Denmark came to Ireland after a 10 day tour of England which comprised one-day matches. K. Buus (now Captain); C Morild; B Jensen; M Petersson and J Luther had played before. Their best bowler, H Mortensen, was missing. IJ Anderson was not available for Ireland and Harte and Harpur were dropped. Three batsmen came in - GP O'Brien; AV Smith and DW Harrison. O'Brien was a surprise as he had no 1978 form. Harrison was brother of former Internationals, Roy and Jim.
The Ireland team at Rathmines
A wet ground delayed the start by one hour but the wicket had been covered for 24 hours by tarpaulins. The first day was overcast but the other two were warm and sunny. Denmark, set 224 to win, were 21-5 but recovered well and at one time were moving towards a possible win. Denmark used their two young fast bowlers, Mortensen and Peterssen, in long stints and they were both very good. Short and Reith put on 36. Short was dropped twice. When 2 Jensen dropped him at slip off Mortensen and 27 Morild made a great attempt to catch him at cover off Peterssen. Eventually, just before lunch, he hit across a full toss from Peterssen which hit the base of the stumps. 36-1-15. The score at lunch was 37-1, Reith 19, BA O'Brien 1, scored in 15 overs. O'Brien struggled but saw 50 up in the 21st over. At 51 he sliced a drive at Mortensen and was caught at second slip. Harrison got his chance to move up the order for Waringstown and Ulster Country by virtue of his brother Jim's retirement from the Irish team. He tried to pull and lobbed a catch to square leg. 64-3-5. At 80 the out of form GP O'Brien was bowled "through the gate" in Morild's first over. He had relieved Peterssen who had bowled 15 overs. Reith was playing carefully and well. He hit six fours, reached his 50 out of 90 in 147 minutes in the 36th over. Thomsen, a left arm spinner, came on and bowled 10 very wide balls at Reith. The frustrated Reith reached for the next and was caught over his shoulder at extra cover by Mortensen. 96-5-51. This was not a good position but Smith and Monteith retrieved the situation in fine style. Smith started and continued in excellent form - a form we have not seen from him for some years. 100 came up in the 41st over and by tea the score was 115-5, Smith 24, Monteith 4.
After tea the two batsmen launched into an attack which brought a further 87 runs in only 15 overs. Peterssen was brought back for Morild and Smith flicked him for a beautiful six to mid-wicket. Then Monteith hit 10 of Thomsen and 13 off the next, and last, Peterssen over. 150 was up in 52 overs. The next eight brought another 50 runs. Smith reached 51 in 19 minutes and the total was 188. In the last over of the innings Monteith reached his own 50 (scored in 76 minutes) and was caught at mid-off when driving. At this point Monteith declared to give Ireland 50 minutes bowling before close of play. The Smith-Monteith stand added 106 in only 77 minutes The overall scoring rate was almost 3.5 per over, but Denmark took 245 minutes to bowl 60.5 overs.
On the 2nd day the wicket was dry and easy. The spinners did most of the bowling while Denmark ground their way to 160 all out. This occupied four hours and 89 overs. In the midst of this Morild played a fine innings of 67. By lunch Denmark were 83-5 and Ireland bowled 46 overs in this two hour period. Mortensen (eight) went first - bowled round his legs by Monteith with the score on 18 playing no stroke. Klokker (9) was caught at short square leg off a Halliday spinner at 26. Luther (14) drove at Monteith's slow flighted ball with his head in the air with the total at 40. Off the first ball of Halliday's next over, with the total still on 40, Priess was caught on the leg boundary when he hooked upwards. Buus and Morild batted 50 minutes and put on 38 of which Buus only made eight. They brought 50 up in 119 minutes in the 43rd over. Corlett bowled three overs of off spinners.
Monteith changed ends and Elder came on for Corlett. Buus let the last ball of Elder's first over go by and it bowled him. 78-5-8. The next ball, bowled by Monteith to Morild, saw Corlett drop a hard chance at second slip. The lunch score was 83-5, Morild 32, Jensen 1. Monteith kept the Rathmines end going after lunch with Elder, Corlett and finally Halliday sharing the other end. 100 came up in 177 minutes in the 68th over - most of the scoring being in boundaries. At 105 Monteith bowled Jensen with a spinner. As 108 Peterssen was run out, failing to beat Smith's throw from cover after Morild had called the run. Morild was now 41. He now launched an attack on Monteith hitting him for three straight fours in an over to go to 53 out of 120 in 97 minutes Next over he hit Monteith for a six and a four. When he got to 67 (after 111 minutes) he was LBW pushing forward at Corlett. He hit one 6 and 13 fours so that all but nine of his runs came in boundaries. At 140 Nielsen was beautifully caught by BA O'Brien at short fine leg. Nielsen flicked at Halliday and O'Brien dived to his right to make a one-handed catch. Westergaard and Thomsen put on another 20 in six overs before Thomsen gave BA O'Brien his third catch, this time at leg slip of Monteith, to end the innings at 160. The Irish lead was 42. Monteith (4-56) and Halliday (3-47) bowled 66 of the 89 overs bowled.
There was now a 53 minute period up to tea. In this time Denmark bowled only 11 overs. Short was appealed against for a bat/pad catch at short leg but was given not out. At five he was caught at the wicket for 1 of a ball that left him from Peterssen. By tea the score was 28-1, Reith 10, BA O'Brien 13. In the remaining 96 minutes Denmark only bowled another 20 overs. Off these Ireland got a further 62 runs, lost two more wickets and saw a number of catches dropped. Reith (11) was late on a Peterssen yorker when the score was 38. At 41, when Harrison was 2, he was given not out off Mortensen, the umpire deciding the ball had not carried to the wicket keeper. 50 came in 100 minutes but it was only the 22nd over bowled. When he was 30, O'Brien was missed twice. Firstly, at 59, by Jensen at slip off Peterssen and then, at 60, by the wicket keeper off Mortensen. O'Brien hit 11 off Peterssen's next over. He hit another four in Mortensen's next over to go to 48 (in 119 minutes). Off the last ball of this over Buus made a fine catch at gully to dismiss him. 78-3-48. The lead was now 120 with 20 minutes remaining on day two. Next ball, from Peterssen, Harrison (12) was dropped at second slip by Nielsen. Harrison, 14, and GP O'Brien, 10, saw out the day when the total was 90-3 with O'Brien hitting two successive fours off Thomsen, who bowled two overs at the end.
31 overs in 150 minutes was a disgracefully slow rate with Mortensen always taking 5 minutes to bowl an over. Monteith issued a formal protest on the third day. The umpires and team managers conferred. Denmark admitted their fault and said it would change. 22 overs were delivered in the remaining 87 minutes of the Irish innings - a rate of 15 an hour.
Leading by 132 Ireland added another 91 and lost five more wickets before declaring. Mortensen and Peterssen took up the attack again and, in fact, bowled unchanged through the innings. On 99 GP O'Brien was bowled by Peterssen with a ball which cut back and flicked his pad. 99-4-10. In the fifth over Harrison was LBW, also to Peterssen, trying to force to leg. 106-5-26. Smith and Monteith added 22 when Smith (12) hit over a full length ball from Mortensen. Monteith was now scoring quickly. Another 21 were added with Corlett. The latter was dropped at slip off Mortensen before he had scored. He scored seven before being caught at mid-wicket. In five more overs Monteith and Halliday put on 32, Monteith getting 19 of these and Halliday a useful 13. Ireland declared at 12:57 PM having scored 181-8 off 52.5 overs - all of them except two bowled by the two splendid fast bowlers. Peterssen took 5-81. Monteith's declaration came when he was bowled for 44.
Denmark's task was to score 224 in 203 minutes plus a minimum of 20 overs on a sunny afternoon. In 23 minutes before lunch Corlett and Elder bowled seven overs and Denmark lost Luther. He was caught at short leg off Elder for 1. At lunch the score was five, Klokker and Priess both 1 not out. GP O'Brien was keeping wicket because Colhoun had a knock on the head in the first innings and suffered some double vision. After lunch Elder, by taking wickets in his sixth, seventh, eighth and 11th overs, reduced Denmark to 21-5. At this point Elder had figures of 11-7-5-5! GP O'Brien caught Priess (4) when the total was 12 and Thomsen (0) when it had reached 14. Morild (0) was bowled at 14 and Klokker lobbed a lifter to second slip (M. Whelan the substitute). Monteith replaced Corlett. When the score was 26 Harrison at extra cover put down an easy and expensive catch offered by Buus off Monteith when Buus was only three. He went on to make 56! He and Mortensen (19) added 38 for the sixth wicket. Halliday replaced Elder who went off with figures of 15-9-9-5! Denmark slowly fought their way up to 59. Then Elder came back for Monteith and at once bowled Mortensen. At this point Elder had 6-13. At tea Denmark were 61-6 in 45 overs, Buus 27, Jensen 0.
Tea must have spurred on Denmark! They needed 163 to win in 55 minutes plus a minimum of 20 overs. In those 55 minutes they scored no less than 75 runs off 16.4 overs! Jensen, with powerful strokes (two sixes, four fours) made 46 of these and Buus 29. Ireland dropped three catches and suddenly a Danish win was a possibility. At 72 Halliday, at short leg, dropped Buus (35) off Elder. At 82, Whelan, the substitute, dropped Buus, still 35, again off Elder. At 94 Halliday came on. Jensen hit him for 15 in his first over, indeed his only over! A six to square leg was in fact a missed chance to Monteith. Elder came back. Then Buus attacked Monteith and hit three fours in two overs. He reached 50 when the total was 123 in 128 minutes Corlett came on for Elder at 134 for the last over before the final hour began. He struck the vital blow. Jensen failed to connect with a pull and Harrison made the catch at square leg. 136-7-46. Jensen made his runs in 61 minutes in a stand of 77. Next over Buus poked Monteith to Short at gully and the end was near. 136-8-56. At 140 Peterssen was caught at the wicket off Corlett. Nielsen and Westergaard then batted out six overs from Monteith and Corlett. With the first ball of the ninth over in the last hour, at 5:55 PM, Monteith had Nielsen caught at leg slip by the substitute, Whelan. Elder had 6-29 in 25 overs at the end. A good match but too many dropped catches for Ireland.