For those us who have played a lot of cricket in the lower levels of the Leinster Leagues you get used to poor umpiring which quite often borders on the incompetent. Unfortunately today at Bird Avenue the 5ths were on the wrong end of some quite appalling decisions from the home team's umpire that without doubt denied them a famous victory. All the old favourites were in evidence today, opposition fielders claiming stops in the outfield when they were already past the flags, straight balls called as wides and phantom no balls but it was the blatant LBW's that were turned down that really stuck in the craw. At a rough estimate Malahide took about 16 wickets today when summed up an outstanding bowling performance from the lads.
Batting first , Malahide made a very decent 167 for 8 in their 40 overs, this was built around an excellent innings of 54 from David O'Halloran who batted with great skill and patience to hold the innings together, he got good support from Jef Oliver (26no), Howard Askew (23) and Riley Shoebridge (14) , a really good effort at Bird Avenue where the outfield resembles the surface of the moon. In reply , Malahide's bowlers did really well in the face of a Merrion aerial onslaught based on the knowledge that taking the outfield out of the equation was the best way of accumulating runs. Suhaib Naseem who was making his first appearance for 2 years was outstanding (3 for 27), Howard was as accurate as ever (1 for 34) and they were well supported by Ryan Condron (2 for 39) and David O'Halloran (1 for 49). As the contest reached it's  crucial stage , young SJ De Klerk showed the fearlessness of youth to take 2 wickets ( aided by a stunning catch on the boundary by Howard) which came within one decent umpiring decision of giving Malahide a famous victory. A huge performance from everyone and once again some outstanding contributions from the youth players.