"IT wasn't my most fluent innings but I knew if I was still there at the end, we would win the game".

That was how William Porterfield remembers Ireland's clash against Warwickshire in the Midlands Division of the Friends Provident Trophy, on May 16, 2008.

Porterfield didn't achieve his personal objective - he was out with 16 required - but it was close enough and Kevin O'Brien hit a straight six to finish the match with 20 balls to spare.

Ireland, along with Scotland, had been admitted to the revamped county competition in 2006 and beat Gloucestershire in their second group game but that was their only success until Warwickshire arrived in Stormont two years later.

It was only Porterfield's fourth game as captain - he would lead Ireland in another 249 games! - having taken over from Trent Johnston just a month earlier.

"I was made vice-captain the previous winter before we went to Bangladesh in March and a few of the lads struggled in the heat there. So when TJ was off the field I was captain for a few overs in those games and when we came back (after Johnston had taken the short-term decision to quit 50-over cricket) it was straight into the Friends Provident," he said.

Darren Maddy - one of four present or future internationals in the Warwickshire side - won the toss and decided to bat first. Opening the bowling for Ireland was their overseas professional that year, West Indian Ravi Rampaul.

"He was unbelievable," recalls Porterfield. " I really enjoyed playing with him. Simmo would have known him more. He wasn't in the West Indies team at the time so was looking to make an impression and against counties that was a big opportunity for him.

"I remember him running from deep cover to chat about what was going on and that stuck in the memory. He was realy good like that offering suggestions, not just here to bowl. So I got a lot from that and I remember he was really unlucky that year. His figures weren't the best and on this day he went for 50 but there were a lot of inside edges and on another day he could have got 3-25."

The bowler with the best figures on the day was Gary Kidd, the Waringstown slow left armer playing his first game of the season.

"I loved playing with Gazza. He tells the story, when I captain at an Under-19 World Cup match, when he was down at thirdman and I forgot his name, I called him 'wee man'. But I believe if he had played 10 years later he would have been a T20 and one-day specialist. He bowled so tightly. Nobody could get him away at that U19 World Cup."

Ireland restricted Warwickshire to 211-7 - the lowest total they had conceded since the win in Bristol 16 games earlier - and it was made for Porterfield.

"Reine Strydom and (17-year-old) Paul Stirling scored quickly at the start so it was the perfect scenario for me, old school one-day batting (he scored 69 from 110 balls) and although I don't remember getting out (caught at slip by Jonathan Trott) I do remember Kevin hitting a massive six to win the game."

It was to be Porterfield's penultimate game against a county because, two days later after scoring 65 in a defeat by Leicestershire, he was called up by Gloucestershire and could not return to international duty in the competition.

Cricket Ireland ended Ireland's participation in the competition the following year to concentrate on matches against fellow Associate Member nations but Porterfield admits now he wasn't in total agreement with the decision.

"I thought we should have stayed in the competition and while I completely understood why we had to stand on our own two feet, as a cricketer they were great games to play in, properly contested. We didn't have an abundance of fixtures then but we were guaranteed eight games against counties in a congested period.

"And when Niall O'Brien and I weren't unavailable, because we were playing for our counties, it gave others the opportunity to come in and get experience playing county cricket and added to the depth of the squad."

Ironically, in Ireland's last match in the competition, they bowled out Worcestershire for 58 for their fifth and final victory against a county - after Middlesex in 1997, Surrey in 2004 and Gloucestershire.