North Kildare @ Terenure College July 23rd 2021

Firstly, as always, we would like to thank the North Kildare Taverners for making the long journey to Terenure for a great game of cricket on a gorgeous Friday evening at Terenure College, with the pitch being in stunning shape thanks in no small part for the fabulous 2 weeks of sun, and the skills of our groundskeeper Philip.  On to the game and the format of the game was 20 overs of 6 balls. 

Walnuts batted first with Brian and Damian opening.   The former providing a masterclass (including 3 fours) and reaching his second maximum in a row.   After a tiny blip, the ship was righted again by the Saffer and Sean (the former showing all his class and elegance and top scoring on 23), and the latter showing power and drive to reach his second maximum of the year (including a quick fire 18 in 4 balls).  The scoring was rounded out by Eddie, Ian and particularly Patrick Devlin Jr (who was caught on 18 - but not before hitting 2 massive sixes).  All in all there were 15 boundaries (11 fours and 4 sixes), easily the highest this year by a Walnuts team, and the final tally was 128.   We know our track, and even though we got our highest batting total at home this year, we were still wondering if it would be enough.

However our opening bowlers Colin and Liam, the latter of which took his 3rd wicket of the year, alleviated a lot of the fears, and Sean and Josh put them to bed.   There was a number of things that the Walnuts should be happy about - the fielding errors were reduced greatly on the week before, the bowling and fielding positions were perfect and there was an amazing 4 catches and no drops (including the one from Sean, shoulder height and coming at speed, caught in his esteemably composed natural way.   The wickets were taken by Liam, Josh, Philip, Eddie and Sean with 2.   A special mention to the wicketkeepers (a thankless task but Ian and Liam were brilliant on the day.)   North Kildare reached 101 at the end of the 20 overs, and our record moved on to 4 and 3.

It was of no surpise that Sean got the nod from the extremely gratious North Kildare captain - with Brian giving his call to Patrick for his fantastic sixes.

Thank you also should go to Brian and Eddie for the sandwiches - which were needed after that.

Roll on Chapelizod next Friday for what should be a great game.

Walnuts win to break the Jinx.