitches, but it wasn't a nineteen wickets in 46 overs track.

It was a Ciaran Fitzgerald moment – where's your effing pride?  Although I don't want to take away from Strydom's bowling, the 'Broke lacked a scrapper.  Watching the game was Brian O'Rourke, who would have nurdled fifty singles and persuaded somebody to hang around with him.  Also watching was Ray Moulton, who would have kicked fifty and ordered somebody to hang around with him!

With Phoenix scraping home by three wickets, Pembroke now have an uphill task.  It would be a terrible shame if their collection of talented young players had to spend another year in the outback of Division 2.