ONE of the great stories of the 2009 club season so far has been the resurgence of Pembroke. The Sydney Parade club have been supplying youngsters in large numbers to representative teams in recent years, and as these fledglings have filtered into the first XI results have improved. One key factor, however, is the return of veteran Briain O'Rourke after a sojourn at Rush. "I felt a bit guilty, to be honest. They were down in the doldrums - they won only one match, a 20/20, all summer - so I decided to return."

His nous, allied to captain Emmet Whaley and pro Anthony Brooks, has driven Pembroke into unknown territory. They can look forward to a first Irish Senior Cup semi final - a visit to Donemana - later this month, as well as a home Leinster semi against North County. They earlier fell at the last four stage in the DGM League.
"We've been playing particularly well", O'Rourke told Inside Edge. "We're been practicing since February and we've been working hard."

Hard work means a 4km run after practice twice a week, a timed circuit of Dublin 4, which sees 39-year-old O'Rourke vying for top spot with teenager Graeme McDonnell.

McDonnell is already talked of as a future Ireland player, a status surely very close for Andrew Balbirnie. Ireland 'A' coach Adi Birrell is gushing about the potential of 6'4" teen fast bowler Alan Eastwood, while Theo Lawson and Ryan Hopkins are also making waves. "Ryan is just back after his Leaving and scored 103 for Leinster Development XI over in England last week. He has great potential," says O'Rourke.

The player-coach gets a chance to mix work and pleasure these days, in his tenth year as LCU development officer. "Its hard to fit it all at the moment," he says, "there's so much happening".

He has overseen enormous changes in recent years, and huge growth. He has driven the Leprechauns Cup forward to where it now has 30 primary schools competing. "There are now huge numbers playing at 1st and 2nd Year in secondary schools and we're growing all the time into new areas, particularly in west Dublin."

If he can fit it all in, he hopes to get a chance to help Pembroke into their first Irish Cup final, and their first Leinster showpiece for a decade. There is also the small matter of seven runs that he needs to pass 9,000 in senior cricket. And after that, its head down for 10,000.


ANOTHER milestone for William Porterfield on Thursday, when he became the first to score 1,000 ODI runs for Ireland. The Gloucestershire batsman is in great form this year, which makes it hard to understand why the county omitted him from the Friends Provident Trophy semi-final against Sussex last Sunday.

No-one in the world has scored as many runs in limited over List A games this year. The fascinating table, updated every minute on Cricinfo, sees the usual suspects such as MS Dhoni, Salman Butt and Chris Gayle. But no-one comes near the man from Killyclooney, who had 930 runs before yesterday's RSA second ODI v Kenya.
He may yet be caught by the men in 4th place (Eoin Morgan), 18th (Ed Joyce) or 20th (Kevin O'Brien). A remarkable run of success for Irish batsmen.


ED JOYCE's total was boosted by his amazing career best 146 in that semi-final win, his third in the competition. His purple patch has led to calls for a return to the England shirt he won 17 ODI caps in from 2006-07. "All I can do is keep stacking up the scores and hope people are watching, " he said.
"I haven't heard from any selectors and I wasn't involved with the England Lions last week which was disappointing, But if I keep scoring runs hopefully I will get another chance."


THE IRELAND wicketkeeper is in Dublin tomorrow for the Niall O'Brien Wicketkeeping Masterclass at Railway Union. There are still a couple of places available on the one-day course, contact Eddie Ingram 087-9175753 or RUCCwicketkeeping@gmail.com


THE Cricketers' Club of New South Wales are on tour in the UK during this Ashes summer, and nip across to Dublin this week for games against Trinity (Wednesday 12.30pm), Railway (Thursday 2pm) and Malahide (Friday 1pm). This venerable touring club count among their members Richie Benaud and Geoff Lawson and have produced a lavish tour guide.


MIKE Gatting scored four before that famous ball from Shane Warne castled him in 1993. Despite what the Duckworth-Lewis Method say, it wasn't "a buggering duck". Thanks to the many readers who entered the competition last week, and a copy of the CD is on its way to two good cricketing names: Derek Pringle (which may be a pseudonym) and Deryck Vincent (which isn't).