North Kildare v. Halverstown

Social Fixture, Friday 25th May
North Kildare won by 7 wickets.

HALVERSTOWN 115 all out
M. Ronaldson 23
B. Ashmore 22
N. Greene 21
H. Beaumont 20

NORTH KILDARE 116-3
J. Kemp 2-4
R. Ryall 1-17



Report by Des Drumm



Given that there are only two cricket teams in Kildare, I often wondered why there was no great edge to the competition between us- unlike say, Mount Juliet. Perhaps it is because North Kildare CC are hardly in Kildare at all, clinging on desperately to the northern edge of the County. We, though only a Nassau Greene six from Wicklow, are more broadly based, drawing from throughout the County- as well as a few mountainy men from Wicklow and the odd (very odd sometimes) player from Carlow. Anyway we met the other Lilywhites, in our gleaming lilywhites, on a beautiful Friday evening last.

We had a strong team and I glanced sniffily at their motley crew of old men, young lads- and a girl too! Normally I choose to bat if, winning the toss, I expect a sound thrashing. Thay way  the pain is less and we get home earlier. This time I chose to bat on the basis that otherwise some of our players would not get to bat before we had them well beaten. So it proved- to start with anyway. I was scoring with Gillian Machin (now, now) and  apologising for our un-tavernish big hitting as Barry Ashmore, Nassau and Hubert all retired after their 20s were up in jig time. 69 off 5 (admittedly 8 ball) overs- a record score and us being crowned Kings of Kildare in prospect. A few lesser scores then Mark Ronaldson clubbed their bowlers with the sort of glee that a Canadian reserves for finding some nice fluffy seal-pups on an ice-floe. Here's Mark in action:

23 not out in a few savage blows and we were flying again. Then the traditional Halverstown collapse and with 4 overs left we had crashed 115 all out with Gavin Dunne and I running the full 22 yards before realising he had demolished his own wicket to finish the innings rather ignominiously.

Tough to defend that score and even more so when 4 of their first 5 batsmen retired at 20. They won with an over and a half to spare . What’s more their Man of the Match was  a young lad playing his second game. Ever. And against such great bowling, too.  Our new lad Jeremy Kemp was our bowling star- after telling us he was a batsman. He had obviously not seen us bowl at that point. And Mark was deservedly Man of the match. I meant to ring Tim to tell him to take the bottle of wine off him when he got home, instead Mark negotiated a good price off his father for it .

Still, at least there is not that competitive edge to the games against North Kildare. Luckily.