Leinster Senior League Cup – Matchday 1 Preview

The Leinster Senior League Cup, sponsored by IBI Corporate Finance, gets underway on Saturday with six matches down for decision in the first round of group games.

With seven teams in each group, one side remains idle each matchday. In Group A it is Railway Union and in Group B Rush who will have a delayed start to their competitive seasons.

Group A’s fixtures see two exciting squads going head-to-head in Sandymount as YMCA host The Hills. Meanwhile Phoenix’ new marquee signings Simi Singh and James Shannon, will head for the hallowed grounds of College Park and a meeting with Dublin University.

The third match in this group sees North County travel to the Village to face the strongest side in Division 2 in 2018, Malahide. The locals will be looking to confirm their potential and claim a place in the Premier League after the split with wins required early to continue their momentum.

In Group B, Terenure face the daunting prospect of a trip to Anglesea Road to face Merrion who will be looking to build on last year’s Premier League success.

Balbriggan will be looking to impress at the highest level when they travel to the Bull Ring and an intriguing clash with Clontarf who are boosted by the return of Eoghan Delany from Australia among other additions.

The final match of the weekend sees Pembroke entertaining Leinster at Sydney Parade. With no less than four internationals away in India to face Afghanistan over the winter, Pembroke have built a strong squad.

Andrew Balbirnie, Josh Little and Barry McCarthy will all be available, and while Lorcan Tucker will play for Dublin University in the Leinster Senior League Cup, the ‘Broke also signed Shaheen Khan from Waringstown over the closed season to boost their ranks.

Leinster for their part will have George Dockrell and Gareth Delany available for the opener ahead of the Inter-Provincial series in Spain. Young players like Tristan de Beer, who impressed many with his performances late on last season, will also be looking for more playing time in the firsts in 2019.

Ireland have a very busy May coming up and availability of players may be an issue but for this opening weekend it is likely that all players will be looking for time in the middle. With that in mind, the main coverage on Cricket Leinster’s social media platforms will be from Sydney Parade as Pembroke face Leinster.

Stay tuned to the new match centre on the website, watch out for tweets on both @cricketleinster and from reporter Peter Boyd (@fibrofella), with a full match report and images to follow at the close of play in Pembroke.  

IBI Corporate Finance Leinster Senior League Cup

20 April 2019

All matches begin at 12pm