For the first time since 1909 Ireland played a match outside the British Isles. It was played on a matting wicket which was laid on a type of hard rolled hard-court tennis substance. The mat was not as wide as the crease and extended some 6 feet behind the wicket. The ground, pavilion, arrangements and hospitality were first-rate. This was the first three-day match ever played by Holland. To get the Irish players used to the conditions a one-day match was played at Schiedam against Excelsior CC on the day before the main match. This club side were having their 50th anniversary and were leading the Dutch second division. The match was won easily by Ireland by 173 runs to 46. MS Reith and DR Pigot, both of whom made 47, put on 96 for the first wicket and GA Duffy took 6-10 in 11 overs.

Ireland brought back GA Duffy and JD Monteith, neither of whom were available against Scotland. R.Moan and WT Booton were dropped. This meant the team had two quick and three slow bowlers. It was eight years since Ireland entered a three-day match with only two quick bowlers. Holland were missing a few of their first choice players. In 1964 Holland had beaten the Australians in a one-day match.

Goodwin won the toss and Ireland batted all day to score 251-4. Play began at 1 PM and continued until 7 PM with half an hour for tea. 70 minutes were lost to rain and the day was windy and cold. Reith played a wonderful innings of 129. His technique was very good on the mat and he murdered every bad ball. The Dutch opening bowling of Derogee and Cornelis were fast and hostile but the length erred at times to give Reith his chance to drive and pull. Pigot was bowled for 21 and 41 came in the first hour. Rikse, medium pace, came on for four overs with the score at 40. He might have had a longer spell as he had Harrison in trouble with his bounce off the mat. At 43 Harrison, when five, was dropped by Trijzelaar at first slip off Cornelis. This was the kind of luck the Irish batsman needed while getting used to the conditions. Vriens, an offspinner and Burki came on but both batsmen were now playing well. After 90 minutes Reith reached 50 out of 80, containing six fours and three threes. Then he hit Vriens for three fours in one over. 100 came up in just under two hours.

At 105 Harrison tried to pull a ball from Vriens which was too far up and was bowled. Anderson came in and he too needed a little luck and he had a quiet start. Vriens changed ends and van Meurs had four overs with his leg spin. 150 came up in 160 minutes and at tea the score was 156-2, scored in 165 minutes, with Reith 92 and Anderson 21. The opening bowlers came back after tea. Anderson snicked Cornelis for four and then was caught at the wicket. 165-3-27. A few minutes later Reith with a pull to square leg reached 100 out of 172 in 184 minutes. 200 went up at 5 PM after 215 minutes with Reith now 119 not out. At 5:15 PM it rained and play was delayed for an hour. The score was 219-3. In the first over after the resumption Reith went down the wicket to Vriens and he was stumped. He had scored a masterful 129 out of 220 in 232 minutes with 17 fours. With O'Riordan and Dineen in a further eight minutes were lost to rain before close of play. The score at the close was 251-4, with Dineen 33 and O'Riordan 21.

On the second day a gale blew and conditions were November like. It was "O'Riordan's day". He batted for an hour until the declaration and scored 57 not out. He then bowled 33 overs from 12:10 PM to 5:50 PM to take 8-60. His only breaks were for lunch, tea and six overs by Monteith and three by Goodwin. Ireland went for quick runs in the morning and scored 81 in an hour. Dineen gave a chance to square leg when he was 39 and just beat O'Riordan to 50. O'Riordan pulled Cornelis for six. Dineen then speeded up. He was dropped by Bakker at slip off Vriens when 59. The 100 stand came up and Ireland declared at noon at 332-4, Ireland's highest score for 13 years. Dineen's 71 was made in 157 minutes. O'Riordan batted 94 minutes for 57.

Holland's openers, Rikse and Beekman, started quietly and only eight runs came off 12 overs. Goodwin's first seven overs were all maidens. Then Duffy took a good two-handed catch low to his left to gully to dismiss Rikse off O'Riordan. Rikse is known in Holland as "Concrete Hank". Beekman was missed by Reith at slip off Goodwin and the score was 10-1 in 50 minutes. The score was slowly taken to 34. Then O'Riordan bowled Trijzelaar with a ball of full length. The Dutch captain, Bakker, was next. He played strokes from the start. At 49 Duffy came on for Goodwin whose 16 overs yielded only 18 runs. Bakker his Duffy's first ball for four but he was then missed on the deep square leg boundary by Monteith who failed to pick up the flight of the ball.

At 74 Duffy got a wicket when O'Riordan caught Beekman at backward square leg. There followed the best Dutch stand of the innings. It was a stand of 60 in 56 minutes between Bakker and Van Meurs (who was playing his first match for Holland). During the stand the bowling was mostly in the hands of the three spinners Dufy Monteith and Halliday. The cold day with the gale blowing across the pitch did not suit slow bowling. Bakker reached 50 out of 106 in 83 minutes. The stand was not broken until O'Riordan returned at 127. In his second over he had Bakker caught at the wicket for 67, scored in 102 minutes. 134-4. Van Meurs was now 18 and it was he who supported the rest of the innings and saved the follow-on when the score reached 183. Goodwin came back at 141 and the new ball was taken after 65 overs at 147. O'Riordan and Goodwin then bowled unchanged for the rest of the innings although there was a case for another spell by Monteith in place of Goodwin. Bouwman scored 19 and helped Van Meurs take the score to 170. Then Bouwman was caught behind cutting at O'Riordan. At 5:13 PM Van Meurs reached a very creditable 50 scored in 115 minutes. Goodwin was expensive at this stage conceding 24 runs in four overs.

As 195 Derogee was LBW to O'Riordan. The 200 then came up. Then Vriens was caught behind off Goodwin. Van Meurs got stuck on 56 for a while and was bowled by O'Riordan at 203. O'Riordan in fact took the last three wickets in seven balls to emerge with his figures of 8-60, taken in 33.2 overs. He had trouble with his approach, both coming on to the mat surface and in his delivery stride. This affected the line of his bowling and but for this his figures would have been even better. Goodwin's 1-71 in 31 overs are figures which do not reflect the merit of his bowling.

Going into a second time Ireland were 3-0 overnight. Next morning play began at 10:30 AM. The previous night rain curtailed play by 50 minutes so now Ireland had to score quickly. In 130 more minutes the score was taken to 111-7. Pigot and Reith put on 24 when Reith mistimed a pull off Cornelis and gave a simple catch to short mid-wicket. He had earlier hit Cornelis for six. A few moments later Pigot hooked at Rikse and got a thin edge to the wicket-keeper. There followed four maidens as Harrison and Anderson settled in and Anderson was dropped at short mid-wicket. At 37 Anderson was caught at the wicket off Burki when playing forward. He had scored two in 32 minutes. Dineen scored five in 30 minutes before he skied one to deep mid-on off Vriens whose third over this was. 50-4 and 90 minutes played this morning. This was much too slow a pace. 50 came in the next half hour. O'Riordan scored 15 and was out at 91 caught at deep long on off Vriens. Harrison had begun to play very well and he scored quickly. He reached 50 in 100 minutes. He was out with the total at 111 for 52. Goodwin followed him next ball and then declared. Vriens had taken 4-23 in 8.3 overs and had kept the ball well up to the bat.

Holland set out after 229 to win in 180 minutes and were a man short. Derogee had hurt his arm while batting on the second day and took no further part in the match. Rikse and Beekman had made eight by lunch. Without addition, Rikse was caught at slip by Goodwin off O'Riordan. In Goodwin's fifth over, with the score at 12, three wickets fell. Beekman was caught at the wicket off the first ball. Bakker was caught at first slip off the fourth and Van Meurs popped his first ball to Pigot at short leg. Bouwman and Van Nispen Tots doubled the score. Then, 24, the latter tried to run a second run for a hit past Anderson at cover. A perfect return to Colhoun ran him out. Earlier Trijzelaar had been caught at the wicket off O'Riordan in the over after Goodwin had taken his three wickets.

The seventh wicket also fell at 24 when Bouwman was caught by Pigot at short-leg. Vriens was dropped at slip by Dineen in the same over. At 29 Vriens skied Goodwin to cover. The last pair put on 12 and survived a run out when O'Riordan dropped Anderson's throw. Eventually Cornelis played on to O'Riordan and all was over with 90 minutes to spare. O'Riordan, 4-11, and Goodwin, 4-26, had bowled unchanged.