Myerside (Watsonians CC) was a new Edinburgh venue for this match. All previous seven matches in Edinburgh were at Grange CC. Ireland's fortunes in this city continued to be bad. Of the eight matches played there four have been lost and four drawn. This Scottish win was the first since 1977, the first in Scotland since 1966 (also in Edinburgh!) And it puts Scotland into an 18-17 lead in the 61 matches played. Ireland played badly and could at no stage be said to have been winning.

The cause was not helped by a 2:30 AM arrival of the Northern party due to aircraft delay and to the illness of O'Reilly on the second day. Anderson, Corlett and Jackson came back in and out went McDermott (after making 80 against Wales!), Elder and Harte. McDermott was restored when Masood cried off. For Scotland Loudon, Snodgrass and Morton were new to this match as were McDermott and O'Reilly for Ireland.

The match was mostly played in good if blustery weather with 75 minutes lost to rain on the second day. The outfield was very large and lush and the wicket was good. The first morning was overcast and it was probably a good toss to lose. Monteith won it and batted. Ireland lost Short run out for 10 with the score on 27, McDermott (18) caught at the wicket thrashing at a wide one from Clark at 30 and Anderson (9) bowled by Rhind at 44 while flicking to leg.

The two teams

Monteith came in at number five and probably batted better he had ever done before. He hit a series of fours and his 45 contained only three singles. He and Wills slowly retrieved the situation and their 83 run partnership bridged the lunch interval (the score at lunch being 105-3). After 103 minutes Monteith was caught at the wicket and 14 runs later Wills was caught at slip for 43. Prior had two lives at square leg before being well caught by Snodgrass at long-off from the bowling of slow left armer Morton for 13. 145-6. Corlett was caught at the wicket, Jackson LBW and Torrens (17) caught at slip before Halliday (30) and O'Reilly (1*) put on 30 for the last wicket in 39 minutes and saw 200 up. It was Halliday's highest score for Ireland. Clark bowled but 15.1 overs out of 79.1. He was the best bowler and was underused.

Donald and Warner opened to Corlett and O'Reilly with 148 minutes remaining. 45 overs were bowled and Scotland were 127 for the loss of Donald, who was caught at short leg off O'Reilly at 15. Five bowlers were tried but none could make much impression on the left-handed Warner and his captain Swan. Both reached 50 before the close, Swan in 109 minutes and Warner in 137. At 69 Warner (30 then) gave O'Reilly a difficult chance at long leg in Halliday's first over. At the close Warner was 52 and Swan 56.

Both the overnight batsmen were out within 18 runs on the second day. At 136 Short caught Warner at slip off Corlett. 136-2-55. Nine runs later Swan was caught at the wicket, also off Corlett. 145-3-66. The next pair, Weir and Ker, also exceeded 50 each and put on 119 in 147 minutes It was this stand which probably spelt defeat for the Irish. Corlett and Torrens plugged away untiringly in O'Reilly's absence with occasional bursts from Monteith and six overs from Prior. Strangely Halliday did not get on during the stand and, indeed, did not appear until the score was 292-5. Scotland went slowly to 168-3 at which stage rain stopped play, with Weir 13 and Ker 9, after 74 overs. An early lunch was taken and play resumed at 1:38 PM. At 173 Ker (14) was dropped by Short at first slip off Torrens and again, much more difficult, at 194, when Ker was 36 and the unlucky bowler Corlett.

At 2:25 PM there was a further loss of 46 minutes to rain. 200 came up in the 89th over and 250 in the 100th with Scotland now moving more briskly. Corlett and Torrens took the new ball when it became due after 100 overs. At this stage the score was 254-3. 10 runs later the wickets began to fall. Weir was caught at the wicket for 65 after a 119 run stand which took 147 minutes Brown was caught and bowled at 271, both wickets falling to Corlett. At tea, after 105 overs, Ker was 56 and Loudon 1 and the score was 276-5. 23 were added, then the last five wickets fell for 16 runs. Loudon was caught at long on by McDermott, Ker's vigil of 154 minutes ended with Halliday bowling him.

Snodgrass went to a slip catch by Short off Corlett and the last two subsided quietly. 315 runs had come in 412 minutes off 121.4 overs. Corlett was marvellous. He bowled 42 overs to take 7-82, the third time he had taken seven wickets in an innings for Ireland. Torrens toiled away unluckily and manfully, 0-81 in 30 overs. The underused Halliday had 2-32 in only 13.4 overs.

With 75 minutes to go Short and McDermott began 105 runs behind. Clark this time shared the new ball with Rhind. Clark bowled McDermott for 0 in his third over with a break back. An extraordinary decision was then taken to send in Prior. The theory was to see if he could play a responsible innings under pressure. In Clark's seventh over he was caught at slip driving at the ball. 31-2. Five runs later Anderson was bowled by Snodgrass with a stroke similar to that in the first innings. Before his dismissal Prior was given a life by Ker at slip. Halliday appeared as night watchman and survived until bad light stopped play 4 minutes early. The score then was 41-3 after 20 overs, Short 23, Halliday 0.

The last day ran from 11 AM to 5 PM with no tea interval. The deficit at start of play was 71. Only 40 of these were cleared off when the seventh wicket fell and an innings defeat, the first since 1952, looked imminent. Short was caught and bowled for 30 with the score on 53 by Clark's slower ball. In the same over Wills cut one to gulley where Warner took a good low catch to his left. Halliday played on with the total on 59. Monteith played well for almost an hour but lost patience when Morton came on and he was caught off a skier. Jackson joined Corlett 15 minutes before lunch with the total on 81-7.

To avoid defeat they needed to bat until near 4 PM and score about 130 runs. By lunch they had added 35, Corlett 26, Jackson 16 and the total was 116-7. Almost at once after lunch each was missed off Clark. On they went for 68 minutes afterwards adding 49 more priceless runs. Jackson made 46 with only five singles before falling LBW to Loudon. He was LBW twice in the match and they were the only such decisions given despite many frenzied appeals until O'Reilly copped such a decision a few minutes later to end the innings. In between Torrens was bowled and Loudon had taken the last three wickets in 13 balls. Clark again got four wickets. The Irish hero was Corlett. He bowled all day yesterday and batted for three hours today to make 39 not out. In this match the five Irish batsmen made 137 runs between them. The five bowlers plus wicketkeeper Jackson made 210.

Scotland now had 35 minutes + 25 overs to make 56. They got them in 21.2 overs. Torrens bowled Warner in his first over behind the batsmen's back. He had Swan caught at slip in his second over while playing to leg. Then Donald and Weir saw Scotland to a merited win. This was the first match out of 24 under the captaincy of Monteith which was lost other than to Counties or to Test playing countries.