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Divisions 1 & 2: review of weekend 18th - 19th June; preview of weekend 25th - 26th June

Last Saturday saw the quarter finals of the Lewis Hohn Williams Senior Cup.  All were interfered with by the weather, but three were resolved.  I was at the one which wasn't resolved, which was because it ended in a tie.  Batting first at Anglesea Road, Leinster tottered to 29-3, recovered to 66-3 (George Dockrell 22), then slid to 95-7.  Then opener Craig Mallon was joined first by Peter Byrne (22), then by Will Lennon (13*), before he was second last out for 38 of 164 all out in 50.4 overs.

The Merrion bowling had been tidy – Petrie 2/28, Chetkovich 2/32, Kane 2/27 – but not so good as to bowl Leinster out for well under 200.  At 115-2, the belatedly introduced spinners Dockrell and Scholtz struck.  Kane was bowled by Scholtz for 23, Anderson caught behind off Dockrell for 49, Watkins stumped for a duck and Rory Allwright bowled to make it 115-6.  When Damien Poder was lbw to Scholtz, Merrion had slumped to 121-7 and were behind on D/L with big black clouds piling in.  Petrie and Jeff Short had added eleven more runs when the rains came.  They never got back on again, and 132 turned out to be the par score for seven wickets down in 43.1 overs, so the match was tied.

Things were almost as tight at Milverton, where The Hills 2 came within a boundary of tieing with Rush.  The start was delayed because of a damp pitch, and the match began as one of 42 overs, being further reduced to 30 overs.  The Rush total of 140-7 depended heavily on 57* from Eoghan Conway and 34 from Lionel Jansen.  Malcolm Byrne took 2/19 off his six overs.

D/L calculated the 30 over par score as 149, and after a good opening stand (Farooqi 26), The Hills 2 got to 101-4.  Then opening bat O'Brien was stumped for 50, the score fell to 119-7 before skipper Nadim made 18 to take it to 139.  When he was out only six more runs were added before The Hills 2 were all out four runs short.  Conway took 3/29 and Niall Mullen 3/16.

In the Park, Alex Cusack (89) and Rod Hokin (119) put on 181 for the second wicket, and a 38 ball innings of 54 from keeper Adrian D'Arcy took Clontatf to 326-5 off 60 overs.  David Langford-Smith took 3/53.  Phoenix had been hampered by an injury to Jeremy Bray, who didn't bowl and wasn't scheduled to bat above seven.  Forties from Rory Flanagan, Ryan Gallagher and Conor Kelly helped Phoenix to 175-4 off 39.4 when rain terminated proceedings with them 22 behind on D/L.  Andrew Poynter took 3/31.

There was another 300 total to be chased in the Village, where North County got exactly that score for the loss of six wickets in 50 overs.  Mossie Shiel made 98 at the top of the order, Adam Coughlan 50 and John Mooney 41 in the middle order, and there was some late hitting from Josh Reeves (29*) and Eddie Richardson (15*).  For Malahide, Jimmy Govan kept some order with 3/44.  Although the home team got to 89-1 in reply, only John Pryor (26), Paul Tweddle (42), Callum Riches (41) and Ernie Extras (46) troubled the scorers excessively as Malahide were all out for 200 in 49.3 overs.

In the semi finals to be held on the 9th July, Clontarf will travel to either Rathmines or Anglesea Road, while North County will make the short journey to the seaside at Rush.

On Sunday there was a full programme of fixtures in both top divisions.  The Division 1 match that didn't get very far was at Castle Avenue where Clontarf had reached 40-3 before the umpires Jim McGeehan and David Cook decided that the pitch, a reused one, was too dangerous to continue.  I wasn't there, so I can't comment . . . .

Up at Inch, North County won the toss and had a hit.  Dom Joyce (3/31) and Tyrone Kane reduced them to 57/4, but Adam Coughlan (69), Ciaran Garry (46) and Josh Reeves (34*) got them to a 50 over total of 224-8, a very chaseable score.  Alex Chetkovich finished with 4/35.  Merrion were 67-0, then 67-3.  Rory Allwright's 54 got them back in the match, and Jeff Short's 37* nearly got them home, but they ended up three runs short, all out in the last over.  Coughlan rounded off a fine match by taking 4/34.

There was another tight finish at Park Avenue, where Railway Union lost their first three wickets for 34 then steamed to 283-6 with 78 from Trent Johnston, 31 from Patrick Collins, 64 from Mo Tariq and 53* from Paddy Conliffe.  Reinhardt Strydom didn't bowl at all, and only Sean Mcauley (1/24 off 10) escaped punishment.  “Rainy” Strydom then put the world to rights by smacking six sixes and sixteen fours in a knock of 150.  He was well supported by Alan Lewis (27), Samir Dutt (17) and Robert Garth (35) before Steven Walsh's 24* got YMCA home with an over to spare.  Off spinners Greg Lambert and Patrick Collins each went for 36 off their ten, but everybody else got tap.

Another result that didn't go as I predicted was at Milverton, where Pembroke posted a decent 247-5 off their 50 overs courtesy of 86 from Steven Moreton and 72 from Jono Hickey, followed by an eleven ball 21* from Danny Barclay.  Max Sorensen bowled his first ten over set of the season, 0/37.  After a decent start with twenties from openers Manu Kumar and Darryl Calder, The Hills folded to 146 all out in 38.4 overs, off spinners Paul Lawson (3/29) and Danny Barclay (4/13) doing most of the damage.

Division 1 is wide open: North County are top with 60.8%, while Pembroke are sixth with 48%; the relegation slots are occupied by Merrion and Phoenix, but a couple of wins will see them right.  After the weekend, Leinster lead the way in Division 2, followed by Rush, Terenure and Malahide.  The relegation stakes appear to be any two from Old Belvedere, North County 2 and The Hills 2.

Leinster helped themselves to twenty-five handy points at Rathmines as they blew away a weak The Hills 2 team.  Malcolm Byrne scored 37 as The Wilberries were bowled out for 115 in 30.2 overs.  Leading the demolition was Corie Edwards with 5/28.  Leinster were home and hosed before tea, Mark Jones (53*) and Craig Mallon (48*) taking 16.2 overs to reach 119-0.

Cork County dropped just a point beating Rush at The Mardyke, where a fourth wicket partnership of 84 between Barry (45) and Bruce Koch (85) saw them to a decent 243-9.  Jansen took 3/28 and Amir Iqbal 3/43.  Barry, Joshi and Koch reduced Rush to 62-5, and Tipu Gull's 63 only delayed the inevitable as the Russians were bowled out for 158 in 39.3 overs.  Koch took 3/20 and Joshi 4/39.

I was at Terenure where the batting varied between dour and dire.  Malahide ground their way to 91-7 (Conor Geraghty 33) before Peter Saville (28) and Glenn Kirwan (24*) added 60 runs.  Andre Botha (4/11) whipped out the last three in an over.  It was just as well Terenure were chasing only 151, because after Botha's classy 41 had ended at 71-2, Jason Kleyweg (32*) and John Hoey (18) nearly managed to make a horlicks of it.  The 'Nure won by three wickets in the last over, Jimmy Govan's ten overs yielding 2/6, Peter Saville's 2/22 and Glenn Kirwan's 1/23.

Across town in Cabra, Old Belvedere broke their duck for the season when they beat a severely depleted North County 2.  County had so many absentees that old soldier Joey Mooney had to answer the call, and he did OK.  He had Belvo star bat Simmi Singh caught for 1 to leave them 74-4, but that brought together Ahmed Dar (42) and Asim Aftab (66).  Both were out with the score on 146, whereupon Baker (33) and Fullah Yousafzai put on 81 together, and Yousafzai was left four short of his ton when the overs ran out.  Manmeet Singh took 4/61, and Jono Andrews bowled his ten overs for 23 runs and one wicket.

County were never able to pursue 290-9, opener David Casey sixth out for 34 of 74, but the bold Joey hung around for 11* and saw the total up to 127 all out in the 34th over.  Simmi Singh atoned for his failure with the bat by taking 4/33.

On Saturday there is a full programme of Division 1 matches, in which I expect Railway Union to dispose of Merrion up Cold Blow Lane, and North County to take the win points from the journey to Claremont Road to play YMCA.  Clontarf should be well used to dodgy pitches by now, and so beat Pembroke at Sydney Parade, but what will happen in the Park is anybody's guess.  Which Phoenix will turn up?  Which The Hills side will make an appearance?  Dunno.  Home win.

There are two Division 2 matches on Saturday.  Old Belvedere travel to Malahide, where they will lose, and Leinster go to Kenure where they will lose to Rush to make the top of the table very interesting indeed.  I haven't seen Rush yet this year, so @baldstu will be tweeting fom Kenure.  Neither have I seen Belvo or Cork County, so on Sunday I'll tweet from Cabra.  Also on Sunday is the clash between North County 2 and The Hills 2 at Inch.  A few tickets are still available.

That leaves just the Division 1 meeting on Sunday between Clontarf and Merrion at Castle Avenue.  If Alan Delany can find a strip of grass to play on, the home team should prevail, but they're very good with the excuses when things don't happen as they should.  No other 'Tarf side has a match on Sunday, but the Under 15s have a big game against Rush on Monday, so they might have to rest a few players.