On Friday 26th March 2021, a legend of Phoenix Cricket and Ireland, Jimmy Boucher, was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“The first of our posthumous inductees is probably the greatest spin bowler Ireland has produced. First capped as a schoolboy in 1929, he soon became a key member of the Irish side and enjoyed a 25-year international career interrupted only by the Second World War. He won sixty caps for Ireland, and took 307 wickets, averaging 15.26, including 31 five-fors and 10 wickets in a match on 7 occasions. His best bowling, 7-13, was against New Zealand at Rathmines. After retirement he became an Irish selector and served as Hon Secretary of the Irish Cricket Union for more than 20 years.”
Please see the links below for details of his induction and an interview with another club legend, Michael Halliday, talking about Jimmy.
https://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/hall-of-fame-inductees-for-2021
https://twitter.com/cricketireland/status/1365413114330681347?s=12
Cricket Europe, and the great Ger Siggins wrote a fabulous piece on Jimmy in 2001: https://www.cricketeurope.com/DATABASE/ARTICLESHISTORY/articles/000003/000308.shtml
Our club has a fabulous and rich history. Some of the greatest cricketers to ever play the game in Ireland have called Phoenix their home.
And that history continues to flow through the club. Each generation adds to that. Every player, member, supporter, sponsor adds their bit to our wonderful story.
So for 2021, get involved. Add your chapter to the story.
(Pictures Below – thanks to www.cricketeurope.com for the photographs).
One comment for “Jimmy Boucher – Welcomed to the Cricket Writers’ of Ireland *Hall of Fame*”
Niall Morrissey
Oy. He was a Civil Service player. Please stop claiming him as your own.
I’m joking, of course, but we as a club claim the tiniest bit of credit. His figures at all levels were astonishing, and there can be no doubt that he would have played at test level, but also would have exceeded at it.
I met him on a few occasions on his returns to Ireland. He would meet up with former ESB colleagues to eat in the canteen. Often convivial, sometimes truculent about the new forms of the game. It is difficult – actually impossible -to think of a better Civil Service member. I had to get that in. Sorry.
In terms of Halls of Fame he should have been number one. The statistics at all levels speak loudly.
I wish I could have faced him. I’d have lasted a few deliveries – as long as at took him to work out my curious technique. Our next engagement would be much shorter. He nearly spat out his food in laughter. He agreed and said he would loved to have bowled at me. Not merely as a wicket but for fun. He could be waspish, but funny. When i suggested that he might not need so many short legs in place,, and that I liked to pick up anything on the legside and that i had put more than a couple in hospital he said that it would be a challenge he would face the next day if I wished. The redoutable Willie Webster laughed at me. It it was a great moment in my cricket life. I wasn’t serious, of course, but it was fun to be put in my correct place. I was in cricket royalty, and I include Willie in that company.