The Best Bowling

To take 10 wickets in an innings is, for a bowler, the pinnacle; you just cannot get better than that. It is, of course an extremely rare occurrence – in the Club’s history it was only been achieved on three occasions.   The three bowlers were S. Devitt in an under 14 game in 1956, Paddy Monaghan for the 5^th team in 1963 and Micky McTiernan for the 2nds in 1987.  Sadly, official records of these feats do not survive.  It has remained an elusive feat at Senior League Level and has only been achieved on four occasions.  On two occasions, however, Clontarf bowlers have been tantalisingly close; here is the story of those amazing spells of bowling.

For over 30 years, Ernie Bodell was a mainstay of the Clontarf bowling attack and as a seamer he earned six Irish caps (at a time when the Irish team played very few games).  In July 1950, he was a 21 year old beginning to make his way in the Senior Team.  The game in which he came so close to the ultimate was a two evening affair against Pembroke in the opposition’s ground at Sydney Parade.  Pembroke batted first, but Ernie had to wait for his chances as Alfie Cooper and Des Fitzgerald opened the bowling.  Alfie Cooper was himself an interesting character, he was capped not just by Ireland but also the USA, who he captained after he emigrated.   They made no inroads into the Pembroke line-up and Stanley Bergin and Ciaran O’Maille started very steadily.  Bergin, already, an international, was a very high class batsman (and father to Brendan who would later captain Clontarf) and only the previous week he had scored 34 and 20 against Nottinghamshire in a two-day game in College Park for the Irish side.  On this occasion, however, he met his match and was bowled by Bodell for 23.  What followed was an amazingly spell of bowling, not just because Ernie proceeded to take the next 8 wickets but 8 of the 9 wickets that he took were clean bowled.  Furthermore, his first 8 wickets were all bowled, the final one he caught and bowled the opener O’Maille who had stood firm while the carnage took place at the other end.  O’Maille made 67 and on his dismissal Pembroke declared, leaving Ernie with final figures of 19 overs, 9 wickets at a cost of 36 runs, and no doubt a sense of what might have been.  Pembroke wicket keeper, Joe Hopkins must have felt some relief that he was not asked to bat that evening.  The Pembroke innings therefore closed at 134 and Clontarf had to wait till the following evening to start their reply.   

Ernie Bodell

This was not to be a story with a happy ending, for when Clontarf returned to Sydney Parade the following night, they were unable to match Ernie Bodell’s heroics of the previous evening and were bowled out for 105, 29 runs short of their target.  Bodell, batting number 11 was at least able to hold his head up high as the “not out” batsman, but no doubt the final result tarnished slightly what was an outstanding individual display.

Fast forward 50 years to 1990, still in the Sandymount area, but this time YMCA’s ground at Claremont Road. It was here that Brian MacNeice would join Ernie Bodell in the record books.  Brian had started life as a wicket-keeper/batsman but he developed into a fine swing bowler who could consider himself unlucky not to have been capped. This time Clontarf were facing YMCA in the semi-final of the Wiggins Teape League.  YM were the outstanding team of the period and in the 1990 Leinster Senior Cup Final they had beaten Clontarf in heart-breaking circumstances, heart-breaking for Clontarf members anyway.  With home and psychological advantage, they entered this game as the favourites to advance to the final of this popular season ending competition.  When they restricted Clontarf to 177 for 9 in their 50 overs, they were firmly in the driving seat.  On the other hand, Clontarf will have been more than happy to reach that total, particularly as at one stage they were 44 for 4 and struggling.  Not for the first time, it was Enda McDermott who dropped anchor and steadily the ship, for without his 59 and some late hitting from Brendan Bergin and Feargal O’Mahony, Clontarf would have been in serious trouble.

Even so, defending 177 would be no easy job against a team with internationals Mark Nulty, Angus Dunlop, Keith Bailey, Stuart Taylor and Alan Lewis (who always seemed to up his game against Clontarf).  However, as early as the third over, YM were in trouble when Nulty was caught off the bowling of Brian MacNeice and not long after Brian bowled the Australian David Starkey to leave YM 18 for 2. This was the crucial period of the game, the big guns Dunlop and Lewis were at the crease and they consolidated.  At 42 however, Alan McClean caught Lewis and Brian had his third.  There followed a steady fall of wickets as Brian supported by the ever dependable Gerry Kirwan plugged away at the YMers.  The big wicket of Dunlop fell at 78 when Johnny Daly caught him behind the wicket and MacNeice had all 6 wickets to fall.  YM did recover again and Eamon Masterson, Stuart McCready and Neil Bailey all threatened to win the game, however after 23 consectutive overs, MacNeice had taken 9 wickets for 77 runs.  Then Stuart McCready danced down the wicket to Gerry Kirwan and tried to hit him out of the ground, he missed and Johnny Daly, only after encouragement from the bowler, took the bails off to leave YMCA all out for 133. Brian had come so close to a 10 wicket haul, but it was still an amazing feat not just of skill but also stamina.


Brian MacNeice in action

 In the current league structures whereby bowlers can only 10 overs, it is unlikely that these feats can ever be matched never mind beaten but the challenge remains for the bowlers.  For now we salute the two bowlers who have set the high mark in the Club’s history.