Five out of seven Leinster teams still in the hunt for the Bob Kerr Irish Senior cup made it through to the last eight, the draw for which was held yesterday.
A number of high scoring encounters saw centuries from Tom Fisher and Conor Mullen of Railway and Ben Ackland of Merrion. While there were relatively comfortable wins for Railway U [v Eglington], Brigade [v Clontarf], Phoenix [v Glendermott] and Pembroke [v Limavady], Merrion, Leisnter and Warringstown all had to fight hard for their wins.
The Waringstown v North County match had been billed as the match of the round and it didn't disappoint. Built around another fine batting performance by South African Pienaar [82], the home team posted a strong total of 283/5. North County came back strongly and at one point looked like taking the match, but a fine spell by Gary Kidd [4/50] saw Waringstown home.
The lowest scoring game of the day was between Bonds Glen and Leinster. Getting Bonds Glen all out for 147 [A Scholtz, 4/12] it shoud have been easy for Leinster but they lost seven wickets in pursuit of the total.
Merrion and Donemana's tie at Anglesea Road [the scene of an epic semi-final a few years back] saw the home side pile on early runs on an excellent batting wicket only to be pegged back as wickets fell in the final 10 overs.
An excellent 100 opening partnership between Dom Joyce [56] and Ben Ackland [123] gave Merrion a good platform from which to reach a total, and Ackland went on to score an excellent century. Some late hitting from Matt Petrie produced a total of 271/8, a big score but still chaseable in Merrion.
For a long time, however, Donemana did not look likely to get close to the total as wickets fell steadily, but a late onslaught by D McGerrigle [65] set up a tense finish. In the end, Donemana fell 27 runs short with U17 schoolboy Tyrone Kane the pick of the bowlers taking 4/30.
The final fixture between Limavady and Instonians had to be abandoned after an incident during the match.
The Quarter Final Draw sees one all-Leinster tie [Merrion v Phoenix] and some intriguing contests between Pembroke v Brigade, Warringstown v Leinster and Limavady/Instonians v Railway Union.
The full details of all the days matches are:
Waringstown 283-5 (K McCallan 111, O Pienaar 82, James Hall 35) beat North County 258 all out (A Coughlan 70, T Shiel 51, C Armstrong 34, G Kidd 4-50) by 25 runs
Pembroke 290 ( Ryan Hopkins 94, Theo Lawson 87) beat Bready 208 (D Rankin 64, Agha Sabir 91, B Whaley 3-39) by 82 runs.
Limavady 155 all out (Adnan Akmal 41, T Riddles 37, A White 3-19) v Instonians 27-1 off 5 Match abandoned.
Phoenix 288/9 (R Gallagher 75, T Williamson 54, R Silva 3-46, G Montgomery 3-85) beat Glendermott 148 all out (S Smyth 38) by 140 runs.
Bonds Glen 147 all out (J Haslett 38, R Robinson 30, A Scholtz 4-13, W Lennon 2-24, Zeeshan 2-29) lost to Leinster 148-7 by 3 wickets.
Clontarf 169-7 (E Delany 33*) lost to Brigade 173-1 (C Dougherty 68*, I Hussain 51*) by 9 wickets.
Railway Union 348-5 (Tom Fisher 126, Conor Mullen 111) beat Eglinton 142 (Mansoor 4-29, G Lambert 3-39) by 206 runs.
Merrion 271/8 (Ben Ackland 123, Dom Joyce 56, Matt Petrie 42) beat Donemana 244 all out (D McGerrigle 65, T Kane 4-30) by 27 runs.