Page 226 - Gonzaga at 60
P. 226
226
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
some diiculty negoiaing he announced that he would now face the rest of the over right
handed as disinct from his iniial let handed guard. Of course as so oten in Ben’s case he was
50 years ahead of his ime, now that Eoin Morgan has made the ability to perform the same feat
the envy of the cricket-playing world.
Two of our games stand out. In 1965 we travelled to Masonic for a game we did not hold out
much hope of winning. Jack Moore ran Masonic Rugby and Cricket and over the years even the
most mild mannered of our players had taken an instant dislike to the man. Masonic made 69 and
this was expected to be easily defended as their opening bowlers were also the Leinster Schools
opening bowlers Philip Billingsley and Fred Meaney. I strode to the wicket at 6 for1, a record
opening stand dominated by Extras and Vincent Murphy whose two runs were a career best. This
soon became 10 for 8 and at Number 10 then strode to the wicket not some hyphenated failed
public schoolboy but the diminuive Cathal Brugha III of solid Republican stock. I then worked
out that if I could somehow get 58, scramble two leg byes along the way and keep Burgess of
strike for twenty or so overs it was most deinitely on- and that is exactly how it worked out, and
with the most perfect inale; as was the custom in those days, Jack Moore insisted that the over
in which the winning runs were hit was completed. Billingsley, in disgust, bowled a big, slow full
toss, at which Cathal lunged inelegantly and was comprehensively bowled. We sang and we sang
again as we cycled back from Clonskeagh to Ranelagh that evening – it was to be our inest hour.
Our last match, a quarter inal of the cup in 1966 was against the favourites, High School,
in Danum and a win against them would have let us very strongly placed to contest our irst
ever inal. The day started badly as Rodney Molins proved too good for our early batsmen. But
an extraordinary rally took place led by the aforemenioned O’Connor (incredibly) and two men
borrowed for the day from the rugby ield (or perhaps it were the tennis courts), Tony Ensor and
Tadhg Gleeson, who brought the score to 90. Could we defend such a score? It was, ater all, the
highest score we had ever got. But then they had Molins, Jacobson, Siverstone (all to be become
highly successful senior cricketers) and others, hadn’t they? In wheeled Mick Kirby from the Zion
Road end and suddenly High School were 20 for 4, with all their legendary players back in the
hut. What happened next? Well whenever the class of ‘66 gather together in a corner in Milltown
GC, Humphreys or McSorleys there are neither biterness nor recriminaions, just rueful talk of
what might have been if the hands of Peter Barry, later so steady when brandishing lasers in his
ophthalmic surgery, had not failed him when there was an urgent need to nestle a cricket ball
safely therein; and what might have been, had Donal Forbes’ fast hands as wicket keeper not
proved too quick on the draw for a half awake High School sportsmaster to fully appreciate.
Who could have guessed that from such humble origins would emerge a young man of 17
years of age, George Dockrell (2010), who has already frightened some of the world’s greatest
batsmen with his superb classical let arm spin and now known throughout the world of cricket
from Lords to Lahore and Durban to Delhi as the “Gonzaga Leaving Cert Student”. Of course
in our day he would have been strolling through the Matric, straight A’s already garnered, and
GONZAGA AT SIXTY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
some diiculty negoiaing he announced that he would now face the rest of the over right
handed as disinct from his iniial let handed guard. Of course as so oten in Ben’s case he was
50 years ahead of his ime, now that Eoin Morgan has made the ability to perform the same feat
the envy of the cricket-playing world.
Two of our games stand out. In 1965 we travelled to Masonic for a game we did not hold out
much hope of winning. Jack Moore ran Masonic Rugby and Cricket and over the years even the
most mild mannered of our players had taken an instant dislike to the man. Masonic made 69 and
this was expected to be easily defended as their opening bowlers were also the Leinster Schools
opening bowlers Philip Billingsley and Fred Meaney. I strode to the wicket at 6 for1, a record
opening stand dominated by Extras and Vincent Murphy whose two runs were a career best. This
soon became 10 for 8 and at Number 10 then strode to the wicket not some hyphenated failed
public schoolboy but the diminuive Cathal Brugha III of solid Republican stock. I then worked
out that if I could somehow get 58, scramble two leg byes along the way and keep Burgess of
strike for twenty or so overs it was most deinitely on- and that is exactly how it worked out, and
with the most perfect inale; as was the custom in those days, Jack Moore insisted that the over
in which the winning runs were hit was completed. Billingsley, in disgust, bowled a big, slow full
toss, at which Cathal lunged inelegantly and was comprehensively bowled. We sang and we sang
again as we cycled back from Clonskeagh to Ranelagh that evening – it was to be our inest hour.
Our last match, a quarter inal of the cup in 1966 was against the favourites, High School,
in Danum and a win against them would have let us very strongly placed to contest our irst
ever inal. The day started badly as Rodney Molins proved too good for our early batsmen. But
an extraordinary rally took place led by the aforemenioned O’Connor (incredibly) and two men
borrowed for the day from the rugby ield (or perhaps it were the tennis courts), Tony Ensor and
Tadhg Gleeson, who brought the score to 90. Could we defend such a score? It was, ater all, the
highest score we had ever got. But then they had Molins, Jacobson, Siverstone (all to be become
highly successful senior cricketers) and others, hadn’t they? In wheeled Mick Kirby from the Zion
Road end and suddenly High School were 20 for 4, with all their legendary players back in the
hut. What happened next? Well whenever the class of ‘66 gather together in a corner in Milltown
GC, Humphreys or McSorleys there are neither biterness nor recriminaions, just rueful talk of
what might have been if the hands of Peter Barry, later so steady when brandishing lasers in his
ophthalmic surgery, had not failed him when there was an urgent need to nestle a cricket ball
safely therein; and what might have been, had Donal Forbes’ fast hands as wicket keeper not
proved too quick on the draw for a half awake High School sportsmaster to fully appreciate.
Who could have guessed that from such humble origins would emerge a young man of 17
years of age, George Dockrell (2010), who has already frightened some of the world’s greatest
batsmen with his superb classical let arm spin and now known throughout the world of cricket
from Lords to Lahore and Durban to Delhi as the “Gonzaga Leaving Cert Student”. Of course
in our day he would have been strolling through the Matric, straight A’s already garnered, and
