From Parnell to Flanagan, Leinster’s Varsity Blue Cricketers

Cricket Leinster Youth was delighted to see alumni Padraic Flanagan selected for the 2020 varsity match between Cambridge and Oxford University at the famous Fenners Cricket Ground.

The varsity match, first played in 1827, at the instigation of Charles Wordsworth, who was also responsible for the founding of the Boat Race in 1829, is one of the oldest cricket matches in the world.  Ireland’s involvement goes back to 1833, with John Parnell representing Cambridge University and was the first of 16 Irishmen to gain 1st class caps in the fixture and the latest Leinsterman to join the historic varsity blues is YMCA’s, Padraic Flanagan.

Cricket Leinster Youth caught up with the last two Leinstermen to gain the varsity selection Padraic and Patrick Tice (Cambridge) to discuss their experiences of the matches. Other Leinster players to have played in this fixture over the past few years were David Murphy, Nathan Johns and a few years before that, Jason Molins.

Merrion’s Patrick Tice who toured North Wales, Wolverhampton and Durham with Leinster youth squads as well as playing in the 2012 u19 World Cup in Australia has most pleasing experiences for him time in England commenting ‘I played every Cambridge first team fixture from 2015-2017, including all nine varsity matches played in that period (each year sees a T20, 50 over and 4-day match), and had the privilege of captaining the side in my final season’.

‘I adored the experience. The cricketers come from a wide range of backgrounds. Many grew up playing in county academies but left to pursue other options, while some use the matches as an attempted springboard to get into the professional game. Others come from abroad having played at various different levels, while others were simply standout schoolboy players. But either way, and despite the variation in quality, one thing links the two sides together - a fierce desire to win. Oxbridge cricket is the epitome of a bubble and when you are in it, beating the old foe feels like the most important assignment that anyone could possibly surmise. For a nine-month period - from pre-Christmas nets to the first-class match in July - the drive to win is all-consuming for many student cricketers’.

‘Yet in hindsight, one realises that it is not so much the result but the process (on-going since 1827) that is so special. The beers, tears, highs and lows of combining student life and competitive cricket makes for a unique concoction, and it's one that I will never forget’.

Brian O’Rourke, Cricket Leinster Youth was delighted to see Padraic’s recent involvement in the fixture.

“Congratulations to Padraic from everyone at Cricket Leinster Youth on your selection in such a historic fixture.  I remember first meeting Padraic through school coaching visits to Star of the Sea National school, the former school of the O’Brien brothers and then watching his progress through the CLY programmes with tours to Taunton, Wolverhampton, La Manga & Sterling in Scotland. Padraic, Patrick, Nathan and David are great role models for our CLY participants to learn from.  Take the opportunities that come to you, broaden your horizons, challenge yourselves such as on the South African Transition Year placements and you will look back at just 24, like Padraic, on what many would call a lifetime of adventures”.

Following his involvement in the four-day fixture at Fenners, Padraic took time out to offer a summary of his time at Cambridge over the past 6 months.

‘I arrived in Cambridge in early October 2019 to undergo a year's research in Scientific Computing. I knew quite a lot about cricket at Cambridge from a trip there a few years previously with the Irish Universities, so I was eager to get involved straight away and within the first week I had already completed trials for the Cambridge Blues performance squad. The Club wasted no time in beginning the Winter training programme, and the training facilities available were top class due to Cambridge's participation in the MCCU programme. There was a full-time, level 4 coach in Chris Scott (former Warwickshire player) and the bowlers also had multiple sessions with former England international Derek Pringle. We had indoor net sessions four times a week and one mandatory gym session. This level of commitment far exceeded anything I was used to in terms of the off-season but we knew it was necessary given the fact that we had games scheduled against Essex, Middlesex and Nottinghamshire in early April. We also had a week's training camp organised for Desert Springs, Spain in the middle of March where we were due to play trial games against Leicestershire. The biggest game of the season, however, is always the Oxford versus Cambridge four-day Varsity match, which was due to be granted first-class status for the last ever time this year. The game was scheduled to take place at The Parks, Oxford in early July. Given that Cambridge suffered a heavy loss in the same fixture in 2019, the Club were desperate to bounce back’.

‘As the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate across Europe in early March, we were left with no choice but to abandon the trip to Spain. This was to be the first in a series of devastating cancellations that have defined the majority of the cricketing summer. It became evident by early April that the Varsity game would no longer take place in July as originally planned and, personally, I had all but written off any chance of making my first-class debut in 2020. I decided to stay in Cambridge during the lockdown and I was able to continue with my research remotely with relative ease. Once restrictions began to ease in Ireland around early July, and with the promise of a return to cricket only around the corner, I decided to head home and finish my two remaining months of research remotely from there. The thought of waiting around Cambridge any longer for the slim prospect of Varsity cricket seemed futile’.

‘Once I completed my quarantine, I began training again with YMCA and played a mixture of first and second team T20 fixtures. I'd be the first to admit that I'm not well suited to the shorter format, but it was great just to be back out there again and a huge amount of gratitude is owed to everyone at Cricket Ireland and Cricket Leinster for getting teams back on the pitch. The captain of the Cambridge team, Nick Taylor, kept regular tabs on everyone in the 20-man squad, making sure we were all playing regular cricket of some kind as well as checking our scorecards (I had to justify my sub-par T20 performances on more than one occasion...). While I was more than happy to keep in contact, in all honesty, it seemed wishful thinking that I'd actually play any cricket for Cambridge. Then, in early August, I got the entirely unexpected news that provisional arrangements had been made for a potential four-day Varsity game in September. At the time I was entirely unaware just how much work had been invested by the Club to ensure the game could align with the ECB's first-class COVID protocols, including: a complete ban on spectators, a temperature test on entry to the ground, one person in the changing room at a time, sanitisation breaks every five overs and social distancing while waiting to bat. The game was going to take place at Fenners, Cambridge rather than The Parks since The Parks is a public arena, making adhering to the aforementioned protocols all but impossible’.

‘In terms of selecting a team, the captain had a nightmare job on his hands. Not only had he never seen half of us play outside of the indoor nets, but geographically many of us were scattered around the UK, Ireland and even as far as South Africa. Frankly he took a real leap of faith by selecting me. He had been impressed by the control I showed with the ball throughout the Winter and figured I would be well suited to the longer format, but everyone knows there can be drastic differences between net and match performances. After a long chat on the phone where he outlined the role he had in mind for me, I decided to pack my bags and head over. It was not a straightforward decision: due to quarantining on return, I would not be able to play another game for YMCA for the rest of the season. It was a price I was ultimately willing to pay in order to play my first (and probably last) first-class game. When I arrived in Cambridge, we were only allowed to train in groups of four, so I arranged an outdoor net with the captain. I'm sure his heart was in his mouth as I marked my run-up, bearing in mind he had selected me as one of only two genuine seam options and had never seen my bowl outdoors (there were two batting all-rounders who could bowl if required, but he was expecting me to do most of the heavy lifting up top). Thankfully the net session went well and I found good rhythm, so his mind was put at ease at least until day 1’.

‘The game itself couldn't have gone better for us. We knew that we were the stronger side on paper and were confident this would shine through over the course of four days. We had two South Africans in our team who had played quite a bit of first-class cricket, and a couple of younger guys who had been with county academies in recent years. Having said that, Oxford boasted a strong opening bowling partnership with a considerable number of first-class wickets between them. They also had a number of threatening batsmen: the left-handed Hargrave up top who had terrorised us in previous seasons, and the right-handed Naylor at 4 who scored a double ton in the same fixture in 2018. Also, amongst their ranks was former Trinity and Merrion player Will Von Behr who I already knew posed a real threat with both bat and ball. As predicted, however, once we were able to see off the threat of their main bowlers, and dismiss their key batsmen early, we were the far stronger side and ended up winners by 249 runs early on day 4’.