CRICKET/Column: Certainly as much as any sport - and surely more than most - cricket relies on history to define its present. The achievements of Don Bradman, for example, help to put the feats of modern players in context while the long rooms and lockers of the great clubs around the world echo with the laughter and sagely words of the true legends of the game.
In any analysis or reflection of Irish cricket, the name of Phoenix Cricket Club can never be too far away. Generally accepted as being founded in 1830, Phoenix claims to be the oldest club in Ireland (although one or two Lisburn or Dublin University CC historians may well disagree) and as such, this year it is celebrating 175 years in existence.
With names like Hone, Pigot, Quinn, Boucher, Masood, Halliday and others, the club has contributed immeasurably to the development of Irish cricket down the years. In 1855 its Phoenix Park ground was the scene of a match between Ireland and the Gentlemen of England, regarded as the first Irish international match, which the Irish won incidentally.
At 2am on May 31st 1941, a German bomb damaged the pavilion and caused the cancellation of a match the following day against YMCA. In light of what was happening in British cities at the time, it was not, perhaps, not the most devastating Nazi blow of World War II although the Federal German Government subsequently paid the club £219 in damages for blowing in the windows and knocking some slates off the roof.
A couple of weeks ago the club held a match against the famous MCC to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Phoenix CC with a special lunch that extended long after the game was completed, in the same pavilion that hosted that very first international 150 years earlier.
And it is fitting in this year that marks the ever-presence of cricket in the Park since the mid-19th century, that a Phoenix man should be president of the Irish Cricket Union.
Stan Mitchell won three caps for Ireland in 1974 and was captain in 1975 of what is still the only club side to win the treble of the Leinster Senior Cup, Wiggins Teape League (as it was then) and Leinster Senior League.
"It's a great honour for me to be president of the ICU in such a special year for my club and also with Ireland hosting the ICC Trophy," said Mitchell at Aberdeenshire Cricket Club yesterday where he was watching Ireland take on Scotland in the InterContinental Cup. "We had a great day for that match against the MCC and hopefully the club can continue long into the future," he said.
Whether Phoenix CC lasts another 175 years will be up to the generations to come but there can be no denying the profound influence the club and its members have had, and continue to have, on the game on this island.
* In previous weeks I have highlighted extraordinary feats of scoring in junior cricket and by coincidence two of the more unusual ones - at either end of the scale - have happened in the last week. In the Junior Cup final on Saturday, Merrion VI bowled North Wicklow II out for just 33 and then struggled to make the runs, losing six wickets on the way.
Then on Sunday, Rush II made a phenomenal 426 in the final of the Middle Cup, with Michael Donnelly hitting 210 of them. I am reliably informed that this is the highest total in a cup final and the highest individual score. Needless to say, Phoenix III, who were the holders of that cup, did not chase it successfully.
