Thursday evening in Malahide and the Women's 2nd Xl hosted Clontarf. The visitors won the toss and put Malahide in to bat. After our great win from earlier in the week, the team had confidence and plenty of enthusiasm heading onto the pitch. Unfortunately, our batting innings didn't go according to plan and we lost regular wickets. Runs were very hard to score as the Clontarf bowlers kept good lines & lengths and pushed their fielders in close to put pressure on our batters. Karen (8) and Babs (9) hit a few balls through the field to bring Malahide's total to 36 all out. 

Heading out to field, Malahide knew it was going to be a difficult task to defend a low score and battle against the rain which had blown in. The Clontarf innings started off slow with excellent bowling from Sarah C, taking an early wicket in her 5 overs, ending up with figures of 1-9. In amongst the  rain, Malahide kept the pressure on with superb fielding in the deep from Beth and Ciara. Tess took an excellent diving catch off Maria's bowling, which gave Malahide a lot of encouragement. This was another excellent bowling and fielding performance which made Clontarf work hard to score their runs, but unfortunately Malahide didn't have enough runs. Clontarf took to the 13th over to score their 37 runs and win by 8 wickets. 

Thanks to our umpire Alun, who braved the Malahide elements and Isobel & Babs who did the scoring. To our supporters, thank you for enduring the rain and encouraging us for the duration of the match. Finally, thanks to Clontarf, who played a great spirited match in the pouring rain.