Harlequins Cricket Match Report

Sunday 8 May 2005

Munster Division 3 

Harlequins 3   143 all out
Clonmel   144 for 7

Scoring Notes: J. Sherlock 44, J Burfield 38; J Burfield 3-12, Jason Frankham 3-16

The first outing of the season for all Quins players concerned turned out to be a highly entertaining afternoon. Quins lost narrowly but in a match that swung first one way and then the other, Clonmel just about held their nerve to knock off the winning runs.


Quins batted first and got off to a solid start. With both Phil Russell and Julian Breary reaching double figures and looking comfortable. However a mini collapse then followed and it was left to Joey Sherlock, the Irish U13 player from West Cork, to steady the ship. Indeed, Joey looked to be the best batsman on display all afternoon and finished up on 44 – only out after trying slog as the Quins innings was drawing to a close and he was running out of partners. Jim Burfield chipped in with a cross-batted 38 that included five fours and one six. In the end the Quins total of 143 all out was probably about 20 to 30 runs short of a match winning total.


The Clonmel innings started steadily with Jim Burfield pinning down the batsmen from one end, but runs flowed freely from the bowlers tried from the other. Indeed Jim clean bowled the first three Clonmel batsmen before Paddy Byrne saw him off with some good defensive play. Dillon Martin picked up a fourth Clonmel wicket, but the visiting side looked to be coasting to victory until the introduction of Jason Frankham who took three quick wickets to leave the result in doubt again.


However, once Jason had bowled his allotted eight overs, the remaining Quins bowlers were unable to mop up the Clonmel tail, and the Tipperary team won by three wickets on paper, but only two wickets in reality with both sides reduced to ten men.

Team: J Breary, P Russell (capt), J Sherlock, D O'Leary, Jason Frankham, N Shunker (wkt), J Burfield, J Flein, D Martin, R Martin, C Benson.