A RESOUNDING home victory for Rush in the Leinster Senior League at Kenure yesterday was also something of a triumph for family values. And if the immediate Armstrong clan, in the person of Dara Armstrong, had plenty to celebrate after a dashing and unbeaten 95, and then three victims behind the strumps, the extended family also had plenty to cheer about later on, as cousin Cian effected a five-wicket destruction job on Leinster's usually gritty batting line-up.
Were it not for Dara Armstrong, Leinster may well not have rued their decision to put Rush in, having won the toss. Only opening bat Colm Doyle made a significant contribution otherwise, with a useful 30, though to be fair, Dara Armstrong had sufficient partners in his near-century, which was scored off 38 balls and which included only one six and one four, meaning a lot of smart running, in other words.
Armstrong was dreadfully unlucky not to have scored a century. He had four balls off the final over from which to grab the required five runs, but the bid failed; still, he has the considerable consolation of being the sheet-anchor of his team's innings, not to mention his subsequent two stumpings and one catch behind, which reinforced his current stature as Leinster's leading wicket-keeper.
Leinster's fielding was equally smart for much of the time, and the concession of a mere two extras - one of them a no ball - speaks volumes. Paul Cron and Peter Byrne, with a brace of wickets apiece, did the main damage, with support from Ray McDonnell and Yash Singh.
On a pretty slow outfield, recovering from two days of rain, a total of 178 seemed modest enough, at least according to the local cognescenti. Nazeer Shaukat is said to be hampered by a troublesome back, but even, so, he brought off an encouraging early break-through when he had Joe Byrne caught by Robert McGuinness with only five runs on the board.
Johnny Byrne and Mark Jones had pushed the score to 38 when Shaukat again did the business, trapping Jones leg before. Even so, Leinster looked in command; 54 for 3 off 23 overs did not seem so bad, until that became 65 for 4 off 30 and rapidly slumped to 71 for 7 off 33.
Rush's spinners, Jimmy Carthy and Cian Armstrong did the damage, and this particular scion of the Armstrong clan simply destroyed the Leinster innings, with a wonderful display of bowling which gave him the superb figures of 5 for 13 off 11.2 overs.
Johnny Byrne was Leinster's top scorer with 24, Jones scored 22, while the industrious Peter Johnson, who came in a third wicket down, contributed 21 and was the eighth batsman to depart the scene.
