What a weird and crazy game cricket is. The Cavs won the Marlowe in St. Columba’s College yesterday for the first time since 2008. From a bleak and seemingly abject position at drinks in the RTE innings we rallied through to an astounding 19 run victory.
Having won the toss we elected to bat. A lack of match play sharpness seemed evident in Matt Maw which saw him dropped off an innocous ball in over 2. I mean really dropped. Then in the third a lamentable run out of S. Coury took place. Marlowe specialist J. Delaney joined the mournful Maw and it was time to steady the ship. Big time.
The boys chugged along and RTE used a wide range of players in their bowling attack. Maw was settling and Delaney, as ever, was running was a furious intensity. Perhaps his hitting lacked the same utter commitment and a skying top edge saw him make way for Yorkshire’s P. Sykes.
Still no long-lasting partnerships had formed. Matt kept going but lost his wicket, caught, on 32. Now L. Griffin was called upon to do a job. I expect the banter between him and Sykes must have been good. Peter had been in for a while and his innings wasn’t without its frustrations, dot balls and legside swipes made for a slow burner – which is perfectly acceptable in 35 over cricket – but when the growth spurts happened they were prodigious: one over reads 4, dot, dot, 4, 4, 4.
With Luke caught on 21 the skipper joined in with just 7 overs remaining. Sykes had decided to hit out or get out and that’s what happened. His score of 55 was an invaluable contribution. Now there were two Swifts to deal with. The brotherhood was short lived – R. Swift trying hurry and force matters popped a sitter to John Roe. In the brief interim towards the innings’ end S. Swift notched up a very handy 16 not out with Duggan adding 2 (bowled) and MJF 1, not out.
Half way through the innings a black Berlingo van parked itself on the slope between the swimming pool and the boundary. Parked with its arse to the action. A fragile Braddell opened the doors to the back revealing a prime viewing platform, complete with continental duvet, for high definition Marlowe magic. Meanwhile the Bedser twins, Deirdre O’Kane, the Gavin Family from Dalkey, the Swift matriarch, another Swift brother, Col Harris, Mark Lambert, Rob O’Connor, Col Graham and Sons Ltd. and of course our resident paparazzi (singular anyone?) Noni Stapleton were all there at different points in the match lending interest and much needed support. A highlight of support came in the form of a bench Mexican wave performed by great new members Rob O’Connor and Noni Stapleton with the injured O. Braddell – and the three person wave came at our absolute nadir in the field: fair fairs to you lads!
As catching practice, before the RTE innings commenced a group of Cavs tossed an egg to one another. It lasted unbroken for remarkably long. In the end though MJF had enough egg on his pants for the post-match tortilla. This may become a tradition, among the superstitious Cavs, perhaps.
So a total of 173 to defend. It didn’t really feel like enough. When the excellent P. Souter was dropped on 3 off the bowling of T. Stott – ok we won it’s all right to say it was Seanie! – they seemed to take an effortless, first confident stroll through the foothills of their climb. There’s not a lot to say really until, once again, we cut to drinks and the opening pair still occupy the crease and our frustrated Cavalier aspirations.
Well, no there’s plenty to say. In fact in the meantime we’d lost our fielding shape, let the left / right batting combo flummox us, hadn’t really had a lot of close shaves to give us hope and we were on the cusp of getting tetchy. Sure we couldn’t hear one another over a strong breeze and the M50 hum. No disrespect to the skipper but we appeared rudderless. We were rudderless. It was a one way highway to a 10 wicket drubbing.
No disrespect taken.
The bowling up to this had been, well, grand. The innings had started with a wide either side from Maw. Unedifying. Then he tightened things up. T. Stott was given a shot at redemption as his skipper / clinician handed him the ball for over no. 2 into the teeth of the breeze. Redeemed from what? Let’s not turn this into the ruddy Shawshank nonsense.
Tim bowled well, kept the ball on the bat and over-stepped just twice in a 5 over spell. Meanwhile the venerable P. Sykes’ hip was seizing badly and when he called a halt to his spell after 12 balls it was clear that the selection of 8 solid bowling options was vindicated. Not only was the Yorkshireman a diminished bowler he couldn’t chase down balls that passed him in the slip channel. And so in the second half of the innings, and for the third year running, the presence of a Marlowe 12th man was key. Sykes retired and having dropped his boys back up the hill C. Graham donned his whites for an alert and spry fielding performance.
The only sprig of optimism came from M. Maw as he downed his Ribena, ‘They’re not that far ahead of the rate.’ But is there a formula that can calculate your potential to increase the run rate as a function of wickets in hand? I hereby christen The Coury-Braddell Method. They had all of their wickets in hand!
I tell a lie. Late in our innings RTE stalwart Owen Roe had retired unwell. He’d clattered himself diving in the field twice and feeling very much under the weather took to the sanctuary of the pavilion. Another advert for the importance of a 12th man. RTE didn’t have one and at the death it really might have mattered.
Then, four overs on from drinks, how should I phrase this…something miraculous happened. On 116 for no loss P. Souter hit an almighty, low, straight on drive which milliseconds later was resting in the fingers of the skipper. That prince among dismissals: c & b. Not sure about the other fieldsmen but it was a slightly out-of-body experience. It was the pace at which it all happened that was noteworthy.
The same could be said of RTE’s ensuing demise.
Maw had finished his spell after drinks. A breakthrough eluded him but economic he remained. Enter Mike Kavanagh and exit the clouds which had been obscuring the sun, now low in the sky and directly in line with the wicket. With the skipper finishing his spell he was replaced by his brother Swift mi from the dazzling end. Apart from one enormous 6 Stephen’s bowling had been very tight and now, from the other end, he redoubled his efforts.
Apart from that transcendental catch the other legacy of the skipper’s bowling spell was that both batsmen were on their LBW warning – demi breakthroughs…the first wasn’t needed as the newish batsman lofted S. Swift to mid wicket and the waiting hands of M. Maw. A wicket maiden. And It was dots galore from the other with Mike ‘the Mountie’ Kavanagh. In his last over S. Swift clinched the second LB on the formidable Tosh, dismissed for 54 and RTE were 3 down for 128 off 28 overs. 46 required off 42 deliveries. Things were swinging. Almost like the ’60s.
Next over and L. Griffin takes a lovely catch in the shadows at the swimming pool boundary – Mike Kav’s first blood. MJF joins the attack into the wind and continues going dotty. Once again Mike strikes with a ball into the sun and on to timber. By now the RTE skipper D. Horan was at the crease, joined by Anto Howard and they’ve fallen spectacularly behind the rate – the last ten overs have gone for 20 runs…
Two flashing 4s from his first two balls off Mike had a ring of boys’ own glory for Howard. Next ball and his skip called for a tight single but a direct, underarm hit from S. Swift at mid on saw a huge appeal and the raising of the umpire’s finger. This was the highlight I suppose of an excellent day in the field from Fr. Swift. His sliding saves on the boundary not only stopped up to 12 runs but built pressure, frustration and perhaps doubt in the batting side.
In the next over Mike was joining the catching fest and an excellent reaching, falling forwards catch off MJF saw the departure of skipper Horan from the fray. There were scenes of unbridled happiness in the middle.
With the Kavanagh spell complete Coury returned with two more overs if needed. Inspired by Mike and perhaps remembering the stout hitting his earlier overs had received he just threw down simple, mild offspinners on a length which led to another sky scraping catch, taken securely by T. Stott. M. Ford bowled the penultimate over and with an awful communication breakdown leading to a straightforward run out it turned out, in fact, to be the last.
Cavaliers XI v. RTE: The Marlowe 2013: R. Swift, Coury, Maw, Delaney, Sykes, Griffin, S. Swift, Duggan, Ford, Stott, Kavanagh, 12th man / Sub fielder: C. Graham. Scorer: F. Linehan. Photographer: N. Stapleton.
wicketleaks 
hee hee hee
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Whoop whoop
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Fantastic Fantastic Fantastic… Congratulations one and all.. Sad I haven’t been there this season with my gammy arm, living vicariously through the brilliant blogs and pics. This wonderful victory personifies the Cavs heroic ‘never say die’ spirit. Onwards and sideways.
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Terrific account of a wonderful day’s cricket. I can’t help feeling a Marlowe win means so much more to us Cavs, or perhaps we’re more vociferous in victory than our opponents ever are, is it our theatrical nature?Speaking of which, my view of the Skipper’s surely soon-to-be-legendary (Ham Lambert nominated) “turning point” c&b was from the fine-ish leg boundary, I was barely aware the ball had been delivered (left arm over) before it magically appeared in Skip’s slightly outstretched right hand, he had scarcely moved, but there it was. And then for a moment, ball in hand, shades on, he held that pose. Perhaps he was in a state of shock, or perhaps he was turning the moment gold with a mental snapshot for his team mates of the millisecond it all started to swing our way!Special mention should also be made of our wicketkeeper on the day, very much a part time glovesman by his own confession, J Delaney was tireless, alert and very efficient behind the stumps, well played!
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Hear, hear on the JD front – my main regret once the post went live was I hadn’t alluded to his work rate behind the stumps…he was one of the few who didn’t get a catch, or even the chance of a catch. And as I re-read it now I also I didn’t note his run total, a valuable 18 runs.
No, RTE have been pretty raucous themselves at Marlowe victory time on other occasions. Celebration levels are normally a function of how close run a game is or how nuts the momentum swing is – that’s what did it for us, and the 5 year wait, and the theatrical nature, and L. Griffin…
& by the way, well done Steve for using the comment section to contribute to this little online presence we have, group blogs are meant to be a conversation not a soliloquy…
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Yes an evening in the theatre well spent on the comment section.
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I third the JD comments.
As for the caught and bowled, the view from point was excellent. My reaction when Ronan stuck out a hand and the ball stuck to it was to burst out laughing at the sheer surreality of it, it seemed so improbable. And, at that point, so essentially comic, as we still didn’t have a hope in hell.
Did we?
As for the celebrations, I think we have to compliment RTE for their grace in the unaccustomed role of losers and their good humour and, in some cases, sheer stamina in the pub afterwards.
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You’re absolutely right Simon. Only in hindsight does the caught and bowled dismissal signal the shift in our fortunes, no one on the pitch at the time could have foreseen what would ensue. Like you, I think I just laughed, but probably at the sheer pleasure of a long-awaited breakthrough really, and the thought that we’d at least avoided the complete humiliation of the two openers batting through the innings to make the tota!l It didn’t seem long afterwards though that calls to up the run rate drifted from the pavilion and all our pressure seemed to be paying off!
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‘shrill’ calls to up the rate – as Simon perfectly described them the other day out in Malahide!
& yes openers making it all the way…I liked my own phrase a one way highway to 10 wicket drubbing.
Goodness knows what we’re in for next year…
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A crack XI embodiment of el duende. Those Mexican Wavers are devils for summoning the sprites 😉
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Thanks for the lovely mentions in the comments section lads. With tongue firmly in cheek, it makes up for our skipper not including me in the team list at the bottom of the post. But what a wonderful post it was Skip!!!
On the subject of your c&b, I just remember screaming “what a catch”, somewhat in the manner of the late great Cliff Morgan’s “what a try” as Gareth Edwards dived over the line in the famous opening moments of the Barbarians victory over the mighty All Blacks in the early seventies. It wasn’t really in celebration, more in the way of a conversation starter to Peter Souter. After a brief pat on the back for Peter, who played very well and has for me always been one of the more gracious and sporting of Rte’s players, I joined in the celebrations. I have to say, I was immediately optimistic that we could turn things around. I’d felt all through the innings, despite our near meltdown on several occasions, and some grumblings in the field, “this is a disaster”, “does anybody know what we’re doing?”, that all we needed was a couple of wickets and things could change quickly. It had happened to us so often before in Marlowe’s and something inside me was saying, “just wait, just wait”. I actually think that this year, despite making great efforts to put out our strongest team, which we did, we were actually quite relaxed. As a result, despite the few grumblings amongst ourselves, we never panicked, we just kept plugging away, and I think every bowler, well maybe except Peter Sykes, but we’ll excuse him with tongue firmly in cheek again, deserves great credit for his consistency of effort and stubborn frame of mind. From my fabulous vantage point behind the wicket, I was constantly encouraged by the threat of every ball, and always optimistic that sooner or later the wickets would tumble. For me Stephen’s swingers were a joy to watch, not just keeping me on my toes but thrilling me at the same time. The number of times the batsmen were left wafting at thin air was a sign of things to come. It was always going to be our day.
Well it’s easy to say now, isn’t it?
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That peculiar omission has now been rectified JD – how could I?
Yes the fellas kept plugging away. And from Matt Maw’s second spell, Mike Kav, Steve Swift’s second spell and let’s not forget the bowling renaissance of MJF everything was mega tight. Again there was no sense that the attack was weakening as we went down through the bowlers…and that’s true even with the unexpected withdrawal of P. Sykes.
We could go on & on…
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