NC Cantwell was not available for the remainder of this season and WR Hunter was not available for this match.
The first match against Yorkshire since 1949 ended in a draw, chiefly due to SF Bergin who made 132 in the match for once out. This was 61% of the runs made by Ireland. Fine weather and a large crowd graced this match. Ireland brought in LC Jacobson, a batsman, who had not played since 1953, and indeed whose last match this transpired to be, and A Finlay. As the match coincided with the fourth test Yorkshire were without FS Trueman, R Illingworth and K Taylor. Their captain, J Burnet, was unable to play due to injury and the Senior Professional, JV Wilson, captained the team. Yorkshire ultimately became County Champions in 1959.
Ireland did extremely well on the first day. Yorkshire, after a very brisk start, reached 175-4 but were all out for 197. Ireland, in reply, scored 87-0 in the remaining 142 minutes. Stott and Bird set a very rapid pace and, in 65 minutes, put on 94 for the first wicket. Warke was hit for 32 runs in seven overs but had Stott missed by Jacobson at short fine leg while Huey dropped Bird at slip off O'Riordan. Huey broke the stand in his fourth over by bowling Stott for 61. 100 came up in 80 minutes but, very shortly after lunch, Padgett was caught at the wicket off Huey. Huey, Hope and Duffy stemmed the flow of runs. Bird reached his 50 in two hours but at 157, Huey had him caught at slip for 61 and, next over, Warke took a good catch to dismiss Bolus for 0. The catch was at silly mid-off. At 175 Sharpe skied a short ball from Duffy to mid-wicket. Wilson and Birkenshaw batted slowly for a while until the latter had to retire ill. Then the last four wickets fell to Hope for two runs. Hope took these wickets for no runs in nine balls - the wicket usually falling to his quicker ball. His analysis which were 0-53 became 4-53.
Next day saw Yorkshire regain the initiative and, but for Bergin, and latterly Hope, would have won the game. McCloy was caught behind the wicket off the first ball of the day bowled by Platt. After this wickets fell at regular intervals until, just after 1 PM, Ireland were all out for 126. The 10 wickets had fallen this morning for 39 runs. Platt and D Wilson shared the wickets - Wilson actually taking his five for only nine runs. Bergin was 8th out at 121 caught off his glove at short leg after making 69 in three hours and 45 minutes. After Bergin and McCloy the next highest score was three. It was a lamentable performance on a good wicket.
Yorkshire went for quick runs and declared after scoring 103-7 in 70 minutes. Stott and Bird were out for 22, but Padgett and Sharpe put on 60 in 38 minutes. Bolus made 12 in six minutes and, in all, the 103 were scored off 23 overs. Warke ran a long way to catch both Sharpe and D Wilson. Huey bought his wickets, taking 3-30 in 4.5 overs.
Ireland had to get 175 in 133 minutes - a very fair offer by Yorkshire. However, Platt bowled McCloy for 0 and Jacobson spent 55 minutes making 10 so the offer was never accepted. After Jacobson left it became a question of could Ireland hold on until 6 PM. Martin, Warke, Duffy, O'Riordan and Finlay all failed for the second time, the first two falling to Bolus and the latter 3 to D Wilson. Hope joined Bergin at 5:34 PM and survived some very fast bowling from Platt with the aid of a dropped catch to the wicket-keeper and clever manipulation of the strike by Bergin. Bergin's second score of over 50 in the match made him the only Irish batsmen to have scored two 50s in the same match three times. He had now scored 362 runs in six innings surpassing EDR Shearer's record aggregate of 358 in 10 innings in 1937. Today he batted 133 minutes for his 69 not out with eight fours, three off successive balls from Bolus. It was an innings, as was his first innings, of great determination and concentration.