ED SPORTS WOMEN’S SENIOR CUP FINAL (10.7.2026)

The ED Sports Women’s Senior Cup Final is scheduled to take place this evening (Friday 10th) at 6.00pm in Sydney Parade.

The two finalists are Merrion and Balbriggan.

Merrion will be looking to lift the Senior trophy for the 10th time and in doing so retain the title they secured just 12 months ago against Pembroke.

By contrast, Balbriggan will be competing in their first Women’s Senior Final having only established their female cricket programme in recent years.

The rise in women’s cricket at Balbriggan has been impressive at all levels with the club having won the Division 4 Stella Downes Trophy last year.

ROUTES TO THE FINAL

Merrion (as holders) beat Rush by 84 runs in the Quarter-Finals before securing their place in the Final with a narrow 5-run DLS win over Malahide. The win against Malahide was underpinned by an unbeaten 62 from Annabel Squires and a strong all-round performance in the field including Aisling Lawlor (2/27) and Aoife Hayden (2/31).

Balbriggan stormed into the Final when they overwhelmed Pembroke by 9 wickets at the semi-final stage. The Fingal side successfully chased 174 with almost 3 overs to spare as Lara Maritz completed a brilliant 123 not out off 69 balls (including 13X4s & 7X6s).

Balbriggan had opened their Cup campaign with a comprehensive 6-wicket win over Phoenix, Erin Knight with 3/9 and vital runs from Madison Landsman (49 off 33) and Julia Hoal with a run a ball 29 upfront.

If league form is any guide to the Final, we seem set for a pulsating and highly competitive showpiece event - Merrion are unbeaten after 8 games whilst Balbriggan are hot on their heels with 7 wins from 9 completed league fixtures.

Interestingly, the two sides have not yet met in the ED Sports Premier League this season so neither side will hold any psychological advantage over the other.

From a Cricket Leinster perspective, we are hugely appreciative of the sponsorship support we receive from ED Sports (part of So Hockey Group) for all our women’s league & cup competitions.

Our thanks to Ed Dwyer and Lorraine McGowan for this support.

Finally, we are delighted to confirm that the ED Sports Women’s Senior Cup Final will also be live-streamed from Sydney Parade on the Cricket Leinster YouTube channel.

Our thanks to the Pembroke Live Stream team for their support, expertise and commitment to the promotion of club cricket - we were delighted to recognise this at last years CL Awards Night when the live-stream team were presented with the Volunteer of the Year Award.

This tie is set to be a massive fixture and ultimately the two captains look to be the key. Merrion’s Niamh MacNulty has a serious knack for picking up big wickets early on, and her side will need that this time around. However if Lara Maritz gets going she can be incredibly hard to stop. If MacNulty can dismiss Maritz early in proceedings, the Ballsbridge side will fancy their chances of claiming yet another Senior Cup title!

KEY BATTLE: Niamh MacNulty vs Lara Maritz