North County 3 vs Clondalkin 1 - The last game of the season in Division 8 couldn't have been a really exciting finale in an alternate universe, but as it is, it is a dead rubber with absolutely nothing riding on it. North County are promoted in 2nd place, and Clondalkin will be finishing in third. These two have never played in a league match (despite many attempts and four cup matches since 2020 - Clondalkin winning three). The star players for each team this year have been North County's Manmeet Singh with 286 runs at 23.83 and Faisal Rana with 27 wickets at 15.70. Faisal needs four wickets today to equal Ciaran Mackey's 2013 record of most wickets in a North County 3 season - 31. Raja Imran Ali has scored 401 runs for Clondalkin (at 33.42) which lies in 6th in the all time list for Clondalkin 1. Leading wicket taker is Khalid Khan with 26 wickets at 10.46.
Mullingar 2 vs Terenure 3 - No preview as waiting for scorecard of Mullingar 2 vs North Kildare 4 (September 16)
North County 5 vs Merrion 6 - Not too much riding on the last season in Division 14. Merrion 6 can move from bottom to 7th place should they take seven points from the match. North County need 11 points to move from 5th to 4th. The team's only previous meeting was on July 8 this year. Edwin Saji scored 46 at the top of the order and Umair Bombay Wala 39 at number 4 as County got to a decent 188/7 from 40 overs, Rishabh Sharma taking 4-26 for Merrion. Merrion struggled from the word go, and from 15/2 had no real way back. Jake Devane then took the third, fourth and fifth wickets (taking 3-13) as Merrion fell to 120 all out. Majid Hyder top scored for Merrion with 39.
Carlow 3 vs Ongar 2 - There is still one promotion place to be decided in Division 19 with Ongar 2 one of the teams that can grab it. Ongar need to score at least 22 points today, but that would assume that Sandyford 4 score nothing when they host Dundalk 2. For each additional point Sandyford need to score another one - and if Sandyford score four points, the dream in over for Ongar. Carlow's challenge is already over. These two met on April 29 in Ringcommons, with Ongar winning by a handsome 81 runs. Ongar's batting wasn't massively impressive, with three batters getting past 20, and Rajkiran Pucchakayala top scoring with 27. Solim Mohammed was the star for Carlow with the ball with 4-15, his best bowling for Carlow in an 80 match career. That places him 7th in the all time list for Carlow appearances, a list led by Rocky Butt with 104 matches. At 52/1, Carlow were in a decent position, before a massive collapse saw them lose 9 wickets for 20 runs. THat collapse was all down to Adithya Annam's amazing spell of 7-10. Not surprisingly, that was the best bowling on record for Ongar (it is still their first season), but more surprisingly, no other bowler in the club has even taken five wickets in an innings.
Sandyford 4 vs Dundalk 2 - The top two in Division 19 meet. Dundalk are already crowned champions, whereas Sandyford need at least four points to enure promotion, but that may well be less should Ongar drop points against Carlow. Despite the euphoria of their seasons, neither team has ever finished so low in Leinster's leagues. Sandyford are 149th - their last season in the league was in 2009, and in 2008 they finished 99th. Dundalk 2 haven't played in the league since 2015, when they finished 115th in the league. THeir only previous league game was on May 2023, when Sandyford inflicted one of only two wins on Dundalk 2 in the league this season. Dundalk were struggling at 59/5 before runs from Regin Samuel (82), Shakeel Qamar (16) and Binu Sekara Pillai (45) got them to 213/6. It was Regin Samuel's 5th 50 for Dundalk and his highest score in 54 matches for the club. Sandyford's innings was similar. 62-0 became 106/5 before Vasanth Kumar Ezhil Kumar's 43 and Nitesh Batra's 30 got Sandyford home by 2 wickets with 2 balls to spare.
Tyrrelstown 1 vs Kilkenny 1 - The last match in the season in Division 7, and everything comes down to this one game for Tyrrelstown. They need 22 points to steal the second promotion spot from Adamstown 2/Greystones 1. If Tyrrelstown get 20 points or less, then Adamstown 2 are promoted. If Tyrrelstown get exactly 21 points, then all three teams will be tied, and it will be down to net run rate in the six games played by those teams. That will leave Tyrrelstown out on top, so they just need the 21 points. Tyrrelstown will finish in at least 52nd place in the league, their best ever finish, 58th in each of the last two years. The teams haven't actually played in the league since May 2022, when Tyrrelstown won at home by 2 wickets. Zeeshan Mumtaz top scored with 54 runs in Kilkenny's 188/9 from 40 overs with Suresh Kumar Madhikanti taking 3-40. Despite Shirish Sonawane's 66, Tyrrelstown were in all sorts of trouble 12 217/8 before Yashwanth Kamma Venkata (40) and Rajkumar Koka (28) saw them home with an excellent partnership of 62, the second highest 9th wicket partnership for the team.
Rush 2 vs Laois 1 - A vital game at the bottom of Division 5. Rush are in 7th place, with this being their last game, with Laois playing two games this weekend, hosting Civil Service 2 tomorrow. Laois have a 6.5 point lead over Rush, so simply Rush must win today. If Rush were to get 20 points, Laois need 12 points tomorrow. Crucially if Rush get 21 points today, a rained off match would not be enough for Laois tomorrow. These two have still not met before. Rush legend Shahid Iqbal leads the way as their leading run scorer for the season with 315 runs at 45, with their wicket taking led by Brandon Morris with an impressive 26 wickets at 15.46. That sits Morris at joint 4th in the post 2010 list of most wickets in a season for Rush 2. One wicket today will move him to 4th on his own, three wickets would move him to joint second. For Laois, Rashid Mehraj leads the way with the bat with 293 runs at 32.56, and Usama Raees is top wicket taker with 24 wickets at 20.29.
Swords 4 vs Rush 4 - A dead game for Rush in Division 18, but Swords have a vitally important weekend with two matches. They need 46 points from those two games to be promoted ahead of Finglas 3. The two teams haven't met in the cup, with their only previous match being in this year's Minor Cup on June 5. The match was noted for the maiden century for Rush for Conor Butterly, who hit 105 in the T20 match taking Rush to 160/2. Swords had no real answer and were bowled out for 117 with Rush's Darragh Flynn taking 4-16, his best bowling in nine matches for Rush (so far)