Like last Saturday, I watched the first half hour of the Ashes test: unlike last Saturday, England didn't take three minutes to bowl the first ball; they made no unnecessary field changes; held no mid-over conferences; and didn't ask to change the ball. What a difference having the Aussies 152-8 makes!

But like last Saturday, on came David Lloyd with his drivel, and out the door I went. My daughter had the car for the week, so she kindly dropped me up Cold Blow Lane to wait for the start of the Railway Union v Leinster Senior A league match. Trent Johnston was having a rare day off from Ireland duties, won the toss for Railway and asked Leinster to bat.

Five minutes before the start there was a heavy shower, and it was 2:05 before a start could be made to a match now of 45 overs per side. Mark Jones and Craig Mallon made little headway against Saad Ullah and Carlo Rendell apart from a few wides. TJ took over from Rendell at the Sandymount end and was even more parsimonious.

After a couple of overs from Mohammed Tariq at the St. John's end, with the score on 47, Simon Grehan bounded in. His first ball was a widish half volley which Jonesey (17) slapped straight to Trent at cover. Carlos Braithwaite and Tiggy Mallon helped themselves to 31 runs of the next eleven of Simon's pies, and he was banished to the outfield for the rest of the afternoon.

Trent finished his nine-over stint at a cost of 16 runs (three of those wides), and thereafter mixed it up with five other bowlers. The score had progressed to 124 when Braithwaite, on 33, chased a wide one from Rendell and Sam Farthing took a good diving catch behind the stumps. Anton Scholtz tried to up the tempo by taking lots of singles, normally a good approach.

But Mallon is a lousy runner, and Trent a more than alert cover fielder. Anton dribbled one out to TJ's left hand and called the single. Trent was round it in a flash onto his right hand and threw down the one stump he had to aim at. Your average drey horse would have pulled his barrells home by now, but Craig isn't that quick, and it was 148-3, Mallon run out for 40.

Now Anton called Dave Lucas through for a single, Trent again threw down the stumps, and only Andy Kennedy, on a day's umpire exchange from the NCU, thought it wasn't out. A few runs later Scholtz, 21, played the latest of late cuts off Rendell, and nailed his own off stump.

Shortly after, Will Lennon and Dave Lucas were both in the middle of pitch when Trent broke the wicket. He politely enquired of umpire Kennedy whether that might possibly be out, but there was no need for a verdict as Will had already removed himself. Callum Patterson missed straight one and it was 164-6. Paul Reynolds slammed the ball into his pads and had to go lbw.

Dave Lucas and Chris Byrnes took the score to 183-7 off 45 overs, Ernie Extras joint top-scoring with 40 (30 wides), Leinster 20 short of a decent score and 40 short of a real challenge. Rendell took 2/29 and Ullah 1/25.

Leinster thought they had Gareth Carroll, opening in place of injured brother Kenny, stitched lbw second ball, but umpire Kennedy is a man of his own opinions, and Gareth survived to add 55 for the first wicket with Tom Fisher before he was run out for 19 by an excellent piece of work from Will Lennon.

But the impetus was lost as Reynolds spilled Fisher behind the stumps five runs later. Conor Mullen batted in his usual aggressive manner, and the rapid progress could have been even more rapid had Fisher not reverted to his last season's habit of drilling bad balls straight to the fielders.

About this time my daughter appeared with her boyfriend, an American. I had suggested that the last quarter of a game is liable to be the most intelligible to a newcomer. But apart from Railway scoring runs at will, nothing was happening. He thought it very quaint when a bunch of guys who had been standing around doing very little took a five minute break for drinks.

Carlos Braithwaite, watched by mummy and little sister on his 21st birthday, returned from the Sandymount end, bent his back, and eventually had Mully lbw for 48 to a second successive shout for one that this time missed the inside edge. Trent came in, had a huge waft at his first ball, missed it comfortably, and settled down to play some lovely shots.

With Fisher he added the fifty-odd further runs required. Railway won in 38.4 overs, Tom Fisher on 67* and Trent on 33*. Braithwaite was good value for his 1/29, and Lennon's nine overs cost only 30. Bethan's American friend wasn't the only one who hadn't a clue what was going on.

Mark Jones was bowling the valedictory over when a mot, cup of coffee in one hand and rabbiting into a mobile held in the other, marched across the field directly behind Jonesey. Everybody stopped except your one. Jonesey rolled the ball towards her. She niftily stopped it with her foot and flicked it back towards Mark, not breaking her phone conversation.

She was eventually persuaded to walk around the side of the field. She didn't notice Trent crashing the ball past her for the winning boundary. The American may not have understood much about cricket, but he knew a dumb broad when he saw one.

There was no Senior league action on Sunday, so I was able to go to Claremont Road to watch an Ireland A team play a Croatia XI in a Twenty20 match. As Chris Dougherty and Niall McDonnell accelerated the score towards 100 I learned that cricket is played in three locations in Croatia: in the capital, Zagreb: in the main coastal town of Split: and on the island of Vis, south of Split well out into the Adriatic, where it was established by passing British sailors.

While many of the players have some Australian connections, particularly with Perth (whence hails Simon Katich), all are Croatians. Hvratska Crikit is an Affiliate member of ICC, and the boys were en route to North Wales to participate in a competition with some other speakers of funny languages, like Cornish, Welsh, Flemish and Hungarian. They should visit Donemana.

Once Dougherty and McConnell had reached fifty they retired to be replaced by Dom Joyce and Brian Shields. Shieldsy took a particular liking to the bowling of Michael Grzinic, taking him for 30 in one over. He retired on 60, Dom Joyce lost his middle stump to Jeff Grzinic for 26, and Rory McCann and skipper Reinhardt Strydom took the final score to 230-4.

A heavy shower brought forward tea, and Croatia quickly slumped to 19-4 courtesy of a run out and wickets to Allan Eastwood, Thinis Fourie and Richard Keaveney. Thinus hobbled off with a dodgy hammer after bowling only seven balls. Ryan Hopkins, the twelfth man, is prettier and a better fielder, so it was win:win for all concerned.

Michael Grzinic and Pero Kastelar (11) added 38 for the fifth wicket before Gary Kidd's chinamen earned him a triple-wicket maiden. Keeper Ante Nazor then joined Grzinic to add 38 more runs for a 20-over total of 97-7. Grzinic got some of his own back on Shieldsy, slapping his leggies for 15 off his solitary over, and finished on a very creditable 54*.

It was all good fun played in a good spirit. The Croatians will have learnt a lot, as you always do when playing against guys of a better class. What Cricket Ireland learned, I don't know. But Australia A, South Africa and West Indies A, to mention three sides I had the privilege to umpire against Ireland, have done the same job for our benefit, so if nothing else we're returning the favour to the ICC.