Review of Divisions 3 & 4, weekend 3rd - 4th September
In Division 3, Clontarf 2 had a very good double weekend. On Saturday they travelled to the Phoenix Park, inserted Civil Service, and shot them out for 71 in the 34th over, Chris Cahill taking 3/18 and Vijay Gopal 4/14. Owen Butler scored 10, Darren Webster 15 and Ernie Extras 29, leaving 17 for the other nine batsmen. Khan and Butler bowled the 'Tarf openers, Cahill was run out, and at 21-3 Service must have thought they had a sniff. 32 from Gopal settled the matter as Clontarf won by six wickets in 15 overs.
On Sunday, Clontarf 2 entertained already relegated Oakhill. The Co. Wicklow side pushed 'Tarf hard, but hadn't scored enough runs to prevail. Clontarf again inserted the oppo, but at 87-3 Oakhill were reasonably placed (Barker 23). I don't know when the match was shortened to 33 overs, but 138-9 was all the visitors could manage (Mark Collier 3/11). If that wasn't bad enough, D/L reduced the target to 120. Clontarf reached 49-1 (Richie Reid 32, Vijay Gopal 20), then subsided to 88-7 with Tanveer taking 3/21 and the Wiz Hastie 2/18. General Mayhem, Paul Ryan, smacked 20* to win the match in the 27th over.
In Sydney Parade, already-promoted Leinster 2 were far too good for Pembroke 2. At one stage it looked as if it would be all over before tea as Pembroke lost their top six for fifty to Hugh McDonnell (3/30) and Asif Hussain (2/39). Andy Leonard (39) and Gary Baugh (28) led a fightback to push the 'Broke to 164 all out in 40.2 overs. There had been rain interruptions, and D/L gave Leinster a target of 155 in 41 overs. Joe Byrne (27) and Peter Johnston (63 off 48 balls) did the hard work as Leinster got home in the 26th over with seven wickets in hand.
In Division 4, Mullingar had a day out in the Park, and must have been pleased with themselves as they reached 156-2 (Condell 61), but the later batsmen could add only 43 more runs. In fact, they lost their last six wickets for 5 runs, five of them to Joseph, whose aggregate for the entire season prior to Saturday was 6-0-50-0. Also deserving a mention in despatches is David Ford, with 10-1-30-2 – I didn't even know Fordie could bowl! I knew he could bat, so his 72* is less of a surprise as Phoenix got home with seven wickets; he was supported by 28 from Amit Battan, 28 from Azim Nazir and 27* from Nitin Niak.
That win didn't do much for the promotion prospects of Phoenix 2, but Merrion 2 kept their noses ahead of YMCA 2 and Railway Union 2 when they beat Malahide on Sunday. In a match shortened to 42 overs, Malahide made 183-8 thanks to 58 from Hamish Manks, 49 from William Richardson and 21 from R Brown. For Merrion, Neil Brown took 3/22. The Malahide bowling was as unconvincing as the batting, as Kirk Shimmons (65) and Chris Allwright (50) put on 123 for the first wicket. Alan Parkinson (25*) and Neil Brown (26*) finished it off in the 31st over.