YMCA take on Leinster in this year’s Leinster Senior Cup Final in Castle Avenue. Both teams have won the competition ten times - YMCA in the period 1984 - 2013 and Leinster between 1936 and 1998. YMCA’s greater success in recent years also includes the two encounters between the two sides - in 1984 and 1991 - with YMCA coming out on top on both occasions.
YMCA dominated the competition in the decade from 1984 - 1994, winning the trophy no less than seven times. Gerry Byrne has recently written an article on the YMCA cup success over this period [click here]. The linking character across the years is of course Alan Lewis. When YMCA first win the trophy in 1984 his was the outstanding performance - 108 and at the time the youngest player ever to score a century in a Leinster Senior Cup Final. In 1990 - in their fourth win - Lewis went one better and not only made a century but took 6/48. His second man-of-the-match award in a final.
Today Alan Lewis puts on the whites in a final for [I think] the 13th time [YMCA lost to Clontarf in the 1992 and 2015 Cup Finals]. The full YMCA team is Simmi Singh, Tom Fisher, Jack Tector, Sean Terry, Harry Tector, Sam Murphy, James Parkinson, Alan Lewis, Sam Streek, Yaqoob Ali, Yogesh Kashyap. 12th Shane Keane.
Leinster’s participation in senior cup finals goes back to the early days of the competition. They won in its second year in 1936 and again in 1941. They also had a brief period of dominance in the 1950s when they won four times between 1953 and 1958. Apart from their ten appearances on the winner’s podium they were runners up three times. The Leinster team is Danny Coad, Gareth Delany, Hugh MacDonnell, George Dockrell, Joe Dockrell, JP O’Dwyer, Chris Janik, Craig Mallon, Conor O’Gorman, Tim Law and Bilal Azhar.
The contrasting fortunes of the two teams this year makes it an intriguing final. The league form of YMCA sees them struggling in the botton half of the D1 table, while Leisnter are in a strong position to take the D2 title. In terms of cup competitions both teams have enjoyed success with YMCA through to the Semi-Finals of the Irish Senior Cup [v Merrion] and Leinster having already secured the Alan Murray T20 Trophy [also v Merrion]. So there is probably not much to choose between the sides.
Play starts at 11.00