The Under 13 All Ireland Cup, named after the great Phoenix batsman David Pigot, pits the Cup winning sides from the North West, Northern and Leinster Cricket Unions. Clontarf have won the trophy before, but never more dramatically than in 2011, when it took one of the most remarkable spells of bowling to bring the Cup back to the Northside of Dublin again.
The Final of 2011 was against Bready in their home ground at Magheramason, near Derry and the Team Manager Gerry Delany arranged a bus to allow the team and supporters to travel in style. This team had actually played the Bready team two years previously in the Under 11 All Ireland Semi Final, a game that was won before we beat CIYMS in the final in Clontarf. However, Bready were the dominant side in the North West and would undoubtedly challenge in the Clontarf side, who themselves were in good form, having won the Leinster Cup against Pembroke and would go on to win the League in some style.
The long journey was broken by a stop along the way for some food and a chance to stretch, so when we arrived at the wonderfully appointed Bready Cricket Club, the team were raring to go. Senior player, Eoghan Delany helped the Club Coach Rod Hokin to take the warm ups and get the team ready for the battle ahead. There was sense of excitement about the team who clearly could not wait to get started.
The toss was lost and Clontarf were asked to bat first on what was an excellent pitch with long boundaries, particularly straight. Colin Curry and Andrew Delany opened the batting, Colin has an incredible record in The All Ireland competitions and indeed it was his feets in the 2009 Under 11 competition that saw Clontarf emerge as winners. This time Colin and Andrew started cautiously in the face of good, tight bowling. However, Colin opened his shoulders as the partnership developed, clearing the ropes on a number of occasions. He fell for an excellent 64 and Andrew was unfortunate not to reach his half century, falling on 48. It took some big hits from Sean Dunne at the end to bring the total to 154 for 3 at the close of the innings, after 30 overs.
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| Colin Currie |
The North West is legendary for their teas and this was no different. Suitably fed, the team came out for the 2nd innings full of adrenaline. Perhaps too much as the early bowling while quick was also a bit wild and Bready clinically put away the bad balls and happily accepted the freebies, by way of wides and no balls, offered. Sean Dunne and Sean McCarthy pulled back the Bready’s fast start, to some extent but they were going at 6 an over and well on target. McCarthy got in on the act again in catching Bready dangerman, Andrew Austin but his partner Reece Kelly merely took up the reigns and took Bready to the edge of a great victory. Scorer and Manager Gerry Delany was feeling the pressure too, forsaking the score box and pacing up and down the car park. Coach Rod Hokin, seemd calm enough and if he was then he was the only one in the ground.
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| Rod Hokin |
Needing 18 off the final 3 overs, with 6 wickets in hand, David Delany recalled himself to the attack, David’s opening spell was not amongst his best however, what followed was simply extraordinary.
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| David Delany |
In 5 balls he clean bowled 5 batsman and only missed the last by a whisker. In fact both umpire and wicketkeeper could not believe that it missed and both held their heads in their hands (resulting in a bye!). Laura Cullen, who travelled to the game as a supporter, was also in charge of the Twitter feed, her comments are worth recording:
- 19 off 18.
- Wicket!!!!!!! David Delany! 19 off 17
- Wicket AGAIN! David Delany hat-trick ball! 19 off 16!
- HAT TRICK DAVID DELANY!
- 4 WICKETS IN A ROW? I dont even know what that's call!
- 5 IN A ROW...
- And the last ball went for a bye. Best over i've ever seen
The game of course was not yet over, with one wicket still standing but the following over, Sean McCarthy ran out the last man and victory was Clontarf’s.
It was an incredible finish to the match played in a wonderful spirit, a fact which did not go unnoticed by the neutral supporters. The following day both Joe Doherty, the Chair of Cricket in Cricket Ireland and Hope Kerr, the sponsor, publically paid tribute to both teams.
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