An interesting and, for some teams, the most important weekend of the season so far. A double header for eight clubs involved in the Quarter Finals of the RSA Leinster Senior League and important league matches on Sunday in the seven matches being played.
Perhaps the most intriguing tie of the weekend is the top of the table clash – that is top of D1 and top of D2 – between Clontarf and The Hills. This will be the first serious test of Clontarf this season. Both teams will be affected by call-ups to the Ireland v Australia A match in Stormont but even with players missing there is plenty of cricketing talent on show. But someone has to lose an unbeaten record. Clontarf have home advantage but may miss having a few tight matches under their belt. The Hills on the other hand have had to pull out a number of team performances to get through their games unscathed. In the end the edge that this brings may be enough to tilt the scales in favour of The Hills. David Delany makes his senior debut for Clontarf in the match.
Railway play Pembroke. Again. Railway narrowly won by two wickets a fortnight ago in the league, but it required Pat Collins to bat through the innings to bring them home. Kevin O’Brien did not perform in that game and he will be missing this weekend on Irish duty. A difficult one to call – Pembroke have come close to victory a few times this year and maybe this is the opportunity to finally bring it home.
North County play YMCA in Inch. John Mooney has been in great form and County will certainly miss him tomorrow. YMCA on the other hand have had some mixed fortunes of late – losing to Merrion in the league but securing a comfortable win against Pembroke in the Irish Cup. But they will be missing Reinhart Strydom and he is a key player, arguably even more important to YMCA than John Mooney is for County. Angus Dunlop comes into the team but one has to wonder if the bowling attack will be strong enough for the 60 over format. If they don’t make inroads into the North County batting early they could be a long time in the field. NC to win.
In the last match between Merrion and Malahide at Anglesea Road, the hosts start as strong favourites. Although Malahide easily dealt with the Merrion IIs in the D2 league, it will be a different matter against the 1st XI. Malahide will be hoping that the absence of John Anderson [also playing for Ireland] will give them an opportunity to get into the Merrion middle order who haven’t done much [or had the opportunity to do much] so far this year. If Merrion’s top order can provide the platform then a large score is on the cards. Home win predicted.
In the league on Sunday – YMCA take on Leinster and in the absence of Strydom and Lewis this may be an opportunity for Leinster to spring a surprise. Leinster have played very poorly this year losing all their competitive matches. But they put in a better bowling performance last weekend against The Hills [who were reliant on Cormac McLoughlin with an unbeaten century to get them to a modest enough 237] and then got themselves into a good position with the batting before a late order collapse ended their hopes. YMCA should still have enough to win but this is a chance for Leinster to cause an upset.
The Phoenix v Pembroke match is a must win for both teams. A decisive result in the two head-to-heads between the teams would go a long way to determining who is relegated from D1 this year. Phoenix were missing players last weekend for their match against Clontarf and but they are back in the team for this weekend. Pembroke should have the fire power to secure the victory but this will be a very tense affair with a lot at stake and Phoenix have a lot of experience in their team which could be important.
A weekend involving a match between The Hills and North County is always one to savour. The rivalry between the two Fingal teams is legendary. They have not met in competition yet this season but in the last encounter North County won by 10 wickets to ensure that they did not get relegated last year. That day the two Richardson brothers did for The Hills [four wickets each as The Hills were bowled out for 79]. With honours even over the last two years between the sides – this is an opportunity for one to gain the [local] ascendency and put down an important marker for the rest of the season.
The final match of the weekend involving D1 sides is Merrion v Railway Union. Railway won an early season friendly against Merrion but since then the latter has been more consistent and has also fought hard to win a couple of close encounters. They also have a good home record this year. Both teams will have players on international duty, but Merrion should have the deeper resources. This is the sort of match that Merrion have to win if they want to maintain a challenge for the league title.
In D2 Clontarf play Malahide and form would suggest a home victory. This is probably the last chance for any team to put a dent in Clontarf’s push for the D2 title – but it is difficult to see it happening here.
In the second fixture Leinster II take on Rush and will hope for just a better performance against a 1st XI team. Rush need this win after their disappointing loss to Merrion IIs last weekend.
Finally, Balbriggan take on Terenure. Balbriggan haven’t really played at their best yet this season and will be hoping that home advantage will help against a Terenure side that is looking a safe bet for the second promotion spot but need to win all their remaining matches [and by substantial margins] to have any chance of mounting a challenge to Clontarf.
Selection [as far as they are known]
Saturday
YMCA [v North County] A Van Der Merve, J Bray, R Garth, S Mcauley, S Singh, Y Shah, J Cassidy, J Tector, A Bailey, A Lewis, A Dunlop
Merrion [v Malahide] D Joyce, K Beasley, T Kane, B Thompson, P Blakeney, D Watkins, D Poder, A O’Brien, S McDonald, N Rowe, B Ackland.
Clontarf [v The Hills] E Delany, B Coghlan, R Forrest, A Poynter, A Botha, Z van der Merve, A Anwar, J Morrissey, M Collier, A Craig, D Delany
Railway [v Pembroke] P Collins, C Divney, K Carroll, P Conliffe, M Ingram, S Buksh, G Lambert, D Singh, M Tariq, J Uddin, S Ullah.
Sunday
Phoenix [v Pembroke] C Kelly, C Dickeson, M Ahmed, T Anders, R Jeggels, S Davis, S Raza, A Leonard, D Magala, S Ali, R Anders.
YMCA v Leinster A Van Der Merve, J Bray, R Garth, S Mcauley, S Singh, Y Shah, J Cassidy, J Tector, A Bailey, L Cole, A Dunlop
Merrion [v Malahide] D Joyce, K Beasley, T Kane, B Thompson, P Blakeney, D Watkins, J Short, A O’Brien, S McDonald, N Rowe, B Ackland.
Terenure [v Balbriggan] K McDonald, T Fisher, C Morgan, T Williamson, R Lawrence, E Ahmed, T Lynch, B Hoey, M Hoey, U Jehangir, J Smith.
Clontarf [v Malahide] E Delany, B Coghlan, R Forrest, A Poynter, A Botha, Z van der Merve, A Anwar, J Morrissey, V Gopal, A Craig, A Nazir
Leinster [v YMCA] C Mallon, H MacDonnell, R Forrest, S Moreton, JP O'Dwyer, A Ward, J Carroll, M Jones, G Delany, B Azhar, R Kenealy
Leinster II [v Rush] D Coad, D MacDonald, K Taylor, J Kerrison, D Lucas, J Nagle, A Hussain, W Lennon, r Gereghty, S Cassidy, N Pyne.