AFTER TWO days of fascinating, cricket Ireland's annual game against the MCC ended with a sense of anti climax yesterday afternoon. The ingredients were good - a challenging declaration and what as generally regarded as a "result" wicket but unfortunately from an Irish point of view, the result was he wrong one. Set a target of 272 in just under five hours, the visitors eventually strolled in with 3.2 overs - and three wickets in hand.

If anyone was to blame for spoiling the party, it was Paul Parker, the former Sussex, Durham and England player, who tucked into the Irish bowlers as he did two seasons ago at Castle Avenue. Wickets fell fairly regularly at the other end but his continued presence always suggested the worst.

Initially, it took another 40 minutes of batting to convince acting captain Justin Benson that he had the right equation and when Paul McCrum took wickets in his fourth and sixth overs respectively, everything was according to the Irish script. Like Angus Dunlop the previous evening, Parker clearly decided that aggressive strokeplay was his best option and promptly raced to 50 off 39 balls (two sixes, eight fours) before becoming more subdued in the post lunch session.

Paul Farbrace and David Thorne kept the result in balance by driving uppishly to cover and mid off but when Parker did the same, on 85, Declan Moore missed a sharpish chance at cover which would have made things interesting - 162 for 6 and 23 overs remaining.

The positive elements to emerge - over the three days were the performances with the bat of Dunlop, Kyle McCallan, Andy Patterson and Derek Heasley. Mark Patterson bowled much better than his figures suggest, while Paul McCrum finished with eight in the match.