Ireland at last looked Scotland's equal in this the 47th match. It was played at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow for the first time in 20 years. The wicket, outfield and weather were perfect. The wicket, in fact, was too good for the bowlers on either side and the match was left drawn. Ireland dropped O'Brien, Torrens and Leng and Duffy was not available. Martin, O'Riordan, Dineen and Hughes replaced them. The latter two had not played since 1965 for Ireland. Hughes and Waters (Ireland) and Steele, Zuill and Frazer (Scotland) were the new to this annual encounter.
Scotland won the toss. Chisholm and Steele made 25 in four overs against O'Riordan and Hughes. After 40 minutes the score was 44. Colhoun hurt his finger and Waters took over as wicket-keeper. Ireland were fortunate to have such a capable reserve. Goodwin replaced Hughes at 46 and the pace slackened. At 56, Chisholm attempted a third run to Monteith at deep extra cover and was run out at the bowler's end. 56-1-17.
O'Riordan bowled 14 overs (too many!) and was finally relieved by Monteith. Goodwin finished an 11 over stint for only 17 runs. Anderson tried 4 overs but they cost 20 runs to Steele and Zuill but the second hour only produced 26 runs. Just before lunch Zuill pulled Monteith for two fours to reach 50 in 82 minutes. At lunch (150 minutes) the score was 132-1, Steele 47, Zuill 52
One felt that Scotland would cut loose after lunch but they never did, thanks to O'Riordan and Monteith. In 125 minutes only 96 were scored and three wickets fell. Monteith bowled for the whole period and conceded only four fours. Steele went to his 50 in 157 minutes and some 45 minutes later was caught at short mid-wicket pushing at Monteith. 172-2-74. Steele had batted 203 minutes but was very crease-bound. Next ball Zuill went to play O'Riordan off the back foot and snicked into his wicket. Zuill's 62 took 141 minutes. Dudman and Racionzer raised 200 in just four hours. Two very difficult chances, one by each player were dropped but, in general, the fielding was good. O'Riordan, at last, came off. Goodwin, replacing him, had Dudman caught at slip. 223-4-21. At tea the score was 228-4, Racionzer 23 (in 69 minutes) and Laing 4.
Racionzer began to hit after tea and 25 runs came in 13 minutes off Monteith and Goodwin. O'Riordan and Hughes took the new ball in the 95th over - with defensive fields. Racionzer went to his 50 in 98 minutes with the score at 265. Shortly afterwards he mis-drove Hughes to Anderson at deep mid-off. 272-5-53. Barr hit Hughes for two fours and then mis-hooked Hughes straight up in the air. At 5:33 pm, after 333 minutes, Scotland declared at 296-6, Laing being 26 not out. On this good wicket, Goodwin (20 overs, 39 runs) and Monteith (33 overs, 65 runs) did great work.
45 minutes remained when Pigot and McCall opened the Irish batting to the bowling of Thompson and Frazer. The last ball of Frazer's first over came back off the seam a considerable distance and bowled McCall "through the gate". Waters and Pigot saw the day out safely with the score on 34-1, Waters 21 not out and Pigot eight not out.
Next day was Sunday and play began at 1:30 pm. There was a good start for Pigot who scored seven off Frazer's first over. Barr replaced Thompson after only two overs and had Pigot, 28, palpably LBW in his first over. Anderson joined Waters and both scored well. 102 was up at 2:30 pm (68 in the hour today). Waters went to his 50 in 117 minutes but was lucky with two mis hooks off Thompson. The spinners soon came, Allan at 112 and Chisholm at 123. Chisholm was expensive but in his sixth over Waters misdrove him to Allan at cover. His 70 was a good innings which lasted 158 minutes. The Anderson-Waters stand put on 79 runs in 87 minutes. Dineen came in and had a lucky start. At 149 he lost Anderson who met a similar fate to Waters off Chisholm. 159-4-43. One run later Monteith was late on a full-length ball from Allan and was bowled for one. Martin joined Dineen and at the 4 pm break the score was 171-5, Dineen 15 Martin one. Ireland had lost the initiative to the spinners and the falling wickets.
Thompson came on at Chisholm's end and his first ball saw Martin pushing out and being caught at the wicket. O'Riordan came in. He too played and missed a bit at the start but there was a crisis at 171-6. Runs came quickly off Thompson and Allan. 200 came up and then Chisholm replaced Allan. Dineen hit three fours off his first over, going from 29 to 41. Chisholm bowled five overs for 32 runs in this spell. Dineen was almost bowled by Chisholm and then pulled him for 4 to reach 52 in 93 minutes. 69 came in an hour after tea.
Frazer and Allan returned and Steele dropped Dineen off a skier off Allan when he was 61. At 259 the new ball was taken by Thompson and Barr. O'Riordan cut Barr for a magnificent boundary. The 100 stand came up in 88 minutes, Dineen scoring 56 of them and O'Riordan 34. At the second break (15 minutes) the score was 275-6, Dineen 74 O'Riordan 35. 104 had come in a 90 minute session. Ireland were now 21 behind and six hours were left. A declaration at this point seemed to be the only way to organise a result in the match. Anderson decided to let Ireland bat on for a further 57 minutes in which 43 runs were made. O'Riordan did most of the scoring. He reached his second half-century for Ireland in 136 minutes. 300 came up. At 309 Dineen came down the wicket to Allan, snicked and was caught at the wicket. His 84 came in just three hours with nine fours. The seventh wicket stand of 138 was the second highest for Ireland and the best since 1868. Hughes had a few blows and at 7:15 pm Ireland declared. The 318 came in 351 minutes. O'Riordan was last out and had made a splendid 59 when it was needed most. He batted for 154 minutes. Dineen's 84 made the selectors smile because the press condemned his selection as one man. For Scotland Barr and Allan were the best bowlers.
As 7:25 pm Chisholm and Steele came in. It was very dark but the umpires turned down an appeal before a ball was bowled. Play went on to the official close at 8 pm. O'Riordan and Hughes bowled and Colhoun kept wicket. At nine Colhoun again retired in favour of Waters. Chisholm twice snicked fours through the slips but the fielders also suffered from the gloom. 11 overs were bowled and 41 runs scored, Chisholm 25, Steele six. Scotland now were 19 ahead.
On the third day Hughes and Monteith began the bowling and Steele hit Hughes for nine in one over. It was 38 minutes before Chisholm scored. Goodwin came on for Hughes when the score was 76 and 46 were scored in the first hour. At 95 Chisholm skied Monteith to Hughes at wide mid-off but the difficult chance went to ground. 100 came up in 118 minutes and Monteith caused both batsmen some trouble. O'Riordan relieved Goodwin and Chisholm reached 50 out of 108 in 133 minutes. Steele now began to hit. He lofted Monteith for 6 to long on. The shot which brought him to 50 in 140 minutes was a dropped catch to Ensor (the substitute) at mid-off. Chisholm gave Monteith a difficult caught and bowled chance and was then caught by Dineen at extra cover off Monteith. His 57 came out of 133 in 152 minutes. It was Chisholm's fifth "50" against Ireland. Only J Kerr and J Aitchison have scored more.
The opening stand of 133 was the highest for Scotland against Ireland since 1930 and the highest by any team against Ireland since 1947. Racionzer hit his second ball for two. Pulling at the third from Monteith he missed and was bowled. 135-2-2. Zuill came next and in the half-hour to lunch a further 48 were scored of which Zuill made only 10. Steele looked for his century and drove O'Riordan for two fours in the last over but he ended on 97. Scotland were now 162 ahead with 110 minutes left. Scotland batted on. Hughes bowled a maiden to Zuill. Off the third ball of O'Riordan's over Steele was caught at the wicket for 97. He batted for 188 minutes with many firm strokes. At 2:30 pm Scotland declared at 196-3. Zuill was 21 and Dudman 2. Monteith was again impressive with 24 overs for 59 runs and two wickets.
Only 80 minutes remained to score 175. Pigot took two successive fours off Frazer and McCall looked in better form than all season. Barr and Allan came on. After an hour 39 were scored. Then McCall hit Allan over mid-on and was run out at the wicket-keeper's end attempting a second run. 39-1-11. Waters came in and was dropped at gully off Barr when one. With five minutes to go Pigot played on to Barr having played very well for 37. Martin and Waters played out time. After five matches at Hamilton Cresent Ireland remain undefeated with two wins and three draws. Eight half centuries in the match equalled the record set in 1902 against Oxford University and 5 half centuries in the match by Scotland equalled a feat achieved by the MCC batsmen at Lord's in 1959.