Malahide vs Leinster

Leinster outplayed Malahide, the other promoted team, to win by 8 wickets. Malahide elected to bat and steadily reached 127 before Andy Pyne was bowled by the tall and impressive Byron Vermaak. In the tenth over captain Mike O’Brien, so often the Villagers’ rock, had his off stump flattened by Keily Todd for 18 and, pausing only to acknowledge the quality of the delivery, departed with the score at 37-3. James Henry set about anchoring the innings — a score of 200 looked competitive on this pitch — but no-one could stay with him. Only Philip Markey contributed significantly by biffing 27 off 22 balls (six fours) before he missed a straight one from 16-year-old slow left-armer George Dockrell. Markey and Henry had added 57 runs.

Henry was finally run out for 70 (63 balls, 7 x 4s, 4 x 6s), backing up as Todd tipped a straight drive onto the stumps, to end the innings after only 32.2 overs. The pick of the bowlers was Dockrell with excellent figure of 9-3-30-5 (his first over went for 18 as Henry took advantage of the last over of the extra fielding restrictions to loft three sixes). Vermaak had 10-1-43-1, Todd 6.2-0-28-2. Gilmore picked up one wicket for 50 off 6 overs (three spells) on his return from injury.

Leinster had almost an hour’s batting before tea. In 15 overs they lost only Jason Molins (pushing Callum Riches tamely to extra cover for 4 runs) and made 85 runs. (Shane Getkate had pulled up lame after only two balls.) Mark Jones and Anton Scholtz were extremely destructive. Both hit very hard and Scholtz’s ability to move back very quickly made it very difficult for the bowlers to find a length. Both capitalised on loose bowling.

Malahide needed a miracle or three immediately after tea and didn’t get one when Scholtz (on 27) was dropped almost straight away at mid-on. Jones was out for 79 (12 x 4s, 80 balls) and Scholtz saw Leinster home with 58* (11 x 4s, 65 balls). Malahide’s bowling: Riches 4.4-0-28-1, Markey 7-0-32-0, Henry 8-0-41-1, Pryor 5.4-0-29-0). The story of the match might be summarised by one statistic: 49 boundaries in the match: quick scoring but not for long enough.

Old Belvedere vs Phoenix

Phoenix had one of those days. They put Old Belvedere in, probably allowing for the reputation of the usually difficult OB pitch. Then OB racked up 290 runs while nothing much went to hand. They then collapsed spectaculary for OB to win by 144 runs. If there was a crucial stage in the OB innings, it was 13th over when two catches were dropped off consecutive balls (Simi Singh and Sameer Dutt). While neither was completely straightforward, they were chances. Sameer Dutt went shortly after pushing Kirk Edwards to Rory Flanagan at extra for 17 off 45 balls. This brought in Yogesh Kumar and he and Simi put on 182 over the next 90 min: 257-3; Simi 141 (133 balls), Yogesh 70 (82). The tail flailed away to bring up 290 off the 50 overs. The Phoenix bowling (crucially lacking the injured Flanagan) was not very pretty: David Langford-Smith 10-1-41-3, Garth Ancher 5-2-19-1, the unfortunate Conor Kelly 40-0 off his ten.

For Phoenix Flanagan and Kirk Edwards went swimmingly until drinks when Edwards— 46 (45 balls) — swept at Sadaat Raza, missed and was bowled off stump by the ricochet. Another wicket fell in the over and two more in the next, so that was 83-5. DL-S strove valiantly for 41 (33 balls) before being caught and bowled by Dutt. He put on 38 with Kelly and the innings closed in the 35th over. The OB bowling: Richie O’Donnell 6-1-28-1, Manoj Kumar 7-2-26-0, Dutt, 10-1-28-4, Raza 6.1-0-36-1, Derek McGeehan 5-0-21-1. Old Belvedere are making waves and their pitch is obviously the best it’s been for decades.

Clontarf v Merrion

Merrion took home the bacon from a high scoring match in Clontarf. Batting first, Alex Morrison and John Anderson put on 127 for the first wicket before Conor D'Arcy induced a nick behind to dismiss Anderson for 56. But this only brought Kade Beasley to the middle and he upped the tempo as Morrison tired. They added 93 in just 13 overs before Beasley departed for a well struck 51. He was helped by his ability to take full toll of Clontarf bowler's frequent overstepping. Morrison closed in on his century but fell short on 97 when he was lbw to Greg Molins who finished with 3 for 53. The innings might have ended with a whimper but for Damien Poder and Matt Petrie who added 53 in the last 5 overs with Poder out off the final ball of the innings for 44. Merrion closed on a daunting 287 for 7.

With Clontarf quickly reduced to 28 for 3, the task looked gargantuan but Ropu Islam joined Eoin Delaney to start the rebuilding process. Delaney went for 40 to a fine slip catch off Titkesh Patel and at 118 for 6 in the 30th over,the fat lady was clearing her throat. But Greg Molins (65) and Ewan Randall (43) put on 100 in just 50 minutes to give Clontarf a glimmer of hope. When they were out in quick succession the rest of the innings folded on 236 to leave Merrion comfortable winners. Simon Morrissey (2 for 39) and Titkesh Patel (2 for 41) were the pick of the bowlers with Jeff Short picking up a couple of cheap wickets at the death.

Pembroke v CYM

The CYM innings got off to a bad start when Rick Francis took the first of his two wickets in the 3rd over with the score on 8. His second came 4 overs later with the addition of only 3 runs. There then followed a period where runs dried up as Pembroke tightened the screw and CYM tried to rebuild. A 19 over third wicket stand of 60 runs between the CYM opener Steve Moore and the pro Adam Coetzee (29) rebuilt some of the damage. The stand ended when Moore was out on 25 off 75 balls, to leave CYM on 71 for 3. There then followed a middle order collapse which swung the game decisively in Pembroke’s favour. In the space of 8 overs 6 wickets fell for the addition of only 15 runs as the CYM batsmen struggled to get to grips with the spin duo of Andy Balbirnie (4 for 29 off 10) and Jonathan Cooke (3 for 35 off 10). Balbirnie missed out on a hat trick in his 9th over as he bowled a triple wicket maiden over.  Included in the wicket haul was Coetzee who battled hard for his 29 runs off 66 balls. At 86-9 after 35 overs, Pembroke had sights on bowling CYM out for under 100. However Michael Launders, the CYM captain, and Darren Nicol had other ideas as they set about putting a semblance of respectability on the score. Over the next 14 overs they rode their luck and in the process frustrated the Pembroke bowling as the two added an additional 69 runs. With the score on 155 in the 49th over the stand ended when Nicol, who made 31 off 33 balls, offered up a return catch to Peter Byrne (1 for 17 off 4.4). Launders showed his team-mates how it should be done ending on 33 not out.

Like CYM, Pembroke’s innings got off to a poor start with only 12 runs on the board in the 3 over they lost their 1st wicket. But that only brought Rick Francis to the wicket to join opener Andy Balbirnie and the two of them took the game away from CYM. The pair put together a 108 run partnership and took Pembroke to within sight of the winning post. Francis (60 off 69 balls) was the second wicket down with the score on 120. The fall of one more wicket and the retirement hurt of Balbirnie for an accomplished 63 not out, meant Pembroke made the required 156 in the 36 over for the loss of only 3 wickets. For CYM Darren Snell, Adam Coetzee & Darren Nicol were the only bowlers to pick up a wicket.

North County v The Hills

North County won the bragging rights in the first all Fingal league encounter in 2008.

A good opening spell form Max Sorensen had North County 19 for 2, then Botha and Shields combined to bring run rate past for an over. Shields had made it to 35,  when he chopped on an arm ball from Van Der Merwe. Botha continued to pick shots and played around the ground with Lawrence (34) working singles and rotating strike. Botha, attempting to hit the ball into the next parish, was out caught on the rope at the second attempt by Van Der Merwe of the bowling of Mark Dwyer who picked up four wickets. After Botha with a 57 was out in came Adrian Murphy.

He was dropped of the bowling of Sorensen in single digits, and was made to pay as Murphy hit to all parts for a quick-fire 44, adding 68 in 11 overs with Lawrence. A total of 300 looked on the cards at that stage, before Dwyer induced a collapse.

Ciaran Garry then played a composed innings at the death to pick what shots he played for a good knock in the 20’s. Eventually North County were bowled out for 231 in the 49 over. Pick of the Bowling Mark Dwyer 4 for 26 and Max Sorensen 3-24.

North County set about defending the total in the usual manner with a pace attack that aired on the hostile side, as Sorensen had tried in the first innings. The endeavour was rewarded when the Hills were reduced to 20 for 2 both openers removed within 8 overs. Jeremy Bray had a life but was not permitted to capitalise 2 overs later.  

Then entered Barry Archer whose class was apparent form the outset, he waited on the bad ball and when it arrived he capitalised on it to put away for runs. Max Sorensen was playing the support roll for the next few over with not much width offered. Archer was like a cat with extra lives having been dropped a number of times, he toiled through the difficult time  One sublime cover drive was an example of the way he batted on the day class shining through.

After Sorensen departed there was a rotation of support for Archer as wickets fell at regular intervals. Sheilds taking a sublime catch in slips to dismiss Robert Byrne making up for his earlier mistake. Eventually Archer was dismissed for 42 caught at cover by Botha of the bowling of Richardson . After some resistance from Skipper Luke Clinton and Matt Dwyer looking to gain as many points as possible, the Hills were eventually all out for 125 in the 39th over, and were unable to pick up any bonus points.

Best of the County bowling were Eddie Richardson 3-18 and Denver De’Cruz 3-24.