TEN wickets in a first-class match is one of those important milestones noted in cricket stats pages, although it is far rarer than most of the others.

Matthew Humphreys took 5-57 and 5-54 for Emerging Ireland this week against the West Indies Academy, the first time there’s been a 10-for on the island since Dermott Monteith took 12-95 (7-38 and 5-57) against Scotland at the Mardyke over fifty years ago. ‘Monty’ also scored over 100 runs in that 1973 match (26 and 78), a very rare double.

There have been just 16 instances of ten-in-a-match by Ireland, the most recent being John Mooney’s 10-81 in the 2013 Intercontinental Cup final. Jimmy Boucher did it six times – five against Scotland and once v the Minor Counties. Frank Fee is the only other to do it twice – his first two first-class games saw him take 14-100 v MCC (1956) and 12-60 v Scotland (1957), both at College Park. The best analysis was recorded by Eglinton’s Scott Huey who took 14-97 (6-49 and 8-48) in 1954, also at College Park.

Ireland’s best bowling in a test is Mark Adair’s 8-95 (5-39, 3-56) against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.  Humphries was not the first to take 10-fer for Emerging Ireland, or even against Wes Indies Academy: Tom Mayes took 10-139 in Antigua in the second game between the sides last December.

Nobody took ten in a match in the short-lived Interprovincial Championship, which had first-class status from 2017-20, although James Cameron-Dow took 10-156 in a non-FC interpro, for Knights against Warriors in 2015.

In a weird twist, Humphreys’ feat echoed that of one Thomas Babington Jones on June 18th, 1874.

Playing for Oxford University v Middlesex at the Prince’s Ground in Chelsea, Jones took 4-33 and 6-26 and, being Welsh, probably broke into song with ‘It’s Not Unusual’. I made up that last bit, although our Tom Jones last victim in the match was Michael Flanagan, a professional who was born in Glen Columbkille, Co Clare.

Jones had previously attended Trinity College Dublin where he played for the first XI. That game in London was the first time a DUCC man had taken 10 wickets in a first-class match almost exactly 150 years before Humphreys became the fourth to do so.

The second was taken by Freddie Shaw, the 440 yards sprint champion of Ireland, who took 7-50 and 7-33 (14-83) for the Lahore Europeans v Muslims at Lawrence Gardens (named after a Derryman) in 1923. The third was taken four years later, on his home ground, by medical student Tom Dixon who took 10-130 (7-51, 3-79) against Scotland.

And forgive me if I bring you back to College Park for the finest match bowling figures ever seen on this island. Trinity had an annual fixture for many years against the Military of Ireland but the last one, played in 1919, was Basil Ward’s finest hour. He was already an international, a pacey left-arm seamer, and he proved impossible for the visitors with the remarkable match return of 18-94 (9-54 and 9-40). In all that summer for the University he took a record 112 wickets at 8.33.

Matt Humphries has a bit to go to pass Basil Ward!