The yelp of delight as Kevin O'Brien claimed the wicket of brother Niall at Clontarf last Wednesday was probably heard in their home across the Liffey. It was the first time the Railway all-rounder had claimed the elder's wicket since the days of the three-a-side garden path games in Sandymount. And how he enjoyed it. 'It was a good ball, but the whole team bowled well. Niall said we would have bowled Northants out anywhere, not just Clontarf'.
It was a nice way to close the Friends Provident campaign for O'Brien, whose bowling proved a highlight of a satisfactory series of games. 'I worked hard over the winter with Phil, remodelling my run up and making some changes in my action, so it was good to see the results,' he told the Sunday Tribune. O'Brien's batting, too, has leapt forward and his almost-match-winning 93no against Warwickshire was his first fifty against a county. He doesn't believe it was his best knock for Ireland – 'I think that was the 142 against Kenya – but it was a similar situation, in that I came in when we were in trouble. I just played naturally and was lucky enough to come off'.
Having rejected previous opportunities to sample county cricket, O'Brien has now come onto the radar of several clubs. Eoin Morgan was in touch this weekend to tell him to expect a call from Middlesex coach Toby Radford, so Lord's could soon become even more of an Irish colony. 'I wasn't keen before because I wanted to get something behind me', he explained, 'But I've just finished a course in DBS so it would be nice to give it a go.'
The final ‘Most Valuable Player' rankings were published last week after the end of the Friends Provident group stages, and Kevin O'Brien finished a remarkable 12th in the table. It was yet another way he scored over brother Niall this week – the Northants stumper was ranked 29th. Other Irish players who featured were Ravi Rampaul (66th), Kyle McCallan (75th) and William Porterfield (100th). Eoin Morgan, who made a century for Middlesex last month, was ranked 91st.
The study of Irish cricket's roots has taken a huge leap forward in recent years. Substantial local histories have been published detailing the rise and fall of the game in Kildare, Kilkenny and Tipperary, while Clarence Hiles probed the origins of the game in Ulster. Now, with the publication of Sport and Society in Victorian Ireland, Tom Hunt has shone a light on the glory years of cricket in Co Westmeath.
The book, published by Cork University Press priced 39 euros, is a general history of sport in the county, but 28 of its 357 pages are devoted to the summer game. Hunt sets out to demolish several sacred cows handed down by previous chroniclers and produces compelling evidence that, in that part of the country at least, the sport thrived long after the foundation of the GAA and was more popular than gaelic games well into the 20th century.
As elsewhere, the game grew up in a restricted number of areas - around major towns, garrisons and big houses. The first game recorded was between Kilbeggan and the Vignoles estate at Cornaher in 1852. Far from declining after the land war and the foundation of the GAA in the early 1880s, the number of teams and matches in Westmeath rose steeply. The number of games played quadrupled from 1882 to 1900.
Hunt has analysed the social makeup of sides and again his results are startling. While the 'gentry' raised a significant number of teams, 68% of teams represented villages, townlands and parishes and, as in England, the game increasingly became an important social activity for the agricultural labourer. The GAA actually went into decline in the county after 1893 and gaelic football essentially became a winter/spring activity, leaving the summer free for cricket.
It is a detailed study, but still manages to capture some of the colour of the era. He describes a trip across Lough Derravaragh in a turf boat carrying the men of Ringtown to play Stonehall when "songs were sung and music rendered". He also quotes from a letter to the Westmeath Guardian which dealt with an important issue in the game. "It has hitherto been the custom of country clubs to provide luncheon and a half-barrel of porter for the visitors...", the writer explained, before pointing out that this made games too expensive to host frequently. His solution: "I suggest that the luncheon be left out and a half-barrel of porter alone be supplied."
By dint of his 69 and 168 not out for Railway Union last weekend, Trent Johnston has leapt from nowhere to top the LCU averages produced this week by the indefatigable Gerry Byrne. TJ's average of 102.33 dwarfs his rivals but its early days yet. Johnston's huge hundred against CYM was ignored when he was awarded the Marigold Pink Glove by his team for some other minor infractions on the day. The man who spent most of last winter in a dress suit picking up awards from the likes of RTE, Texaco, the ICC and the Star newspaper was clearly underwhelmed by this latest gong, as can be seen on the club's website http://railwayunioncc.com/