Fiachra Tucker in [earlier] action: his five wickets helped Pembroke to victory

Mainly cloudy with occasional outbreaks of rain and drizzle. Most summers we would have taken this forecast as moderately good news. After a month of dry weather we are now close to panicking at the prospect of rain. What it does mean is that we will have to dust off the DLS Computers [although to be fair clubs have been printing out run calculations throughout the dry spell] and get the covers ready for the ISC Quarter Finals. 

But first what of the Premier League from yesterday. Important results certainly but as it transpired a series of rather one-sided games. First of all the two sets of maximum points.

North County were in control from an early stage in the Phoenix Park. There are few enough details beyond North County batting first and making 264 and then bowling Phoenix out with a 100 runs to spare [Eddie Richardson 4/20].

The Hills batted first against Merrion and at 115/1 with plenty of overs remaining in the tank looked in a strong position to kick on. But the two key wickets of Pretorius and Sorenson fell to Tom Stanton and momentum was lost. 250 plus still looked on the cards but good death bowling by Kane and Mehta restricted The Hills to an under par 240/6. And that was as good as it got for the hosts. Joyce and Lakhotia opened up and put on 125 in 20 overs for the first wicket before Lakhotia was out for 53. No further wickets fell and Joyce [109*] and Anderson [53*] brought the game home with eight overs to spare.

Five wickets for Fiachra Tucker was the highlight of the match between Clontarf and Pembroke in Castle Avenue. Batting first a patchy Clontarf scorecard saw two fifties [Gallagher 55 / Azmat 71] but not much else by way of support. The final total of 191 looked way short of what was required. Clontarf got a whiff of a possible recovery when the openers fell quickly - but runs from Andrew Balbirnie [58] and Lorcan Tucker [69] saw Pembroke home easily enough in 41 overs for the loss of five wickets.

In the final game YMCA took the pitch with far from their strongest side and Leinster took full advantage. Batting first YMCA never really got going and were five down for 71. The bottom order fought hard and nearly doubled the total but a final total of 138 [48 overs] was never likely to be enough. And so it proved as Leinster reached 100 for the loss of three wickets and ended up winners by six wickets.

The outcome from the 8th Round of the Mason Alexander / LHW Financial Planning Premier League has for the first time created a small space at the top of the table with Merrion extending their lead. At the other end of the table the win by Leinster put Phoenix clearly in their sights. Pembroke’s win moves them up to fifth place.

The unofficial table now looks something like this. 

There are five Leinster teams in QF of the Irish Senior Cup. Three travel up north where the weather conditions do not look so good with spells of rain, drizzle and some heavy outbreaks forecast. But also dry spells especially later in the afternoon. Pembroke have the most daunting task in taking on Waringstown. Peter Boyd will be up there and reporting back during the day. Clontarf will be expected to bounce back from their disappointment of yesterday when they play CSNI in Stormont. Phoenix take the long journey to Strabane to take on the last team from the North West. The last, and only home fixture, is at Anglesea Road where Merrion entertain Leinster. Both teams won yesterday and Leinster will be hoping that a victory today will signal the turnaround for their season. But they will have to be at their best against an inform Merrion side.