Malahide 4 v. Halverstown

Whelan Cup 20/20, Wednesday 1st June
Halverstown won by 8 runs

Like Old Man River the John Threadgold show keeps rolling on. Last Saturday he took 4 wickets in 4 balls. In this match he scored 45 not out and took 4 wickets. Two of them were caught and bowled.

Malahide is a beautiful ground and on a sunny evening like this it was a pleasure to be there. We got a friendly but business like welcome from a young team with a few senior players. Also welcome were the independent umpires, which takes the hassle out of difficult decisions.

Skipper, Barry Ashmore, won the toss and elected to bat. Davies of Malahide got 4 early wickets and with a small total on the board it looked like an early shower for us.  Wasif then came to the wicket and deliberately took apart the Malahide bowlers. By the time he was returned to the pavilion he had scored 67 vital runs and we were back in the game. Whilst Wasif was top scorer Threadgold showed such class in his batting that it took you back to the likes of Colin Cowdrey. Not a banger but a stroke player of such elegance amassing 45 runs in an effortless manner.  Halverstown were 143 for 7 at the close of our innings.

Malahide looked like they were used to this sort of chase and were going to push us hard. Thus it turned out. Cosgrove and Singh got into the 30’s but John’s 4 wickets was the deciding factor ably supported by some very economic bowling from Wasif. Interestingly they both have a slow ball that is almost impossible to pick and Wasif used it to great effect in getting his wicket.

In the end we won by 8 runs. However Malahide gave us a few scares along the way and it went down to the wire. They are a sporting team and we thank them for a good game played in the right spirit.

In both forms of the game we are lucky to have captains who are decisive and Barry should be commended for the way he marshaled the field whilst not panicking when things began to slip a little.

This is also an opportunity to send best wishes to Mick Neville who is recovering from surgery in St James’s. We hope he has a speedy recovery before returning to the batting line up.