The Development XI hosted a young North Kildare team on the top pitch.  North Kildare batted first and immediately found it difficult to score off the accurate pair of Maria O'Halloran and Sean Condron.  Sean bowled tightly throughout to return remarkable figures of 2 for 4 off 4 overs.  The pairing of Isobel and Oscar McCormack increased the pressure on Kildare.  Isobel's (1 for 3) left-arm over was just too much for the batters, while Oscar showed impressive control and turn with his leg spin, well deserving his return of 2 for 14.  Rohit Upadhyay bowled beautifully (3 overs 2 maidens 1 for 1) and Sofia Hilmi showed her all-round abilities taking a wicket with her first ball.  She shouldn't have been so surprised.

Malahide's fielding was uniformly excellent.  Maria took a good catch and was responsible for 2 run outs.  Sofia and James Dickinson both kept tidily. James added a caught behind off Sean's bowling to his earlier caught and bowled.  Emilia Tarbox, the youngest member of the team, was an example to all with her nonchalent ground fielding and super-accurate throwing.

Set a target of 77 off 25 overs, openers Rohit and James calmly set off on the chase.  Both retired and then Isobel (15 retired) and Oliver Jeffrey-Carrick (17 retired) upped the momentum with an attacking partnership.  Kildare grabbed a couple of wickets, but the stage was set for the father-daugther partnership of Emilia and Graeme Tarbox to reach the target.  But not before Emilia had worked on developing her dad's running between the wickets.

Once the real game was over, we played on to give both sides more chance to practise in a match environment.

Thanks to John McCormack for umpiring and Robert Dickinson for scoring.  Ann McCormack and Sylvia O'Halloran provided a fanstastic tea.  Robbie Condron's baking was of supermarket quality.  Finally, thanks to North Kildare for a great game of cricket, played in a tremendous atmosphere and with the focus rightly on giving all the young players an opportunity to play.