Last Saturday, the national coach Ken Rutherford was among the spectators at Milverton, where Clontarf saw off the challenge of debutant finalists North County to lift the Leinster Senior Cup - sponsored by Conqueror - for the sixth time. There were some good performances, but nothing to really boost Rutherford's confidence in his preparations for next year's vital ICC World Cup qualifying tournament in Toronto.
Most cricket observers are agreed that failure to qualify in Toronto for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa would be a disaster for Irish cricket. Ireland's recent form this season so far has been anything but encouraging. If Rutherford is on the look-out for new talent for the national side he could do worse than cast an eye over Jeremy Bray of Phoenix, an Australian who is in his third season here and who qualifies by living and working in Ireland. His achievements over those three years are most impressive.
Not including yesterday's match between Merrion and Phoenix, Bray has scored 1,018 runs in 15 matches and in 15 innings for an average of 127.25 this season. He has been not out in each of his last four innings, with scores of 95 against The Hills, 118 against YMCA, 111 against The Hills again, and 80 against Clontarf.
Earlier in the season, Bray had scores of 60 not out and 79 not out in consecutive matches against Leinster and Rush, and back in early May he had a knock of 98 against The Hills. Bray also has been quickest to reach 1,000 runs in Leinster cricket and has also been the fastest to reach 2,000 runs, which he did in 40 innings. Bray also looks likely to become the quickest to reach the 3,000-run mark. Alf Masood is the present record holder and reached his 3,000 runs in 68 innings. By comparison, until yesterday, Bray had 51 innings and needed 216 runs.
Also up to yesterday, Bray required 204 runs to surpass Justin Benson's record of 1,221 runs for a season. In 1999 Bray scored his 715 runs for an average of 51.07, and in 1998 - his first year in Irish cricket - he scored 1,051 runs, average 65.69.
Given this sort of panache, it seems odd that the Leinster selectors have bypassed Bray when naming their 14man squad for the interprovincial series next Saturday and Sunday. Meantime, Ireland's last match of the season is the annual three-day game against Scotland in Ayr.
North West Interprovincial Squad: P Gilles- pie (Strabane) capt, M Gillespie (Strabane), A Ruther- ford (Bready), M Olphert (Bready), R Black (Bready), R McDaid (Limavady), R Kee (Donemana), Junior McBrine (Donemana), G Neely (Donemana), J Thompson (Donemana), J McGonagle (Donemana), G Harron (Limavady).
