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Patrick Tice gives us his view from the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup as he gives us the first of his regular reports from Australia.
It was a long journey for Ireland Under 19 and Merrion Wicketkeeper Patrick Tice alongside the rest of the Irish squad but the boys got through it all unfazed before reporting on some typically Australian entertainment and banter from the Irish training camp base in Darwin.
On the 27th of July we (the Ireland U19s) finally arrived at our destination, Darwin. The journey here took us four flights and over 30 hours of travelling, a long, long effort. For some, like manager Brian Walsh, who has been here twice before, the journey was nothing more than an elongated night’s sleep, for others, like Peter Chase (not helped by being massive) the journey was a painful, sleepless day of being cramped up in a tiny seat. Nonetheless we all arrived without any major problems and managed to get through the marathon journey unscathed!

Here in Darwin we are all staying in four main apartments, meaning we cook for ourselves. For some of us, weaned for the first time from our mothers, this is arguably the hardest challenge we’ll face on tour. Luckily, I’m in a room with Robin Kelly, a self-proclaimed four-star chef, who last night aided me in my attempt to make pasta and boiled peas which turned out to be a resounding success. So full and content the members of our apartment (which includes Ben Wylie and Scott Campbell) headed to bed.

However at five in the morning I woke up, overcome by jetlag, and moved into the sitting room to watch the Olympics. There I found Wylie also awake, enjoying a spot of Ovid on the balcony. We were soon joined by Kelly who insisted that we sit and watch the sunrise with him because ‘Bru, It’s just like Zim!’

Next, following a fulsome breakfast we headed for training. The facilities are superb; four grass nets, five indoor nets and two practise pitches. The wickets here are hard and flat, different to anything we’ve seen in Ireland for a while (baring the roads at Merrion). Intensity was high and standard strong. I think all of us are beginning to feed off a bit of nervous energy as the tournament draws near.

In the afternoon we moved into fielding training on the lower pitch which is over looked by an outdoor pub. At first the locals sitting at the bar seemed oblivious to our training but ten minutes in a high catch was hit to Chaser. He lost the ball in the sun and it came down straight on top of him, missing his hands and clonking him on the forehead. This drew a few quite giggles from the onlookers. Yet, not fazed, Chaser got straight back up and asked for another. Unbelievably, the exact same thing happened again. This time the locals erupted. One shouted ‘It’s the red thing!’ and another ‘Hit a third one up, you’ll knock the big fella out!’ Then fifteen minutes later, on his next oppurtunity, he managed to hold onto one leading to a massive cheer. Classic Australian banter much enjoyed by all.

This evening we went to an AFL game and watched a comprehensive Northern Territories win, I think. Perhaps the best part of the night was when Declan (physio), Paul (Video Analyst) and I volunteered for the half time competition. There was a group of ten competitors, six of whom were kids under the age of 12. In the first round of the competition AFL balls were shot, out of a cannon, into the sky. Each competitor took turns trying to take a catch and if you caught the ball you progressed to the next round. Paul, Declan and I advanced safely to the second along with one other young guy called Darcy. However, that was as far as I went, after dropping the next ball, capping off a very average performance. Yet Dec, Paul and Darcy kept going until deep in the fifth Dec spilled one. This left Paul and Darcy in the final, however, with the second-half about to start, the competition was settled by a game of rock, paper scissors. Paul lost but still came off the pitch as the best performing Irishman, something he took great pride in. And so he should, who would have guessed the former professional rugby player could have, against the odds, beaten six kids, a physio and me in a rugby ball catching competition.

This finished off a quality first couple of days, good training, good fun. No doubt the tour will continue in this vein. Today we play a Northern Territory Academy Top End Invitational Team at the beautiful Marrara Cricket Ground in our first warm-up match of the trip.

Result from Monday

NT Academy 273/6 – 50 overs (Graeme McCarter 4 for 52, Shane Getkate 1 for 43, Ben Wylie 1 for 27)
Ireland Under 19’s 263/6 – 50 overs (Ryan Hunter 94, Robin Kelly 57, Shane Getkate 54*)
Ireland lose by 10 runs

Patrick Tice
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