Martin Russell, that well-known contributor to the Forum, won first prize in Mary Sharp's limited draw, a day up Cold Blow Lane to watch the refixed final of the Dublin Grass Machinery 45-over final between Railway Union and Leinster on Sunday.

I won second prize, Sunday at the DGM final, and Saturday in the same ground to watch the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup tie between Railway and their neighbours from across Park Avenue , Pembroke. Fortunately, both were well-contested and close; amazingly, and clear evidence of global warming, it wasn't cold on either day!

On Saturday, Railway won the toss, batted, and set off at a rate of knots. Tom Fisher had quickly got to 16 out of 21 when he drilled Bill Whaley high to wide mid off where brother Emmett took a good catch well above his head. Two yards either side and it was four runs.

Conor Mullen was dropped knee-high to his left at first slip by Anthony Brooks (why wasn't it the keeper's catch?), but next over Brooks made no mistake when offered a second chance. By now Kenny Carroll was into his stride, but he couldn't find anybody to keep him company for long.

Mo Tariq was very well taken by Brooks at slip off Alan Eastwood, and when Andrew Balbirnie took over from Bill Whaley he bowled Sam Farthing and had Magnum Nanan caught at mid off from a poor shot. That was 82-5, and brought in young Dhruv Kapoor, who hung around while Kenny accelerated past fifty.

Kapoor started to play a few shots of his own, chanced his arm once too often, and was bowled by Brooks for 32. Graham McDonnell was belatedly introduced to the Pembroke attack, had Carroll caught for a fine 82, bowled Simon Grehan and had Carlo Rendell lbw. In between, Brooks had accounted for Hugo Mays.

Thus Railway subsided from 155-5 to 179 all out, forty short of a winning score. For the 'Broke, Bill Whaley took 2/28 off 9 overs, Alan Eastwood 1/33 off 10, Andrew Balbirnie 2/24 off 8, Anthony Brooks 2/30 off 10 and Graham McDonnell 3/24 off 4.1. Ernie Extras was third top score with 21.

Brian O'Rourke started with a smashing cover drive off Rendell, but was dropped by Nanan, a dolly at cover point, in Hugo Mays's first over. He went on to score 28 out of a first wicket partnership of 57 before the Trinidadian did manage to hang on to one.

Brooks stroked one lovely boundary, and managed to get his pad outside the line of off stump to survive a confident shout by Greg Lambert. But he was paying more attention to the possibility of the umpire's finger being raised than he was to Andrew Balbinie's call for a leg bye. He set off too late and had to go when Kenny Carroll's throw hit the stumps at the bowler's end.

Lambert turned the screw with the accuracy of his off-breaks. Balbirnie (39) perished trying to have a go at Nanan's chinamen at the other end, then Graham McDonnell (19) and Theo Lawson (19) succumbed to Lambert. When the left-handed Robin Russell could only nick Lambert through to Farthing, and the right-handed Stuart McDonnell couldn't keep out a straight one, Pembroke were 140-7 and in danger of fouling up what should have been an easy chase.

But Alan Eaastwood and Andy Leonard bided their time as the spinners bowled out, then picked off the trundlings of Tom Fisher and Carlo Rendell. Two short of victory Eastwood (27) flogged Tariq to Carroll in the deep, a single levelled the scores, and there was much completely irrelevant frantic activity to prevent the unnecessary 180th run in the final over.

In the ISC, if the scores are level, the total after 15 overs is the tie-breaker. Pembroke were ahead on that, so it didn't matter even if they were all out. In the end, Fisher bowled a wide leaving Leonard on 17*, and Pembroke took their place in the quarter finals without recourse to the regulations.

For Railway, Tariq bowled his ten overs for 2/24, Nanan for 1/36 and Lambert a Guildford 4/19. I have no idea why Carroll didn't try himself earlier or reintroduce Hugo Mays, whose first five overs were a tidy 0/11.

On Sunday the LCU officers had to earn their corn before that start, and rule on the eligibilty of Byron Vermaak for the final. Because he hadn't played in any of the previous matches, Vermaak couldn't be picked for the final. But JP O'Dwyer was injured, so was Jason Molins, Craig Mallon was playing although suffering from gutrot, and Robbie Kenealy was captaining the seconds in a cup match. Mary Sharp and Matt Sheridan allowed Vermaak to play.

As on the day before, the openers galloped to 39, when Mark Jones (11) drove too early at Saad Ullah, who accepted a sharp, low return catch. On the same score Carlos Braithwaite nicked off, and 11 runs later Anton Scholtz (32 full of fine shots) miscued Ullah to Rendell.

George Dockrell, promoted to no. 4, survived a far from difficult chance to Tom Fisher behind the stumps, pottered around and added two dozen with Vermaak before the South African was another to mistime his drive and be caught and bowled by Lambert. Ian O'Herlihy had an inside edge for four and a terminal waft, Craig Mallon hung around for a long time until bemused by Kenny Carroll's chinaman, and Leinster were in trouble.

But Dockrell had started to play with confidence, timing his drives, and gradually built up the total with Will Lennon. But the overs were running out, and after striking a fine straight six, Lennon perished for 20. Rob Miley ran himself out, and Dockrell was caught in the deep for 62, a maiden Senior fifty.

Chris Byrnes put it about for 18, and remained unbeaten on that score when Ullah bowled Hugh McDonnell in the 45th over for a final total of 181, ten or twenty short of par. Greg Lambert finished a fine weekend with figures of 9-3-13-1, Ullah, ineligible for the ISC, took 4/30, and Rendell 3/31.

Thunder clouds had built up as the Leinster innings closed, and although one big one drifted past to the east, another lurked up from the south. Kenny Carroll was dropped by George Dockrell on 6, another dolly cover catch, but on 11 was bowled by Byrnes. Tom Fisher and Conor Mullen played some nice shots to take the score into the sixties when each had a life.

Fisher's reprieve was very short-lived as he got a rat from Scholtz, and a dozen runs later Mullen was caught and bowled by Scholtz, both batsmen making 28. When Dhruv Kapoor was bowled by Scholtz for a ( Bombay ?) duck, Railway were wobbling on 87-4. The two Pakistanis, Mohammed Tariq and Saad Ullah, like to play their shots, but always give the bowlers a chance.

Another big black cloud produced drops of rain, never enough to cause play to be suspended, but over a quarter of an hour enough to make the grass wet and thus the ball greasy. Scholtz gave himself and Dockrell a rest and went back to his seamers. Braithwaite obliged by knocking over Tariq for 22.

Tim Townend came in and smacked his first ball through the covers for four. To prove it wasn't a fluke, he did it again, and again. The seamers were getting no response, so Dockrell and Scholtz returned to bowl out their overs. Saad Ullah was caught in the deep off Scholtz for 35, but too late to prevent a Railway victory.

The winning run was struck off the first ball of the last over, surprisingly (to me) Will Lennon's first of the innings. Townend finished on 34*. Scholtz was another Guildford man, 4/24, and Braithwaite 's figures were a respectable 1/28 off his 9 overs.

So Railway took the first silverware of the season, some consolation for their defeat the previous day. After their win over Clontarf, Leinster have the Irish Senior Cup quarter final to look forward to, and still all twelve Senior League fixtures to play. They've no match next weekend, so they won't get underrway until the nights start drawing in and the O'Herlihys go into aestivation.