With Clontarf II losing a high scoring game against North County II and Balbriggan falling to The Hills II, the match in Claremount Road between Merrion II and YMCA II was to determine who emerged from the weekend at the top of D3. While a slightly sticky wicket and a lush outfield kept the scores down, it was nonetheless an absorbing context between two young sides [plus a few older lemons].
Merrion batted first and recovering from the loss of an early wicket moved along at a good pace with Alan Parkinson [not one of the younger players] hitting the ball well until he was out with the score at 47. The Merrion innings then got bogged down against some tight bowling from from YMCA with Jack Tector who completed a 12 wicket haul for the weekend [previously 8/40 in YMCA’s win against Clontarf in D1] taking 4/24 in 10 overs. A score of around 160 looked on but having taken his time at the start Sarahan picked up the tempo of the innings and finished with 58. The final score was 180, probably worth more on the day.
YMCA also lost an early wicket when Hosford was caught behind off Ensor but reached 70 in good time before losing the second wicket – Tector for 41. After that nothing really went right and they lost regular wickets to some excellent Merrion fielding.
While the final margin of victory of 43 runs looks comfortable the match was very competitive until the last half hour when the YMCA lower order failed to get going. The difference between the two sides – better Merrion fielding.