Last Friday saw the first home game of the new season as the Archives hosted the Law Library with silverware on the line in the form of The Shanley Cup. The wonderful grounds of Blackrock College were bathed in warm May sunshine as the teams gathered on the boundary. Before hostilities began it was agreed that in order to make a more even contest there would be an exchange of combatants and in that spirit Will, Hari and Sajamon volunteered to switch allegiances and play with the Lawyers, while Andrew, Dermot and Kirk became honorary archivers for the night.

Dalkey batted first with openers Steve Roberts and Scott Kelley making welcome returns to the fray after lengthy self imposed exiles. High quality bowling from Saj, Will and Hari made for a steady start with plenty of dot balls. Steve’s 20 included three 4s, but Scott and then Shailesh never got going, both bowled for 2 and 5 respectively.

Kirk hit an impressive boundary off his first ball, but fell soon after to bring debutant Shiju to the crease. Under the immense scrutiny of his new teammates, Shiju performed admirably, retiring on 20 despite an apparent reluctance to run between the wickets which would have brought some consternation to Wade Taylor had he witnessed it!

And so it was the turn of the Law Library to pad up and wield the willow. Will and Kevin were the lambs to the slaughter sent out to face the fearsome Dalkey strike bowling attack. Wickets fell in each of the first three overs, one for Shailesh sandwiched by two for captain Stewart to derail the Law Library chase. Will in particular will no doubt be very disappointed at the manner of his dismissal, caught behind after needlessly wafting his bat at a ball that would have been called wide. The middle order got things going with Alan 20 and Peter 14 getting much needed runs. The freewheeling Marc Murphy scored a hard fought 19, which amazingly didn’t include any boundaries despite some very hard hitting. He was caught and bowled going for a maximum to leave the lengthy Law Library tail of Mills, Kavanagh, Berry, Block, Deeney and Gupta much to do.

Steve rolled back the years with a miraculous, full stretch, one handed, diving catch which on another day would have earned him a bottle of red wine. He then paired up once more with opening batting partner Scott to bowl the last four overs. Steve bowled well to take 1 wicket but the 2 overs of left arm spin from the Aussie maestro were literally unplayable. With figures of 2 for 2 from 2 (Richie Benaud would have loved that) he can also consider himself very unfortunate not to have bagged the Cabernet. As the last ball was bowled the win for Dalkey was secured but this didn’t stop farcical scenes as misfields, overthrows and hesitation resulted in another all run 4, or was it 6?

Dalkey win (by 11 runs I think) and retain the Shanley Cup. Player of the match bottles were awarded to Alan for his batting and to a scarcely deserving Stewart for his 2 early wickets. Apologies to anyone whose match exploits have been overlooked, this is due to a poor memory and a very blurry photo of the scorebook. Huge thanks to Tony Kerr and Roly Budd for umpiring and to everyone else present who made it a most enjoyable evening. Best wishes to Dermot who suffered a turned ankle while fielding for Dalkey.

[Written by Stewart Reay]