THE final of the RSA Leinster Senior Cup (Castle Avenue, 11am) sees a tantalising battle between Sandymount rivals Pembroke and YMCA.
While the likes of Trent Johnston and Alan Lewis may not see too many more of these occasions, this D4 decider has a ‘start of an era’ feel to it for the game in the province as a whole. Both sides rely heavily on their teenagers, both products of and those attracted by vigorous youth sections.
And things move quickly these days too: Pembroke, who lost a cranky cup final to Clontarf last year, have just four survivors from that day.
“We had a couple of lads away with the Ireland Under 19s last year”, says Allan Eastwood, Pembroke’s spearhead. “We have quite a big, young squad and there were a couple of big calls that had to be made to decide the team.”
Both teams released 12-man squads this week, but Pembroke look set to prefer Fiachra Tucker to Jack Balbirnie as they look to shore up their bowling resources. Barry McCarthy, who has showed great promise in his Leinster Lightning appearances this summer, is in the side but as a batsman alone.
“We have lots of players who were capable of doing a good job”, says Allan, “We haven’t had Barry bowling for a few weeks and we’ve shown we can win without him.”
Just Eastwood and Danny Barclay are, barely, over 30, which is not quite the situation with the YMCA side. Alan Lewis is playing in his 11th 60-over final, and has nine winners medals dating back to before more than half the players in the match were born.
“We’re geared towards giving youth its chance in YM, but with a lot of guys doing exams I’ve played a lot more first team cricket than I planned to,” explains Lewy. “But I got a great buzz of it and and I’ve got the bit between my teeth.” The 49-year-old has also the small matter of two fifties and an average of 44.75 in RSA Division One.
Whether he gets a chance to add to his record four cup final centuries is arguable – “I’m currently slotting in at No.5, but whether TJ worms his way in ahead of me is up to the captain. I may be chairman of the Irish selectors but now Trent’s retiring I have less influence over him!”, he chuckles.
YMCA are missing Jeremy Bray, who is presiding over the Irish Women’s World T20 qualifier campaign, and Robbie Garth, whose 5-10 off nine overs accounted for North County in the quarter-final but is now in the US.
“We have five kids under 20 and five very experienced internationals [473 caps between them], and add Simmi Singh and Yacoub and we have a great mix.”
The latter pair are first and second in the provinces’ bowling averages, with 26 and 17 wickets respectively, while Simmi is riding high in the batting averages in a vintage year for run-makers.
“I’m delighted for Yacoub”, says Alan Lewis. “Three years ago he was playing Division Six, but he’s worked really hard. That he drives up every weekend from Kerry just shows his commitment.”
Allan Eastwood – who knows a bit about the M7 himself – has a lot of respect for his opponents. “YM are a very experienced side with a lot of very good young players”, he said. “We’re a year older than last year and the cup final experience will stand to us. We learned a lot from last year.
“We’ve been together for two or three seasons and are making good progress. We have about 20 guys down at nets every week and working hard.”
After last year’s final, and a lengthy ban, Theo Lawson showed great character to score a hundred in the RSA Bob Kerr Cup on his return to Claremont Road, the scene of his infraction.
Eastwood singles out his captain for praise. “Theo’s still a young man, and he’s still learning the game. He has a lot more experience now and he’s come a long way. He works so hard at his game, and he’s passionate about wanting to win.”
Both sides have been waiting a while to lift the RSA Senior Cup. Following YMCA’s first cup final in 1980 – when they lost to Pembroke in a game you can read about elsewhere in this site – they began an era of unprecedented success for the club. The cup was won in 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1994, and after a short gap was won again in 2001 and 2002. That last win featured Alan Lewis, of course, and today’s 12th man Angus Dunlop, with the man–of-the-match award going to Stew Taylor for his 4-25.
Pembroke’s last win was in 1999, when Ronan Smith’s amazing innings won the game for them, and as previously stated their last final was in 2012 but only Lawson, Eastwood, Paul Lawson and Andrew Balbirnie survive from that. Both Theo (79) and Andrew (57*) will want to go one better than their performances that day.
There are others with cup final experience of course, notably Trent Johnston, who won with Railway Union in 2010 and lost with Clontarf in 2005, and Reinhardt Strydom who lost twice with North County in 2006 and 2008.
On balance, and because it seems that Pembroke are relying on all their front five bowlers to come off on the day, I take YMCA to win. And if you see Alan Lewis driving out of the car park during the tea interval, he’s only off to Ikea for another trophy cabinet.
YMCA: A Van der Merwe (capt), R Strydom, J B Tector, S Singh, D A Lewis, D T Johnston, S McAuley, JJ Cassidy, L Cole, Yacoub Ali Shah, R Gamble. 12th man: A R Dunlop.
Pembroke: T Lawson (capt), A Balbirnie, R Kelly, B McCarthy, F Tucker, L Tucker, P Lawson, A Eastwood, R Hopkins, D Barclay, D Nicol. 12th: J Balbirnie.
ROAD TO THE FINAL
YMCA
Rd.1: bye
Rd.2: beat North County by eight wickets
S-F: beat Malahide by seven wickets
Pembroke
Rd.1: beat Terenure by 83 runs
Rd.2: beat Railway Union by nine wickets
S-F: beat Clontarf by four wickets