1961-62 Cricket Season

ALTHOUGH the summer term of 1962, due to its shortness, afforded little help to cricket, nevertheless this was an important year for the game in the College, and this for two reasons.

In the first place, Mr. J. Boucher very kindly came out to coach our players. This, of course, brought about a much wider interest in the game on the part of the boys, and also gave them an opportunity of learning from one who is, without doubt, the most outstanding personality in Irish cricket over many years. His help was invaluable and the improvement in the standard of our players was immediately discernible. Michael Bannigan, an all-rounder and captain of the side, L. Reynolds and J. Dorgail as batsmen, Paul Kirwan and Desmond Bohn as bowlers showed great promise as they learned from the master himself. We are deepIy grateful to Mr. Boucher for his help and kindness.

The second reason why this was a notable year lay in the fact that we resumed an old series by playing a match against our Past. This was largely due to Noel Greene, who worked hard in making the game possible and it is our hope that this match will become a yearly event. Our success in this match was largely due to the batting of Liam Reynolds and D. Brereton and the bowling of M. Bannigan and P. Kirwan. Details of this game are given below.

THE PAST v. THE PRESENT at Castleknock,

May 13th.

Our second match was against St. Paul's and here the result was a draw. We decided to make it a two innings match and when stumps were drawn, St. Paul's had batted twice, had lost nine wickets in their second innings and were 2 runs ahead. We could feel pleased with our performance.

Our final match this year was on Ascension Thursday and was a whole day match in Clongowes. This was equivalent to a Junior Match so we did not play our seniors. The loss of the batting strength of M. Bannigan, L. Reynolds and J. Dorgan made us very diffident about how our team would shape at the wicket. However, the team played well, and we won the match. A wonderful innings of 50 not out by our captain, P. Kirwan (is he now batsman and bowler, or bowler and batsman ?), a fine opening knock of 21 by John Kinahan, good bowling by D. Bohn and J. Smith paved our way to victory.

Our second match was against St. Paul's and here the result was a draw. We decided to make it a two innings match and when stumps were drawn, St. Paul's had batted twice, had lost nine wickets in their second innings and were 2 runs ahead. We could feel pleased with our performance.

Our final match this year was on Ascension Thursday and was a whole day match in Clongowes. This was equivalent to a Junior Match so we did not play our seniors. The loss of the batting strength of M. Bannigan, L. Reynolds and J. Dorgan made us very diffident about how our team would shape at the wicket. However, the team played well, and we won the match. A wonderful innings of 50 not out by our captain, P. Kirwan (is he now batsman and bowler, or bowler and batsman ?), a fine opening knock of 21 by John Kinahan, good bowling by D. Bohn and J. Smith paved our way to victory.