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Divisions 3 & 4: review of the weekend 18th September

The official final Sunday of the season saw the last promotion place resolved in Division 3 but not in Division 4. In Division 3, Oakhill and Malahide 2 were already relegated. Balbriggan would join Leinster 2 in Division 2 next season if they could beat Civil Service with the full five bonus points. Service won the toss and elected to bat. Dwayne Harper (4/29) and Sarfraz Anwar (2/17) whipped out the first six Service batsmen for 30-odd, but then Mubasher Siddique (27) was joined by Perrins (26), and the pair took the visitors into the 80s. Roger Kear dismissed both and then last man Bala Kailash, taking 3/15 as Service were all out for 89 in the 25th over. Barry Archer was caught behind off Ullah Chatha early on, so Balbriggan needed Kear and Sarfraz Anwar to get them home for the full points. Alas, Sarfraz was bowled by Ullah Chatha for 30, and although Adrian Harper (17*) joined Kear (23*) to win in the 16th over, Balbriggan just missed out on promotion to Dublin University.In Division 4, Laois had conceded a walkover to Merrion 2, confirming their relegation along with Malahide 3 to Division 5, but not ensuring Merrion's promotion to Division 3.

The winners of the match at Park Avenue between Railway Union 2 and YMCA 2 would be promoted, while the losers could still be promoted depending on the result of the Merrion 2 v YMCA 2 match, rescheduled for next Sunday. The visitors won the toss, batted, and lost their first four wickets to Saad Ullah for 24. Jonny Harte soon followed, bowled by Ghavre, but then Sean Mcauley was joined by Jack Tector, the pair taking the score to 70, when Mcauley too was bowled by Ghavre for 34. Young McDonough-Kincade hung around with Tector to add another 28, Smith likewise to add 30, then Yaqoob Ali put it about to get the score to 172. On that total Tector was run out for 62, and Ali was last out for 28 out of 188 in the 47th over. Saad Ullah finished with 4/19, Ghavre with 2/28 and Kapoor Minor 2/38.The match had been shortened by a rain break to 47 overs, and Railway's D/L target was 185 to win. They were always struggling after losing their first four wickets for 36, and despite 27 from Tomlinson and 23 from Saad, slumped to 97-8. Ger O'Brien, always a fighter, marshalled ten and jack to add forty more runs before he was last out for 26. For YM, Smith took 3/25, Yaqoob Ali 3/35 and Harte 2/21. Railway must have been as disappointed as YMCA were delighted, but they will still be promoted if YMCA beat Merrion.

There was a good deal of comment through the Cover-Point website on my review last week, when I anticipated the promotion of Dublin University to Division 2.  I invited supporters of the University's participation in the LCU leagues to answer the points I had made earlier in the season, namely that a league is properly and fairly played between teams who for a season have exclusive call on a set of players, and play each other the same number of times.  I am aware that there are lots of instances where one of these conditions is bent a little, usually with compensating safeguards, but I'm not aware of any leagues, apart from the LCU, where both conditions are completely ignored.  While there may have been some rationale for Dublin University to enter a team in the Senior League in the 1940s and 1950s, there is none in the 2010s.  Continuing something simply because it's been that way for sixty-odd years is not an argument.

Did I get any response to my invitation?  Of course not.  The closest was “ it will not happen”.  OK, so go off and play friendlies.  The normal response was to ignore the arguments altogether and simply to demean my pieces: “disgusting abuses”; “senile rants”; “stupid ramblings”; “aeonian babble”.  Another response was to tell porkies: “Trinity does have good facilities”; “one of the best squares in Ireland”.  Whom are you trying to kid?  And then there's the hoary old favourite of disagreeing with things I never said: “Balbriggan should go up on the basis they will strengthen the division more than Trinity”.  Finally there's the device of posing a hypothetical question to which it's assumed (wrongly, in this case) that the answer is known: “One wonders will he write with such opposition and snobbery when he learns that UCD plan to enter a team in the Leinster leagues next year...”

Is that the best that you can do?  I've no idea if any or all of these apologies for argument emanate from graduates of TCD.  If any of them do, they reflect very badly on a fine university.  The one adverse comment that I did agree with is that I don't know very much about Divisions 3 and 4 apart from what I get from the scorecards.  If my gammy leg holds out, I intend to umpire on Sundays next season, and some of the matches in which I stand will be from those two divisions.  I might even be able to comment on my own decisions.  Everybody else will, so why shouldn't I?