In the first of a series of articles, CricketEurope takes a look back at famous matches involving the Associate countries. We start off with a famous game won by the Irish against Sussex in Pagham in July 1977.

The opposition was fairly strong, containing players of the calibre of John Barclay, Gehan Mendis, Paul Parker, Ian Greig, and making his debut for the county, the imperious Imran Khan.

The Ireland side consisted of Jack Short, Sandy Smith, Ginger O’Brien, Ivan Anderson, Alec O’Riordan, Chris Harte, Simon Corlett, Dermot Monteith, Podge Hughes, Mike Halliday, and Ossie Colhoun.

The 3 day game was played over two innings, and after the first innings was completed, just two runs separated the teams. Sussex scored 260, with Imran Khan scoring a superb 101, which featured some massive blows. One huge six went out of the ground, and knocked the tiles off a nearby pub.

Jack Short (right) takes up the story, “Khan hit one of the biggest sixes I ever saw. It went out of the ground, crossed a road and the forecourt of a pub. It hit the roof so hard that it brought some tiles down. Michael Halliday got Imran to sign one of them, and he still has it as a memento to this day.”

Gehan Mendis chipped in with 42, but an excellent bowling display saw Sussex bowled out for 260. “We had a very good bowling attack with Monteith, Corlett, O’Riordan and Halliday. The batting may be better nowadays, but I don’t think we ever had many better bowling line ups,” said Short. “Dermot in particular bowled well, and at that stage in his career, he was as good as anyone – he would probably say better!”

Monteith picked up 3 wickets, as did Corlett and Halliday – the latter obtaining revenge on Khan by having him caught by Podge Hughes after he had reached his hundred.

A solid Irish batting display – no fewer than 8 players got double figures, with 5 players passing 30 – saw them make 258. It was a very courageous effort by the Irish in the face of some hostile, and at times intimidating bowling. As Jack Short pointed out, “Imran bowled at most of us with no-one in front of the wicket – there was just Paul Parker at square cover.” The game is perhaps best remembered in Irish circles for Imran Khan’s duel with Podge Hughes.

Hughes takes up the story, “For some unknown reason, Imran decided to bowl short at myself. He was at the time far quicker than anything we had ever encountered. It also has to be recalled that this was in the pre helmet era, so I had no protection whatsoever. I came up with the strategy of firstly backing away and slashing at the ball. It proved quite successful at first, with me getting a few boundaries over the heads of the slips. He then bowled even shorter and kept following me towards the leg side. I then tried running up the wicket at him, giving myself some room. I was struck between the shoulder blades at least once, and must have been 6 feet away from the stumps. I approached the umpire, Cec Pepper on one occasion, and asked him what was going on, but got little assistance. I then asked him what the Pakistani was for **** Off! Luckily Imran didn’t hear me!”

Mike Halliday (right) was the batsman at the other end, and the pair added what was to prove a vital 56 runs for the 9th wicket, with Hughes making 35, and Halliday 21. Halliday explained, “It wasn’t the smartest piece of cricket by Imran. All he needed to do was to pitch it up straight. The weather was dark, and Podge was wearing glasses and didn’t have a helmet. Imran was eventually taken off, but the runs we added were to prove crucial.”

Hughes and the brave Irish players also earned the respect and the support of many of the locals. “The locals couldn’t believe what they were witnessing. Imran’s short pitched assault on the tail did him no favours, although it must be said that he was trying to earn a county contract with them and was out to impress with his speed. One funny thing was the amount of advice and coaching I was receiving from Mike Halliday, who was full of ideas – from the other end of course!”

Skipper O’Riordan top scored with 40, Chris Harte made 37, Hughes got 35, O’Brien made 32, and opener Jack Short, 30. – his starring role was still to come.

In the Sussex second innings, openers John Barclay and Peter Graves got them off to a solid start, putting on 78 for the first wicket, before both were dismissed by Simon Corlett, for 48 and 43 respectively. Corlett also got the crucial wicket of Khan for just 10, out to a great catch. Short remembers, “The catch that Khan was out to in the second innings was I think the highest skier I ever saw. I remember thinking with horror that it was coming in my direction, but luckily it went to Monty, and thankfully he held on to it.!”

From then on it was a masterclass from Monteith (right), who bamboozled the Sussex middle order, and finished up with the excellent analysis of 5 for 38 in 20.4 overs. Two catches to conclude the innings were made by Ireland’s sub fielders, namely John Elder and Tommy Harpur. Elder hadn’t played in the game through injury, yet ended up on the field for most of the game. In one incident, he tripped over a deckchair on the boundary while attempting to field the ball – much to the delight of not only his team mates, but the assembled crowd. Sussex finished on 197, which meant Ireland would need exactly 200 to secure the win.

That scenario looked extremely unlikely, when they were reduced to 18 for 3, with Stuart Still taking the wickets of Smith, O’Brien and Anderson. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and Jack Short was to prove a saviour for the Irish.

“Personally, I batted very well in the second innings – with hindsight, probably my best ever innings for Ireland. Despite wickets falling early on, I scored well and we always had a chance. Myself and Alec put on 60, even though he only got 11. The crucial partnership was myself and Chris Harte – we put on exactly 100, although both of us fell one short of personal landmarks, with me getting out on 99, and Chris on 49. Chris was a very good sweeper of the ball, and seemed to play the shot all the time.”

“Sean Pender wrote of my dismissal at the time, that it was due to an unplayable yorker. That was very kind on his part, but it’s much more likely that I tried something even more ambitious. I was pretty disappointed to be out on 99, but that was nothing compared to Chris.”

Mike Halliday remembers the incident vividly, “Chris was given out by Cec Pepper on 49, and with victory within sight. The ball had come off his thigh, and he was clearly upset. It took him about 10 minutes to walk off the field, and only did so after Alec had bellowed at him to come off. Alec made Chris go out and apologise at the close of play.”

Despite losing 7 wickets, Ireland clung on to win a tense finish, with Simon Corlett and Podge Hughes at the crease. Hughes said, “I of course came face to face with Imran again. I knew this time there would be no short pitched stuff. I don’t know why, but indeed that was the case. He bowled very fast and very straight. Simon was not only an accomplished bowler, but a very good batsman as well. He hit 14 not out, while I got 11, and we won a great game.”

Halliday laments the demise of this type of game, “It truly was a great game, and unfortunately modern Irish cricketers never get a game like this, which is serious yet fun.”

The final word goes to the Irish batting hero Short who said of the win, “It is of course a match with very fond memories for me personally, but it is also a high moment for Irish cricket. We beat a strong county in a 3 day game, bowling them out twice, and batting last, while they had in their ranks one of the greatest all-rounders of all time. The match itself was a tough competitive one, and we got no favours or asked for any. There was a lot of good cricket, and some memorable incidents – and of course we won!”