Neil Doak

Cricket

A right-handed batsman and off spin bowler, he made his debut for the Ireland cricket team in June 1993, playing against Scotland in a first-class match. He went on to play for Ireland on 32 occasions, his last match coming against Zimbabwe in June 2000, though this was more than three years after his previous appearance in the third place play-off of the 1997 ICC Trophy against Scotland.

Of his matches for Ireland, two were first-class matches against Scotland, and three had List A status. In all matches for Ireland, he scored 479 runs at an average of 26.61, his highest score being 84 not out against Surrey in a Benson & Hedges Cup match on 14 May 1996, an innings for which he won the man of the match award, despite finishing on the losing side. He took 31 wickets, at an average of 21.84, with his best bowling figures being four wickets for nine runs against Gibraltar in the 1996 European Championship and against Israel in the 1997 ICC Trophy.

He played for Ireland in three international tournaments; the 1994 ICC Trophy, the 1996 European Championship, during which he won a man of the match award for a performance against Denmark where he took 4/44 and scored 51 not out, and the 1997 ICC Trophy, during which he won a man of the match award for the above-mentioned performance against Israel.

Rugby Union

Doak also played Rugby Union to a high level. He played for four Irish clubs; North of Ireland FC, Ballymena RFC, Malone RFC and Belfast Harlequins, also representing Ulster. He was in the Ireland squad for the 2002 Six Nations Championship, the 2003 World Cup and was named as a substitute for a match against Fiji in 1995, but never actually played a game for the Ireland side. Had he played for the Ireland team, he would have become the first Irish dual cricket/rugby union international since Raymond Hunter in the 1960s. He played 76 times for Ulster, before retiring from representative Rugby in April 2005.