After a superb Gerry Duffy T20 Cup campaign so far, the Malahide Junior A Boys arrived out at Park Avenue early and eager to get started in their semi final against Railway Union under clear blue skies and perfect conditions.

The ground was presented in fine condition, but with a short and lightning fast outfield and a boundary set incredibly small - it was clear that we could have a run fest on our hands.

That's exactly what happened, their openers set about our bowling attack and both eventually retired in the high 70's having clubbed 27 boundaries between them.

Just one wicket for us, a fine catch by Ollie Manks off Daniel's bowling, but some sloppy fielding and a whopping 30 wides from us, helped the home team amass a daunting 233 after 20 overs.

But our openers (Daniel and Matt C) set about the Railway bowlers too and we were up at 13 an over after 5 overs, but after Daniel was run out and Matthew caught on the boundary, we looked like we might have missed our chance.

Not so, Oliver Manks and Aaron Doyle continued the high scoring with Ollie retiring on a magnificent 79 which included 12 boundaries and Aaron reached a classy 41 before being run out going for one that wasn't there to be had.

Michael Ranaghan hung around for a while before being bowled for 12, but that was all she wrote - our numbers 6 to 11 managed just 3 runs between them and faced just 14 balls.

Malahide did reach our highest total of the year, 178, but that left us 55 short of Railway's mammoth target. It perhaps should have been closer than that.

Our team performed valiantly and showed good team spirit by attacking so hard at the start. There was some good talent on show on both teams, as is evident with over 400 runs being scored in 38 overs.

Very enjoyable game to watch, just a shame our campaign had to end here.