The Hills South African wicket-keeper Nic Pretorious finally came good to help his team edge a one wicket win against Merrion in a dress rehearsal for the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup final in two weeks time.

Kade Beasley (31), Dom Joyce (12) and Ben Ackland (12) were the only players to make it to double figures as Merrion were skittled for 105.

Tomas Murphy (4-27), Naseer Shaukat (2-13) and Mark Dwyer (2-38) were the main wicket takers.

In reply The Hills scorecard had a distinctly binary look to it as 8 players scored either 0 or 1.

Pretorious who has had a nightmare season with the bat finally emerged from his batting gloom to score 41, and although he was dismissed near the end, Howard McDonnell (21*) got The Hills over the finishing line.