The first trophies of the season will be lifted today, when Railway Union hosts the finals of the Whelan Cup and Russell Court Trophy.
The day is the first of three Open Comps T20 finals days, with today's matches seeing the two T20 competitions for teams from Division 8 and below taking place.
The Russell Court Trophy starts at 1pm, with Laois 3 taking on Merrion 7. With Railway Union having won both the previous finals in this competition, there will be a ne name on the trophy. Merrion 7, second in Division 12 will be the marginal favourites, with Laois going well in Division 13. This is by far Merrion's best year in the Russell Court Trophy - before this year, they had only won one match from three; this year they beat AIB Taverners 1, Dundrum 3 and Wicklow County 2.
Laois 3's last three matches against Merrion have all resulted it losses, although the two league matches in 2013 were against Merrion 6. Their route to the final saw wins over Castleknock 3, Balbriggan 3 and Swords 2, with the Balbriggan match being a tie that was decided on bowl out.
The Whelan Cup final starts at 5pm, between Sandyford 2 and Ringcommons 1. Both are in Division 9, and on league position alone, Sandyford must be favourites, being 2nd to Ringcommons' 7th.
Sandyford's Whelan Cup pedigree in recent years has been impressive, although they haven't managed to go all the way. They were losing semi finalists in 2011 and 2012, and went out in the quarter finals last year. Their route to the final hasn't all been plain sailing - their preliminary round match against YMCA was washed out and decided on a bowl out, whilst they were awarded their semi final against Adamstown after inelligible players were played by Adamstown.
Ringcommons last T20 final was back in 2012 when they lost the Russell Court Trophy final - this it their first appearance in the Whelan Cup final. Their path to the final also involved a prelim round bowl out against North County, before wins over Phoenix 4, Clontarf 5 and Swords 1
The one rider to the suggestion that Sandyford's league position suggests a win for them? The league meeting between these two in May saw a 73 run for Ringcommons.