The overriding take from the Cliftonville Legends game at the Castle Grounds on Sunday was that the good players never lose it.

Alan Neill, for example, may be a few years past the official pension age but he won the match for the Captain’s XI with two fours and a six in the penultimate over. Kyle McCallan hit nine fours and a six in compiling yet another 50, just the 17 years after the last of 227 Ireland appearances - although he then had to retire with a pulled hamstring!

But the day was primarily about fund-raising for the Cliftonville Academy club and reunions on and off the field. Sam McCombe was seen chatting with Roy Millar with Billy Patterson not far away and Crawford McCully and Tony Cole were others present of a vintage no longer able to take the field.

On it, unsurprisingly, this year (and next year’s) CA professional CP Klijnhans was top scorer, retiring (although he walked off rather than hobbled) after hitting 62 off just 24 balls (11 fours and two sixes) with Aadi Maini and Max Burton the others in the Chairman’s XI to top 20 in a 20 overs total of 170.

For a long time it looked as if it might be enough with the veterans forced to jog a single, if the ball didn’t reach the boundary, although the knack of keeping wickets in hand, at whatever level, is always vital in a successful chase and this proved no exception.

McCallan added 61 for the fourth wicket with his (1995) Senior League winning team-mate Barry Cooper and then 51 with Matthew Palmer for the fifth to leave the Captain’s XI needing just 36 from the last four overs.

Johnny Terrett (29 not out) and Neill hurried the game to its conclusion – or rather the five wickets result – the game was strictly 20 overs a side so the last nine balls were played out, even after they had reached their target. That allowed the Captain himself to have a bat, although embarrassingly Matty McCord ended up on his backside after missing the final delivery of the game.

With Brian Boyd a last minute cry-off and Neill and Warren McCully both determined to literally play their part,  it was left to Davy Hamilton to umpire at both ends – and despite the number of wides and no-balls – he counted to six  correctly for the vast majority of the overs.

There was a guest appearance by 15 year-old Penny Speer, who has starred for the Dragons in this year’s Super Series, daughter of another of the class of 1995-97, Alistair, who was invited to bowl one over and denied a wicket by one of the many fielding lapses.

But this was one day when the catch-ups were more important than the catches taken.

Congratulations to Matty for organising and to Grizzly Sports for their sponsorship.