MERRION, PEMBROKE AND BALBRIGGAN VICTORIOUS ON RAIN SODDEN DAY!

The IBI Corporate Finance Premier League saw wins for Merrion, in our game of the day, as well as Pembroke, who retained their unbeaten record, and Balbriggan who tightened their grip on third place.

Elsewhere, an Edson Silva 157 was to no avail for Civil Service, as their game with North County was one of three to fall foul of the rain, as well as Leinster vs Rush and Phoenix vs Railway Union, with just one over played between the two ties.

Our featured action was in Castle Avenue, where proceedings got underway at 12:20, and having won the toss, Merrion elected to take first use of the wicket. They lost Danny Forkin early on, before a plethora of wides saw Stephen Doheny and Swapnil Modgill taking the score to 65 before the second wicket fell, Doheny trapped LBW to Nawaz Khan, who was the first of the home side's bowlers to deal with conditions bowling up the hill.

Modgill moved serenely to 50, before being joined by John Anderson, and the pair gained more momentum as the innings moved on, Anderson sweeping to the boundary on a number of occasions. When drinks came, the score was 150/3 at the halfway stage, however that was as far as the innings could go, with a heavy rain shower causing more than 3 and a half hours of time to be lost.

The captains agreed a 25 over game to restart at 6pm, and in spite of the weather threatening once again, the game kicked off on time.

Mikey O'Reilly was to the fore immediately, nicking Mitchell Thompson off in his first over before seeing an edge off Sam Morgan's bat bisect Doheny and Anderson in the cordon. He did get his man in his second over however, bowling Morgan, before he added Séamus Lynch and Fionn Hand to his collection, both caught by Sean Stanton.

Andy Doheny entered the attack, and bowled David Delany straight away, before the best partnership of the innings saw Eoghan Delany and Kartik Joshi add 62 for the 7th wicket. Joshi was dismissed scooping by Stanton for 37, before Delany became Doheny's second victim for 33. A late flurry saw Clontarf nicking one bonus point, however they never really threatened in a 36 run defeat.

Elsewhere, it was the Addison Sherriff show in Cork, as the Pembroke overseas player firstly made 62, sharing a fine stand with Macdara Cosgrave of 124, with the latter top scoring with 64. Jack Tector's 51 kept up momentum, before Greg Hollins' unbeaten 41 from just 24 deliveries lifted the side to 237/4 in just 35 overs.

Sherriff then grabbed the game with the ball, claiming 5/20 in his 7 overs, including blowing away the Cork County tail. Josh Hartill once again impressed for the hosts with 65, however when he was dismissed by Harry St Leger, there was simply too much for the Leesiders to do. Paul Lawson the other successful bowler claiming 2/41 in his allocation, as Pembroke ran out 82 run winners to tighten their grip at the top of the table.

Finally, in Balbriggan, the hosts were indebted to 67 for Chris de Freitas, who shared a second wicket stand of 75 with Prashan Naidoo (35) in setting up a strong position at 155/4. They will have been disappointed to have slid to just 205 all out in the 48th over of the innings, as wickets for Robbie Foulkes and James Newland stunted the innings, both men finishing with three apiece.

Malahide then suffered a collapse of their own, as having been batted into a decent position by some good striking from Greg Ford, who made 34 from just 28 deliveries, they fell from 86/3 to 114/9, as Dylan Lues ripped the heart out of the Village's middle order having dismissed Ford. There were two wickets apiece for Matt Hollard and Ruan Strauss, as in spite of a final wicket stand of 28, Balbriggan ran out 39 run winners on the DLS method.