LEINSTER SCHOOLS VS ULSTER SCHOOLS (23 AND 24 JUNE, LISBURN)

The annual fixture between Leinster Schools and Ulster Schools will take place on Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th June at Osborne Park, the home ground of Lisburn CC.

This secondary schools interprovincial fixture has a long and proud history with the first such game taking place in 1906 at the Royal School Armagh, a game won by the Leinster side. In aggregate, Leinster has won this fixture on 25 occasions.

The equivalent fixture at Osborne Park two years ago fell victim to persistent rain after Leinster Schools had established a dominant position after Day One whilst last year’s Schools Inter pro resulted in a historic win for the Leinster boys at Anglesea Road with just 7 minutes to spare!

This year's Leinster team is again managed by Rob Delaney (Chair, CL Boys Secondary Schools Cricket) and is coached by Robert Forrest (Head of Cricket at Mount Temple). It includes a number of the players who recently represented Leinster Schools against MCC in Civil Service CC and against the Irish Universities team at College Park.

There are also players in the squad who were part of last year’s winning Leinster team including Rob O’Brien who last year picked up 4/5 from 5 overs in Ulster’s second innings to turn the game on its head whilst Ethan Marshall made valuable runs (44 & 30) in both innings to set up a platform for the home win.

Bruce Whaley and Arthur Morphew are also worthy of mention having already made stand-out performances for Leinster Schools in their annual fixture against the MCC a couple of weeks ago – Morphew claimed 5/50 with the ball whilst Whaley pummelled a brilliant 124 off just 64 balls including an incredible 22 boundaries.

The approximate timings across the two days are as follows:

Day One - 11.30am-1.30pm; 2.10pm-4.30pm; 4.50pm-7.00pm 

Day Two - 10.00am-12.30pm; 1.10pm-3.40pm; 4.00pm-6.00pm

LEINSTER SCHOOLS SQUAD

Ethan Clarke (The High School), Capt
Bruce Whaley (Sandford Park School)
Robert O’Brien (The High School)
Benjamin Dillon (The High School)
Connor Walden (Sandford Park School)
Daniel Lydon (Wesley College)
Ryan Keenan (Ardgillan Community College)
Charlie Carolan (St Mary’s College)
Vihaan Puri (Catholic University School)
Ollie Molins (Blackrock College)
Arthur Morphew (St Columba’s College)
Ethan Marshall (Catholic University School)

Manager: Rob Delaney
Coach: Robert Forrest

There will be periodic updates on Cricket Leinster’s social media channels throughout the two days.