A remarkable 94-run win at Worcestershire in 2009 at New Road, having been at one stage 52 for 5 is the favourite match of Edward Liddle.

Edward's family home was in Bangor but he was educated at St Columba's and TCD. At the former he was Secretary of Cricket in 1960 and 1961, besides scoring for the 1st XI. At Trinity he scored and sometimes umpired for the 1st XI though gave up the regular scoring after 2 years because he thought he had better do some work.

In 1966 he crossed the Irish seas and then taught History and Politics for 39 years before he took early retirement in 2005. He has watched Worcestershire since the 1970s and has been a member for 29 years.

He has compiled many of the players' biographies that are a popular feature on the CricketEurope site.

 

My favourite match will always be Ireland's remarkable win over Worcestershire in the Friends Provident Trophy at the County's New Road ground in May 2009.

It gave me as much pleasure as anything I have ever seen on the cricket field, even though it was achieved against the team which I have followed through good days and bad for over 30 years.

The morning of the match was cold and bleak with a strong wind blowing down the ground to where I sat with a group of friends, my companions at Worcestershire's matches for many a match over the years.

Put in Ireland were soon 8/2 the wickets falling to a Westralian medium pacer Matt Mason, who had an Irish qualification. Soon it seemed all was lost as Ireland slumped to 72/6.

"They shouldn't be in the competition, " announced a loud voice behind us, "it'll be all over by 3 o'clock".

The voice belonged to am individual we called Nigel because he bore an uncanny resemblance - vocally and physically to a certain right wing populist politician. I pretended not to hear him and then lived again as Kyle McCallan and Trent Johnston added 58, Kyle's stentorian calls competing with the cathedral's clock's chimes ringing out over the half empty ground.

Eventually they were both out, the tail fell away and at 152 all out, Ireland had failed to last the 50 overs.

I walked rather gloomily around the ground at the interval, catching sight of three figures in Irish rugby shirts. High in the always cold Basil D'Oliveira stand, they must have been freezing. I encountered Roy Torrens who seemed far from cheerful. Then it was back to my seat for what seemed like a formality as Vikram Solanki and Steve Davis were among the best one day openers in the country and Worcestershire seemed on course for home draw in the quarter final.

Then, midway through the third over- I can still see it clearly in my mind's eye, Fintan McAlister swooped low to his right to catch and edge from Solanki and the rest is history. In no time the county were 21/6.

The Duckworth Lewis total sky rocketed. The crowd were stunned into silence, apart from Nigel, who was now loudly abusing the batsmen, A brief stand - which more than doubled the score had me worried, but then TJ and Alex Cusack finished the job. 58 all out, Worcestershire's lowest ever one day total.

The crowd generously applauded Ireland while demanding the head of Steve Rhodes Worcestershire's Director of Cricket. My friends congratulated me.

I turned to Nigel, who was still shouting abuse now at the defeated captain, Solanki. "Well", I said, "I think they should be in the competition but you were almost right about the time."