The fine weather [supposedly the last for a while] saw a strange mixture of one sided affairs and tight finishes. More of the former than the latter. Across the two Divisions there were four '25' point victories and one '24'. Against this both the Merrion v Leinster and the North County v Railway matches went to the wire.
A mammoth total of 416/6 with a double century for Robin Kelly saw Pembroke sweep home against Rush. There were similar, if slightly less emphatic, victories for Dublin University [century for Eoghan Delaney] over Leinster II and Phoenix over Cork County. In Division 1 Clontarf had a nine wicket win over Terenure with Bill Coughlan scoring 89 undefeated and YMCA were equally comfortable having reached 299/6 [with Reinhart Strydom and Alan Lewis both getting into the 90s]
The closest match was in Anglesea Road where Merrion, having clawed themselves into a winning position with six needed off seven balls with four wickets remaining, lost all four wickets without adding to the total. A masterly innings of 89 by John Anderson and some late order hitting from Damian Poder just failing to bring the side home against a very disciplined Leinster attack backed up by some excellent fielding.
In North County a very competitive total of 266 looked within reach as long as John Mooney [70] was at the wicket but as wickets began to fall the run chase fell just 16 runs short. An outstanding all-round performance by M Tariq with 58 and 5/50 was the difference between the sides.
The end result is that with just one round of matches to play in the first half of the season Leinster and Pembroke are the clear leaders in their respective Divisions and it is already getting tense in the relexation zone as Terenure [yet to record a win], North County and Merrion [one win each] battle it out with Clontarf and Railway only a little comfortable on two wins.
Summary of Results
Division 1
Clontarf [25] beat Terenure [0] by nine wickets.
Terenure 143 / Clontarf 144/1 [B Coughlan 89*]
Merrion [5] lost to Leinster [20] by 5 runs.
Leinster 201 / Merrion 196 [J Anderson 89]
North County [5] lost to Railway Union [20] by 16 runs.
Railway 266 [M Tariq 58, T Fisher 57] / North County 250 [C Gary 70, J Mooney 70 and M Tariq 5/50]
The Hills [1] lost to YMCA [24] by 99 runs.
YMCA 299/6 [A Lewis 94, R Strydom 91] / The Hills 200/10.
Division 2
Dublin University [25] beat Leisnter II [0] by 138 runs.
DU 232 [E Delaney 113] / Leinster 97]
Malahide [23] beat Old Belvedere by 66 runs
Malahide 218/6 - Belveder 152
Phoenix 209 beat Cork County by 111 runs
Phoenix 209 [R Steenkamp 55] - Cork County 98
Rush [0] lost to Pembroke by 262 runs
Pembroke 412/6 [R Kelly 219] - Rush 150.