Although the final outcome that saw six out of the ten Leinster teams going into the draw for the second round of the Irish Senior Cup [including YMCA and Merrion who got byes] is only a little below the average for the past five years, the critical losses of North County and Clontarf means that two of the possible contenders for the title have fallen at the first hurdle. Both were engaged in fiercely fought matches against strong NCU/NW teams, but ended up losing home ties. With the other big beasts from the NCU, Waringstown and Instonians, joining the competition at the next stage, this means that there all of the main northern challengers are still in the hunt.
The early part of the day promised more for the Leinster sides. The Hills quickly established dominance over CSNI and never lost their grip on the match. North County got off to a good start against CIYMS with Jamie Grassi and Thomas Sheil putting on 50 for the first wicket and the next three players [Andrew Sheridan 52, Jonathan Andrews 55 and Eddie Richardson 53*] all making half centuries. 262/7 in 50 overs looked like a very competitive score. In Castle Avenue, Clontarf got off to a poor start losing early wickets but 50s from John Mooney [60] and Rob Forrest [71*] seemed to restore matters and 240/6, given the overhead conditions, looked handy enough. Phoenix were also going well up in Carrickfergus and ended up with 312/8 and Pembroke were on top against Galway. There was a fair bit of rain about so it was not clear if all matches would be finished.
The second half of the day did not go so well. Despite having Donemana six down for 119, Clontarf were not able to press home their advantage and the innings of the day from Gary McClintock [132*] saw the NW side to victory. Not far away in Fingal, North County were having a serious tussle with CIYMS. A century opening partnership between Dougherty [34] and Matchett [93] set up the visitors but at 150/4 NC must have felt they were in with a chance. But in the end only one more wicket was to fall and skipper Nigel Jones [64*] saw CIYMS home in the 48th over.
The one Leinster team that did manage to turn around the game on the day was Balbriggan. Drummond seemed well on their to a good score having passed the hundred mark for the loss of only one wicket. But a general collapse saw Drummond all out for 159, a score which Balbriggan passed for the loss of six wickets.
Leinster had a long trip and a tough assignment against Brigade and so it proved. At the end of the first innings they were facing into the highest score of the day of 324/5 in 42 overs and never looked like reaching the target and were all out for 186.
Phoenix were also travelling but they had better fortunes v Carrickfergus. More runs from Ari Kervalis [89], ably supported by Tom Anders [50], Nicholaas Pretorius [49] and Rory Anders [41], saw the visitors go to 312/8 in their 50 overs. Carrickfergus fell well short on 181 with Gordy Millar [4/36] the pick of the bowlers.
In a match that was late to start and disrupted during the day, Coleraine scored 194/8 in 37 overs v Railway. When it was Railway’s turn to bat three wickets fell quickly before Robin Russell [33] and R Dhammika [29] restored some impetus to the batting. In an overs reduced match, with Russell and Dhammika going well, there were opportunities for Railway to take the tie but when both players were out the chase fell away and Railway ended up losing by 19 runs on DL.
Theo Lawson produced an undefeated century to enable Pembroke to post a score of 263/7 [off 50] which was far too much for Galway. Fiachra Tucker [4/22] had the best figures for Pembroke as Galway were bowled out for 122.
And finally back to the where we started, The Hills. CSNI were bundled out for 98 with Nazeer Cartwright [2/20] and Nazeer Shoukat [2/23] taking apart the top order and Albert van der Merve [4/16] finishing off the innings. Cormac McLoughlin [45*] and Hamid Shah [42*] quickly ended the game and The Hills won for the loss of two wickets.
So going into Round 2 the draw will be made up of:
LCU [6] The Hills, Balbriggan, Pembroke, Phoenix, YMCA, Merrion
NW [4] Coleraine, Brigade, Donemana, Bready.
NCU [6] CIYMS, Muckamore, Lisburn, North Down, Waringstown, Instonians