The 5th XI went down by 6 wickets to table topping Adamstown who yet again proved very hard to beat at their Corcaigh Park Fortress. The tree on the outfield (its a 6 if the ball hits any part of the tree....even a leaf....even though the actually boundary is about 40 yards past the tree) seemed to have grown significantly but Adamstown CC have been working hard and the ground looked good. Malahide lost the toss and were asked to have a bat, from the quality of the opening bowlers it was clear why Adamstown are unbeaten in Division 12.  With not a lot on offer to hit , building a defendable total was hard going. Malahide's total of 140 was built around a high quality knock from David O'Halloran who showed just how good his cricketing skills and temperament are to bat through the majority of the 40 overs. He shared good partnerships with Ryan Court and debutant Ken Wigmore that enabled Malahide to bat out their full allotment of overs. He was unluckily run out on 71 ( he had to take a large detour around Ken in order to avoid a mid pitch RTA) when a maiden ton looked on the cards.

Malahide's spirits were further lifted by a terrific cricket tea that included curry , Chicken Tikka wraps and assorted other spicy goodies. Just to re-enforce his position as our best player, David O'H was asked to open the bowling with Suhaib and both did a great job in making life difficult for the Adamstown openers. After an early wicket from Suhaib assisted by a brilliant catch from Mary behind the stumps , Ryan Court came into the attack and after a few early nerves bowled with some real penetration.He ended up with 3 wickets including a catch from another debutant Dan Reed that put Malahide in a good position at drinks.Mention should be made also of a superb spell of bowling from Zac Woods-Oliver who caused the batsmen all sorts of problems but without getting a wicket. Unfortunately that's as good as it got, with some dark clouds threatening the Adamstown batsmen switched into IPL mode to race to the target on 141. Still lots of positives to focus on , we were highly competitive for most of the game and once again the youngsters led the way with outstanding performances. The match was played in a great spirit and apart from winning the highlight for the Adamstown lads was the realisation that they had just played against the Ireland Ladies wicketkeeper. I'm not sure that Mary has been in so many photographs at the end of a match before !!!
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