“Lemon’s Sweets”. Dougie Goodwin, Norman Adams and Alan Hughes all mentioned the popular Dublin made boiled sweets when asked of their memories of Herbie Darlington. Herbie Darlington was a Sales Rep for Lemon’s Sweets who travelled the length and breadth of the country during the working week. And at the weekend, during the summers spanning 1945 to 1961, Herbie opened the batting for the first team of Malahide CC.
Herbie was a solid opener who saw his role as laying the foundations for the more expansive players such as Paddy and John Neville and AB Robertson. His chief attributes, befitting of the traditional style opener, were patience, concentration with a favoured off drive. Malahide became a Senior Club in 1953 and his Senior 1 stats from 1953 to 1961* when he hung up his boots were as follows:
Matches Played Innings Not Outs Highest Score Total Runs
118 111 2 49 1403
Herbie played in many of the key matches in Malahide’s history:
1945 Senior II Cup Final
1953 Malahide’s first Senior I match in the Leinster Senior League
1955 Leinster Senior Cup Final v Leinster CC
“In addition to his batting, he was an excellent gully fielder with great agility” says Dougie. His stats bear that out with 33 catches in 118 games. “Better still, when you were fielding in slips, you were always guaranteed a wrapped sweet, courtesy of gully, who always seemed to have an endless supply in his pockets!”
“Cricket played a huge part in my Dad’s life and he was very proud of his playing days with Malahide” remarks his son Mervyn, who himself went on to open the batting for YMCA in the late 1960’s.
Until his passing on 7 December 2016, Herbie was the oldest living playing member of Malahide CC. Herbie was also a former Vice President of the Club.
*Stats kindly supplied by Leinster Cricket Union Statistician, Gerry Byrne (Pembroke CC)
Brian Gilmore