Sunday, 8th May 2016
Other sports have “Rules”, Cricket has “Laws”. Perhaps this is the attraction to barristers, and the fact that you have to Appeal to the umpire for a decision; they are good at appeals. They like precedents too and the precedent in this case is that the opening match of the season will be Halverstown v The Law Library. It is an established precedent that Roly Budd will open the batting for the Library and score a century, although occasionally he has been known to be kind and only make 50. So it was that on a warm, sunny Sunday in May, which was not following precedent, Roly Budd opened and struck the very first ball ferociously to point which duly thumped me in the chest as I dived, probably trying to avoid it. I hit the ground with a rib-bruising thud. The X-Ray the following day did not show any broken ribs, since you ask, but I am now banned from playing cricket until after my daughter's wedding in June. Graham dropped him two balls later- not nearly so difficult as my opportunity of course. Crime and Punishment; criminally, we dropped him 4 times and he punished us with 119 not out. That is pretty much the story of their 189 from 30 overs (I had the sense to reduce the game length).
Our bowling was not bad, but we dropped innumerable catches – all much easier than mine of course. The highlight was Trevor's hat-trick. It was very impressive, but would have been even more so 29 overs earlier. In the final over, its impact on the game was not profound unfortunately. His stunning 3 for 21, my 2 for 10 (off 3 overs bowled through the pain barrier, please note) and John Brown's 2 for 36 off 5 were the only multiple wickets taken by us.
But the batting! Only 3 made double figures: Trevor and myself barely scraped 10 apiece but the leading score, almost certainly for the first and last time ever, was last man in John Brown with 11!
His last wicket stand with Cecil was dogged- so much that there was much muttering in the pavillion about holding them up from going home early! Our 85 was a poor response, not helped by 3 ducks and 2 ones. A 2 for 6 by William was the best bowling from the Library. Yet it was a great day. Thanks to The Law Library for the tea, Noreen for helping out, Roly and John Brown for the batting lessons, Dave Bursey's wife for covering for him at work, Trevor for a superb hat-trick and Ken for finding Nikhil. In typical Halverstown fashion, we have found in Nik the only Indian who does not play cricket, though he is a top class basketball player. His father thought it hilarious that he has to come all the way to Ireland to take up cricket. His run-out of Graham, whom I forgot to tell to do the calling, was down to inexperience but his 9 was a most creditable knock on the day. His sheer pleasure in playing was a delight and a reminder of how privileged we are to play such a wonderful game in a such beautiful surroundings on a day like that.“ How was the day” I asked Nik on the way home. “Perfect” he replied. Amen to that.
Des Drumm
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