It was in 1839 that the first match between an Irish club and an English club took place. The opponents were Phoenix C.C. and Birkenhead Park C.C. That match was played in Liverpool. Spasmodically since then visits were interchanged but on this occasion a strong Ireland XI was put into the field against the visitors. This was probably because the match was played for the benefit of Lawrence, the Phoenix professional. Unfortunately despite the patronage of the Lord Lieutenant a small crowd saw the match.

Only Cooke, Doyle, Lawrence and Quinn played in the previous match against M.C.C but the team was a reasonably good one. It introduced G.F.Barry to the Irish team, a player who was to become the "general" of the Irish XI in the 1860's and 1870's. Barry never had any great personal success and indeed in 22 matches over 19 years he made only 304 runs at an average of 8.00 and took 21 wickets. However he was a tactician and quickly became captain of the Ireland XI. JR Roberts was also playing his first match and he played 12 times in all up to 1869 but also had little success. Capt. the Hon W Edwardes, JW Greene and Major Boothby were making their only appearance on the XI, the latter having played for MCC against Ireland at Lords a month earlier.

The two teams

Ireland were led on first innings by Birkenhead Park by 16 runs. For Birkenhead Park Horner and Lockart played remarkably well in the face of Lawrence's bowling (he took 7 wickets). For Ireland Coddington made some fine leg hits and four others reached double figures, but the total was only 77. By close of play Birkenhead Park were 57-3 with Lockhart 4 and Blackstock 13.

Next day Blackstock played the innings of the match which included one fine square leg hit out of the ground. Ireland required 133 to win but the score was soon 10 for 2 including a run out of Quinn. Doyle and Boothby (promoted from No. 9) took the score to 67, but when this partnership was broken, the team was quickly all out for 101. Doyle was run out for 35. Coddington raised hopes with some more hits to leg but it was not to be and Carpenter and Barker took all the Irish wickets in the match except for the three run outs.