The first European final was played on a warm day at the Brondby Stadium. Ireland's opponents were Holland despite their losing to Scotland on the previous day. Ireland were delighted to play Holland as it would have been no novelty to play England or Scotland.
Ireland restored Heasley and McCrum in place of Harrison and McCallan. Holland's old guard was gone and Tim de Leede was the new captain. There were three coloured players.
The toss was important. Ireland won it and sent Holland in. Eagleson took a wicket in his first over when Andy Patterson caught a skyer from van Troost at mid-on. 11-1-5. The second wicket fell to Mark Patterson at 36 when Zulfiqar, who had hit three fours, was caught at the wicket. He left with great reluctance! There followed a long stand of 65 between Vos and, a brilliant youngster, Zuiderent. 50 came up in 10 overs and the score was 83 after the fielding restricted 15 overs. Then Graham and Heasley began a very good spell and scoring was restricted. 100 came in the 20th over. The 22nd over, bowled by Heasley, was dynamic. Vos had been dropped by Rutherford in the previous over. Now he was lbw, half forward. de Leede came in and scored a single off his second ball. Off the fifth ball Zuiderent ran down the pitch and skied to Benson at point. Vos had made 35, with seven fours, Zuiderent 26 with a six and three fours. For the rest of the innings, 28 overs, only one six and four fours were struck.
The fifth wicket pair, de Leede and van Noortwijk added a further 64 but it took more than 17 overs to do so. Graham's nine over spell was for 21 runs while Heasley bowled eight for 23. Doak came on for over 32 at 131 and Curry for over 35 at 142. They remained on for the rest of the innings. When van Noortwijk was 19, at 148, Benson could not hold a diving chance at mid-on off Doak. de Leede hit Doak over long-off for six in over 38 and Ireland needed a wicket. It came from a run out and quick thinking by Rutherford. A ball from Curry was played to the off by van Noortwijk. The striker ran. Rutherford hurried around the wicket, collected the ball, and broke the wicket before de Leede could get in. It was a poor run. 166-5-30. Nota came in and only 12 runs were scored in three overs. Then Curry bowled van Noortwijk who was trying to steer to third man. 178-6-33. Numbers three to six had all got to 26 but none got to 35. In over 46 Nota was lbw, swinging across the line at Curry. 196-7-12.
Khan joined Scholte and 200 was raised in over 47. In all the last four overs yielded 26. There was only one four but very few "dot" balls. At 209 Dunlop dropped Khan at deep square-leg off Doak. At 211 Scholte was out to a brilliant catch by Mark Patterson. At deep square-leg he ran left and caught the ball two handed after a dive. In the same (Curry) over Khan skied a ball to Benson at short mid-wicket. The final eight balls produced eight runs.
In the 19 overs since Doak came on to bowl Holland lost five wickets and 92 runs were scored. Curry had 3 for 33 in eight overs. In mid innings the Holland onward march was stemmed by Heasley and Graham whose combined 17 overs only yielded 44 runs.
The Irish innings was always up with the rate required and very often beyond it. All went well for a long time. 143 for two after 25 overs was a great start. Then wickets fell at 143, 161, 186, 192 and 197. At this point Rutherford joined Eagleson with 27 required. So well had the team been playing that one felt confident of a win. So it proved. Both players were careful but the runs came in six overs. Eagleson was the dominant partner scoring 21 off 26 balls with three fours - the last to win the match.
Andrew Patterson departed in the third over having made only 37 runs in the Tournament. He had given two chances in the previous over bowled by the very tall Van Troost - one to gully and one to mid-off. He did not survive a third chance being caught at the wicket trying to run Van Troost down to third man. The score at this point (3.4 overs) was 25 due to Curry having already made 17. Benson came in and played steadily while Curry thrashed away. Curry took 14 off the 9th over (de Leede) to move the score was 47 to 61. Benson, not to be outdone, scored nine off the next over, the first bowled by the off spinner, Zulfiqar. Curry reached 51 out of 80 in over 13. In the next over he played on to Zulfiqar via bat and pad while trying to drive. 85-2-55. Curry faced only 47 balls and hit nine fours. Dunlop came in and the next stand was of 58 and was almost as rapid. 100 came in over 19. Benson hit sixes and overs 20 to 25, (mostly Zulfiqar and Singh) saw 40 added. Van Troost had come on. Dunlop tired to force off the back foot and was caught at gully. 143-3-24.
Doak, for once, failed. He saw 150 up in over 27, made eight off 17 balls, and was out at 161. Zuiderent had changed ends, van Troost going off. Doak pushed at the fifth ball and was caught at the wicket. Heasley was next. He scored nine in a stand of 25 before pulling Khan, on for a new spell, to short mid-wicket. Benson had reached 50 in the 24th over off 51 balls. He climbed to 79, his highest score for Ireland, and one hoped he would steer the team to victory. At 192, in de Leede's 9th over, he swept off his toes and was wonderfully caught by Scholte leaping up at short mid-wicket. Benson faced 93 balls with two and six fours. In de Leede's next and last over Graham was caught at the wicket cutting at a ball that was too near him and bounced too high. Then came Eagleson and Rutherford as described earlier. Holland, with a throw of the dice, used four bowlers during those last five overs.
de Leede and Zulfiqar each conceded 37 runs in their 10 overs. The other bowlers were expensive.
Joe Buzaglo, Chairman of ICC Associates, presented the Cup to Justin Benson and medals to the players. Benson was Man-of-the-Match. Celebrations went on deep into the night.
In the two winning Tournaments (seven matches), Benson scored 276 runs (aver. 55.20), Dunlop 222 @ 44.40, Doak 136 @ 45.33, Curry 279 @ 39.85 and Heasley 118 @ 29.50. Among the bowlers Doak took 12 wickets @ 13.66, Patterson 11 @ 16.63, Curry eight @ 14.62, Eagleson five @ 25.20 and Heasley four @ 33.75.