Intermediate Cup
The Trophy
This is the oldest Leinster trophy dating from 1895 and has been competed for in every year since then. As outlined in Part 1 of this article, there was some organised cricket at this level prior to the first world war. This trophy was originally engraved - Junior Cup, Irish Cricket Union , Leinster Branch. It is not clear what competition it was originally awarded for or when it was renamed the Intermediate Cup. Whatever its origins, not only is it the oldest trophy but in some opinions it is the most attractive one being a patterned rosebowl rather than the standard cup of other competitions.
Winners
The competition in its early years was won by several clubs no longer in existence. Athy were the winners for each of the first two years and an Athy club was resurrected for a time in the 1980s.They entered the competition for several years with hopes of repeating their earlier success but did not succeed. The Land Commission club, who may subsequently have morphed into Merrion were also early winners as were Richmond Asylum and Beaumont, the latter doing a treble from 1902 to 1904. The first currently existing club to take the trophy was Clontarf in 1898. They were successful again in 1905 and ‘06 but then had to wait until 1924 for their next success. Leinster 2nds had a three in a row from 1907 to 1909 and were regular winners thereafter. A Sandymount C.C. also did t treble in the early 1920s. Apparently this was not a forerunner of any of the current clubs in that area. I have been told they played in an area which has since been built on, which lay between the present Sandymount Rd. and Beach Rd. between where Star of the Sea School now stands and Sandymount village.
In the one hundred and twenty three years of the competition, the cup has been won by thirty seven clubs, twelve of whom no longer exist. In the older clubs, several teams have won it over the years. Leinster club teams have most wins – nineteen – sixteen of which came in the first fifty years of the competition. Clontarf teams with twelve wins come next but no other club has more than six and there are eleven singletons.
The Present
The first round of this year’s competition is on the 24thJune with sixteen teams involved, nine of whom are from clubs who have never won the trophy.
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Junior Cup
The Trophy
As with the Intermediate Cup, the early history of this cup is somewhat unclear. It was apparently originally named the Minor Cup and was awarded to the winners of some form of league competition. It appears to date from 1910, at least that is the date of the first winners name engraved on it. When exactly it became the Junior Cup is not clear or if it was awarded every year in its early days but it has certainly been competed for every year since 1920.
Winners
From the engravings, the first winners were the Royal Hibernian Marine School (RHMS) in 1910. They retained the trophy in 1911 and also won it in1913. What happened in 1912 is not recorded. RHMS was one of the founding members of the Leinster Senior League in 1919 but dropped out after 1922 when the British army withdrew on the achievement of independence. Pembroke Wanderers are engraved as the winners for 1914/15/16. Presumably there was a cricket section to the hockey club which was separate to Pembroke C.C.. There are no engravings for 1917/18/19 – possibly no competition during the continuing war years and the immediate aftermath. Merrion are the first modern club to be recorded as winners. They won in 1920 and there are records for every year thereafter. As with the Intermediate Cup, names of clubs no longer with us appear frequently in the early years and even up to the 1960s.
The 104 recorded winning teams come from 41 clubs, 19 of which are no longer in existence. As in the Intermediate Cup, the Leinster club tops the list of winners. Its teams have won the trophy on thirteen occasions. Only three of these came in the past thirty years however, with the most recent being in 2003. By contrast, second in the list Merrion went from 1920 to 1986 without a win but now have nine. Rush come next with seven, several clubs have between two and five and there are sixteen singleton winners.
The Present
The 2018 competition starts at the end of this month with teams from fourteen clubs in competition, five of whom have yet to get their names on the trophy and four who have not won it in this century.
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Minor Cup
The Trophy
As mentioned above, the current Junior Cup trophy was originally called the Minor Cup although it is not clear when it started or what was the format of the competition for which it was awarded originally. It may have been that this name change occurred in 1926. Certainly there is a record of a separate Minor Cup trophy from that year. It lasted from 1926 to 1969. At that point (as explained in Part 1 of this article) that trophy became the Middle Cup and remains so today. From 1970 to 1985 the lowest competition was the Junior Cup but increases in the number of teams entering cup competitions meant that a restructuring had to be carried out then.
The ideal number of teams entering a cup is sixteen. That gives a straight four rounds including semi-finals and final. The competition does then not have to start until late May/ early June at least. That means that teams have some weeks to get match practice before embarking on a cup campaign. It also means a competition can be completed by mid-August at the latest. This is important given Irish weather. It ensures there is time to refix a cup final if weather problems arise, something which happens in at least one final every year. One can obviously have slightly fewer than sixteen teams without difficulty and slightly more does not create a serious problem. By 1985 however, the then Junior Branch Committee found that there were over twenty teams in both the Intermediate and Junior Cups and an extra competition was needed. Michael McGuinness of Rush C.C., a longstanding member of the Committee, donated a cup which became the Minor Cup and that is the trophy which has continued to the present day.
Winners
The Minor Cup competition which ran from 1926 to 1969 was first won by YMCA 3rdXI. There are some gaps in the record of winners until LCU handbooks started to appear in 1943. If any club has a record of winning this competition in any of the following years – 1927,1928,1929,1935,1941 – such information would be gratefully received. Of the twenty-one clubs recorded as winners over that period, twelve are no longer with us. As with other cups, Leinster have most wins while Balrothery (part of what is now North County) are second.
The first winners of the Minor Cup trophy being played for now were also YMCA. In the thirty-two seasons of competition, the cup has been won by twenty-one different clubs so no-one has dominated. The Hills and Clontarf with three wins each, are the most successful. Only two former winners are no longer with us. One is Knockbrack, a Fingal club of long standing but who sadly lost their ground some years ago. The second was the 1999 winner – Mayo County – a club that was based mainly around the Castlebar area and founded by some players who had previously played with Dublin clubs or in the UK. Not having much in the way of local competition, they were permitted into Leinster cups for a time. The club survived for a few years but then faded out.
The Present
There are teams from seventeen clubs in this year’s competition which commences on 7thJuly. Of these fewer than half have won the trophy in the past so a new name on it is a distinct possibility.
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Minor 2 Cup
The Trophy
Over the years it became the practice of some start-up clubs and existing clubs planning to field an extra team to “test the water” competitively by entering a cup competition for a few years before venturing into a league. This process of learning to walk before trying to run made sense in terms of facing the challenge of fielding teams over a full season. It was encouraged generally by LCU. Not all succeeded but most did and several of the many new clubs in the past twenty years started in this way. It meant though that the lowest cup competition - the Minor Cup - increased in size and eventually became unwieldy. In 2014 therefore it was necessary to start yet another cup competition. A call for a possible donation of a trophy was responded to by Greystones C.C./North Wicklow C.C. and the cup commemorates the late Sean Stanley, who had graced Wicklow cricket (particularly North Wicklow) for many years.
Winners
In the four seasons of the competition to date, four different clubs have won the cup. Three of these are clubs formed in the past ten years.
The Present
Teams from sixteen clubs play in the first round in mid-July. Only two of these clubs have won this cup in the past and as it happens they meet in the first round.