Draw for IBI Corporate Finance Leinster Senior Cup 2018

The first glimpse of the 2018 season was felt today when the draw for the IBI Corporate Finance Leinster Senior Cup was made on NEAR fm (You can hear a podcast of the draw here).

Holders The Hills have the benefit of a home draw, but against that, will host fellow Division 1 side North County. The sides last met in the Senior Cup in 2014, with The Hills winning by 4 wickets chasing 266. League meetings between the two teams in recent years have been mixed, and in all competitions The Hills lead the head to head 9-5, and 4-3 at home.

Runners-up Merrion will travel to Balbriggan, with last year's two league meetings between the clubs being the only matches at this level. Balbriggan batted well in both games, scoring 253 in one match and 254 in the other. Unfortunately Merrion scored 358 and 288, and Balbriggan will need to find an answer to Merrion's strong batting line up.

Leinster will travel to Phoenix in another all Division 1 tie, in a repeat of the 2016 quarter final which Leinster won by 7 wickets. Phoenix have reached the quarter final in three of the last four seasons, but have never gone further.

Division 1 clubs host opponents from Division 2 in both of the other two matches. Pembroke will play Malahide in Sydney Parade, a ground in which not a single side from Malahide (at any level of the Open Comps) has won since August 2015. In the last seven seasons, there have only been two meetings between the two sides in Sydney Parade, with Pembroke winning both matches by the slimmest of margins - 2 runs and 6 runs.

The final match will see YMCA host Rush in Claremont Road. Amazingly these two clubs rarely play each other - there have only been seven matches between the clubs at any level since 2011. The only one of those seven matches between the two first teams was the 2012 Alan Murray final, which was played in Phoenix and won by YMCA by 9 wickets. No Rush team has won in YMCA since our records began in 2011.

Three teams, Clontarf, Railway Union and Terenure have received byes to the quarter final.

The final dates for the 2018 club season are nearing confirmation, but as it stands the dates of all rounds (including the final) are to be confirmed. The Division 1/2 Focus Group however recommended that the Senior Cup final would be held much later than its traditional late July/early August slot, and it is though that this recommendation will be implemented.