Alan Murray Cup Preview

The Alan Murray Cup, part of Cricket Leinster’s annual competitions since 1977 when the LCU took over the competition organisation from Pembroke CC, returns on Saturday with a veritable feast of cricket across Dublin.

Two days of round robin fixtures are scheduled for Saturday July 27^th and Bank Holiday Monday, August 5^th. After each club has played four matches over those two days of competitive action, the top four will qualify for the Finals’ day in Sydney Parade on Sunday August 11^th.

If teams finish on the same number of points, the winner of the match between them (if there was one) will progress to Finals’ day. If this doesn’t separate sides then Net Run Rate shall be used and if that is the same, then an open draw will take place.

Five venues will host matches on Saturday with three fixtures scheduled for Clontarf, Merrion, Terenure, Malahide and Skerries.

The full schedule for the first day’s play on Saturday July 27^th is in the table below:

The following teams and squads have been submitted ahead of Saturday’s action.

Pembroke have assembled a strong looking 12-man squad despite Andrew Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker’s continued involvement with Ireland in the Test match at Lord’s.

Balbriggan have several their successful YM Salver 2nds team from last weekend involved as they play in a tough, local round robin at The Hills.

Clontarf have named a squad of 14 for their clashes with Munster Heat and North Kildare, while Terenure will be without Jack Webster who rests a slight niggle ahead of their crucial National Cup semi-final.

Rush, having missed three internationals on Wolves duty earlier in the season, miss three under 19 internationals at the World Cup qualifiers this weekend and make some enforced changes. No such worries for Phoenix who name another strong team for their trip to Terenure.

Malahide have three sets of brothers in their 13-man panel with the Reynolds’ and Fords’ supplemented by the Shoebridge boys this Saturday, while the Munster Heat have a mix of experienced Munster Reds and young players in their travelling squad.

A massively entertaining day’s cricket lies in store in five venues across Dublin for all. Enjoy your cricket wherever you’re watching it this weekend.

Pembroke: Fiachra Tucker ©, Theo Lawson, Shaheen Khan, Barry McCarthy, Jack Balbirnie, Dane Heverin, Ryan Hopkins, Robin Kelly, Paul Lawson, Josh Little, Scott Ruttle, Diarmaid Tucker

Balbriggan: Clint Hinchcliffe, Connor Fletcher, Dean Carlisle, Josh Newport, Farooq Nasr Bajwa, Kashif Ali, Duane Harper, Abdul Sattar, Abdul Samad, Khalid Bilal, Kyle Healy, Mel McGee

Clontarf: Eoghan Delany (c), Andrew Poynter, Robert Forrest, David Delany, Andrew Vincent, David Vincent, Ropu Islam, Kevin Prior, Macalister Wright, Matt Butler, Mick Granger, Joe Morrissey, Sameer Dutt, Bill Coghlan

Terenure: Donal Vaughan ©, Mick Cotter (wk), Kenny McDonald, Sid Nair, Seamus Lynch, Sol Bell-Megaw, Aidan Doyle, Patrick Ryan, Vignesh Kumar, Abdul Qadir Ishaq, Ben Allan, Darren Snell

Rush: Jurie Snyman ©, James King (wk), Stephen Doheny, Allan Eastwood, Daniel Coffey, Tipu Gull, Jack McGee, Aaron McGuire, Jarred Barnes, Harry Archer, Noman Shahid

Phoenix: Adam Chester ©, Louis McDonough (wk), Nic Pretorius (wk), Poonish Mehta, Benjamin Beecroft, Ben White, Theo Dempsey, Amish Sidhu, James Maginnis, Nitin Naik, Matt Lunson

Malahide: Fintan McAlister ©, Alan Reynolds, Keith Reynolds, Cameron Shoebridge, Riley Shoebridge, Matt Ford, Greg Ford, Damien Mortimer, Kelvin Donnelly, Paul Agnebeah, Ben Askew, Neil Boyne, James Newland

Munster Heat: Jeremy Benton ©, Cormac Hassett (wk), Arslan Anwar, Awais Saghir, Cian Edgerton, Matt Brewster, Kieran O’Reilly, Ru Jones, Yakoob Ali, Abubakar Saddique, Luke O’Reilly, Jake Buss