The Hills won the toss and asked Railway to have first bat. Kenny Carroll quickly lost his leg stump to Luke Clinton, but then Tom Fisher, carefully, and Conor Mullen, expansively, took the score into the seventies. Matt Dwyer had to retire injured after only three overs, and son Mark took over to remove Mullen (31) via a poor shot.

Trent Johnston quickly got to 14 before playing on. Another Sydney Trent, Copeland, batted aggressively with the patient Fisher, but was out caught behind three short of fifty. The innings concluded at 229/5 with an eight-ball onslaught by Saad Ullah (25*), with Fisher 89*. The Clintons returned respectable figures (Luke 2/34, Jos. 0/27) but everybody else went for near six an over.

The Hills had a terrible start, losing Bray, Patrick Byrne and Joseph Clinton for 29, and although Max Sorensen (30) and Michael O’Herlihy (14) batted sensibly, when the latter was run out with the score at 80, that was the end. Matt Dwyer didn’t appear, and the innings concluded at 118/9 off 29.4 overs.

 Copeland took 2/19 off 7 overs, Carlo Rendell 2/24 off 7.4 and Gurab Singh 2/26 off 8 overs.

YMCA and Merrion served up an entertaining encounter at Claremount Road on Saturday. Both sides went into the game having not registered a win in the first round of matches.

YM’s innings started briskly (30 for 1 wicket off 3 overs) but in the space of the next 7 overs they had subsided to 58-5. They managed something of a recovery but when the drinks interval arrived with them 7 wickets down and a score of 80 odd Merrion were most definitely in the driving seat. The fact they ended up making 135 all out (31 overs) was mainly down to a fine knock of 50 by Paul Beacroft who, having come in 5th wicket down, held the tail together well.

Merrion main wicket takers were the spin duo of John Anderson (4-30) and Titiksh Patel (2-25). John Anderson maybe a familiar face, as he returns to Leinster cricket after a two year absence, having played for Railway Union before.

Defending such a small total wouldn’t be easy but YMCA to their credit stock to their task well. As Merrion edged towards the target they lost wickets at regular intervals. The only innings of significance being a fine 45 from Damien Poder, more often known for his bowling than his batting, and Nick Curran (30). But with both batsman out and the score on 125-8 the game was finely balanced, with Merrion needing 10 for victory.

The return of Simon Wilson-Moore (2-21) for his second spell gave YMCA their 9th wicket. In tense finish it was left to YM's captain Warwick Armstrong (2-23), with Merrion need 4 runs for victory, to secure the win for the home side. The other notable wicket-taker for YMCA was Adam Rice who took 3-21 in his 9 overs.

Malahide ran up an imposing 246/7 in their clash with Leinster. James Henry top scored with 76, and there were also half centuries for both Phil Markey (68*), and John Pryor (54). Anton Scholtz (3-38) was the pick of the Leinster bowling.

In reply Leinster managed just 175, with Todd's 50 being the highlight, and JP O' Dwyer hit a breezy 30. Markey (3-31) completed a fine all round perfomance in their 71 run win.

In the final fixture a high scoring encounter saw Clontarf (268-6) beat the students of Trinty by 45 runs. Australian professional Rod Hokin top scored with 79, while Ireland 'A' International Andrew Poynter chipped in with 57.

Trinity's very own Australian professional Ben Dunk, again showed what a good player he is with 72, and Eoghan Delany made 49 in their respectable score of 223/9. Hokin was also among the wickets, taking 3-42.