The Tillain Cup - the prestigious T20 trophy for Division 3 and 4 teams, named after the well known Railway Union player Eddie Tillain. The last en years have brought eight different winners, but despite that promise of an open competition, the 2016 competition looks as if could be dominated by the top teams in the draw.
North Kildare 1 were the 2016 champions, but now they have been promoted to higher things. That leaves fourteen teams fighting for the trophy, but only four whom we think have a decent chance of lifting the cup on a sunny summer's evening in Terenure.
The league phase that has been used for all of Cricket Leinster's T20 competitions for 2016 also graces the Tillain. There are two groups of four teams and two groups of three. Group A, along with bringing the winners a home semi final, also gives the best chance for success from a team outside of the current big 3 of Clontarf 2, YMCA 2 and Merrion 2.
Leinster 2 last won the tournament back in 2008, but have had a poor record in recent years. Against that, they are in Division 3, and would fancy themselves against Division 4 teams Railway Union 2 and Civil Service 2. Their bogey team is likely to be Laois 1, and with Leinster travelling to Portlaoise, Laois look to be favourites to win that encounter (despite Leinster winning two of their last three visits). Laois last good run in the competition was to the 2013 semi finals, and they are our prediction to get to the same stage again this year. Railway Union are always capable of an upset (and have winning records over Leinster and Civil Service), and whilst Civil Service haven't won this comp for eleven seasons, have enough big hitting batsmen to be dark horses. Laois to go through, but this will be a group where the winners will only win two games and will go through on net run rate.
Group B sees Clontarf 2 take on newly promoted Malahide 2, and two Division 4 clubs, Greystones 1 and Dundrum 1. It is difficult to see anything other than Clontarf topping the group, although the major blot on Clontarf's record is their struggle to win the Tillain recently. They are five time winners (more than any other team in the competition), but haven't won since 2006. Good records over all the other teams (although they haven't played Greystones), means they should have little difficulty advancing. The other three teams are reasonably well matched, with Greystones having beaten Malahide in their one encounter, Dundrum having a 2-1 record over Greystones, and Malahide playing in a higher league division than the other two. Clontarf should advance, and would then have a very good chance against the group A winners - which would put them in only their second Tillain final since 2006.
Group C has another of the big three looking to show their dominance. All three teams in the group were relegated at the end of the 2015 season, but YMCA 2 came down from Division 2 to 3, and The Hills 2 and Phoenix 2 have come from 3 to 4. That one league difference should be too big for Phoenix and The Hills to overcome, especially with YMCA having the best recent record of all teams, winning the Tillain in 2014, and losing in the semi finals in 2013 and 2015. Whilst they have not lost to Phoenix since 2011, recent matches against The Hills have been a bit closer, and if there is to be a shock in the group, it will be in the YMCA vs The Hills match.
Group D promises to be the highest quality group, with Merrion 2, Pembroke 2 and North County 2 drawn together. All three are Division 3 teams, albeit with varying degrees of recent success. Remarkably Pembroke haven't lifted the Tillain Cup so afar, as we enter the 30th time the Tillain Cup has been played. It looks unlikely that 2016 will be Pembroke's year either. Although they have threatened recently, getting to the semi finals in 2014, and being runners up last year, they have been handed a tough draw. Merrion 2 won this in 2013, and have a 5-1 record over Pembroke in all competitions over the last five seasons. Meanwhile, North County aren't quite on the same level, but have won as many as they have lost against both Merrion and Pembroke, and will be no pushovers. Merrion to win the group.
So we think Clontarf 2 should get through the top half of the draw, with a YMCA 2 vs Merrion 2 semi final in the bottom half. That would be a repeat of last year's first round match, in which YMCA won by 35 runs. A repeat of that result would see a rematch of the 2014 final which saw YMCA win by 5 wickets thanks to a rapid 51 from James Meier. With little more to go on than flipping a coin, we'll tip Clontarf to get revenge this year.