The bat was always on top of the ball in this match played on a good wicket in glorious sunshine. Ireland made 250 in 240 minutes. McCloy was caught behind at 10 and Bergin LBW to the leg-spinner Lewis at 52. Martin and Stevenson had a bright stand of 77. Stevenson made 63 of these in 73 minutes. He hit a six and 10 fours and give an easy outfield chance when 27. Martin played on at 142 and lunch came at 158-4. 92 came in 90 minutes afterwards with Donaghy and Ferguson getting 32 and 24 respectively. Cuthbertson took two wickets with the new ball and was the most successful bowler with 3-25 in 17 overs.

In 140 minutes to close of play MCC made 158-2. Murray and Phebey began very briskly and put on 57 but both were out caught behind the wicket and the score was 79 for two. Brearley and Endean were now together and added a further 79 in the last hour. Brearley was 54 not out including a massive six off McQuilken. Endean was 37 not out and gave a very sharp chance just before close of play.

In an hour on the second morning the same pair added a further 105 runs in a great display of strokeplay. Both might have been out - Endean being dropped in the gully by Duffy off Kenny and McCloy misjudged an outfield chance from Brearley. Brearley reached 106 before the declaration with one six and 11 fours and batted for only 135 minutes. Endean made 89 not out in 120 minutes with 11 fours. O'Riordan bowled 22 overs for 44 runs but the rest of the bowlers came in for heavy punishment. MCC declared at 12 noon with a lead of 13.

Ireland lost McCloy, Bergin and Martin for 50 and at lunch the score was 61-3 in 80 minutes. At 88 Stevenson fell to a fine catch by Cuthbertson at long off and O'Riordan was out at 98 and Ireland were in trouble. Duffy supported McQuilken and 64 were added before Duffy was caught off Turner for 19. At the same score McQuilken was bowled by Bedser for 60. This was his first "50" for Ireland and completed it with the first 6 he had ever scored! He put it on to the grandstand balcony. With one six and seven fours McQuilken batted for 100 minutes. Donaghy and Ferguson now added 39 for the eighth wicket and when O'Riordan declared at tea MCC were set 194 to win in 115 minutes - a feat which they had achieved in this match in 1959. However there was no Blake or Miller in this MCC team and O'Riordan might have declared a little earlier to give his own bowlers a reasonable chance to bowl MCC out.

In the first hour MCC made 66 and lost Murray, Phebey and Brearley all caught behind the wicket. Endean was out at 74 and then O'Riordan and Kenny came off after bowling 12 overs each. Duffy and McQuilken came on. McQuilken got both Cuthbertson and Bowman in his first over but then Chidgey and Bedser "put up the shutters" and after 10 minutes of the extra half-hour the match was given up. 820 runs were scored in the two days for the loss of only 26 wickets.

This was CJM Kenny's last match in which he took two wickets to finish on 49 wickets in 11 matches (1952-1962) at 18.04. He was available for one match in 1963 but was not selected.

Derek Scott