studaultrey.com

Clontarf v Phoenix: Division 1 refix in the Phoenix Park on Monday 29th August

The match that was abandoned earlier in the season because of an unfit Castle Avenue pitch was replayed on Monday in Phoenix.  Phoenix were able to put out a team close to full strength, whereas Clontarf were missing skipper Bill Coghlan, mainstays Andrew Poynter and Joe Morrissey, and regulars Ropu Islam and Vijay Gopal.

Phoenix won the toss and asked Clontarf to bat.  The Forrest brothers opened against David Langford-Smith and Rory Flanagan.  The younger Forrest, Robert, took a liking to Flanagan, and was responsible for most of the 22 runs that came from Rory's two overs.  But “Bobbo” wasn't afraid to have a cut at Lanky, and the score raced to 45 in the ninth over.

Then Richard's watching brief was ended, bowled by Lanky for 7.  Rod Hokin had scored a single when he played a long way forward in Lanky's next over and was despatched lbw.  This brought in Alex Cusack, who saw Forrest to his maiden Senior fifty in the 15th over with the total into the seventies.

Bobbo's happy little knock was ended in the 19th over when he swung across the line at a Raza full toss and was lbw for 63 out of 93.  Conor Kelly was now bowling from the Magazine Fort end, having replaced Masud Ahmed who had replaced Flanagan.  In the 20th over Adrian D'Arcy got into a tangle and lobbed a catch to Des O'Leary.

Eoghan Delany scored 8 before falling lbw to Kelly, and Junaid Altaf was bowled next ball.  Niall Delany successfully defended the hat-trick, but in Kelly's next over lost Cusack for 32, who failed to clear Masud Ahmed at deepish mid on.  'Tarf were now 123-7 in the 26th over, and staring at a mid-afternoon defeat.

Neither Delany #2 nor Matt D'Arcy is a mug with the bat, but they were only batting 8 and 9 because Brian McDermott and Mark Collier were slated for the 10 and 11 berths.  Both concentrated on defence, but were giving plenty of opportunities to score by some very ordinary Phoenix bowling, and pushed the score to 180-7 after 40 overs.

I certainly wondered about the wisdom of keeping Jeremy Bray behind the stumps, instead of giving the pads to O'Leary and letting JB purvey his little seamers at the two now set batsmen.  But in the 42nd over Delany miscued Gallagher to Corie Dickeson for 35, and on the same score, 190, D'Arcy was bowled by Masud Ahmed for 37.

When Collier was bowled by Masud Ahmed in the 45th over, Clontarf were all out for 197, a decent total for the batting team thay had out, but was it defendable with the severely depleted bowling resources available to them?  Kelly returned 4/32 – he'll bowl much better and get far poorer figures than that – Langford-Smith 2/42 and Masud Ahmed 2/43.

So quick had Phoenix been with their overs that they had to bat for three quarters of an hour before tea, sending out Ted Williamson and Ryan Gallagher to face Alex Cusack and Niall Delany.  It didn't look great when in Delany's first over Gallagher steered a short ball into brother Eoghan's safe hands in the gully.  It looked even less great when Williamson was bowled in Cusie's third over.

It looked gloomier still when Matt D'Arcy, relieving Cusack from the Magazine Fort end, had Kelly caught by Cusie from a very poor shot.  That was tea, which was bounteous as ever.  The Ireland player was brought back into the attack on resumption, a good move by acting skipper Hokin, and it paid off when Cusie bullied the umpire into giving Tom Anders out lbw off the middle of his bat (that was Anders's story, as told to anybody and everybody!), and then bowled Rory Flanagan.

Phoenix were now 30-5 in the 17th over, with Willie Wides the only man in double figures.  It could have been six down when Jeremy Bray played a loose pull shot and Altaf, on the boundary in front of the pavilion, made a horlick's of what was not a regulation catch.  He needed to do everything right, and instead did everything wrong: he didn't pick up the ball early, so he moved late and was off balance as the ball died just to the right and short of him; still, a half-decent athlete with good hand-eye coordination would have fancied his chances.  I'm not denigrating Altaf – Clontarf needed the catch to go to a first team cricketer, and it didn't.

JB dug in and tightened up.  At the other end, Langford-Smith curbed his urges to hit the cover off the ball, and the score moved gradually past fifty.  As the fifty partnership was reached, Hokin felt the need to conserve his three frontline bowlers – himself, Cusack and Niall Delany – although Matt D'Arcy was putting in a decent shift, and experimented with Altaf and Eoghan Delany.  Lanky's eyes lit up as he deposited Eoghan Delany in the field three times in an over, one with a bounce.

The partnership was now worth 75, but Lanky, 39, took one liberty too many with D'Arcy and found Cusack.  Corie Dickeson, like Arsenal, only has Plan A, and twelve runs later was very smartly stumped by Richard Forrest off D'Arcy.  Another dozen runs were added before O'Leary was lbw to Hokin, leaving 69 runs to be scored in 11 and a bit overs.

Bray was joined by Masud Ahmed, and the pair played straight, took their singles and put away the bad balls – real cricket.  The partnership prospered, and things got very tight.  I had to laugh when JJ Labuschagne called Richard Forrest for a no ball for putting some part of himself or his equipment in front of the line of he stumps.  JJ was immediately scolded by Robert Forrest and Adrian D'Arcy, who argued that Rich was entitled to do so as long as he didn't take the ball in front of the stumps.

Hogwash, boys.  Had they pursued that line with Liam Keegan, they wouldn't have scored a run in any match he umpired for the next three years, possibly longer!  Hokin bowled out himself, Cusack and D'Arcy, leaving the last four overs to the Delany brothers.  Bray had reached his fifty in the 43rd over, and was content to play second fiddle to the increasingly fluent Masud Ahmed, who brought the scores level with a six.

The field came in, two dots followed, a single was squirted and Phoenix had won with nine balls to spare, Bray on 60* and Masud Ahmed on 41*.  Cusack returned 3/24 off his ten overs, D'Arcy 3/42 off his, Hokin 1/32 and Niall Delany 1/27.  The other nine and a half overs cost 68.  Phoenix must now avoid defeat on Saturday to YMCA, while only a win for YMCA will prevent their relegation.

It was a fine win for Phoenix, witnessed by a very decent crowd for a working Monday afternoon – all sorts of people found an excuse to take a detour through the Park.  Jeremy Bray was to fly to England on Tuesday morning to join his Development XI at the Rose Bowl, where he would be able to chat about the match with his captain, Clontarf's Andrew Poynter, who flew out with the rest of the team on Monday.