ON Saturday Isobel Joyce became the first woman to score a 50 in RSA Division 2 in the Leinster Open Competitions when she lined out for Merrion 2nds.
The former Irish captain, only called up due to a spate of injuries at the Anglesea Road club, marked her senior debut with a composed knock against Balbriggan.
"I'd never played higher than the 4th team," she told Inside Edge yesterday.
"But it was nice to play at such a level, and it was relatively pressure free. Beaso (skipper Kade Beasley) told me to play the anchor role as we have plenty of guys who can hit the ball so that took the pressure off. I batted with Nicky Kenny, who I played a lot with years ago, and he got 78. I think he was more nervous than I was!"
Joyce is a big fan of mixed cricket, and the experience it gives to women players.
"It's great preparation for international cricket, because everyone hits the ball hard and that doesn't happen too often in women's games. The guys are all more competitive too, and you don't get as many bad balls so that gives it an edge."
Kim Garth and Clare Shillington have played some Division 3 games for Pembroke and Malahide, but Laura Delany beat Joyce by 19 days to be the first woman to play in the "senior" leagues.
The Leinster all-rounder turned out against Malahide, when she made 0 and took 0-37 off six overs.
Joyce and her Irish team-mates are gearing up for a series against Pakistan followed by the ICC World T20 qualifier, which takes place in Dublin in four weeks.
The prestigious event will have one place at stake for the T20 finals, and also features teams from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Japan, Thailand, Holland and Canada.
This week Cricket Ireland revealed that the women's team now has an official home - although ironically it's the only club in the country with the word "men" in its name. YMCA in Sandymount will be the base for the side, allowing them to practise, work in the gym and hold meetings as well as games.
"We've been playing practice T20s against the YMCA Academy recently, so we already feel at home", said Joyce.
"We've been doing some work on playing spin with the New Zealander Glenn Pocknall, and YM's Simmi Singh and Jack Tector have been bowling to us, working on specific aspects of our game."
Isobel's big brother has also been in the runs, completing the second double century of his career at Trent Bridge on Monday.
The Nottingham ground is where he Ed Joyce his first first-class 50 back in 2000. His unbeaten 204 took him to almost 800 runs for the season, averaging 84 and behind only Joe Root and Adil Rashid.
Who's Ireland's top sporting all-rounder?
Besides cross-code GAA players, Merrion's Simon Morrissey must be in with a shout. He followed his 2011 Irish Senior Cup winners' medal with an All-Ireland League medal with Lansdowne RFC last month.
That's a unique achievement - and the last international in both cricket and rugby was Raymond Hunter back in the 1960s.
Tweet of the week 1: "Great work @stirlo90 - 8 more places to go!"
Ed Joyce hails Paul Stirling, who has since risen to 8th in the ICC batting rankings ahead of Alastair Cook and Misbah ul-Haq. Trent Johnston is leading Irish bowler at 19th.
Tweet of the week 2: "Joyce Junior making his debut at Lord's #testcricketforireland #testcricketforjunior"
Ed Joyce's wife Francesca Harris (@Franzer21) pushes their son Georgiou for selection. The little lad hasn't decided if he's left or right-handed yet!
Performance of the week: the newest Leinster club, Longford, who have roared up the Division 6 table after a stunning 11 run win at Terenure