TWO former Trinity players, 2016 and 2017 captain Will von Behr and fast-bowler Padraig Flanagan, were on opposite sides in the Varsity match this week at Fenner’s.
Von Behr is playing for Oxford and Flanagan for Cambridge, where they are both pursuing post-graduate studies.
They are the first Trinity graduates to play in the Varsity match since the only previous one, T B Jones, in 1874.
Von Behr won an Irish Senior Cup medal with Merrion in 2017, while Flanagan previously played for Railway Union and YMCA.
In 2007 he was the winner of the find-a-fast-bowler competition run by Cricket Leinster – subsequent winners included internationals David Delany and Josh Little.
By making their first-class debuts Von Behr and Flanagan become the 124th and 125th Trinity cricketers to reach that level.
Details of the previous 123, and much more about the club’s records and history, are in a 240-page book out next week called ‘Trinity Cricketers’ Almanack’.
Published to mark the bicentenary of cricket in College Park, the book can be purchased from www.Trinitycricket.com.
Flanagan is the 25th Irish-born cricketer to play for Cambridge – including two in this century, Michael Taylor and Ben Wylie.
Twelve Irishmen have played for Oxford, most recently Jason Molins, while others made first-class appearances for Cardiff MCCU (Andrew Balbirnie and Matthew Foster), Durham MCCU (Greg Thompson and James McCollum) and Loughborough MCCU (Robert McKinley).
