THOMPSON THUNDERS 'TARF TOWARDS THE TOP - IBI CORPORATE FINANCE PREMIER LEAGUE ROUND-UP

Not for the first time this season in Anglesea Road, Clontarf and Merrion conspired to produce a sensational afternoon's batting in Ballsbridge, even when the weather didn't initially look like it wanted to play ball.

David Delany won the toss at 11:30am, however it was nearly 2 hours later before his side were given the nod that the game would start in 10 minutes, initially reduced to 41 overs. 3 overs later, there was a further delay, and 'Tarf would have to start once again just before half three, and had 34 overs to bat.

Séamus Lynch fell just after the restart, however Eoghan Delany joined the star of the show Mitchell Thompson, with the pair proceeding to absolutely pile on the runs. They added 184 runs for the 2nd wicket, taking just over 21 overs to do so, setting up a blistering finish to their innings by the time Delany was dismissed for a brilliant 86 from just 59 deliveries.

The end to the innings was disrupted by a further shower after 28 overs, cutting another three to bring it down to a 31 over a side game. This delay came at the worst possible time for Thompson, who was sitting on 97 at the break.

When play resumed he did pass three figures, with some fireworks from John McNally, who made 34 from just 16 balls, helping them post an imposing 277/4 in their 31 overs, which was boosted to 293 by the DLS method.

Merrion, as is their want, started like a house on fire, reaching 44 before losing Swapnil Modgill, before Connor Blaxall-Hill also fell cheaply.

This brought Stephen Doheny and Adam Rosslee together, and the pair added 60 for the third wicket before the in-form Doheny was dismissed for a destructive 62 from just 31 deliveries. He fell to the first of two sensational David Delany diving catches in the outfield.

Rosslee fell soon after for 38, and whilst they continued to see some modest contributions from John Anderson (24), Jamie Forbes (49) and Max Sorensen (24) the wickets column just kept catching up, and ultimately they finished up 25 runs short off their 31 overs.

Cillian McDonnell was the pick of the bowlers taking 3/46, whilst there was also a brace of wickets for Reuben Wilson, and David Delany's spell of 7 overs went at by far the lowest economy, costing just 46 runs to ultimately prove to be the winning of the game for the away side.

Elsewhere, Pembroke kept the pressure on the top of the table with a 7 wicket win against Cork County, Gavin Hoey's unbeaten half-century accompanied by scores of 35 from Blake MacDonald and Jack Tector, who was also not out, as they made relatively light work of chasing 166 down in just 28 of their allocated 33 overs. Earlier in the day a pair of three-fors for Paul Lawson and Dan Murray had helped the hosts restrict the Leesiders to just 171/9 in their 36 overs.

In the Fingal derby, The Hills batted first and made 223 all out, thanks in the main to Matthew Weldon's highest senior score of 93, whilst there was also 38 apiece for Ollie Horlock and Andy Kavanagh. The Skerries men then backed that up in the field in a big way, as two wickets apiece for Shazil Ahmed, Febin Manoj and Muzamil Sherzad as well as 3/20 for their main man Sean McNicholl saw a 59 run victory for the Milverton men.

Balbriggan piled up 242/7 in their 50 overs against Malahide, thanks to 58 for Connor Fletcher and 44 for Dylan Lues, whilst there were also contributions from Farooq Nasr, Chris de Freitas and the skipper Greg Ford. The men from Jack Harper Park then quashed any notions of a Malahide chase as Matt Hollard accounted for Robbie Foulkes, Alex Brown and Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin in quick succession, before 4 wickets for Dylan Lues secured a 93 run win for the hosts.

In Kenure, Rush made 167 all out in 44 overs, four wickets apiece for Ben Mitchell and Saqib Bahadur doing the damage as in spite of seeing five batters pass 20, Saadat Gull's 31 was the top score for the home side. Leinster's chase wasn't quite straightforward, as 2/19 for Totakhil and 2/36 for Barnes kept the pressure on, however 33 for Tom Johnson and an unbeaten 31 for Mark Tonge top and tailed the contributions in the chase to secure a 4 wicket victory without things getting too close for the Rathmines' men's liking.

The final game of the day to get going was in Park Avenue, where 58 for Ashil Prakash, accompanied by 31 for Hedayat Khogiani and Liam McCarthy's 24 took them to 156/9 in their 26 overs, pick of the bowling for Phoenix saw 3/38 for Amish Sidhu, accompanied by 2 wickets apiece for Dev Ranolia and Aadil Naizam. The target was boosted to 167, however Eknoor Singh was once again in fine form, making 91 from just 63 balls, sharing good stands with Tyrone Kane (20) and Adam Chester (15*) to secure their victory with 13 balls to spare.