Rain completely ruined this match. There was only 20 minutes play on the first day, no play until 1 pm on the second day and only five minutes play on the last day. On the first day Scotland won the toss and batted and Anderson scored 16 runs off eight overs from Webb and Ingram, then the rains came.

Operations resumed at 1 pm on Monday. On a wicket that, apart from a short time before tea, preserved a despondent lifelessness, bowlers toiled but could not spin and had consequently to fall back on length as their only consolation. This promoted an equally morose outlook by batsmen and, as a result, the cricket was featureless. However, shortly before tea the wicket began to answer a little to spin. Boucher and Bowden made the most of this, and with the dismissal of Laidlaw, Boucher had the personal satisfaction of taking his 300th wicket for Ireland. These two spinners bowled well and the accuracy of Ingram (25-13-36-1) and Webb (13-9-7-0) is reflected in their figures. The ground fielding was good but a few rather hard chances were missed.

Chisholm and Anderson put on 35 for the first wicket. In the second over after lunch Chisholm turned Ingram to short fine leg were Warke picked up a nice catch. 42 more runs were added, a little unexcitingly, by Anderson and JD Henderson, but at 77 Burke caught a lifted off drive of Henderson's at mid-off. This was in Boucher's fourth over. 10 runs later Anderson was lbw to Bowden who now entered on an extremely good spell of bowling. W Nichol played across a ball from Bowden and was bowled without scoring, while in Bowden's next over Edward was missed off a stumping chance but Taylor was, in fact, stumped. 89-5-10.

Bowden took these three wickets in 11 balls without conceding a run. At tea the score was 96-5. Boucher took the next two wickets, getting Edward, 8, lbw at 103 and having Drummond, 5, caught by O'Maille at mid-off - a good running catch. AW Henderson was dropped at square-leg by Bergin from a full toss from Boucher and was then bowled by Bowden at 126. The ninth wicket fell at 127, a catch off Boucher. RJ Nichol joined Brown, the new Scottish wicket-keeper and 27 resounding runs were added. Most of these came off Bowden. Nichol hit two fours and then gave a difficult chance to Bergin. Burke also failed to catch Nichol who celebrated by hitting Bowden over the mid-wicket boundary. Bowden had his revenge in his next over when he enticed Nichol so far up the wicket that, having missed the ball en route, there was no probability of a safe return. Brown batted very competently for his 27 not out. Bowden, after 32 overs, had 4-36 and finished with 5-58 in 34.4 overs - a fine performance as was Boucher's 4-36 in 22 overs.

In the half hour remaining, Ingram and Bergin looked eminently capable of resisting all onslaughts without scoring their scoring chances. However, RJ Nichol and AW Henderson wasted the new ball by bowling wide. It was unfortunate that just before the close Ingram, in an effort to hook Edward, skied the ball to RJ Nichol who took a well judged catch. Bergin was 10 not out and the score 26-1.

Five minutes play was all that was possible on the third day. The players came out at 12:20 pm and 10 balls were bowled. The only run scored was by O'Maille in getting off the mark. More rain caused the abandonment of the match after lunch.

This proved to be Eddie Ingram's last appearance. Since 1928, when he first played, aged 17, Ingram appeared 48 times scoring 1628 runs, at an average of 20.09, and taking 151 wickets with his leg rollers and in swingers, at an average of 20.11. In his last innings he achieved his ambition of opening the innings.

Derek Scott