What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago Leinster had started the season with a ten wicket demolition of Clontarf and by the end of May were sitting on the top of the league with three wins out of three.
Although they had something of an easier draw, The Hills were also going well with 3/3. Apart from Terenure, who were already struggling at this stage and never really recovered, the rest of the teams were beating each other – and five teams had only one win a piece [there were a number of games rained off].
Looking at the league table today – The Hills are on 3/3 again – although this time they are out on their own. The field is a little more spread – with Railway Union, Merrion, North County and YMCA all with two wins out of three. Pembroke have 1/3 and Phoenix and Leinster have yet to win a match.
The next round of matches [Bank Holiday Monday] may well determine who is in the best position to challenge The Hills – Merrion take on YMCA is a crunch match, while Railway Union will want to dispose of Pembroke to keep pressure on the leaders. With North County at home to Phoenix and top playing bottom [Leinster v The Hills] one can expect the league table to widen out considerable after the weekend. Of course there is still a long way to go in the league.
The other important club match over the weekend is that between Clontarf and Phoenix in the refixed RSA Leinster Senior Cup [R1] tie at Castle Avenue. Clontarf have got off to such a good start this season that they must start as favourites. But Phoenix will present a much sterner challenge than they have got so far in D2. They will also be missing Alex Cusack and Andrew Poynter who are part of the Leinster Lightning squad for their match against the North West Warriers that is taking place in Malahide.
Teams [as far as is known] for next round of matches [D1/D2] on Bank Holiday Monday. I will add in teams as they are notified to me.
RSA Leinster Senior Cup
Phoenix C Kelly, C Dickeson, M Ahmed, R Jeggels, S Ali, R Anders, S Davis, S Raza, A Leonard, T Balogh, T Anders.
Clontarf E Delany, B Coghlan, R Forrest, D Rigby, A Botha, A Anwar, Z van der Merve, C D'Arcy, A Nazir, J Morrissey, P Ryan
Division 1
Merrion select full strength squad for key match against YMCA [Anglesea Road].
D Joyce, J Anderson, T Kane, B Ackland, B Thompson, N Rowe, R McDonald, D Watkins, D Poder, P Blakeney, A O’Brien.
Phoenix Field the same team as Saturday except that Rory Anders is not available and there is an unfilled spot.
The Hills [v Leinster in Rathmines] N Shaukat, L Clinton, M Baumgart, M Sorensen, N Pretorius, J Andrews, C McLoughlin, D Calder, M Dwyer, O Khan, W Archer.
Division 2
Malahide [v Leinster 2 in Malahide] C Riches, A Reynolds, R Gallagher, K Reynolds, J Govan, F McAllister, N Boyne, A Kamal, P Chase, A Pyne, Y Kashyap.
Merrion 2s against Rush in Kenure sees the first outing of the year for Simon Morrissey. The team is:
K Beasley, P Tice, N Brown, C O’Donoghue, S Morrissey, S McDonald, R Watkins, A Ragavan, T Stanton, H Kennedy, AN Other.
Clontarf [Monday] Same as Saturday except Cusack, Paynter and Gopal for Rigby, Anwar and D'Arcy
Terenure K MacDonald, T Fisher, M Hogan, D van Zyl, R Lawrence, E Ahmed, T Lynch, B Hoey, M Hoey, J Smith, K Brennan