You Can Quote Me On That: When Ireland Routed The West Indies

The legendary Clive Lloyd “Spectators from Co. Tyrone stood on a railway embankment to watch and apparently were not very impressed by the mighty West Indies who earlier had held England to a draw at Lord’s.”

The Irish Times reports on the encounter between Ireland and West Indies at Sion Mills in 1969.

Although in England colours, stand-in skipper Eoin Morgan’s sumptuous finish in the recent Twenty20 International in Mumbai was the latest red-letter day for Irish cricket, as he followed in the footsteps of another Dublin-born Middlesex batsman Sir Tim O’Brien, who captained England to a win over South Africa at Port Elizabeth in 1896, by leading his adopted nation to victory.

More recently Ireland have pouched their own scalps against West Indies, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and even in peaceful retirement Andrew Strauss probably still wakes up screaming when he relives that Bangalore night in 2011 when Kevin O’Brien’s murderous assault blasted the Irish to victory. But even those heroics don’t match the sensational events on home soil in 1969.

In fairness, the scheduling of the West Indies’ visit to Sion Mills for a two innings a-side, one-day match did them no favours. The day before the tourists had been at Lord’s, where England fell just short of an audacious last-day win, and a bizarre itinerary demanded the tourists be on parade the next day not in London, but Londonderry.

It was a bright morning in Sion Mills after heavy overnight rain. Local employers had closed for the day and around 2,000 were there to watch. The tourists were without Garry Sobers and Jackie Hendricks, who stayed in London with injuries, but still fielded a side with six Test players, including Clive Lloyd and tour manager Clyde Walcott. With water covering their shoes, visiting skipper Basil Butcher and home captain Doug Goodwin went out to toss; Butcher called correctly and decided to bat.

A short while later, with his team 12-9 on a pitch described by the Northern Echo’s Mike Amos as “green as an airsick leprechaun”, the shell-shocked visiting skipper was regretting his decision. A heroic 9 by tailender Grayson Shillingford elevated the score a little, but even on a wet green-top, 25 all out was a startlingly low score. Opening bowlers Alec O’Riordan and skipper Goodwin had bowled unchanged, taking 4-18 and 5-6, respectively. As per the pre-match agreement, the superior Irish first innings of 125-8 was enough for them to be declared the winners – Goodwin must have hardly believed he would have been declaring on 125 with a three-figure lead.

Jamie Smyth of the Irish Times notes there has been talk ever since that “David had not so much slain Goliath as got him blind drunk the night before” before rightly dispelling such rumours by reporting that the tourists arrived after midnight and after a quick bite took to their beds. In the Daily Telegraph, Tom Peterkin confirms the inaccuracy, noting that Irish batsman Ivan Anderson described rumours of “Flintoffian” conviviality as an “old wives’ tale”. West Indian keeper Michael Findlay concurs. “There were all sorts of stories that the team had enjoyed too much Irish hospitality the night before but that wasn’t the case. The fact is that we were all at sea on a pitch that had us all playing our shots far too early and we just couldn’t cope.”

Ireland remained dignified in victory. “There was none of this thing of running up to each other, throwing the arms around and high-fiving,” said O’Riordan, before adding that “it wouldn’t have occurred to anybody”. Home bowler Gerry Duffy admitted feeling sorry for the visitors, suggesting graciously that “it was a very soft wicket and it was great credit to the West Indies that they agreed to play the match at all”. Apparently the tourists were not amused and there were reports of raised voices in the pavilion. Accounts of after-match events in the Irish dressing room are less fulsome, but one imagines it was hardly quick showers all round then home for supper.

This article first appeared on the All Out Cricket Blog here

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