SPRINT COATINGS WOMENS DIVISION ONE PREVIEW – APRIL 28TH

This season’s Sprint Coatings Women’s Division One season gets underway this evening with a full round of fixtures facing the 8 teams. Leinster are the holders of the Division One trophy after an excellent all-round campaign last year in which they were tremendously consistent across the board in all disciplines.

We’ll start off this week’s preview with the featured game of the day, Merrion host Clontarf in a game which sees Isobel Joyce facing off against Clontarf for the first time since returning to her home club.

The home side are skippered by Celeste Raack for the coming season, and the Irish international was kind enough to give us some of her thoughts in the lead up to the game;

“It’s a very important season for us. Our younger players have an extra year of experience now and can play a big role this season. Having Isobel Joyce back as both a player and a coach adds a huge amount of depth and experience to our lineup.”

It’s a simple enough approach for the new Merrion skipper looking ahead to any potential honours this season;

“It’s always hard to predict who will win the league. Several sides are looking strong and Leinster’s consistency over the past few seasons can’t be underestimated too. We’re just looking at each match and not looking too far ahead at this stage.”

Merrion reached both cup finals last year, winning the Pilkington Plate thanks to a special innings from Leah Paul, proving on their day they are capable of beating anyone, Raack is conscious of how hard it can be to be consistent, but is hopeful of overcoming that hurdle;

“Consistency is tough with players missing for international series, injury and school/college commitments. For us, having a strong squad beyond our first XI is a priority. We had an increase in numbers to training over the past few seasons and how have 3 teams so this will help when we’ve got players missing.”

Their opposition Clontarf are built around a core of young players, several of which were involved in a side which won the Girls Colts competition last season, captain Emma Butler leads by example with the ball, but after her they boast a far less experienced line-up than there international-laden counterparts tomorrow evening.

It’s going to be a tough opening night for ‘Tarf visiting this powerful Merrion outfit, and the skipper Emma Butler will need to be in flying form if they are to limit their hosts’ explosive batting unit. Her battle at the top with Rebecca Stokell will set the tone for the innings and possibly the match.

KEY BATTLE: Rebecca Stokell vs Emma Butler

Next up, holders Leinster host YMCA in Observatory Lane, the corresponding fixture last season saw a bizarre low-scoring affair in which Leinster came out on top by two wickets. Leinster have a new coach this season in the form of Australian Ron Woods, and he will have more or less the same exceptional squad that won last season’s league title to pick from again. Sophie MacMahon’s consistent performances were huge for the side in 2021, and with Eimear Richardson now back in Ireland full time, her availability will be another big boost to the squad.

YMCA on the other hand will have their usual battalion strengthened by the addition of Irish international Georgina Dempsey to their squad this season, last season she broke the record for the highest Senior T20 score in a women’s game and her hard-hitting will be a big boost to a YM line-up that has relied heavily on Gaby and Robyn Lewis for runs in the past couple of seasons. Their bowling has been steady without being spectacular however Kate McEvoy has been consistently improving whilst Alice Tector emerged with some strong performances at the back end of the season, if that pair can become leaders in the bowling attack in the 2022 season, it will be a big help to YM’s hopes of some consistent and strong performances.

For YM, Georgina Dempsey will be looking to make an instant impact, and her battle at the start of each innings with Sophie MacMahon will be key to seeing what way this game pans out.

KEY BATTLE: Sophie MacMahon vs Georgina Dempsey

Next up we have Pembroke who host The Hills in Sydney Parade. The home side are the current Senior Cup holders and have a myriad of potential match winners in their side including opening batter Lou Lou Little who provided some exhilarating innings’ in last season’s league campaign, Orla Prendergast who was player of the match in the Senior Cup Final and wicket-keeper Shauna Kavanagh who is one of the most consistent players in the league. Clare Shillington is also in good form off the back of a Pilkington Plate half-century at the weekend, without even mentioning Mary Waldron. Adding to that a strong young bowling attack which is likely to be led by Prendergast and Hannah Little, Pembroke in full flow are no doubt the team to beat on their day in this league, their challenge will ultimately come down to consistency again ahead of this season.

The Hills by contrast contain an awful lot of unknowns going into the 2022 season, they’ve lost Tess Maritz from last year’s side, but have gained Rebecca Gough who is a strong middle-order batter, so in essence a direct replacement. Clíodhna O’Reardon is their other main protagonist with the bat and will be hoping to string together a good run of performances this season. Their main star however is all-rounder and captain Jane Maguire, who was excellent in all facets of the game last season, her bowling threatens more often than not with the new ball, before generally being able to keep things tight whenever called upon later in the innings, whilst with the bat she is one of The Hills most potentially destructive players.

Pembroke have tended to start games quite well in the past couple of seasons, and they will be looking for Lou Lou Little to set their stall out from ball one in this game, if she can win the battle at the top with Jane Maguire that will be a huge hurdle jumped in the scheme of the game.

KEY BATTLE: Lou Lou Little vs Jane Maguire

The final action of the round comes from Malahide where Phoenix are the visitors for the opening round, this game last season was an enthralling battle with Phoenix flipping it on it’s head in the last 5 overs to sink what had been an excellent Malahide effort.

That day it was one of the league’s most prolific partnerships in Amy Hunter and Caoimhe McCann who had pushed Malahide into a serious challenging position in advance of Phoenix’s fireworks and sure enough the responsibility in the batting stakes is likely to fall at the feet of that pair again for much of this season. Anna Kerrison captained the side at the weekend as they were beaten by a strong Pembroke team, and her left-arm spin is likely to provide the main bowling threat for her side heading into this evening’s game along with her sister Maria who has joined the squad ahead of the start of the 2022 campaign.

Phoenix on the other hand have had a large turnover in players since last year and are very hard to predict, they will more than likely be back to looking to the players who got them to the Division 2 final in 2020 to provide them with runs and wickets. In an extremely young core, Ella Pasley, Nevedha Saravanarajan, and Sophie and Lucy McDonough will be the main run-scoring threats, whilst Ali Keenan will be the one aiming to provide the main threat with ball in hand. If these players are able to account for the loss of some of the international and Division One experience that has gone with the players who have left ahead of this season, Phoenix will be quite happy that they can produce some strong results throughout the year.

Whilst Malahide are strong at the top of their batting order, the key for Phoenix is going to be a good start for them with the bat, therefore Nevedha Saravanarajan’s tussle with Maria Kerrison will be an important spell in allowing the away side to get a foothold in the game and set a foundation, a hugely important aspect of being able to win any game, especially in this league.

KEY BATTLE: Nevedha Saravanarajan vs Maria Kerrison