With a crucial weekend at the wrong end of the table coming up, the Section Two preview returns for one week only as Dundrum and Holywood battle it out to see who can stay out of the dreaded second relegation spot. Late September cricket is rarely all that much fun at the best of times, but with a glorious weekend’s weather being predicted both teams have two crucial matches that I will take a brief look at to see who might pick up a few points.

On paper, neither Dundrum or Holywood have a straight-forward task as both play two away fixtures at the weekend, so hopefully all four of the grounds are available for play and the issues can be decided on the field.

Saturday’s games see Lurgan host Dundrum while Holywood travel to the Desemene to play Saintfield who aren’t mathematically safe but would need a real horror weekend to see themselves pulled into the equation. Lurgan find themselves in a four way tie for third place, a position that they probably did not anticipate at the start of the summer although a win against Dundrum at the weekend would see them take that position outright, although still a long way behind Champions Ballymena and runner-up Woodvale. Their motivation might be slightly lacking though after the debacle of conceding a fixture to Holywood and not hosting Armagh last weekend either. Dundrum will certainly see this as a potential point scoring opportunity, especially given the close game the sides had earlier in the season.

Saintfield against Holywood should be another close game, with the home team having such a great start to the season reaching joint third at one stage although results have fallen away a bit with time, they still will be rightly happy with their efforts back in Section Two season and a home win would guarantee that status for another year. The previous fixture at Seapark resulted in a comfortable Saintfield win, something that Holywood will be desperate to avoid or else they could have a rather uncomfortable Sunday.

Holywood do not have an easy assignment on Sunday either as they travel to Moylena to face a Muckamore side who will be eager to finish another up and down season on a high. They will have the same motivation as Lurgan on Saturday, namely that a win could see them finishing third in the table and notionally best of the rest, which would certainly give them something to work upon for next season. Certainly Holywood have plenty to play for, but I see this being a pretty tough fixture for them if the hosts can get a strong side out.

The final fixture on Sunday, and indeed in the season for Division 1 Section 2 is Dundrum’s journey to The Mall to take on already relegated Armagh in a game that will be reduced to 43 overs with a 1pm start due to the ground rules. Armagh have had a frustrating and taxing season with a lot of poor defeats and indeed an unfortunate league high four no-results that didn’t help their cause, relegation being finally sealed last weekend when the fixture at Lurgan was called off. Depleted sides are likely to be the order of the day given that it is a September Sunday, and although Dundrum have much more to play for, perhaps Armagh would like to bow out of Section Two on a winning note.

All four fixtures look like they are pretty hard ones to call and the final weekend of the season looks like it could have plenty of twists as Dundrum and Holywood battle to stay in the Section. I haven’t made predictions to date this season and certainly won’t be starting now, but would like to thank anyone who read the column earlier in the year.

Weekend fixtures:

Saturday 27 September
Lurgan v Dundrum
Saintfield v Holywood

Sunday 28 September
Armagh v Dundrum (1pm start)
Muckamore v Holywood