The Hills Vs Waringstown ISC (July 23, 2010)
Waringstown, now there’s a name to be respected by all in Irish cricket, a club with a long and honourable history and down through the years one of the most feared clubs in the game. They arrived at The Vineyard on Friday to take on The Hills in the delayed quarter final tie of the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup with a band of supporters of Fingallian proportions all of whom were determined to enjoy their day out and to encourage their team with always good humoured vocal support.
The visitors had a not so secret weapon in Kyle McCallan (81)but despite the foreknowledge of his prowess The Hills allowed themselves to be bullied by the former Irish skipper and his partner, Nelson (62) ,contriving to drop a total of five chances, at least three of these being opportunities to send McCallan back to the pavilion. It was a lethargic performance in the field by The Hills and one wondered if the occasion was getting to them, the bowling was not ineffectual even though the wicket seemed benign and the seamers worked hard to make a breach in the Waringstown fortifications but there were too many Cinderella (late for the ball) dives allowing boundaries where there should have been dots, or singles at most. The introduction of Jeremy Bray to the attack eventually brought rewards as he sent Cossins (24) and Hall (3) back to the hut and when the two chief scorers were seen off Nelson sent back by Luke Clinton and McCallan dismissed by Naseer Shoukat it became apparent that the northmen had little more to offer by way of the bat and their innings fizzled out at 212 for 6 in 50 overs.
So a target of 213, one which seemed unlikely earlier in the afternoon, indeed almost a sinecure, so often have such scores been achieved at The Vineyard.
Just to keep the Milverton faithful on their toes the opening partnership was once again changed, Darrell Calder this time being joined by Albert Van der Merwe (27). The opening pace was ferocious and with only 8 on the board Darrell was bowled. Up stepped skipper Mike Baumgart and six runs later out he stepped again, caught playing a not too convincing shot, to be replaced by Jeremy Bray. Things seemed to be settling down as these two steadied the course and we were about to get a little more comfortable in our seats when Brayso essayed one too many sweeps off the bowling of Gary Kidd and top edged one to Bushe bringing up the loudest cheer of the day from the travelling support who felt that the greatest danger had been removed. Shoukat (47) and Tomas Murphy (44) worked hard but the spin attack of the visitors was to prove to be their strength as McCallan, Nelson and Kidd saw off The Hills for a total of 190 and Waringstown won by 23 runs. An interesting little postscript to all this is that Waringstown’s batsmen outscored The Hills by 3 runs, the difference being brought about by The Hills 28 extras to their guests 8. It suggests that a slight curbing of the enthusiasm with both bat and ball might have yielded a somewhat different result.
Despite this setback the season is still alive for the hill tribes, their 1st XI is still a formidable outfit, liberally sprinkled with good cricketers, and still challenging for the Division 1 title. Along with all their colleagues in the other Milverton sides they are worthy of our support. As we write word has come in that The Hills have beaten Leinster by 8 wickets at Observatory Lane. “Concentrating on the league”.
