Malahide U17 Boys Win Cricket Leinster U17 Boys Competition

Under sunny, early evening skies at Sydney Parade, the home of Pembroke CC, Malahide lost the toss and Pembroke chose to bat first.

The Pembroke openers, David Cosgrove and Harry Dagg made a solid start, taking the score up to 28 for the first wicket - Camron Calder with the breakthrough, bowling Dagg for a well-made 10. Scott Ruttle joined Cosgrove at the crease and both players retired on 35 respectively. Both batters looking solid on a quality Pembroke pitch. Dan Read the pick of the early Malahide bowlers returning figures from his opening spell of 5 runs from his 3 overs, when he was regularly beating the outside edge of the bat.

When Cosgrove retired, Gavin Hoey made it out to join Ruttle, to have two of Pembroke's Ireland Youth Boy Internationals batting against Malahide's consistent bowling attack. The Malahide skipper, David O'Halloran, brought himself into the attack to keep the pressure on the batters late in the Pembroke innings. This proved to be a masterstroke as his 3 overs at the end, went for 10 runs and he also picked up a wicket.

David bowled well in tandem with two Malahide spinners Zak Woods-Oliver and Ben Askew, who each took a wicket, to make sure the last five overs only went for 22 runs. Malahide fielded tightly throughout and Jack Grant kept a tidy set of stumps through the innings as well, moving well down the leg-side to collect any errant deliveries and big credit to the work the bowlers did the last couple of weeks at practice, only bowling one wide in the Pembroke innings.

Pembroke Inns 113 for 6 - D. Cosgrove 35, S. Ruttle 35, G. Hoey 16, H. Dagg 10; D. O'Halloran 3-10-1, C. Calder 4-22-1, B. Askew 4-29-1, Z. Woods-Oliver 4-32-1

The Malahide openers Liam Lydon and Calder came out to bat as the sun was beginning to disappear in Dublin 4. Pembroke's potent opening attack with Cosgrove's spin and Hoey's pace bowling bringing variety and different challenges for our openers. Lydon battled hard but fell to an excellent swinging yorker from Hoey - one of the many challenges opening batters face. Woods-Oliver came out to bat and the pair put on 22 for the next wicket in 5 overs, which provided the innings with momentum, whilst also seeing off the opening bowlers as well. Calder made an excellent 37 before he had to retire after 8 overs, showing a range of powerful shots straight for two 6s and deft touch as well to rotate the strike with O'Halloran and keep the scoreboard ticking over, whilst Pembroke rotated their bowlers.

Calder's retirement brought Askew to the crease, who was caught behind by Cosgrove off the bowling of Ruttle. This wicket brought Matthew Carrick to the crease, who shared a pivotal partnership with O'Halloran of 35 runs, many of which were scored by running well and waiting patiently for the bad ball. Carrick fell for a determined 7 runs, which brought Ronan Furlong out to bat, who along with O'Halloran got the score up to 107 before the skipper had to retire on a game-winning 38 runs. Then in typical Malahide-style, we give the crowd their value for money, losing 2 further wickets, with the total remaining on 107, when Furlong and Danny O'Brien both fell to Hoey and Ruttle.

Heading into the last over Malahide needed 5 runs to win, with two new batters at the crease, Grant and Paul Devine - however both Hoey and Ruttle had completed their overs. Grant scampered a quick single off the first ball, leaving Devine to beautifully stroke the second ball comfortably over the cover fielder for 4 runs to win the match.

Malahide Inns 114 for 8 -D. O'Halloran 38, C. Calder 37; G. Hoey 4-1-13-2, S. Ruttle 4-28-2, P. Morris 4-1-19-1, H. Dagg 3.2-21-1

Thank you to Pembroke for being such great opposition and hosts on the evening - the match was played in a great spirit and ebbed and flowed like all good finals should. Congratulations to the Malahide team and wider squad, which included players like Yastri Naidoo, Eoghan Keohane, Adam Doyle, Ollie Manks, Chris Deacon, Oliver Carrick and Rohit Upadhyay, who all played a role both on and off the pitch in getting this team to the Final. It is an excellent achievement for the club to be able to field ten genuine Under 17 players, with the likes of Tony O'Connor unable to play because of injury and Yastri heading back to South Africa at the end of his stint with us.

Thank you also to team manager Neil Carrick for all his help and support throughout the season, along with the player's parents as well. Finally to the excellent coaches, Greg and Matt Ford and Anish Desai, who supported the lads through the season and all the way to the Final as well - great effort from everyone!