Cricket

For the second year running NUI, Galway Cricket Club made the long trek to their Intervarsities which this year were held in UUJ, Belfast. Our first match was against UUC and we expected a hard battle as they had a fearsome reputation from the year before. We bowled first against Cork and managed to keep their score down to a measly 166 all out! This was greatly helped by excellent fielding by Daragh Ryan (our wicket keeper), Dualta Mac Lochlainn, Waqar Aziz and Hamish Forsyth and the bowling was one of our best performances led by cousins Shahzad and Forhan Javid. So in we went to bat and we batted with gusture,chasing the 166. The batting had improved greatly on last year with the addition of new players and some indoor practice over the year and we managed to make 137 all out, losing by less than than 30 runs. This finally put NUIG on the map as a possible cricket side for years to come.

The next day was a rest day as we had a bye again and spent the day shopping, swimming (at the pleasure of UUJ), and getting to know each other outside of cricket. That evening, there was a finger food buffet provided by the University and the usual speeches. This was quite poorly attended and the meal was rather disappointing on last years banquet in Trinity College.

On the third day we were pitted against Dublin Business School, who had beaten Royal College of Surgeons the day before. We were in the play off for 5th place. DBS batted first and in between rain showers and various interruptions managed to score over 200. The fielding was held together by Daragh Ryan, Edward Helps and Dualta Mac Lochlainn once again. The bowling landed an unfair blow as Waqar was reprimanded for "no balls" and then disqualified after one warning (for any non cricket people this is against the rules, and our team lost heart). Going into bat we were less than enthused with the score that we had to attain and apart from the performance by Hamish Forsyth the batting was fairly dismal. We managed to reach three figures though and at this it was an improvement on last year. Some very unfair umpiring went against us that day and as a team that likes to play fair at all times found this very hard to bear.

Overall the intervarsities were definitely a success for our little team, and after all the effort we had put in over the year, it certainly paid off. Our catching was as good as ever, (our balls never touched the ground so to speak) with excellent catches by Daragh Ryan, Martin McEvilly, Hamish Forsyth and Dualta MacLochlain over the tournament. Thank you to our outgoing captain Ronald Coombes and good luck to our incoming captain Shahzad Javid for next year.

Results:

University College Cork 166 all out
National University Ireland, Galway 137 all out

Bowling: Ronald Coombes 3 wickets; Waqar Aziz 2 wickets; Forhan Javid
Batting: Daragh Ryan 46; Neil Jackson 21

Dublin Business School 201
National University of Ireland, Galway 100 all out

Bowling: Waqar Aziz 3 wickets; Ronald Coombes 3 wickets
Batting: Hamish Forsyth 23

Team 2004: Ronald Coombes (captain), Waqar Aziz (vice-captain), Daragh Ryan (wicket keeper), Edward Helps, Neil Jackson, Dualta Mac Lochlainn, Shahzad Javid, Martin McEvilly, Salman Musani, Forhan Javid, and Hamish Forsyth.