A relatively quiet bank Holiday Monday with just 19 scheduled games [players are exhausted after two days of sunshine]. But there is a full list of Premier and Senior [D2] matches [Round 4] so still plenty for spectators. The second part of the weekend drama sees:
Premier
The Hills v Pembroke
Phoenix v Clontarf
Leinster v Merrion
YMCA v North County.
Senior D2
Balbriggan v Railway Union
Rush v Terenure
Dublin University v Cork County
Most pressure will be on Pembroke who are the only team in the Premier League yet to record a win. Andrew Balbirnie is due to play today and is needed to bolster a batting line-up that is very short of runs at present. But it will still be a difficult task in Milverton against a home side buoyed by an excellent win at the same ground on Saturday v YMCA and also by the return of Naseer Shoukat.
The ‘Match of the Day’ is from the Park where Phoenix take on Clontarf. This promises to be a high octane game with two strong batting line-up. Phoenix have three changes from their Sat team with Adam Chester, Gordy Millar and Richie Lawrence out for Ian Anders, Stephen Black and James Maginnis. Phoenix could miss the batting of Chester who scored an important half century on Saturday. Clontarf select from the same 12 as on Saturday.
Merrion make the short trip to Rathmines to take on Leinster. With one extra match played, Merrion go into the fourth round at the top of the table with two wins. They make one change with Sean Stanton coming in for Tyrone Kane who is rested. Fionn O’Sullivan comes in for Finn Conaty for Leinster.
The final game sees North County travel south to take on YMCA. The two teams had very different fortunes on Saturday where YMCA gave up a strong position and lost to The Hills while North County had an excellent high scoring victory over Clontarf. Both teams select from the same squad but YMCA may have James Parkinson back in time for the game.
Across the rest of the leagues even at this early stage there are important matches. In D10 Balbriggan 3 [who with Civil Service] have two wins out of two have a chance of going top and making an early statement about title contention when they take on DLR 3 [who have yet to take the field this season. The current leaders of D12, Lucan 2, are in action and take on Bagenalstown 2 who haven't played yet. There will be a lot of attention this year on how Longford do - currently 1 win from 1 - and they host Pembroke 3. In D8 - second and third placed North County 3 and Laois 2 go head to head and in D9 Malahide 4 who are lying second with one win will be keen to keep pressure on the leaders Clondalkin when they take on Carlow [first outing this season]. In D16 Clondalkin 2 are in the reverse position to their first team - lying second and looking to achieve a second win too keep up with leaders Ringcommons 2. And finally, in D16 the leaders Adamstown 5 have a chance to consolidate their position when they take on Greystones 3.
So plenty to see - please teams keep sending in the updates to the Match Centre and Home team make sure the result is in at the end of the day. Thanks to everyone yesterday where we had the full set - all results were in and up on the website on the day.