Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup quarter final: Pembroke v Brigade
On a bright Saturday, Stephen Moreton won the the toss and decided Pembroke would have first hit in their Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup quarter final at home to Brigade. The Sydney Parade pitch was quite far away from the railway line, and these are the tracks that can misbehave.
Johnny Thompson and Mark Simpson got plenty of life, and in the fourth over Simpson got one to bounce a bit higher, and take the shoulder of Ryan Hopkins's bat through to Gareth McKeegan behind the stumps. Moreton joined Theo Lawson, and the pair battled to 43-1 at the end of the mandatory power play, although Lawson should have been taken at slip by Ata ur-Rehman off Simpson.
Brigade took the bowling power play straight away, and persisted with their opening bowlers. In the eleventh over Thompson induced Moreton to lob a catch to Simpson, and in the twelfth Simpson nipped one away from the left-handed Hickey for a catch behind, then yorked the tall Barclay to make it 48-4.
Rohit Bahl and Lawson took the score to 64-4 at the end of the power play, when Ata ur-Rehman replaced Thompson from the Sydney Parade end. Bahl immediately nicked off to McKeegan and it was 66-5. The left-handed Russell got his head down and grafted while Lawson made steady progress mainly with drives.
As drinks approached ur-Rehman yorked Lawson for 37, bringing in Allan Eastwood, who needs no invitation to prop his size 12 a yard or three down the pitch and drive. That's exactly what he did, mixing the drive with defence and a little bit of luck (he nicked one low past Johnny T at slip – I don't know whether it carried).
The score had got to 127 in the 31st over when Trevor Britton, brought into the attack just in time to bowl his ten overs, got Stretch to drive too soon, took the return catch, and Eastwood was gone for 30. Paul Lawson has made a couple of decent scores at nine and ten this season with block and hit tactics.
He blocked Ifty Hussain's straightbreaks, then latched on to a half-tracker and sent it sailing towards the railway line. Colin Campbell spilled it over the rope for a maximum, taking Lawson to 8. Robin Russell had played himself in and was starting to find the boundary, usually with a cover drive, and the pair saw off Hussain and were content to nurdle Britton and punish the odd bad ball.
They had added fifty when Lawson, on 30, miscued Britton to ur-Rehman, who may not be much of a slipper, but is a competent mid on. Freddie Mann hung around as Russell neared his half century, but was bowled by Britton for 2. Bill Whaley, yet to be dismissed this season, saw Russell to 51 and then saw him nick Simpson for Gareth McKeegan's fourth catch.
196 all out off 49.1 overs was a good recovery from 83-6, and several observers, myself included, reckoned it might be enough if Pembroke could get a couple of early wickets and put pressure on Brigade's lower middle order. If somebody could bowl as well as Simpson (4/33), as steadily as Britton (3/42) and as tightly as Hussain (0/16 off 10), they might just do it.
Whaley and Eastwood started off bang on the script, David Barr nicking an Eastwood lifter through to Bahl, and after nine overs Brigade were struggling on 14-1. But then the script was thrown out the window: Eastwood's fifth over was a disaster – two no balls and several boundaries to the grateful Hussain – and it was 33-1 off ten.
Eastwood's sixth over was better, and the score after the bowling power play was a comfortable 52-1. Leg spinner Moreton and off spinner Paul Lawson did claw it back for five or six overs, Moreton bowling Chris Dougherty for 29, and at 62-2 after 20 overs the 'Broke needed one more wicket to worry Brigade. Gareth McKeegan batted like an accident waiting to happen, but got away with it.
Meanwhile, Ifty was serenely keeping out the good balls and walloping the bad ones to get Brigade to 90-2 at drinks. Then McKeegan started to find his timing and punished several presents. Moreton kept shuffling his bowling pack but for some reason never called on Freddie Mann – surely he wasn't playing as a specialist number ten?
The game was drifting away when Eastwood produced a good one to have Hussain caught behind for 55, and ur-Rehman strode in at number five with the score on 141-3. It would be breaking the trades descriptions act to call him a batsman, and I was surprised to learn his test average was as high as 6. He gashed three fours then swatted Lawson to Hopkins.
But at the other end McKeegan was in overdrive, way past his fifty, and all Johnny T had to do was hold up his end. This he did until the scores were level, and then he put Brigade in the semi final with a beautiful on drive – 200-4 in 44.3 overs, McKeegan 72*.
Hard as Pembroke tried, they missed the little bit of devil that Barry McCarthy's bowling can provide, which made it all the more mystifying why Freddie Mann wasn't used. Brigade are an excellent bowling side, but I'm not sure they've the depth of batting required to win the Bob Kerr.
(When I got home from Pembroke I couldn't find my sunglasses, so my wife said she'd call in to Sydney Parade on the off-chance that somebody had handed them in. She was delighted when the barman gave her a pair of sunnies that had been picked up. The trouble is, they're not mine, and twenty minutes ago I found mine at the bottom of a bag. So if anybody lost sunnies in the 'Broke on Saturday, I've got them – studaultrey@hotmail.com.)