As a description of the penultimate round of the Mason Alexander / LHW Financial Services Premier League the headline is perhaps a little unfair. The truncated round of games [only three played and all were weather shortened] produced a couple of excellent contests with exciting finishes. But in the end not much changed in terms of the league table.
The wins for Merrion and Clontarf extend the battle for the Premier title into the final stages. Clontarf overcame Pembroke in a close match in which for the second time in the weekend [following their Senior Cup win on Saturday] they had the batting of Robert Forrest to thank for getting them over the line. Clontarf have one further hurdle, a T20 remix v YMCA on Tuesday, before they are set up for a final showdown against Merrion in Anglesea Road on the 8th September.
Merrion in the meantime had a comfortable eight wicket win over The Hills with wickets from Tom Stanton and runs from Dom Joyce and Poonish Mehta. They have the Irish Senior Cup final to look forward to before they have to think again about the league.
Despite their loss to Merrion, it was The Hills who gained most form the weekend. With Leinster also losing [v YMCA] the 25 plus gap between the two clubs cannot now be bridged whatever happens in the final round. It is left to Phoenix, who have still to win their weather postponed match v North County, to get close enough to The Hills to set up a final round contest for the play-off spot.
Finally, runs from Jack Tector and Oliver Gunning provided the platform for a 15 run win by YMCA over Leinster.