As I drove north out of Lusk this morning there was a heavy shower, but by the time I had covered the few miles to Milverton it had stopped, and there was Mein Führer, Matt Dwyer, barking orders as the covers were removed.

The match, a Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup quarter final between The Hills and North County for the right to play Rush in the semi final on Saturday, would have been unthinkable when I came to Dublin.

In the seventies I played for Civil Service in Senior 2 against The Hills, who had come up through the Junior leagues, followed by Rush and Man o War. Balrothery never got higher than Senior 3, and Balbriggan only reached Senior 2 in the late eighties.

They all had some very good players, and kept them, although a few swapped around the Fingal sides. John Murphy, elder brother of Thumper (Michael) and Big Bird (Joe), was the only one who moved up to the Senior league, to play with Malahide.

The Hills went Senior first, followed by an Alf Masood inspired Rush, and a merged Man o War and Balrothery, now North County. In the nineties The Hills were Fingal's top dogs, and County brought up the rear, but matches between them were always even steven affairs.

The pecking order of the noughties is reversed, but any match between them is still even money, and a matter of huge local interest. There was a good crowd as County took to the field followed by The Hills opening batsmen Jeremy Bray and Patrick Byrne.

The bowling was keen on a slowish pitch which encouraged a bit of seam movement. There were few scoring shots, Willie Wides top-scoring out of 17 when Patrick Byrne succumbed to a Botha delivery that nipped away to hit the top of middle and off.

Barry Archer made little headway, and was trapped lbw on the crease by a John Mooney delivery that came into him late: 30/2. Max Sorenson replaced Bazza and found nothing to hit, but he and Bray nudged the score into the forties.

Jeremy had edged one from Dwayne Harper that fell short of Dara Armstrong, and later that over appeared to have nicked one through to Dara. As the appeal went up he took a step towards the pavilion, did some gardening, and resumed batting on 17*.

Max Sorensen lost patience and drilled Harper low to Eddie Richardson at mid on, who took a neat catch: 59/3. Albert van der Merwe hung around through drinks, but got a good one from Richardson which left him and hit the top of off: 72/4.

Michael O'Herlihy was four and out, lbw to one from Richardson that swung away: 78/5. Jeremy Bray was still there, finding it incredibly tough going. Despite the odd flashing shot, he had only 24 after 20 overs, only 34 after 30 overs.

Mark Dwyer battled away with him, and saw Jeremy reach his fifty in the 38th over. In the fortieth over Mark (19) perished slogging at Reinhardt Strydom: 136/6. Malcolm Byrne was positive and helped an increasingly fluent Bray reach his ton in the 48th over with nine fours and two sixes..

One of those sixes should have been caught, but the watching Bender Williams spilled the ball over the boundary! The score was 190 when a mix-up saw Bray run out for 101, and a couple of runs later Byrne was caught for 21.

The brothers Clinton took the score to 195/8 at the end of the 50th over (Joseph didn't actually face a ball). For County, André Botha returned 1/10 off 8 overs, D'Cruz 1/42 off 10, John Mooney 1/39 off 8, Harper a fine spell of 1/30 off 10, Eddie Richardson 2/31 off 9 and Strydom 1/33 off 5.

Conor Armstrong and Reinhardt Strydom were their usual positive selves, but found they needed to play Sorensen carefully and so chanced their arms a little more against the Clinton brothers. Conor was spilled by Luke Clinton at mid off, and Rainy by Barry Archer (of all people!) in the gully, both regulation catches.

The introduction of off breaks for seam up did the trick for The Hills. Conor, on 47, got stranded down the track to Albert van der Merwe and was duly stumped: 78/1. In Albert's next over Rainy plonked his right dog down the track, swept, missed, and perished lbw. The ghost of Liam Keegan smiled from his perch above Bohernabreena.

79/2 became 81/3 when Boatsy flat-batted a short one from Mark Dwyer straight to Sorensen at extra cover. In came skipper John Mooney to join Brian Shields, absolutely determined not to give it away.

While Mooney patted back everything Mark and Albert threw up to him, Shields played a few nice shots, favouring the third oak down from the rookery, took his singles and then sat on the splice watching John Boy do his impression of Willie Watson batting with Trevor Bailey against the Aussies in 1953. (Yes, I am that old!)

Drinks were taken at 120/3, leaving 76 to win off 25 overs with seven wickets in hand. The Ranger joined Liam for an ethereal pint or three as they looked down and watched John's younger son continue to block it out. The by now very big crowd was also enjoying a tipple or four.

Shields, having progressed to 48 and the total to 168, swung Emmett Branagan to Patrick Byrne at deep backward square. Adrian Murphy is still having problems with his radar. A beautiful square drive off Branagan flew for 4, followed by a mow to Max Sorensen at deep mid wicket.

Ciaran Garry put everyone out of their misery as he carved and drove for 15* and the score got to 199 off the last ball of the 48th over. John Boy remained on 23* off 88 balls. This was the same guy that batted like a dream on Sunday!

The Hills seam bowling was as undistinguished as was County's on Sunday: 24 overs of it went for 119 runs without a wicket. The off breaks fared better: van der Merwe took 2/19 off his 10, Dwyer 1/31 off 10 and Branagan 2/23 off 4. There were 40 extras, including 32 wides.

So it's County to entertain Rush on Saturday. The Russians were all watching (no post got delivered in Balbriggan), and will have noticed that County are not firing on all cylinders. Ritchie Lawrence returns for County, at whose expense I don't know. Dan van Zyl is available for Rush. I shall be at Merrion.

Driving home I got a call from Russell Hobbs (it's OK, I pulled over to the hard shoulder - even I can't drive with no hands!) informing me that Donie Thompson had died.

Donie was a stalwart of YMCA's junior sides and probably the second slowest full back on Pembroke Wanderers 8th XI. He umpired junior cricket for twenty years, and was much liked and appreciated by all. My thoughts are with wife Cherry and son Greg.