In a final Satuday of the season for Division 1, a series of crunch matches were played out to determine who woud be League Champions for 2011 and who was relegated. Before the final round of matches, the only thing that was settled was that Pembroke was relegated.
The two teams that still had an outside chance of winning the league, North County and Merrion, did all they could to keep up pressure on the leaders by securing convincing wins over Clontarf and Pembroke respectively. But it was the decider beteen Railway U and The Hills where most attention was focussed. From early stages Railway seemed to have the match under control but a fight back from The Hills, first in the batting and then to take some late wickets meant that the sizeable crowd had to wait until the end for Railway to secure the victory with nine overs remaining and become champions for the first time in 40 years.
An even more tense affair was meanwhile taking place at Claremount Road. The battle between YMCA and Phoenix to avoid the second relegation spot had if anything an even larger crowd of spectators than in Park Avenue. Phoenix in the field seemed to take the early advantage and wickets fell regularly but a patient innings from van der Merve, able supported by Dunlop and Dutt, saw YMCA post a competitive 195 in 50 overs. Phoenix got off to a good start in reply with a 50 opening partnership but then the innings stalled and five wickets fell for less then 30 runs. With Bray and Langford Smith at the wicket all was not lost, but it was difficult to score quickly on a slow wicket and van der Merve rounded off an excellent day with 4/26 in ten overs. There was some late hitting from Landford Smith in his last game before returning to Australia, but it was not enough and to jubilant celebrations from the home supporters YMCA achieved the win that secured their place in Division 1 for next year.
All in all this has been one of the most exciting Division 1 league contests for years.
Railway Union v The Hills The Hills 185-9 (D Calder 49, M Baumgart 33) Railway Union 186-7 (T Fisher 77, G McDonnell 35, C Mullen 32). Railway Union beat The Hills by 3 wickets and are the Division 1 Champions
Clontarf v North County North County 224 (J Mooney 63, A Coughlan 41) Clontarf 135 all out (A Cusack 64)
North County beat Clontarf by 89 runs
Pembroke v Merrion Merrion 195-9 (B Ackland 47, J Anderson 38, B McCarthy 4-13, S Moreton 4-26) Pembroke 94 all out (D Waktins 4-29, M Petrie 4-30) Merrion beat Pembroke by 101 runs
YMCA V Phoenix YMCA 195-9 off 50 overs (A van der Merwe 35, S Dutt 37, D Langford-Smith 5-19) Phoenix 175-9 all out (D Langford Smith 37, T Williamson 29, A Van der Merwe 4-26, R Strydom 2-26) YMCA beat Phoenix by 20 runs. Phoenix are relegated.
Toss: Phoenix
Leinster Division 2
Leinster v Terenure
Terenure 227-9 off 50 overs
Leinster 200 all out
Terenure beat Leinster by 27 runs and are the Division 2 Champions
Rush v Malahide
Malahide 324-8 from 50 overs
Rush 212 all out in 44 overs
Malahide beat Rush by 112 runs