The battle for points hots up this weekend in Round 9 of the Premier League. After their win last weekend, with Clontarf also losing, Merrion are in poll position. This, of course, simply means that each weekend bring a new hurdle to jump. And today they have one of the highest as they travel to take on a rejuvenated North County who are lying third in the table. A victory for NC will open up the race for the league title and with Malcolm Nofal in top form with bat and ball they will present a formidable challenge for the visitors.
Merrion: D Joyce [C], T Stanton, P Tice [W], J Anderson, J Carty, P Mehta, M Lewis, B Lakhotia, JJ Walsh, T Kane, S Stanton.
North County: Niall McGovern [C], Jamie Grassi [W], Malcolm Nofal, Craig May, Eddie Richardson, Tomas Sheil, Safdar Ali, Andrew Sheridan, Adam Coughlan, Manmeet Singh, Cian Mulvanny.
Clontarf cannot afford any more mishaps as they make the trip to The Vineyard to take on The Hills. An important game for both sides with the hosts uncomfortably close to the play-off relegation spot. Clontarf will be without Andrew Poynter [who is picked for Sunday] but otherwise look at close to full strength. The Hills select from what is now a fairly settled 12.
The Hills: Nicolaas Pretorius [C], Harry Archer, Mark Donegan [W], Max Sorensen, Daya Singh, Albert van der Merwe, Tomas Rooney Murphy, Nazeer Shoukat, Andy Kavanagh, Luke Clinton, Killian Everard, Cian Nulty.
Clontarf: Joe Morrissey [C], Declan Gallagher, Obus Pienaar, David Delany, Robert Forrest [W], Sameer Dutt, Bill Coghlan, Shariful Islam, Waqar Azmat, Faisal Zaman, Asim Nasir.
Pembroke’s victory over Clontarf last weekend was an important statement about their intention to move away from the bottom half of the table. But they need to maintain that momentum and will have to do it against a Leinster side that also set down a marker last weekend with their win over YMCA. One suspects that both teams have highlighted this match in their plans as an opportunity - even a must win. One is likely to be very disappointed.
Leinster: G. Dockrell [W], C. Mallon, G. Delany, M. Patel, J. Carroll, F. O'Sulivan, J.P O'Dwyer, H. McDonnel, D. Coad (W), S. Bahadur, B. Azhar.
Pembroke: Fiachra Tucker [C], Lorcan Tucker [W], Diarmaid Tucker, Andrew Balbirnie, Jack Balbirnie, Theo Lawson, Paul Lawson, Alex Ridley, Sanil Gupta, JJ Garth, Gavin Hoey
And finally Phoenix v YMCA in The Park. Despite their contrasting fortunes last night, Phoenix will be hoping that they can take advantage of a YMCA side who have been without Simi Singh and Jack Tector in recent matches and secure their fourth win of the season. A loss for YMCA would bring them into the relegation pack [which at this point consists of all but Merrion, Clontarf and North County] and thus gives the game the feel of a double pointer. If YMCA can bring off another of their close wins it will go a long way towards reducing the pressure on them in the final rounds.
Phoenix: Brad Kneebone [C], Tom Anders, Rory Anders, Adam Chester, Ben White, Fletcher Coutts , Dave Vernon, Gordy Miller, Sine Tsotsa [W], Louis McDonagh, Reinhardt Strydom.
There is no YMCA team announced.
Finally, in this elongated weekend, five Leinster teams take the field in the Irish Senior Cup re-fixes tomorrow. This of course means that all four take place in Leinster. Although some Northern teams have been known to travel poorly, at this point in the competition there are no easy matches. All games start at 12.30
Pembroke v Waringstown
Clontarf v CSNI
Leinster v Merrion
Phoenix v Strabane.