The Hills Vs Malahide (July 17, 2010)
The Hills made the trip to the Village seeking a victory to enhance the position gained by wins over the two leading sides in recent weeks, depleted by the call to national service of Jeremy Bray and Albert Van der Merwe who were, respectively, coaching and captaining the Ireland A squad at the European championship tournament in Jersey. Down through the years Malahide has always been a tough prospect and teams were advised never to take the Village XI lightly. This season has not been one of the most rewarding for their hosts but still The Hills were not going to show any lack of respect.
The visitors won the toss and inserted the home side, possibly with an eye on the weather which could have turned nasty later in the afternoon. Max Sorensen and Luke Clinton provided the early pace and it wasn't long before Luke (1 for20) drew the first blood, Fintan McAllister (2) caught behind by Peter O'Donnell. Three runs later Max (2 for 34) rearranged the woodwork behind Govan who had added just the one. This brought Johnny Pryor (50) to the crease and when he decides to dig in and select his shots he is always going to be a star turn. Try as they might The Hills seamers couldn't winkle J. P. out and he was to cling like a barnacle for a couple of hours while Clinton J. ( 2 for 11) , Naseer Shoukat, Mal Byrne (1 for 25) brought down his comrades in arms. The attack was getting bogged down and Milverton supporters were bemoaning the absence of their spinning Shamrocks and, of course The Left Arm when skipper Baumgart, seeking a new avenue of attack, threw the ball to Mark Dwyer who soon put the months of bowling inactivity behind him, his trickery clean bowling Markey and Chase and trapping Pryor LBW, the latter may feel himself a little unfortunate, but still Mark can be well satisfied with figures of 3 for 22 off eight overs. A couple of run outs from Tomás Murphy and Peter O'Donnell made up the numbers and Malahide were all out for 154.
The visiting support were royally entertained by Malahide president, Barbara Harmon and her team, the Rope was particularly taken with Kay's roast chicken and stuffing sandwiches while The Master of Woodview preferred the tuna, Flash enjoyed it all.
The Hills opened with Mark Dwyer (21) and Darrell Calder (10) and with the score on 36 Darrell was bowled by McDonald and a little frisson of nervousness rippled through the visiting spectators as Mike Baumgart came to join the fray, 19 runs were added and just when hearts were settling to a relaxed pace Mark was caught by Shehabbadin off the bowling of Govan. Tomás Murphy arrived and left without troubling the scorers, LBW to Govan. Now the frisson became a tremor, we remembered North County failing to chase 110. The target seemed to be imbued with a magical force field, too big to be an easy ask but yet too small to require a heroic effort, what would happen?
What happened was that Mike Baumgart (43*) was joined by Max Sorensen ( 60*)and these two played with patience and restraint, the skipper especially was content to take the runs when appropriate and once Max had played himself in he began to find the boundary with consummate ease, the third of his sixes being a prodigious blow smitten deep into the Castle park to bring up the winning score.
