CRICKET: Matt Dwyer comes in to bowl from the Terenure end of CYM. It's a fuller delivery from the international left-arm spinner. Michael Lax takes one step down the pitch and hits cleanly through the ball and all Dwyer can do is watch it sail over his head, over the outfield and beyond the black sightscreen and land three feet from some poor soul preparing to serve in the tennis courts.
From the other end, Leinster's leading wicket-taker, Nathan Palmer, lopes in past the umpire, bowls and sees one of his perfectly good tweakers land somewhere in Ashdale Road, another victim of the mildly psychotic batting of a rampant Lax.
With the players all dressed in bright colours, loud music marking the departure of each batsman, a barbecue feeding the supporting masses, and bouncy castles keeping the children happy (if not altogether quiet), pyjama cricket has finally come to the Leinster club scene.
And what a success it was too. As part of their centenary celebrations, CYM Cricket Club organised an afternoon and evening of Twenty20-style cricket last Friday between a CYM/YMCA XI and a Leinster XI that included several overseas professionals from clubs around the province.
That the all-amateur team won both games played and that we were treated to a spectacular hundred from home team hero Lax (his century included seven fours and 10 sixes) were great bonuses but in truth, this was genuine entertainment that left spectators and players alike plotting to find a way of making it a regular fixture of the LCU.
And so they should. The current 20-overs competition at senior level, the Alan Murray Cup, is in dire need of an overhaul. All games take place on a Tuesday evening, starting at 6 p.m., which can mean that, say, players from a north Dublin team like The Hills or Malahide have to leave work and travel across town at rush hour to, perhaps, Anglesea Road and be ready to take the field at 6 p.m.
There is never any time for a pre-match warm-up, leaving players more susceptible to injury, and while the essence of the competition is a quick, exciting game of cricket, it often suffers from being something of an afterthought, more fun than going to nets but a game no one really cares about and certainly without commercial benefit.
That could all be about to change. Moves are afoot to bring a Twenty20 Cup into the mainstream of Leinster cricket and, it is hoped, boost the income of host clubs in the process.
Although still at a preliminary planning stage, the idea seems to be to set aside three weekends in the LCU senior calendar and hold these festivals of cricket at one north Dublin and one south Dublin venue for the first two weekends. Three teams would play off against each other in each venue and the winner would get through to the semi-finals, to be played on the same day as the resultant final at an agreed venue.
Plate and bowl competitions would attempt to keep the losing sides' interest in the competition. The usual Twenty20 rules and razzmatazz would apply with the host clubs pocketing the bar and food receipts and the LCU keeping sponsors happy with a raised profile and bigger crowds.
In England, the ECB's bean counters are loving the Twenty20 and there is no reason a version of that game couldn't be successful over here. Seeing a man like Michael Lax swatting balls onto the tennis courts at CYM is good watching, whatever way you package it.
