The Russell Court D2 League is showing evidence of a serious split in the table. Three teams have yet to record a win and unless the season can be turned around very quickly run the risk of having a long run in to the end of the season. To be fair there are other objectives to be met, including team building and the blooding of younger players, and there are other competitions.
In terms of promotion three questions seem to be emerging. Q1 Can any team challenge Merrion for the top spot. At the moment this seems to rest with Malahide. Q2 Can Rush and/or Malahide overtake DU to the second promotion spot. DU still have to play Rush and Malahide [as well as Railway] so nothing is settled in this regard. Q3 And finally, if DU can be passed - will it be Rush or Malahide in line for possible promotion.
Of course these questions may change in the coming rounds. But it is how it is looking today.
Yesterday Merrion continued their charge in getting the full points from a Railway Union team without Kenny Carroll. Railway batted first and got off to a good start being 60/1 in the 12th over. But for the second week Sean Stanton [2/28], coming on as first change, and brother Tom [2/16] broke the back of the batting and took the next four wickets to reduce Railway to 90/5. Three wickets late on for John Anderson [3/46] and Railway ended up 177/9 off the allowed 44 overs.
Merrion started slowly with Ranil Dhammika bowling an economic spell, but once John Anderson [69*] came to the crease things changed and scoring at better than a run a ball he and Patrick Tice [25*]brought the score to 104/1 in the 25th over when the heavens opened and play was abandoned for the day.
The double pointer between Terenure and DU was won comfortably by the students. The Terenure batting was unable to cope with the spin attack of DU [sans George Dockrell] and Conor Hoey [4/30], John Dascombe [3/24] and Will von Behr [2/21] were all in the wickets. 107 all out was a poor batting display and with the help of 37* from Michael Hogan the total was successfully overtaken for the loss of three wickets.
The final match between Balbriggan and Rush was important for both sides. The former needed to get their league campaign started and Rush to establish if they were ready to seriously challenge for promotion. Balbriggan will have to wait for another week as in the end they were well beaten by Rush. Batting first Rush got off to a poor start as Kashif Ali removed the openers early on. The innings was rescued by 85 from schoolboy Neil Rock, with Lionel Jansen chipping in with 47. Ehtesham Ahmed, coming on fifth change, picked up 4/35. A couple of early wickets from Alan Eastwood and the Balbriggin reply was in trouble from which it never really recovered. A 50 run partnership between Adam Keefe [33] and Ahmed [22] brought brief hope but when they were out the innings folded to 118 ao in the 36th over.
The North Kildare v Malahide match was called off due to poor weather.
The unofficial table [usual caveats]