This week's look at Cricket Leinster's All Ireland rankings looks back to a weekend of upsets, and forward to the most important weekend of the year for cricket across the island.
With rain sweeping across much of Leinster, the North West and NCU over the Bank Holiday weekend, a huge amoutn of cricket was cancelled. But there were a few intriguing results to keep us interested.
In Leinster, YMCA's win over Merrion extended their lead at the top, but the loss means Merrion drop a place to 5th. Pembroke's "surprise" loss to Railway Union saw Pembroke fall out of the top ten, dropping two to 12th, with Railway going in the other direction, up one to 18th.
North County's good win over Cork County, means the former go up one to 13th, with the latter dropping to 31st. And Terenure's excellent win against Balbriggan sees them leapfrog their vanquished opponents - Terenure are now in 34th and Balbriggan 35th.
In the other provinces, Coleraine's impressive start to the season continued, and they moved up to 8th after beating Bready, and Brigade moved up two places after victory over Strabane. In Section 1 of the NCU, Downpatrick beat Templepatrick to go top of the table, and a move into the top 20. Glendermott have also started their second tier season well, and are top of the Championship in the North West, moving up to 30th spot.
Our thoughts now turn to the coming weekend. With the forecast not the most encouraging, there may not be that much cricket to enjoy. Luckily reserve days have been brought back into the two competitions, so matches will be played (the reserve day is May 23rd)
Our predictions for both competitions are based purely on the rankings, and are ranked in order of the likelihood of upset, with the closest matches at the top of each list, and those that should be mismatches at the bottom. Predicted winners are in bold.
The beauty of sport, is that it never quite works out that way!
Round 1 - Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup 2015
Donemana (11) vs North County (13)
Leinster (21) vs Carrickfergus (23)
The Hills (6) vs North Down (9)
Brigade (10) vs CSNI (7)
Railway Union (18) vs Strabane (14)
Ballymena (32) vs Ardmore (27)
CIYMS (15) vs Merrion (5)
Eglinton (22) vs Pembroke (12)
Glendermott (30) vs Lisburn (19)
Instonians (2) vs Malahide (16)
Coleraine (8) vs Muckamore (24)
Bready (17) vs Terenure (34)
Waringstown (4) vs St Johnston (26)
Clontarf (3) vs Cork County (31)
Woodvale (33) vs YMCA (1)
Fox Lodge (28) vs County Galway (unranked)
The above results would give a provincial breakdown in the second round of six from Leinster, four from the NCU and six from the North West.
Round 1 - National Cup 2015 (Many of these clubs fall outside of our rankings)
Cork Harlequins (unranked) vs County Sligo (unranked)
Ballaghaderreen (unranked) vs Midleton (unranked)
Ballyspallen (unranked) vs Laois (unranked)
Bonds Glen (45) vs Bangor (41)
Balbriggan (35) vs Cliftonville (40)
Templepatrick (43) vs Rush (37)
Phoenix (29) vs Derriaghy (39)
Downpatrick (20) vs Killyclooney (47)
Sion Mills (51) vs Greystones (unranked)
Creevedonnell (48) vs Dundrum (LCU) (unranked)
Holywood (42) vs Civil Service (unranked)
North Kildare (unranked) vs Drummond (38)
Academy (unranked) vs Burndennett (36)
Newbuildings (unranked) vs Lurgan (25)
Byes for County Clare and County Kerry
These predicitons give the following provincial breakdown in the second round - Connacht (1), Munster (3), Leinster (3), North West (5) and NCU (4)