SPIN Magazine (UK) - Duncan Steer (Editor)

“Paul Davey’s access-all-areas film following Ireland’s run at the 2007 World Cup is an immense cricket story, inspirational both in the tale and the manner of its telling. We know the outline already: how Ireland’s postmen, schoolteachers and farmers took on the pros and, against the odds, won through to the second stage of cricket’s biggest tournament. But to a great sporting story, Davey brings the skills of a first-rate documentary maker, as he traces the personal journeys of the players, as they beat Pakistan on St Patrick’s Day – only for it to be over-shadowed by the death of Bob Woolmer the next day.

“We cried together, we laughed together, we lived it together. And it must be very hard for someone looking in to imagine what it must have been like,” says teacher/spinner Kyle McCallan at one point.

But Davey’s film takes us as close as any outsider has any right to expect.

Davey is granted amazing access to the team: as the team closes down Zimbabwe on their way to a nerve-wracking tie in the first game, he is in a back-room of the dressing room talking to coach Adi Birrell, who can hardly bear to watch. Davey’s at the post-match team sing-song, too – and then at the half-time team-talk after they’ve bowled out Pakistan for 132.

Skipper Trent Johnston goes round the room and puts the big question to his players, one by one: “Do you want to back in Dublin delivering post on Monday? Do you want to be back teaching this time next week?” Davey’s also there when Trent Johnston gets a call from Irish president Mary McAleese and puts her on speakerphone so the rest of the chaps can hear.

Sharply edited throughout, Davey takes us right to the middle of the changing atmosphere around the team: from the tension of the big games to the conflicting emotions as the team become national heroes, while finding themselves close to a developing murder investigation.

Inevitably, the most compelling moments appear in the first half here, before cricketing reality kicks in and the Woolmer investigation starts to drag on. But the film rattles through in a highly watchable 52 minutes and if anything, the editing is so tight and so obviously drawn from many different sources – numerous interviews, backstage eavesdropping, match footage – that there’s a real feeling that plenty of good stuff has been left on the cutting room floor. Cricket is not blessed with a history of genuine, high quality documentary films, but this is really very good indeed – and leaves you wanting plenty more.

BBC (UK) - Alison Mitchell - 5 Live

“A refreshingly honest, heartfelt film, which captures the mood of those extraordinary few weeks completely.”

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