MATCHES 2 and 3 - v. Railway UNION at Park Avenue, Saturday 2nd May and v Leinster CC at Observatory Lane, Sunday 3rd May.

Team for both Matches: Silverstone, J. ("B") McKenna, Bryce, Cox, Nixon, Harte, Hewson, Kirk, Halliday (captain), Frankland, and McCarey.

In 1970 DUCC's League fixture list comprised 4 Home and 6 Away games. After the nail-biting victory against Old Belvedere the first weekend in May was occupied by trips to Sandymount and Rathmines. This would bring DUCC up against three of Dublin's best cricketers, larger than life characters all! For Railway there were Brendan ("Ginger") O'Brien and Joey O'Meara whilst Leinster sported the unmistakeable Gerry Duffy. Neither Club had enjoyed a great season in 1969 Leinster finishing mid-table and Railway in 8th place just one slot above DUCC.

Early May was probably a good time to play Railway whose top 5 batsmen were all busy Senior (or better) hockey players. Park Avenue had just put away its goal-posts but, although the weather was improving it was still a very low, slow track and run scoring was again hard work. Barney McKenna (19) on debut, scored the bulk of the runs in his opening stand with Johnny Silverstone against the steady attack of Cheatle and J. Donnelly. The latter had 5 consecutive maidens before giving way to Joey O'Meara in whose 4th over McKenna was stumped by Dessie Byrne.

Michael Bryce now took the game "by the scruff". His 69 contained 8 boundaries and he forged partnerships with Hart Cox (40 for the 3rd wicket), Chris Harte (27 for the 5th) and Simon Hewson (30 for the 6th). In particular the DUCC batsmen found ways to deny the spin of O'Meara (1for 50 off 15 overs) and Niall McConnell (2 for 33 off 9). When skipper Halliday declared 64 overs had been bowled and DUCC probably reckoned that it would require something special from Ginger or Joey to remotely threaten a target of 170.

What actually eventuated sent shock-waves through Leinster cricket. Jimmy McKenzie fell to a Cox catch in Ronnie McCarey's first over. Not to be out-done John Frankland removed Dessie Byrne (bowled), Crawford Tipping (caught behind) and Ginger - also bowled for the innings' only duck! These wickets fell in Frankland's 1st, 2nd and 3rd overs which he followed with 2 maidens and then bowled O'Meara in his 6th. Connolly got to double figures (11) before being caught by Philip Nixon off McCarey and the 2 opening bowlers each hit the stumps twice more to complete the rout - 32 all out in 20.5 overs.

Frankland 10-4-10-6; McCarey 10.5-4-21-4. Cause for celebrations or what? But hold on for it's off to Rathmines tomorrow and the wind is in our sails!

It had been rather dull at Park Avenue but Sunday dawned bright and warm, the Leinster ground in magnificent order. With no "Saturday Night" paper, and certainly no texts, Twitter, Facebook etc. not much was known of yesterday's events. But an even clearer signal was to be sent out of DUCC's potential. I'm fairly certain that Mike Halliday won the toss and elected to bat. Barney and Silvo did a very sound job putting on 56 at just better than 2 an over against A.J. Ryan, Mick Quinlan and Bobby Harris. When Silverstone was bowled by Harris, Michael Bryce joined McKenna (right) and they added 119 peerless runs. Bryce's 48* complemented his excellence at Railway. The revelation was Barney, watchful at times but content to pick off singles. More memorably he punched drives down the ground where the smooth outfield was no help to tiring bowlers and fielders. There were 13 boundaries in his maiden century (114) and he almost single-handedly forced Gerry Duffy (0 for 34 off 7 overs) out of the attack.

Soon after tea Halliday declared at 195 for 3, albeit it had taken 62 overs. Ryan (21 overs) and Harris (18 overs) each conceded 46 runs which represented great effort for it was a fine wicket for batting and the sun shone. The question now was could the DUCC opening bowlers find any of the magic they had displayed on Saturday? Leinster's captain Dave Marchant and his partner Clayton Jones (a Trinity player in 1972 in his Dip. Ed. Year) started cautiously McCarey's first two overs Maidens as was Frankland's third. They reached double figures in the 7th over - Railway had been 10 for 4 after six!

And then "cricketing lightening" did strike twice! Marchant was first to go caught by Silverstone off Frankland. Jones nicked one to the keeper off McCarey, who next riddled a startled Duffy, and Frankland removed Butler by the same method. As with the Railway innings there was 1 player who reached double figures!; Stan Parkinson came in at 23 for 4 and departed at 35 for 8 having made all 12 of these runs. There were 4 ducks on the Leinster card, catches for Bryce and McKenna and A.J. Ryan, the final wicket, falling LBW to McCarey. Leinster 42 all out!

McCarey 11.2-6-16-6. Frankland 11-3-26-4.

This time the celebrations were long and appropriate. We had 2 amazing feats to "take in"; Barney's maiden ton in his second Senior game and an Opening Attack taking 20 wickets for 74 runs off 43.1 overs!! Now there was a full week to prepare form another "Double weekend" and for the word to get around the Dublin Clubs -- TRINITY mean business!