IBI CORPORATE FINANCE PREMIER LEAGUE & CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND-UP (AUGUST 23RD)

A damp day in the IBI Corporate Finance Premier League saw the top of the table clash between Leinster and Pembroke fall foul of the weather while Merrion versus Phoenix found the same fate, finally in Castle Avenue, there was a win for Clontarf over Railway in a comprehensive performance.

Starting off at Observatory Lane, Pembroke won the toss and elected to bat first on a damp morning, they were unable to make any initial progress with a lengthy rain halting proceedings after just one over. When play resumed Pembroke set about their task quickly before losing Tim Tector, given out LBW to Ben Mitchell for 16 in the 6^th over.

This brought Harry Tector to the wicket to join Andrew Balbirnie, the pair creating a strong partnership in friendly bowling conditions, they had brought the score to 67 before Tector was again adjudged LBW off the bowling of Mitchell. Lorcan Tucker entered the fray from here but his stay was a short one becoming the third player to fall LBW, this time to Joey Carroll for 6 with the team score on 78. With the fall of this wicket JJ Garth joined Balbirnie and another rebuilding phase began, Garth added 15 alongside Balbirnie who had moved to 54* when the rain returned for the 3^rd time moving their team to 115/3.

An early tea was called at this point and despite the best efforts of both the teams and the ground staff no more play was possible with the game eventually being called off just after 6pm.

At Anglesea Road, Merrion batted first, they finished their batting effort on 215/5 which was underpinned by a fine 78 from Stephen Doheny at the top of the order while a supporting 58* from 44 balls for John Anderson saw their side in a good spot at the midway point. Decent spells from Sidhu (1/41) and Dockrell (2/53) kept the D4 side in check but it all proved to be in vein as they became the second fixture of the day to be rained off.

Castle Avenue saw the only game of the day that was completed in the Premier League, they batted first on their home patch, Patrick Xie led the charge with 112 and was ably supported by 90 from the skipper, David Delaney. This saw their team to 268/4 when the rain hit after 41.3 overs. 3/23 for Rueben Wilson put pay to any hopes of a Railway comeback as his side ran out winners by 47 runs on DLS, with Rob O’Brien’s unbeaten 56 the highlight for the visitors in their 167/7.

Somewhat bizarrely considering the impact it had on the Premier League, the 3 games in the Championship were all able to see results as they missed the worst of the weather.

In The Mardyke, North County posted 242 all out in their batting effort, Suliman Safi the main contributor with 61 while there was support in the form of 45 for Jamie Grassi. Eshan O’Sullivan the pick of the bowlers with 4/44. Only Mark Andrianatos and Raj Undre were able to provide any resistance with 38 and 31, sharing a stand of 83 in their side’s batting effort, as 3/27 from Alan Joseph Mathew, 3/33 for Sean Sludds and 2/14 from Hunter Kindley saw them the pick of the bowlers at their side ran out winners by 101 runs.

The Hills posted 275 at Kenure, the mainstay was James Cusack with 80 while he had support in 45 from Andrew Kavanagh and 33 from Cian Nulty. Jack McGee underpinned the chase for his side moving to 90 at the midway point of their chase, his team were sitting on 140/2, 28 runs clear of the DL par score when the rain came, however it wasn’t to break McGee’s heart, as they resumed a short time later needing to reach 177 for victory. The opener took his chance to move to 105, and in spite of the Kenure side losing both him and Abid Taniwal in consecutive balls, they ran out 6 wicket winners in the final over of the chase.

At Malahide Jeremy Martins proved the mainstay of his side’s batting effort with 49 as his side somewhat limped to 185 all out, leaving 7 overs behind them. Off-spinner Dylan Lues the pick of the bowlers for the ‘Brig with 4/44 along with ‘2-fors’ for Darroch, Jordan Hollard and Seb De Oliveira. Unexpectedly this was more than enough to defend, as Martins (3/42) and Ravi Kumar (2/23) played integral roles as their side reduced Malahide to 127/7, only Jordan Hollard (49) coming out of their batting effort with any credibility as when he was the last man out, falling to Mike Frost, who mopped up with 2/28, his side were 40 runs short on DLS, a hammer-blow to their title hopes and huge result at the foot of the table.