The Leinster cricket “cup final season” continues this weekend with two more finals scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
Intermediate Cup Final
Castleknock 2 v Slieve Bloom – Sat 13th August at Mullingar C.C. – 1.00 pm
The Intermediate Cup is the oldest Leinster cricket trophy dating from 1895. It has been taken outside the greater Dublin area on a number of occasions – notably in the first two years when Athy brought it to Co. Kildare. Slieve Bloom will be endeavouring to bring it to Co. Offaly for the first time.
The club won the Junior Cup and the Division 10 league in 2013, their first year of competition so the have tasted silverware but this would be their highest success yet.
Castleknock, another new club, albeit a few years older, have yet to take a cup trophy. The team will be hoping to go one better than their first eleven who were defeated in the Middle 2 Cup final last weekend. Either way there will be a new name on the cup in its one hundred and twenty one year history.
Slieve Bloom got through the first two rounds with comfortable wins over Phoenix 4 and Leinster 5 before coming out on top by a mere 3 runs in a high scoring semi-final against Railway Union 4. Castleknock beat Last winners Mullingar 2 in a first round weather enforced bowl out. They then accounted for last year’s runners-up Swords and another recent finalist Greystones 2 in the semi-final.
The teams are in the same league division with Slieve Bloom having the better record there but a cup final is all about performance on the day so an open contest could be expected.
Junior Cup Final
Clondalkin v Ring Commons – Sunday 14th August at Civil Service C.C. – 12.30 pm
The Junior cup comes just after the Intermediate in terms of longevity of the trophy. It dates from 1910. As well as lower teams of many existing clubs, there are several names of clubs no longer with us appearing on the trophy – Royal Hibernian – winners several times in its early years and subsequently a founder member of the Leinster Senior League in 1910, Sandymount, St.Paul’s, Harding and Postal Services. This year there will be a new name.
Clondalkin are a very new club in their first year of Leinster competition. Ring Commons have played in Fingal for many years, entered Leinster competition for some years in the 1980s, then dropped out and only came back in the past five years with a ground that has been hugely improved and has even more potential. During their first period in Leinster, there only final appearance was unsuccessful being defeated Junior Cup finalists in 1982. Their “second coming” has seen them take the midweek T20 Whelan Cup twice including this year. They are riding high in their league division so this is an opportunity for a very successful season.
Clondalkin reached the semi-final by defeating Pembroke 5 and The Hills 4. Then due to the exclusion of two teams after unfortunate incidents in a quarter –final, Clondalkin got a clean run to the final. Ring Commons overcame Merrion 7, Malahide 5 and Cabinteely in the semi-final.
The teams are in the same league division - 11. Ring Commons are leading it by a distance and could be seen as favourites over a mid-table Clondalkin but it doesn’t always work out like that.