I recommend a visit to the Gilbert Library in Pearse Street to anyone interested in the history of our great game. Therein lies a vast repository of old newspapers, stretching back more than two centuries and encompassing the full history of organised cricket in this country. I spent one afternoon a week there last winter, mostly fulfilling a request to research the foundation of CYM cricket club. That event had been lost in the mists of time - a previous club brochure confessed to total ignorance of what might have gone on pre World War One.
That lack of a starting point forced me to trawl through the Irish Times and Freeman's Journal from April to September every year from 1904 to 1914. I finally discovered CY's birth (v Irish Times CC, 24 May 1910) and you can read more about that in the CYM match programme if you're interested. But while reading those cricket pages (and the game was covered incredibly well - full scores of more than 20 games most Mondays, and many more during the week, country cricket and junior teams were all given full treatment) I was distracted by many things. The visit of the Australian tourists to play Trinity in College Park is unlikely to happen again, while the offer of Stanley Cochrane to play the deciding Triangular Tournament test of 1912 at Woodbrook was a fascinating sideline to cricket history.
But perhaps the most ambitious undertaking of any Irish cricket club of that time was the pair of tours completed by the men of Pembroke CC to Holland (1908) and Belgium (1911). Travel for pleasure was in its infancy and this must have been quite an arduous journey, each tour involving four ferry crossings and two lengthy trips by train, excluding the internal travel within the countries of destination.
The first Irish Times report from the 1908 tour came on 21 August via Reuters telegram and told how Pembroke lost to South Holland by seven wickets in a two day game at The Hague. Having been all out for 59, an improvement was called for and a total of 200 reached thanks to Magee 59*, Faussett 33, Spicer 33 and Quinlan 27. Magee played cricket for Ireland and toured South Africa with the 1896 British Lions. Patrick Quinlan was a Clongowes pupil who later played for Trinity, Ireland and Western Australia. His brother Bernard - who also played for Ireland - was also on the tour. Faussett had been Trinity captain in 1905 and was killed in the Great War in 1915.
The Dutch side had just over an hour to make 81 which they achieved thanks to two men called Perth and La Chapelle. Perhaps it is not a modern innovation that sees Holland use Australian "bangers".
The second game, at Haarlem, was played in glorious weather in front of a very large crowd. They included the most famous Dutch cricketer until modern times in Jan Posthuma, who played county cricket with WG Grace's London County. North Holland made 216 with Rooney's four wickets including Posthuma, bowled for 45. The Dutch star's bowling was fearsome (he bowled "at a terrific rate" according to reports of the game) and each of his seven first innings wickets was clean-bowled (as were his four in the second). Extras top-scored with 22 (presumably byes!) as Pembroke were all out for 108. The follow-on was much better - 206 for 7 - and the draw was well-earned. Faussett (76) and Spicer (59) put on 96 for the first wicket.
The final game of the tour - against All Holland in Haarlem - was not as blessed by weather and no report of the second day's play was printed - if it ever took place. The overnight position saw Pembroke 124 (Coffey 49 "in confident style") and All Holland 19-2 (both to Tighe). Like recent Ireland/Holland encounters, the rain took over - although the Lewis-Duckworth calculation has not survived the intervening 89 years.
In 1909 Pembroke visited Jersey and two years later returned to continental Europe with a five game tour of Belgium. The team left Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) by mailboat on 4 August and travelled via London and Harwich to Antwerp. The Grand Hotel du Nord in Brussels was the Pembroke headquarters for the tour. The Irish Times
printed the travelling squad thus: C "Archibald", M Corrigan, FC Flanagan, WG Fulton, FJ Kelly, J Keenan, JM Johnstone, H Lemass, W May, TJ Murphy, O Hegarty, JH Connor, T Little, DJ Reilly, CA Rooney, JA Sheehan and MH Tighe. The coy inverted commas around "Archibald" was newspaper style for a nom-de-cricket for some individual who didn't want employers, employees or wives to know he was playing the game. Of the names on the list some still survive in Pembroke - notably Henry Tighe - while TJ Murphy is believed to be father of the legendary 'Spud'. CA Rooney is probably EA Rooney, who played twice for Ireland in 1913 and 1914.
The tour opened in Antwerp with a one day match against Beerschot in front of a large crowd. Pembroke were 12 for 4 at one stage before rallying to 96 all out thanks to Flanagan (35) and Tighe (30). The matting wicket perplexed the 'broke bowling and Beerschot batted on to 200 for 7, with Cambridge University batsman Alpen (71) and Nott (65) the top scorers.
All Antwerp were the opponents on 8 August and the very unBelgian name of Clayton was to the fore with an unbeaten century in a total of 250 for 7. Rooney (46), Tighe (35*), Coffey (29) and Preston (25*) ensured the draw with 147-3. Rooney was again in fine form in the game against Excelsior CC at Brussels with an unbeaten 104 in 222 for 6 declared. With only an hour and three-quarters to bowl out the hosts a draw was the inevitable result.
The fourth tour match was against a native Belgian XI at Antwerp, who lost nine wickets in successfully chasing 173. Rooney was again top score (71) and took four Belgium wickets. The final game was also against Belgium, and again Pembroke's total was passed. Flanagan made 57 and Rooney 42 out of 166, which Belgium got for the loss of six wickets.
One can only imagine the fun involved in tours like that during cricket's Golden Age. Of course Pembroke have been the most diligent - and ambitious - tourists of all Dublin clubs right down to the present. Perhaps a Benelux tour is worth looking at again!