Nine former winners of the Whelan Cup take their place in this year's draw, but one team stands apart from all others in being a three time winner of the higher YMCA Salver (the most recent being in 2008). They have to be seen as the favourites for this year's competition. To find out more, read on!
The Whelan Cup is the fourth rung in the ladder that is Cricket Leinster's T20 competitions. For many years a fifteen lots of eight ball overs affair, last year it reverted to a more conventional T20 format. The competition is for teams from Divisions 9 through 12, and therefore we would expect the Division 9 teams to have a major advantage. It has to be said that the defending champions Ringcommons find themselves in Division 10 this year, and most teams have some sort of a chance.
In keeping with our previews of other knock out competitions, we will break the draw into four parts, and try and see which team has the best chance of getting through to the semi finals.
The top quarter of the (regional) draw sees teams from North County Dublin, Dublin 8, Dublin 3 and 15 do battle. A preliminary round match between Rush 3 and Clontarf 5 promises to be a nail biter, as the two Division 11 teams played each other four times last year, sharing the spoils. Rush though have not won a T20 match in the last four seasons, and Clontarf, who have reached the quarter finals in each of the last three seasons have to be favourites to progress.
There they will meet Castleknock 2, who are similarly matches to both Rush and Clontarf. The Porterstown team played Rush three times last year, winning one, losing one, and tieing one, and you can't get much more evenly matched than that. Home advantage may count, and Castleknock could well advance to the quarter final, squeezing past which ever of Rush and Clontarf wins the preliminary round match.
In that quarter final, Castleknock (possibly!) will play either North County 4 or Civil Service 3 - another close one. North County went on a brilliant run to take the 2011 Whelan Cup title, but since then have only won one T20 match. They beat Civil Service 3 in that tournament, but haven't played them since. Civil Service 3 won this title the year before (2010), but have also had a dodgy record since, their sole victory since 2011 being over Castleknock 2 in last year's prelim round. This could be a very tight quarter of the draw, but North County could just sneak their way to the semi finals.
The other quarter of the northern part of the draw has two more prelimanary round matches. Phoenix 4 and Swords 1 renew their rivallry with the head-to-head locked at 2-2. Phoenix reached the semi final in 2013, but have been first round losers every other year. Swords were runners up in 2013 and losing semi finalists in 2014. But.... in what could be termed a shock, Division 9 Phoenix should beat Division 10 Swords.
The winners will then will meet The Hills 3, who have had a tough few seasons, which has seen them demoted from the YMCA Salver to the Whelan Cup, As such, they are one of the highest ranked teams in the draw, and had a decent 2-4 record in the higher Salver. Moreover, they won the Whelan Cup in 1989 and 1990, and the YM Salver in 1993, 1999 and 2008. They may not be as strong now as they were, but they should be strong enough for whoever wins between Phoenix and Swords.
In the quarter final, The Hills may meet Malahide 4, who themselves face the winners of the prelim match between Ringcommons 1 and Mullingar 2. Mullingar are untested in this competition, and have always struggled with a competition that favours Dublin teams by making most ties happen in the capital. Ringcommons had a tough 2014 after a great 2012 and 2013. Despite being defending champions (the toughness in 2014 was in the league not the Whelan Cup), whichever team wins this one will be underdogs against Malahide 4.
The Villagers have a curious record in the Whelan Cup. They are 4-1 since 2011, and won the last four matches they played, culminating in the winning of the 2012 Whelan Cup. Due to the vagaries of T20 comps, they have not been entered since, with Malahide 3/4 playing in the YMCA Salver instead. So unbeaten since 2011, they will be a tough proposition. The quarter final could be a classic - if our predictions are anywhere near close!
The southern half of the draw looks very strong. Cabinteely 1 play Greystones 2, with the winners going on to play Terenure 3. As one of only two Division 12 teams (Halverstown 1 are the other one), Cabinteely are up against it in this competition. Their team spirit engendered by the disgraceful vandalism on their ground may help, but they have a bad 0-3 record against Greystones 2, and look like bowing out early. Terenure 3 await ,a team who have been unlucky in recent years in playing Sandyford 2 frequently. Those battles with the men from Marlay Park have left Terenure winless in the last four years of T20 competition. Greystones may win this one.
Leinster 5, the 2013 champions have a formidable T20 record, being runners up in 2012 to boot. They were shock preliminary round losers to Merrion 6 last year, but should have enough to beat a Railway side who have not won in the Whelan Cup since beating Old Belvedere 3 in 2012.
The bottom quarter sees another giant of this competition lurking, Sandyford 2. Sandyford won this in 2008, but in recent years have been impressively consistent - losing semi finalists in 2011 and 2012, losing quarter finalists in 2013 and runners up in 2014. They will have too much for Merrion 6, who are two divisions lower in the league. In the first round proper, Sandyford (if they should win) will play Lucan 1. There are no previous meeting to go on, but home advantage, and that previous form indicates they will advance.
In the quarter finals, Sandyford will play one of Halverstown 1, YMCA 5 or Pembroke 5. Halverstown beat YMCA 4 by 120 runs in the 2011 Inter Cup, but much has changed since then, and despite a less than impressive T20 record, YM should advance to play a Pembroke 5 side who are very much a similar side. The teams both play in Division 11, and they shared two league games in 2014. YMCA may advance, but without any real reason. One of them has to win!
So that is it. We've named our eight quarter finalists. If we had to predict semi finalists, we'll plump for the old reliables - North County 4, The Hills 3, Leinster 5 and Sandyford 2, with the men and women from Milverton coming out on top in the final.