Cricket: An all-round performance of real quality by Railway Union's John Anderson yesterday ensured that the first big trophy of the summer is heading to Park Avenue as the Sandymount side beat Malahide by 78 runs in the Dublin Grass Machinery 45 Overs League final.

Having been put in to bat by the home side, the South African opening batsman had a shaky start in the face of good bowling from Pete Saville and Phil Markey. But he battled hard and held the Railway innings together, allowing others around him to take a more direct approach.

As the likes of Kenny Carroll and Kevin O'Brien smashed Railway to a competitive total of 271 for 6 off 45 overs, Anderson took a more measured approach. That said, while he was more watchful than his team-mates, scoring 80 runs off 91 balls could hardly be described as pedestrian.

But in many ways, the best was yet to come. Coming on to bowl with Malahide coasting at 100 for no loss off 20 overs, Anderson stemmed the flow with some tight off-spin bowling. In the end he took 3 for 15 off nine overs, including the prize wicket of Mike O'Brien. He also ran out Sinranjeet Singh with a direct hit, and even took a catch to make the man of the match award a simple choice.

Not that he was the only Railway hero. Kevin O'Brien scored a century of real class off just 76 balls (11 fours and two sixes) to demonstrate why he is being favoured by the Ireland selectors, and captain Carroll got his side off to a flyer scoring a run-a-ball half-century at the top of the order.

A target of 272 was never going to be easy for Malahide, but on what was an excellent batting wicket Singh and Darren Wotherspoon got the Villagers off to a great start. Wotherspoon, in particular, was in fine form. The Sydneysider hit 60 quality runs before being dismissed by a good catch by John Moffatt at mid-on.

At that stage Malahide were scoring at better than five an over, but once Wotherspoon was out a serious lull followed with Anderson, Gary Black and Mohammed Tariq making sure the asking rate continued to rise.

O'Brien threatened to get his side close late on but, needing around 10 or 11 an over, it was a challenge beyond even him and Malahide fell 78 runs short.