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North County v Leinster: Division 1 match played at Inch, Balrothery, on Saturday 21st August, plus the second half of The Hills v Merrion, Division 1 match played at the Vineyard, Milverton, on the same day

Everybody seemed to be in a hurry on Saturday.  Traffic was moving quickly on the M50, and in no time at all I was past the airport on my way up the M1 to the Inch, Balrothery.  There, both North County and Leinster were busy with their warm up routines.

Anton Scholtz won the toss and decided to bat.  He opened with himself and Craig Mallon against John Mooney and James Boyland.  After a boundary from Scholtzy and four leg byes, Mallon played Boyland to mid on and called for a single.

Ciaran Garry was quickly onto it and threw down the stumps at the bowler's end with Mallon short of his ground.  Next ball Scholtz whipped off his legs for another boundary, but then edged one through to Dara Armstrong, and Leinster were 16-2.

That became 22-3 when George Dockrell was well taken behind the stumps off Boyland, bringing together the previous weekend's heros Carlos Brathwaite and JP O'Dwyer.  But there was to be no century partnership this week, not even after Dara Armstrong had dropped Brathwaite.

The tall Bajan cracked a boundary over Conor Armstrong's head in the gully, and next ball played a similar shot off Boyland.  Conor stuck up a hand more in self-defence than in any intent to catch it, and the ball bounced off it towards backward point.  Eddie Richardson dived far and low to his left to claim a super catch.

That was Boyland's third wicket, a fair return for aggressive bowling against aggressive batting.  Equally aggressive and skilful bowling from the other end by John Monney went unrewarded when Andre Botha uncharacteristically grassed a straightforward slip catch offered by JP.

Boatsy made amends to showboat a slip catch off Boyland, who now had his Guildford Four-for.  Mooney took a rest and introduced Eddie Richardson from the road end.  The youngster was carrying a leg injury, so cut down his pace, bowled at the stumps, and nipped it off the seam, just like the Chink used to do (still does?).

When the Chink dropped it short, he expected to be put away.  Eddie dropped one short, and Mark Jones carved it straight to John Boy at point.  When he had Will Lennon lbw, Leinster were 62-7, and I got on the dog and bone to Willie Dwyer to advise him I'd be up in Milverton sooner rather than later.

Mark Kelly had been batting well, putting away the bad ball, and found an ally in Peter Byrne, who shored up one end.  The score had reached 92, and Kelly 34, when he went back to Richardson and was lbw.  The next delivery bowled Hugh McDonnell, and Eddie now had his Guildford.

He didn't get his hat-trick, defended by Rob Miley, and he didn't get a further opportunity for his Michelle Five-for, taken out of the attack.  He was a far-from-happy bunny.  Rob Miley had some fun, accumulating 24 with some rustic shots, and Peter Byrne produced a boundary to take him into double figures and the score to 126.

Then he played on to one that came back at him, giving Boyland his Michelle – 5/45 to go with Richardson's 4/24.  There were 27 extras, meaning Leinster's eleven had managed an average of nine apiece with the bat.  Ninepins it was, skittled in 27.5 overs.

Carlos Brathwaite bent his back and got plenty of lift, but Mark Kelly at the road end couldn't quite get it right, and was quickly replaced by Scholtz's offies.  The skipper took a fine catch at slip to remove Mossie Shiel, but that only brought in Andre Botha for some more convalescence.

The Doctor, Conor Armstrong, was whacking anything off length or off line, and Boatsy played some class shots as the score raced into the nineties off 16 overs.  Brathwaite was now concentrating on chin music, and hurried one in the general direction of Andre's upper sternum.

Boatsy went for the pull, and it hit something on its way through to Mark Jones.  The appeal for a catch was answered in the affirmative by Azam Ali Baig.  The batsman stood his ground and pointed to his shoulder, but he had to go.

Joey Mooney started giving out about how Boatsy had dropped his hands as the ball flew past, so he couldn't have been caught.  Have a look my photo, Joey: your imagination is as good as ever, and wearing black and red!

Ciaran Garry nicked another lifter to Jonesey, and it was 101-3, but “The Doctor” blazed on in the company of John Boy, George Dockrell found that rarest of commodities in Balrothery, a maiden, and the target was reached in the twenty-fifth over with Armstrong on 68* and Brathwaite bowled out with 3/51.

I packed up, whizzed up to Milverton, unpacked, and found The Hills just embarked in pursuit of Merrion's 162.  Albert van der Merwe was enjoying himself putting away a succession of bad balls from the medium pacers, and before the 15-over Power Play was up, Johnny Anderson had slow left-armer Patel on at one end and himself at the other.

It was Patel that got the breakthrough, Calder nicking to keeper Ackland for 12 out of 59 in the 15th over.  The score had reached 76, with van der Merwe past fifty, when Ireland's second newest cap was bowled by Anderson for 54.

One run later Mike Baumgart was well taken at slip by Gus Joyce off his oppo, the scoring slowed right down, and when Tomas Murphy was neatly stumped for 5 and Mark Dwyer snaffled at slip by Gus Joyce for 8, both off Anderson, the Merrion skipper had his Guildford and the Wilberries were struggling a little at 104-5.

Max Sorensen and Joseph Clinton can defend, but they prefer to attack, and gradually accelerated the score to 140, including a six from Sorensen that cleared the car park but didn't quite make the road.  Then Sorensen called Clinton for a homicidal single which gave Joseph no chance, and he was gone for 26.

Mal Byrne, another far-from-shrinking violet with the bat, accompanied Sorensen to 162.  Max then hit an enormous straight six that would have reached Ardgillan if the trees hadn't got in the way to finish on 40*.  Anderson took 4/21 and Patel 1/28, but the other bowlers got nothing.

After a bottle of Sicilian organic wine, an offer I couldn't refuse, washed down Arsenal's six of the best (OK, and Chelski's), my granddaughter put me to bed (her mum was very good at daddy-sitting, too), and I awoke bright-tailed and bushy-eyed to return to Milverton.