Saturday morning was my first opportunity to use the new EazyPass yoke adorning the windscreen of my car. I drove across the Eastlink bridge on my way to Castle Avenue to watch the Antalis Senior Cup Final, and there was a delighted squeak from behind the rear view mirror as I was recognized and the barrier opened.

Despite the fact that there had been no rain in Dublin all week, the outfield was quite boggy, although the track itself was dry, if a bit tired-looking. Still and all, it wasn't going to get any better, so when Greg Molins won the toss for Clontarf he had no hesitation in batting.

He should have regretted it, and nearly did. Adrian D'Arcy lost his leg stump to Denver D'Cruz second ball, not the first time this season he had wandered to off and left the back door open. Once is unfortunate; twice is careless; three times is a technical fault.

The first ball of André Botha's first over was a half-tracker which Dom Rigby swatted to Ciaran Garry at cover. 'Mini' dropped it. Rod Hokin never looked comfortable, although he can't be blamed for the fielders' reaction to a lifter from D'Cruz which flicked the top of his pad on its way through to Dara Armstrong.

A loud chorus of an appeal followed by high fives led only to teapots and faked incredulity as umpire Louis Fourie said 'Not out'. Soon after, Hokin did contrive to be caught by Dara, this time off a wide long hop which he groped at, top-edging it like a heat-seeking missile towards André Botha's shaven head at first slip.

Dara launched himself upwards and rightwards to grab a fine catch. That should have been 12/3, but was only 12/2. And the Third Man (Dom Rigby, not Harry Lime) was still there, and beginning to make a nuisance of himself with cover drives.

With Alex Cusack digging in and beginning to work the ball around, Rigby started to bat with great fluency. John Mooney and Eddie Richardson had been introduced and bowled well without success. I was a little surprised when Reinhardt Strydom got the nod over Dwayne Harper for third change.

I wasn't surprised when Dom Rigby began to put him away through the off side and once back over his head. 'Rainy' has lost the zip that made him such a useful bowler a few years back: his in-ducker no longer swings late enough to force errors from the batsman.

Talking of surprises, I wasn't the only guy to do a double take when I saw Adrian Murphy sitting in the drinks-carrier seat and not out in the middle. I know he wouldn't have been at cover in the second over, but he wouldn't have dropped a dolly! (Neither am I saying that Ciaran Garry shouldn't have been playing. Far from it.)

As it was, once County were batting he moved to a spot in front of the pavilion which he occupied with Hendy Wallace and Phil Simmons. There wasn't much room left for daylight.

The score had progressed to 64 when Richardson brought one back to trap Cusack lbw. OK, Cusie didn't like the decision, but he wouldn't have got away with waving the bat at the umpire had he been playing for Ireland , and I don't see why he should get away with it in a Senior Final. Isn't the new adage 'You don't walk, and you don't complain'?

Three balls later it was 64/4. Eddie Richardson held one back; Andrew Poynter drove; and the bowler took a very fine, low return catch. Greg Molins spent much of the time remaining up until lunch kicking away Richie Lawrence‘s off-breaks, much to the Bisto Kid's disgust on the far boundary.

Dom Rigby was now in top gear, scoring freely and smoothly, and passed 50 in 86 balls. He had discarded his helmet, displaying nearly as much grey hair as does Alan Lewis. About a quarter of an hour before lunch he sent for a cap and a deep-fried Mars bar.

With ‘Tarf 103/4 off 41 as the Alickadoos arrived, downed their G&Ts, and asked who was batting (some of them, who was playing?), the chicken curry was served up. Dom had no need of such Caribbean favourite fodder, preferring a glass of Irn Bru as he focussed his mind on reaching 240 off 60 overs.

John Boy, in a conversation in the gents, agreed that County didn't want to chase more than 220, and preferably only 200. After lunch, Greg came out without his kickers and immediately put bat to ball. He chipped one up to Reinhardt Strydom at mid off, who ran in underneath it and then back to chase it.

The score accelerated up to 148 when Molins (27) took one liberty too many and was caught by Strydom off D'Cruz. On the same score Rigby swished at Lawrence and was bowled for 84 (1x6, 11x4). The pair had put on 84 for the fifth wicket, and placed the Bull's Meadow men into a half-decent position.

The Knights of the townland put themselves back on top as Lawrence and Mooney removed Morrissey, Coghlan and Ropu Islam to leave the score on 155/9. Niall Delany came in at J, and immediately showed everybody why he should have been no. 10, dominating a last wicket stand of 21.

When Ewan Randall was lbw to D'Cruz for 6 off the second ball of the 59th over, Clontarf were all out for 176, leaving Delany undefeated on 16. For County, D'Cruz took 3/47 off 10.2, Botha 0/10 off 8, Mooney 3/32 off 10, Richardson 2/14 off 8, Lawrence 2/36 off 12, with Strydom and Harper sharing 10 overs for 34.

Conor Armstrong launched County's reply in typical fashion, despatching the first ball through point for four. He had reached 11, and the total 21, when he nicked off to Joe Morrissey. Brian Shields played one nice shot before being caught by Hokin off Cusack for 4.

Reinhardt Strydom departed, reluctantly, but not ostentatiously so, lbw to Cusack for 13 to make it 36/3. Rainy admitted it was a near yorker that was going to hit the stumps, but reckoned it pitched outside leg. I've never yet met a Boer, Dutch, Irish or 12, that was out lbw. But he was given by another one, who gets very little wrong.

The task now for André Botha and Richie Lawrence was to rebuild the innings, and this they did slowly until, with the score on 52, Boatsy played one through the fielder's legs to deep extra cover for an easy three. He hesitated before calling the third, and realised half way down that he'd need to be on steroids if he was going to make his ground.

He didn't, but he was near enough for the umpire to find some doubt, and got away with it. Shortly afterwards, drinks were taken, and André felt too unwell to continue. I reckon he was suffering from embarrassment, but the official reason was palpitations (not caused by steroids).

John Mooney came and went, the victim of a good catch by Adrian D'Arcy off Niall Delany. Another observer called it a brilliant catch. It was the sort I used to catch routinely until well into my thirties, and while still at school I would have caught with my right (wrong) hand and my eyes shut.

Nobody ever called me brilliant (lots of other words starting with b). But I never lost my leg stump to a left-arm over the wicket bowler. Neither did I have a scriptwriter. I really worry that kids are given a reputation for getting up early, and spend the next five years being late for Firsts cricket without anyone noticing.

Ciaran Garry is also a promising young cricketer, far too young to know what a crisis is. He went for his shots, got them, and with the watchful Lawrence took the score to 98. But Ciaran Garry is too young to know how to milk somebody as unthreatening as Andrew Poynter.

On 25 well-made runs, he duly slogged a pie to Joe Morrissey at deep mid wicket, and at tea County were 103/5 off 35 overs. That left 74 to be gathered from 25 overs off a very plain ‘Tarf attack in which only Hokin posed a threat (and he doesn't get a bowl in Sydney First Grade!)

Dara Armstrong always pokes around at the start of his innings, but he didn't poke one from Joe Morrissey that he thought was missing leg stump, and out came the JoMo appeal (although not the Full Monty Punjabi Three-Shout). Out, too, came Mr. Chung, and out went Dara for two.

It was Hokin who got the vital wicket, that of Lawrence for 19 when he left a routine leg break and watched it turn back onto his stumps. That left D'Cruz, Richardson and Harper to garner 68 more runs. They're quite capable of doing that, but on Saturday they didn't.

D'Cruz and Richardson made a good start, getting 24 of them before Eddie was tempted by another Poyntz Pie. Two runs later Denver gave Poyntz a simple return catch, and Boatsy had to return to the middle.

Ten more runs were added before Dwayne slogged Cusack to Niall Delany, and County were gone, 31 runs short of their target with 61 balls unbowled. Boatsy was 15*, but Ernie Extras was second highest scorer with 21.

JoMo was good value for his 2/30 off 12, and Cusack bowled equally well for his 3/30 off 10.5. Niall Delany nipped in for 1/22 off 5, and Ropu/Molins bowled 5 overs of Halal/Kosher sweetmeats for 22. The pie-man Poynter had more flattering figures than the Rose of Tralee, 7-1-14-3. My main man, Rod Hokin, returned 10-2-16-1.

Marty Block quite correctly gave the Man-of-the-Match award to Dom Rigby, who batted absolutely superbly, although what the reserve umpire was doing adjudicating on anything other than what's defined by Law 3, I don't know.

I do know that besides being a good umpire he runs a radio station and is a very nice bloke. But surely there's somebody else connected with the LCU and/or Antalis whose judgement is reliable enough to sort out a MotM award. Perhaps not, especially as they'd have to watch the whole match and have no more than the one G&T.

That's twice I've watched County choke to Clontarf this season. Both are good sides, but County are better. However, only André Botha can play spin well, and he missed all of the League match and most of the Final innings.

That doesn't augur well for Friday's Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup Final in Strabane against Donemana. Junior McBrine is still a class act, and the other slow left-armer, Jordy McGonigle, is a more than decent bowler.

Perhaps John Andrews can persuade his brother-in-law down to the indoor nets at the Inch to give them some practice against a proper slow left-armer, one who by his own admission is older and prettier than Junior (he didn‘t say better!).

I'll spare you an account of the formalities. They were as long-winded and as boring as ever. The winning team just wants to get as nosily drunk as they can (following Baudelaire, you don't have to use alcohol to get drunk - but you should get drunk nevertheless). The losing team just wants to crawl into a hole and get drunk.

Only the beautiful people, the good and the great, the hangers-on and those Liam Keegan used to describe so aptly and economically want a song and dance led by a song-and-dance man. Gus Carroll is no Bruce Forsyth, but he did his best. There were delighted squeaks from the blue T-shirted lovelies supporting Clontarf.

I crept away and got another delighted squeak as I crossed the bridge into Dublin 2, thence into 4, an Indian take-away in 14, and finally 16. I phoned Keith Banks to ask him what the weather was like in Cork .

He said he didn't know, because he was at the Emirates watching the Arsenal demolish the travelling beer bellies with their more money than sense chairman and their muppet manager, Wor Kev. Once Arsenal had settled for 3-0 he checked back with the Athens of the North and told me it was AOK for the morning.

So I made my way down the M7 and N8/M8, as the entire counties of Cork and Kerry drove the other way for some reason or other. Something about a football match on the northside? Were Cork City playing Bohs? And why the green and gold? Because Australia were playing South Africa , and you can't get Sky Sports in Munster ?

I arrived at The Mardyke to find there had been some early morning rain, so the start of the WMK Section B match between Munster Reds and Phoenix was delayed from 11 a.m. until 12:50 p.m., which gave us a 39 over match. Many of the Phoenix boys had travelled down the night before, but not Lanky - he was still travelling.

Some read the Sunday papers. Conor Kelly and Graham Flanagan passed the time playing with Kuli Bhatia's model remote-controlled helicopters. Don't ever show one to Joe Morrissey. He was a menace with his whistling bomb. He'd crash these things into the Dublin Financial Centre!

Lanky was nowhere to be seen. After the Electric Picnic gig he was crashed out in the dressing room, admiring the beautiful curved wooden-framed roof of the Cork County pavilion. He was none too pleased when his skipper told him he'd won the toss and inserted the opposition.

The opening attack of Dave Langford Smith and Chris Cavanagh has got to be the biggest and heaviest in Senior cricket, but it didn't frighten Robin Russell and Mike Martin, who picked off the gentle medium pacers (Chris, because that's all he can do; Lanky, because that's all he can do after a night of Atomic Lunchbox).

The Doped Duo retired to the outfield as Conor Kelly and Garth Ancher tried to inject some energy. Ancher induced Russell (12) to pat the ball to Rory Flanagan in the gully to make it 43/1. Ted Williamson was in the mood, and kept the scoreboard ticking over with Mike Martin.

They added 72 runs very easily, and Martin had passed 50, when he holed out to Conor Kelly, who held the dolliest of catches at shortish extra cover at the seventeeth attempt. Surely Polly wasn't also at the Nuclear Tuckerbox gig?

Next ball Robert Duggan fell lbw to Rory's thinly disguised straight one, and four runs later Simon Willis wafted at another straight one, this time from Stephen Neill, and this time bowled. Bruce Koch uncharacteristically scratched around, and slowed up Ted's progress.

Lanky returned to put Ted out of his misery with yet another straight one. Ted made 40, and the score was 142/5. Phoenix got a grip in the field, and restricted the Reds to 164/5 off their 39. It would have been much better for Phoenix if they hadn't conceded 32 extras (including 14 wides), but it could have been much worse if the Reds hadn't lost their way 10 overs out.

Koch made 15* and Santos Kulkarni 8*. Lanky did eight from memory for 1/24, Conor Kelly bowled his eight also for 24, Ancher took 1/29 off 7 and Rory Flanagan 2/30, also off 7. At tea DLS couldn't find enough sandwiches, he was so far out of his Picnic.

Phoenix needed a good start to challenge 164 on a low, slow pitch, and didn't get it. Rory Flanagan was yorked by Bruce Koch, and then Rob Mitchell was caught behind off Jim Birchall to make it 23/2. Kirk Edwards took a liking to the full length Koch was bowling, and he and Garth Ancher settled things down.

But left-armers Keith Banks (yes, he had made it back from the Magnetic Spread that is the Emirates and the Toon's buffet defence - help yourself) and Simon Willis are no mugs. Edwards skipped down the track to Banks, was beautifully stumped by Mike Martin as he skipped back, but the umpire choked it.

Then a dolly catch went to ground. But Willis turned things round, pushing one through Edwards's Toon-like defence - the Barbadian made 24 - and then going over the wicket to riddle poor Lanky first ball. Graham Flanagan survived a huge appeal for a caught behind to leave it at 42/4.

The Reds had to fiddle seven overs out of James Duggan and Oscar Cotter, and Ancher hit Duggan straight for three sixes, two of them over the lane outside. Flanagan too hit out, but was well stumped off Duggan for 15 with the score on 83. This time it was a poacher turned gamekeeper at square leg.

Ancher continued his assault, but the asking rate never got below sevens, so slow were Phoenix at the start. Bruce Koch was brought back earlier than necessary, and was lucky to induce Conor Kelly to tread on his stumps. He might have got away with it if he hadn't looked so guilty.

Bruce was far too good for the Phoenix 8, 9, 10, J, but it wasn't over until he had bowled Ancher for an excellent 68 with the score on 133. Only one more run was added as Matt Plunkett-Cole, Kuli Bhatia and Chris Cavanagh all succumbed to straight ones from Koch.

Phoenix were all out for 134 off 37 overs, with 12 extras, all wides. Bruce Koch claimed a Birmingham Six-for 25 off 8 overs. Willis took 2/18 off his 8, Banksie 2-2=0/19 off his 8, Birchall 1/21 off 7, and the youngsters 1/51 off 6.

What a pity Ted Williamson and Bruce Koch only play home matches for Munster Reds. What a good job for Phoenix that the Electric Light Orchestra and the ESB aren't gigging every weekend in Dublin .

As I left Cork they were in mourning. It must have been because Keano's Sunderland got stuffed by Manchester City . I never did find out how Cork City got on against Bohs.