On the first weekend of September last year, Conor Hoey took the 600th wicket of his Leinster career when he had Pembroke Owen Gilchrist caught. Later that afternoon he took his 601st, which was even more significant because he says that it was last.

He took it at Sydney Parade while playing for Old Belvedere, but the greater proportion of those wickets were taken for the benefit of his first club CYM (336) and Trinity (221).

He was CYM's first full international and the cream of an incredible crop of young players who emerged in Terenure in the early 1980s, but he left the club, first to extend his days as a Trinity student well into his 30s, and finally to Old Belvedere for the second half of 2000 and 2001.

I caught up with him for a chat and he admitted it was hard to call it a day.

"I enjoyed last summer, especially towards the end when they started winning games. I enjoyed it too because I was bowling really well at the end of last summer."

Although his farewell to Trinity was pretty dismal - he took 1 for 211 in six matches; and the wicket came in the last game - he was still keen to play. He had opted for Belvedere because he lived nearby in Castleknock and his old friend David O'Riordan nagged him for so long that he took the Jesuit option to shut him up. But is there any chance he'll make a comeback?

"No, definitely not! I've applied to join MCC and will play a few games for them; I'm going to play against Ulster schools up north, maybe do a schools tour in England and play against Trinity in College Park. You have to play 10 games in two years - maybe I'll get a chance to play against Ireland!"

Perhaps Beany's proudest moment wasn't any of those 42 caps, but in fact happened just before last Christmas when his first child, Gavin, was born. Family duties will claim an enthusiastic victim.

The first Irish cap came on the 1991 pre-season tour to Zimbabwe, when he took the wicket of test player Grant Patterson in a one-day game at Harare South. He had impressed the selectors in the interprovincials the year before and was picked to tour at the age of 21.

"That was a great tour, great social tour, and a great cricket tour for me, I got lots of wickets, including test players Campbell, Arnott, Patterson, Waller and a very young Heath Streak."

The Irish were billeted in the homes of cricket supporters, and Beany got the chance to lodge with future Zimbabwe captain Alistair Campbell. But it was a strange tour.

"I found it a huge culture shock, and found it difficult to put up with the attitudes of racism. He mostly stayed with tobacco farmers, and you couldn't lift your fork without being told it wasn't your job. You couldn't put a dish in the sink without been warned it was someone else's job. And that job was the black servant's. It was quite intimidating to be told Ôthis is my country, we do things this way'. But things were obviously under pressure, the farms all had sandbags and barbed wire. But I enjoyed the trip, even if it was a bit freaky at times."

He had another African experience before his time was up, the Irish debut in the ICC Trophy in Kenya 1994. "That was the complete opposite, much more intense cricket - we were there to do a job. Davy Houghton was coach, he was very good. It was thought after the tour he might stay on with us but he was a bit much for the ICU's budget I think."

"We were always under pressure in Kenya. Being beaten by Denmark was a shambles. Mortensen was playing. Playing against UAE and Holland was always going to be tough, but being beaten by the Danes was the finish. Kenya themselves were good, we didn't know before the tournament about Tikolo and Odumbe, class players. It was weird, playing one day against Gibraltar and the next against UAE - a Pakistan ÔA' team. Nairobi was depressing, the poverty, the crime."

His last game was against Scotland in Rathmines shortly after Mike Hendrick took over in 1995. "I was trying to build a career, and I realised I wasn't able to continue touring and giving so much time to playing for Ireland. I had rugby during the winter too and I couldn't afford more time off."

"I felt that having started cricket at such an early age, the shoulder was sore, I wasn't bowling that well. It was more of a struggle to play than enjoyment. So, I decided to pack it up. "

Did Hendrick try to talk you out of it? "No. I didn't really gel with Hendo, but my mind was made up and decided this wasn't for me anymore. I had kept reasonably fit and was competitive on the park. But ultimately I wanted to wind down."

After his Ireland days were over he went up to see them play a few times, but the famous B&H Cup win over Middlesex in Clontarf evoked mixed emotions. "We never beat a county in my time - we got close a few times but.... I felt we competed well in bowling and fielding but we never really got our batting together. It was a confidence thing more than anything else.

"The best of all was also at Clontarf against Middlesex with Gatting and Ramprakash (1991), when Simon Hughes slagged the pitch off as being like bowling on Weetabix. We kept them to 216-9 (Hoey 12-3-33-0) but Emburey tied us up and we couldn't get going." (Hoey top scored with an unbeaten 26 out of 171-9)

Was there any sniff of an opportunity to play across the channel? "My one regret is not giving Oxford a go after Trinity. If I had it over again I'd go over to try to get a Blue. I didn't really investigate it."

He insists that the gap between Irish players and English is not as wide as it seems and is mostly down to confidence. "We eventually realised at schools level against England that we were never totally outclassed, we competed well enough - although we never won I suppose."

Beany got the opportunity to bowl to a lot of the top players as Ireland had regular and frequent friendlies against counties, an element of the fixture list which seems to be no more. Who was the hardest to bowl to?

"I remember when I was bowling against Campbell in Zimbabwe, he was the guy we couldn't get out; he scored a couple of hundreds and averaged about 200 against us. It was difficult bowling to him on a really good track like at Old Hararians."

"Another difficult opponent - and certainly the most obnoxious cricketer I ever played against - was Nolan Clarke of Holland. Actually, now that I remember a few games against Malahide I better rephrase that: "Nolan Clarke of Holland was the most obnoxious cricketer I ever played against who could play! "

"It was great to measure yourself against the likes of the West Indies: Phil Simmons was top class. I remember at Downpatrick when we played them - it was very difficult not to be overwhelmed. Lara was on that tour, he was only a youngster, and I got him second ball with a big juicy long hop which went down Mark Cohen's throat at square leg."

He has many fond memories of his international career, some of which can be typified as tightrope-walking with the powers-that-be. He particularly enjoys a story about playing cards on a train to Wales with - among others - Mark Cohen, Stephen Warke, manager Joey O'Meara and selector Dermott Monteith,

"I had four high hearts, and just needed queen for a royal flush when I get a little kick from the player to my left Stephen Smyth, who had the queen of hearts. Between the jigs and the reels he managed to get the queen of hearts into my hand. Monty was convinced he was unbeatable and it got to the stage where Dermott was writing me IOUs. It eventually got to £320 - sterling!

"Smythy was lending me £20 notes by the handful. It got the stage where he laid out his full house and I my royal flush. He couldn't believe it! Afterwards reality set in and I gave it all back - I think I lost out on the mathematics of it all - but I just ran up to Monty on the platform, stuffed a load of notes into his breast pocket, nodded at him and ran! I didn't think he'd see the funny side to it, but I'd say he was happy enough when he counted the cash!"

"That was a great tour for me. I had seven wickets at Lord's and another seven wicket haul in the three day match at Usk. We played hard but we partyed hard too."

Which leads us to the infamous story of the Arundel Three.

"It was Eddie Moore's debut and he had the dubious pleasure of rooming with me on the night of the infamous affair! We were hauled up for bringing the game into disrepute. There's no doubt we were in the wrong but it could have been handled differently. Myself and Smythy were suspended but ended up playing that day.

"I suppose we were wrong at the time, but we were young and enjoying life. The ICU hadn't got a set policy at the time - it is a lot stricter now and as a result we enjoyed ourselves a bit too much. But the key thing was we were able to perform the next day and we always were."

"I enjoyed the tours, Jacko (Paul Jackson) was a great tourist, and Angus (Dunlop) and Joey O'Meara. We gave Joey a hard time but I think he enjoyed it. Angus used to bring a black curly wig for his impressions - Joey took it in good spirit.

"On the Zimbabwe tour we had barbecues with the opposition until three in the morning before a day's play. When you're introduced into international cricket in that way you're inclined to be a bit loose!"

"I remember one of the funniest incidents was at Leicester. We were told the usual caterers were an Irish firm who were delighted that Ireland were playing the county and had laid on a special spread. Tea was brought into the dressing room and the staff were obviously chuffed to be serving the Ireland team. They had the cakes under tea towels which were removed with a great flourish to reveal these beautifully iced cakes in green, white and orange! At the time I was known as the Token Taig and the cakes were thrown at me with great force! The caterer was so disgusted - he was laughed out of the room."

Part 2 of this article …