25th August 2024 - Dalkey Archives lose to North Kildare by 5 wickets
The only thing worse than the dark was the rain. The only thing worse than the rain was the cold. The only thing worse that the cold was the slowly-relenting hope that, somehow, the Archives could pull this one out of the fire. There have been more spectacular collapses, of course. But most of them have involved bridges being hit by boats or Michael Dukakis blowing a 17% lead in the 1988 U.S. Presidential election. Nevertheless, this collapse came close to being as bad , save it also came close to being undone.
The role model for this collapse
Notwithstanding that two of the opening 5 fell cheaply (Hill bucking recent trends and departing for 2; comeback kid Lappin mustering a single run in the face of some nippy bowling), the other three did fine: Tratalos going for 12, Beamish and Roche smiting their ways to retirement, the former with some quite heroic blows down the ground (leavened with the occasional, coy forward defensive). Quite aside from the very competent bowling skills of Kildare, their ball-finding abiliities (as Beamish and Roche found the forest again and again) were spectacular. The score was 84 at 10 overs, with - on paper at least - plenty of batting to come.
But, as the rain teemed down, it was clear that this was not the weather for paper and the Archives’ plans subsided rapidly: first Bajpai gave a relatively simple catch off some tantalisingly slow bowling, departing for 7. And then it was time for Simon and Sushant’s Patented Run Out Show. Having scored 3 off his first two balls, and with the shame of last week’s idiotic run-out still coursing through his veins, the Director should – particularly given the game situation - have ignored Musale’s suggestion to turn one safe run into a slightly sketchier pair: the bowler gathered and the Director did not wait for the umpire’s decision (although unhelpfully, the umpire later told him that he might have given him not out).
After that, the balance of the innings subsided. Kerr was caught for a duck. Goldstein had recently participated in a match-tying last wicket stand at North Kildare, but while he and Cox added a dozen or so runs, they couldn’t bat out the remaining overs (which, even at a slow rate would have seen us to 140 or so). 86 off 10 overs had become 117 all out, with 4 overs unused. Cox playing round a straight one to deliver the coup de grâce.
WTF? The smudges on this one are the scorers' tears...
Then the rain really came down. And soon it would be dark. If North Kildare went big this might be over in the blink of an eye. But if they didn’t, then an ever wetter outfield and the gathering gloom might yet be an ally. In the end, it didn’t quite come together, there were just enough 4s and 6s, and just enough bustle between the wickets so that North Kildare stayed ahead of the rate. The first 4 batters retired, but then Beamish took a caught and bowled (the only Archives wicket of the night) and a pair of slow scorers came together, with 18 needed off 7 overs: a maiden followed and Roche, Beamish and Hill bowled meanly with the first five of those overs going only for a cumulative thirteen. Hope hung in the air, but would it be washed away by the rain?
In the end, mere meanness wasn’t enough, we needed miserly bowling (while avoiding dismissing either of the set batters: the man waiting on the boundary looked like he would knock the runs off in a flash). Soon, 5 were needed off two overs, but now the slow-scoring pair were running with urgency and a wet ball on an increasingly sodden outfield was not an easy task for the fielding side. On the last ball of the 19th over, the game slipped away.
Under hammering rain and with winter in the air, Pimms was eschewed for the evening and we all went home to turn on the central heating.
