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Divisions 3 & 4: review weekend 10th - 11th September

In Division 3, Leinster 2nds had a double weekend, and fielded close to their strongest side on Saturday when Malahide 2 were the visitors to Rathmines.  Malahide decided to bat first, lost Glenn Kirwan early on, but made good progress with golden oldies Brian Gilmore (69) and Damian Ryan (43) at the crease.  They both fell to off-spinner Zeeshan, who also had Mike O'Brien caught for 29.  Rob Weir made 23 and Hamish Manks a late 34* as the Villagers got to 258-9 in their 50 overs.  Zeeshan finished with 3/49.  Only three Leinster batsmen made it to the middle as another blast from the past, Joe Byrne, scored an unbeaten 141, with 53 from Pete Johnston and 39* from Hugh McDonnell to see Leinster home in 42 overs.

On Sunday, Leinster travelled to Balbriggan without several heavyweights, were inserted, and after a decent start from Hugh McDonnell (47), Gareth Delany (19) and Johnston (35), fell away from 91-1 to 180-6 in their 50 overs, Dave Lucas making 31.  For Balbriggan, Dwayne Harper kept it tight with 2/26, and Paddy Martin also claimed 2/26.  Barry Archer and Anwar set off with a run-a-ball century opening partnership, but after the dismissal of Anwar for 53, Roger Kear first ball and then Barch for 75, the Leinster bowlers kept nibbling away as Balbriggan got home by two wickets in the 36th over, Delany taking 2/37 and McDonnell 2/27.

Civil Service travelled to Castle Avenue buoyed by the defeat of Malahide the previous day – only if they lost their final two matches could Service be relegated – otherwise Malahide 2 would make the drop with Oakhill.  Clontarf 2 won the toss and asked Service to bat first.  Two wickets fell early on, but then Safeen and Seghal took the score to 86, when Paul Ryan's straightbreaks discomfited the batsmen.  Safeen went for 72, Siddique made 31 before also falling to Ryan, and only Owen Butler hung around for long as Civil Service were all out for 185 in the 47th over  Ryan took 4/35 and Chris Cahill 2/30.  Service eyes must have lit up as Del Boy McGeehan came out to open the Clontarf innings.  Khan sent him and Mark Collier back to the pavilion, Butler whipped out the next four, Khan added a third before Butler completed a Birmingham Six-for in his tenth over, Tarf all out for 72, Butsy with 6/34, Khan with 3/26, and Service with 25 points and still in Division 3 next season.

Also on Sunday, Oakhill played their last Division 3 match until at least 2013.  The visitors, Pembroke 2, won the toss, batted, lost young Tucker early on, but Darren Nicol (51) and Danny Barclay (48) piled on the runs against an attack even more toothless than usual (if you can have degrees of toothlessness!) without Richard Hastie.  Fitzsimons dismissed that pair and Jack Balbirnie for a duck, but Stuart McDonnell (47) and Gary Baugh (43*) took the 'Broke to 234-6 in 50 overs, Fitzsimons returning 3/33.  In reply, Beuck (37) and Ghani (58) appear to have scored their runs too slowly, leaving the later Oakhill batsmen too much to do, and they finished 24 runs short as they were all out in the 50 overs.  For Pembroke, Nicol took 3/59, Barclay 2/38, McNulty 2/33, but the eye-catching analysis is that of Freddie Mann – 10-3-15-1!

In Division 4, Phoenix 2 entertained Merrion 2.  Even with a win, Phoenix had little chance of promotion, but Merrion needed a win to nudge in front of YMCA 2 and Railway Union 2.  The visitors won the toss, batted, and on what must have been a belter of a track, ran up 261-8 in their 50 overs, Kirk Shimmons top-scoring with 67 plus 30 from Chris Allwright, 41 from Alan Parkinson and 45 from Neil Brown.  But there was no big finish, just a sedate 20* from Jeff Short.  For Phoenix, Masud Ahmed took 3/45 and David Ford 3/33.  Then Masud Ahmed and Amit Battan blew away what looked on paper a decent Merrion attack.  Masud Ahmed scored 116 off 80 balls in a 184 opening partnership with Battan (51).  When they were both out to Andy O'Brien and Fordie run out without scoring, Azim Nazir finished the game off in 39 overs by six wickets with 42*.  O'Brien took 3/45.

In the other Division 4 match, Railway Union 2 had to beat Malahide 3 to maintain their promotion challenge.  At home, this should not have been much of a problem, considering that Malahide had won only one match all season.  But like the Irish girl who took two pills each day, to be sure, to be sure, Railway played Greg Lambert.  With Trent Johnston not allowed to bowl, Lambert is by a distance the Division 1 champions' leading wicket-taker, and how he was allowed to be starred below the line is beyond me.  Railway stuck Malahide in, and apart from Hamish Marks (42) and Kevin McPhilemey (31), the Villagers offered little resistance.  Tim Townend took 5/34, Lambert 3/12 and MD Ghavre 2/16 as Malahide were bowled out for 120 in 33.4 overs.  After a decent start from Hafiz and Furqan ul-Haq (29), Conor Gibbons and Manks shared four quick wickets, and when Dhruv Kapoor was caught behind, the Wheeltappers were wobbling on 60-5.  Skipper Simon Grehan scored 29 to take them past the hundred, and Ghavre's 27* saw them home by three wickets in the 32nd over.  But does a side that subs down the leading first team bowler to scrape a win over the division's worst side deserve to be promoted?

Another team that doesn't deserve to be promoted, in fact deserves to be kicked out of the leagues altogether, is Dublin University.  But unless Balbriggan beat Civil Service this weekend with full points, Leinster sport's biggest waste of taxpayers' money since Aer Lingus will be be making a mess of Division 2 next season.  We need a much stronger second division – Dublin University aren't going to help provide that by playing seven matches early on in the season and then their team scattering to play for other clubs.  I wrote a piece earlier in the season giving my reasons for removing Dublin University from the Leinster leagues.  There was no reply to it from any quarter.  I wonder why not?