Fingallians have good reason to wish that Richard Hastie would return to his native New Zealand. Back in June, when Pembroke were en route to ultimate victory in the Lewis Traub League, the left-arm spinner destroyed North County's innings to take six for 25 at The Nevitt; on Saturday at Castle Avenue his five for 32 vanquished The Hills and helped the club to add this season's Conqueror Cup to the Sydney Parade trophy cabinet.
Apart from the less-than-glorious weather, this match was almost eerily similar to last year's final between the same two clubs. Then, The Hills batted out the 60 overs to total 200 for nine, just as Pembroke did at Castle Avenue, before disposing of Pembroke in 53 overs to win by 60 runs, close enough to last Saturday's final result.
After Peter Davy had won the toss to bat first, Pembroke always seemed to have that bit more control, and despite the early loss of Ted Williamson, the 88-run second-wicket stand by Davy and Trevor Dagg restored the equilibrium.
Dagg's 51 made him the game's top scorer, and he was well supported by Peter Davy and Ian Solomon, with lesser - though invaluable - batting contributions from John Davy, Dixon Butler and Briain O'Rourke. Even a sudden slump from 147 for four to 164 for six did not unsettle Pembroke, and the eventual 200 for nine was a decent recovery, even though the total certainly looked attainable.
Noel Harper was The Hills' most successful bowler with a fine three for 23 off eight overs, and perhaps he should have been introduced into the attack somewhat earlier. Mark Clinton had done the vital early damage, claiming the really big Pembroke guns - Peter Davy, Dagg and Solomon - and his three for 43 off 12 overs was an excellent return.
Barry Archer and Patrick Byrne scored freely off the first three overs or so, but by the 19th over both had taken that long walk, with a meagre 48 runs on the board. And a mere 20 runs on, matters were about to become drastically worse as Hastie blew away The Hills's middle order.
When he trapped Paul Mooney leg before, The Hills were suddenly on 68 for three, and that rapidly became 94 for seven, as Hastie went onto remove Declan Moore, Harper, Patrick Hoare and Matt Dwyer. John Davy, who had achieved the initial breakthrough with the removal of Byrne, not only mopped up the tail, but had Mark Clinton, The Hills' top-scorer with 40, well held by Dagg in the deep.
Davy took four for 39 off 10.4 overs; at the end, Pembroke had 10 overs and two balls to spare, a trifle more than The Hills had at The Vineyard a year ago. This was an impressive display from Davy, a bowler whose exploits in the recent Triple Crown campaign appears to have boosted his morale; still, man-of-the-match adjudicator Enda McDermott didn't have to agonise for long before giving the award to the excellent Hastie.
