This was a much awaited win achieved with 10 minutes to spare. The last win at Lord was in 1947 and the last win against MCC in Ireland was in 1961. The Irish Cricket Union President, AP Harris, bought six bottles of champagne in the Long Bar to celebrate! MCC lacked a class player of, say, RA Gale's calibre but eight of them had played against Ireland before. The newcomers were ME Milton; AF Benke and MA Montgomery. Ireland left Linehan and O'Brien out (the latter had top-scored at Portsmouth!). Lords was very wet on the first morning although the day was fine. A new wicket was cut, very near the Grand-Stand boundary and the start was delayed by two hours. MCC won the toss and put Ireland in. A win after being put in had not been achieved by Ireland since 1932 against MCC at College Park. Lunch was taken early and the match started at 1 pm, 75 minutes being lost.

Pigot and Reith started on the soft wicket to Wing and Montgomery. Some balls misbehaved and Pigot mis-hooked one completely. Two balls later he was caught at slip off the top edge off Wing. 15-1-9. Harrison came in and, at 32, when 10, Milton (who had caught Pigot) dropped him at second slip off Wing. At 43 Harrison, who was playing well, mis-hooked Greetham to mid-wicket were Benke made a good catch with the ball coming over his shoulder. Reith and Anderson had a good stand and in 64 minutes added 54. Benke (off-spinner) and Hooker were tried. It was Duff, in his first over, who dismissed Reith. Reith hit his wicket cutting at a ball near his stumps. 97-3-32. Dineen was lbw in Benke's next over sweeping at a full toss bowled round the wicket to the left-hander. At 127 O'Riordan was caught behind cutting at Montgomery. At 131 Anderson reached a sound 52 out of 131 in 96 minutes. At tea (3 45 pm) the score was 147-5 after 165 minutes, Anderson 62, Lewis 6.

In 43 minutes after tea a further 53 runs were added before Ireland declared at Andersen's dismissal. He hit Duff on to the face of the score board for six and was in splendid form. He was unlucky to miss a century. He knew Goodwin wished to declare and in his haste skied the ball to the wicket-keeper. His 93 came in 152 minutes. Lewis supported Anderson well and hit four fours and two threes in his 28 not out. Wing looked the best of the MCC bowlers.

MCC had 90 minutes batting and lost five wickets for 61. The opening pair, Davis and Dawson, played very well for 35 minutes and scored 32. Then Davis hit a ball to Anderson at cover. He collected it well and threw down the bowler's wicket before Dawson could get back. At 36 two wickets fell. Goodwin caught and bowled Milton off a hard drive. Monteith's first ball accounted for Davis - he edged it to Duffy at gully. At 39 Hooker was out. He pushed a ball off bat and pad to Pigot at short leg. Pigot dived and got his right hand under the ball. Hooker was given out after the umpires conferred. Cosh and Greetham took the score to 58. Then Greetham pushed one to short leg and called Cosh. Colhoun rushed around and returned to Reith and Cosh was just out. Duffy bowled one over before the close when MCC were 61-5, Greetham 14, Duff 2.

Next day Monteith and Goodwin bowled. At once Greetham skied Monteith just out of Lewis's reach running back from square-leg, and at 68 skied Goodwin over the slips when trying to drive. At 75 Greetham lobbed Monteith just over his head but short of deep mid-off. In the same over he sliced one over Anderson at cover. With the total at 80 O'Riordan took over from Goodwin. At 84 Duffy made a great effort to catch a screaming drive from Greetham at deep mid-off high and left-handed. Greetham hit Monteith into the Grand Stand to bring 101 up. Next ball he tried to repeat the strokes and was caught at the wicket for an adventurous 43. Duffy replaced O'Riordan whose four over spell cost 15 runs. At 115 Howland (10) gave Duffy at gully a high hard chance off a quicker ball from Monteith. Then the innings subsided. Dover's long vigil came to an end when he drove, head up, to a floated ball from Monteith at 118. He had batted 90 minutes for 18. Duffy missed Howland, 12, off a difficult diving forward caught and bowled chance at 120. Then Colhoun missed Howland as he pulled across Duffy. At 126 Howland was caught at mid-on mis-driving Duffy. Still at 126 Benke was lbw sweeping at Monteith. Harrison dropped Montgomery at long-on because he was standing too far in from the line and next ball Duffy could not hold a sharp chance to his right at gully. Then Duffy bowled Wing to end the innings at 12 38 pm after 98 minutes played this morning. Ireland's lead was 70 and Monteith had 4-39 in 24 overs bowled in succession.

Lunch was taken at 1 15 pm by which time Ireland were 17 for no wicket made in 27 minutes. At 22 Pigot was caught at the wicket off Wing and Harrison was lbw on the front foot to Hooker at 30. At 40 Anderson was hit in the groin and retired hurt for four. Dineen came in and spent an hour making 12. Hooker had opened the bowling and Montgomery replaced Wing at 44. Dineen was on "a pair" and spent 28 minutes getting off the mark. Reith hit Montgomery's first ball for six but was caught at slip in Hooker's next over. 51-3-32. Dineen and O'Riordan spent 39 minutes adding 27 and Ireland really had to go quicker. At 78 O'Riordan was caught at mid-wicket mis-hooking Montgomery. At 85 Dineen, much to everyone's relief, was caught at deep mid-on off Montgomery. In 16 balls Lewis and Monteith added 26 runs. Milton, slow left arm, conceded 24 runs in his three overs, 16 of the last. Montgomery dropped a simple caught and bowled chance at 107 off Monteith, nine, but he bowled him at 111. Ireland declared and Lewis was 20 not out. Ireland's 111 came off 41 overs.

Ireland's declaration at 3 42 pm meant the tea interval was after 50 minutes play. MCC were set 182 to win in 78 minutes +20 overs. MCC tried until the fall of the seventh wicket when the score was 59. Davis was bowled by Goodwin at 10. At 18 Milton was run out trying for a second run to the short square leg boundary. Harrison ran around, collected, and his fast throw saw Milton well out. At 19 Greetham hit Goodwin very hard to mid-off where Harrison took a fine catch, waist high, with the ball still rising. Monteith replaced O'Riordan at 20. In his last over before tea Monteith strayed to leg - he says deliberately in order to keep MCC up with the clock! Cosh hit 6-4-6 in the over and MCC were 40-3 at tea, Dawson 16 Cosh 17. There were now 28 minutes and 20 overs left and MCC wanted 142 runs. At 43 Cosh swung at Monteith and Colhoun collected the skier in front of the wicket. In the same over Dawson slashed at a wide ball. Reith, at slip, leapt and caught it right handed. 43-5. With this wicket Monteith broke the record for wickets in a season for Ireland - held by JC Boucher at 44 since 1937. Hooker and Howland took the score to 59. Duffy replaced Goodwin and got Hooker caught at the wicket with his first ball. Holland meanwhile had been caught at slip in Monteith's previous over. The score was now 59-7. The chase was now off with Duff and Benke in. At 66-7 the last hour began. Goodwin bowled an over instead of Duffy at 5:45 PM. O'Riordan replaced Monteith next over and Monteith came on at the Pavilion end at once. At 5:44 PM Benke clipped a ball from O'Riordan hard to Pigot at short leg. He caught at at the second attempt. 78-8-4. Wing came in with 37 minutes to go. Duff was very safe so Ireland had to get at Wing. He was out at 6:02 PM caught at the wicket off Monteith but it is doubtful if he hit the ball. Montgomery was the last man with 28 minutes left. Duff could not manoeuvre the strike so tight was the bowling. O'Riordan was bowling at Duff. At 6:15 PM Goodwin came on to free O'Riordan to bowl at Montgomery whenever the chance arose. Goodwin bowled a maiden at Duff. O'Riordan came on at the Pavilion end and yorked Montgomery first ball.

This was Ireland's third victory of the season, a feat not accomplished since the American tour of 1888. It was Ireland's seventh win in 17 matches under Goodwin. Prior to 1901 many of the captains are unknown but the best record number of wins prior to Goodwin is four shared by JM Meldon, FH Browning, RH Lambert, and TH Dixon (who won all his four matches as captain in 1931-32). Goodwin took another eight wickets in this match. His season's haul in five matches was 47 wickets for 393 runs average 8.36. He bowled 204.1 overs and 88 maidens. His average balls per wicket was 26 and he carried his total wickets from 43 to 90. The jubilant Irish party returned to Dublin on this Tuesday night. On Wednesday they set off for Denmark and had a free day in Copenhagen on Thursday.