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Lewis Hohn Williams Senior Cup Final, Malahide, 23rd July: North County v Merrion

A friend who was out of Dublin on Saturday asked me on Sunday evening how the LHW Senior Cup Final in Malahide had been, and I replied that it reminded me of the proverb “If at first you don't succeed, then try, try again.”  That proverb has been associated with the captive Robert the Bruce determining to fight back against the English.

Never mind that the Scots need no proverbial assistance to get one over on the English.  I remember when the Wee Jimmies managed for once to beat England in 1967, and immediately declared themselves world champions!  As I described the final to my friend, I was reminded of the Chinese proverb, “May you live in interesting times” because it certainly was an interesting game.

Both teams were below strength.  Merrion were without Ben Ackland, who has a broken finger, and North County were without Ciaran Garry, ditto, but also Richie Lawrence (shingles, I'm told) and Conor Shiel (unspecified debilitation).  Cillian O'Donoghue came in for Ackland, while Daniel Nolan, Terry Richardson and Jono Andrews stepped in for County, for whom David Casey continued to deputise behind the stumps for Dara Armstrong.

Merrion won the toss and chose to bat on a very slow, flat Malahide pitch.  John Mooney bent his back and got a little reward in his first few overs but no luck.  Josh Reeves doesn't have John Boy's extra pace, and was replaced after three overs from the Castle end by Eddie Richardson.  Dom Joyce and Kade Beasley dug in and resisted everything the County bowlers could throw at them.

Dom mixed watchful defence with classy drives and tucks off his legs; Beazo mixed watchful defence with more watchful defence and the odd nurdle and top edge.  After an hour drinks were taken with the score on 52 from 16 overs.  After drinks County put themselves in the driving seat by  relying mainly on Adam Coughlan's offies and Jono Andrews's leggies to slip in 21 more overs before lunch.

Coughlan didn't bowl anything like as well as he has been bowling, producing far too many leg side deliveries, and Andrews couldn't get any zip out of a very flat pitch, but the batsmen ground on, scoring 71 more runs to be 123 without loss at lunch with only 23 overs of the innings remaining.  Merrion simply had to get to 200 after 50 and then produce a big finish to bat County out of the match.

The required urgency was evident, but resulted in the dismissal of both openers.  Beasley, 44, played the ball to Greg Hay's right in the covers and managed to avoid running out out his mate by crossing just before the direct hit.  Joyce slogged Eddie Richardson to Conor Armstrong for 66, and it was 139-2 after 42 overs.  With no time to settle in, the experienced John Anderson and the new kid Tyrone Kane, had to get motoring, and they did.

John Mooney tried a couple of short balls to Anderson, but both were dismissed to the media tent.  Kane placed the ball really well, scampering ones and two, and even skipped down the track to John Boy and lofted him for a straight four.  Each had a life, curiously both on 32, and the 200 came up in the fiftieth over.  I don't want to detract from the quality of the batting, but some of the bowling wasn't up to scratch, and a lot of the fielding was very substandard.

Four overs later Anderson miscued Reeves to Conor Armstrong when four short of his half-century.  Kane got to his and went on to 66 when out in the penultimate over to an excellent catch by Greg Hay.  There was the usual clatter of boundaries and wickets as the innings closed on 272-7, which I erroneously tweeted as 270.  Eddie Richardson finished with 3/35 off his twelve, a very good effort, and Mooney will bowl nowhere near as well and get much better figures than 0/41.

But was it enough?  The hurlers on the ditch thought not.  Conor Armstrong took a boundary and a single off Petrie's first over, top-edged Joyce's first ball over Anderson's outstretched hand at slip, took another single and then watched Mossie Shiel drive a return catch to Joyce, 11-1 in the second over.  Greg Hay came in and immediately looked a class act.  Instead of trying to hit the cover off the ball he played straight, placed the ball and got better and better off his legs.

With The Doctor murdering anything that could be square cut or driven the score reached 88-1 off 17 overs at drinks and as tea approached both batsmen were past fifty and the score past one fifty.  The only thing that was keeping Merrion in the game was an excellent spell of leg spin bowling from Anderson from the Road end assisted first by Damien Poder's off breaks and then by Kane's little seamers.

In the 36th over Armstrong chopped a ball from Anderson onto his stumps and tea was taken at 153-2.  This I duly and accurately tweeted, only to receive a tweet from Trent Johnston fifteen minutes later asking for a score update.  I enquired if my messages were getting through.  The response was that scores change as the game progresses.  Not during the tea interval, I pointed out.  It wasn't the Pimms No. 1 at Lord's, but it might have been the Pimms No. 8!

After tea John Mooney accompanied Hay out to the crease and appeared to want to finish the game in ten overs.  He got away with a couple of swishes and appeared to have settled down.  Anderson and Kane continued their good shift and only 33 runs came off the next nine overs.  But 90 off 15 with eight wickets in hand should be game over – take your singles and put away the bad ball.

Greg Hay was closing in on his ton when he reached for one that Kane got to seam away, and nicked it to Patrick Tice behind the stumps, gone for 89 out of 186.   In Kane's next over Mooney walked across his stumps, tried to hoik it over mid wicket and missed.  Merrion's theatrical appeal was turned down (the ball appeared to me to have pitched outside leg stump), prompting prolonged teapots and headholding.

Next ball John Boy attempted the same shot, again missed, and again the ball hit the pad.  The Anglesea Road cats' chorus again burst into full wail, but this time the ball had pitched on the stumps and up went Jim McGeehan's finger.  The batsman thought (presumably) it was too high and started to pursue the point.  Then he thought (presumably) this is not the way an international player should behave and headed for the pavilion.

The impact was high, but not too high, and just short of a length balls, even from tall bowlers, were not going over the stumps from the Castle end.  Kane is not tall.  It might have been in John Boy's mind that it was the appeal from the previous ball that got the decision.  It's an interesting example of the so-called Prisoner's Dilemma used in Game Theory.

If two parties can trust each other both to adopt a particular approach (in this case cut out the 90% of appeals that have absolutely nothing going for them and cut out 90% of the unnecessary aggression of the remaining 10%) then they will both get an optimal outcome (in this case, relaxed umpires who know their decision will be respected and thus, I would argue, umpires far more likely to make a correct decision).  If there's no mutual trust, both parties get suboptimal and/or detrimental outcomes – the present situation.

Whatever, there were more Looney Tunes in Kane's next over.  Adam Coughlan attempted an extravagant leg side shot and merely looped the ball over the keeper.  Tice ran round and took the catch.  But still only just above a run a ball were needed off the last ten overs with still five wickets in hand.

Josh Reeves and Eddie Richardson got it back to a run a ball with some good batting and selective hitting.  Reeves hit Poder for 6 to take him to 29 and the score to 247 in the 55th over – 26 needed in five and a bit overs.  But instead of taking the single he attempted to repeat the shot and merely found Matt Petrie's big Aussie mits.

Next over Dan Nolan had a swipe at Alex Chetkovich's thinly disguised straight one and missed,  then Jono Andrews ran himself out.  The Richardson boys tried too much boom boom and not enough tip and run, leaving ten to win off the last over to be bowled by Dom Joyce.  A single off the first ball was turned into two by a stupid shy at the stumps, but the next delivery was a dot.

A single put Terry on strike.  A boundary and single left two to win off the last ball.  Nobody in the crowd had the faintest idea of the tie-breaker if only a single were scored, but the smart money was on fewer wickets, meaning a Merrion win.  No matter, Eddie (34) swung and missed, Dom hit, and Merrion had won by one run.

There was the usual guff spoken at the presentation.  True, Malahide had put on a super show except for asking the Village Idiot to do the p/a, and while the pitch was as good as can be got from the current square, that's as far as the superlatives should go on that score.  Perhaps LCU Presidents feel obliged to take leave of their senses when they do Cup Final presentations.

There was no guff from the sponsor, who was with Trent Johnston at Lord's.  I did get tweets, not only from that source, asking how Merrion had won when they only scored 270.  I don't know if I managed to pack enough contrition into my explanation, but I'll try never ever to make a mistake ever again.

The Man of the Match could have gone to John Anderson for his 12-1-34-1 plus 46, but it quite correctly went to Tyrone Kane for his 9-1-32-3 plus 66.  Merrion were very pleased with themselves after winning their First Senior Cup since 1960.  But Danny Parkinson, a member of that side, was at a wedding and didn't witness it.  What a shame!  And County?  Very gracious in defeat and very, very quiet.

If at first you don't succeed in losing a game, then try, try again.  All over them like a rash?  Chuck them eighty runs.  Home and hosed by tea?  Sling three quickets away.  Back on track for a five wicket win?  Geronimo!!!!  Yes, it was a very interesting game but, Tyrone Kane, Greg Hay and John Anderson excepted, nearly always for the bad cricket that at times was played.