Another all Leinster RSA Irish Senior Cup Final beckons on 24th August, the sixth time in the last ten years that this has happened. In yesterday’s semi-finals Merrion accounted for CSNI, the last Northern team, while Clontarf beat YMCA in a rain affected match.
It was an enthralling affair down in Claremont Road where fortunes swung wildly until after the final rain break of the Clontarf innings, V Gopal took a decisive hand and along with Bill Coghlan took the game away from the home team. Earlier in the day it looked like the game might not last over long. At one point YMCA were three wickets down for five runs with skipper Albert Van der Merve, Simi Singh and Jack Tector all out. Two fifty run partnerships between Reinhart Strydom and Jeremy Bray and then between Strydom and Trent Johnston [the latter hitting an undefeated run a ball 66] provided the basis for a competitive first innings total of 215/7.
The Clontarf innings also got off to a terrible start with Robert Forrest, Joe Morrissey and Mark Collier out with the score on nine. But that was just about the last bit of good fortune that YMCA had. Gopal and Coghlan first dug in and ensured that there would be no further collapse and then, after the rain break, let loose. The next wicket [Gopal 72] fell at 150 only 26 short in what was now a 36 over match. One further wicket was to fall when Andrew Poynter was run out, sacrificing his wicket after Coghlan had slipped trying to take a quick single, but there was no panic and in the end Clontarf got home with nearly five overs to spare.
The Merrion v CSNI match was a more one-sided affair. Merrion batted first and lost Kade Beasley in the fourth over but a 79 run partnership between Ben Ackland [42] and Brett Thompson [45] brought the score close to 100 without further loss. Even when both batsmen fell soon after [107/3] this only brought John Anderson [86*] and Dom Joyce [37] to the crease and the score was 200 before Joyce fell in the 42nd over. Simon Morrissey added a quick 14 and in the 47th over Peter Blakeney came to the crease. Thereafter Blakeney faced 20 of the remaining 23 balls and ended up on 45 not out in a partnership of 53. The final score was 292/5.
Going in to bat, CSNI lost two quick wickets as Dom Joyce removed both openers. The swing of schoolboy Tom Stanton that made the crucial breakthrough, bowling the CSNI professional G Nieuwoudt. Morrissey struck quickly with a couple of caught behinds and CSNI were in serious trouble at 78/5. Nigel Jones was still at the crease and for a short time there appeared a chance of a batting revival but when he went caught and bowled by David Watkins for 49 the contest was effectively over. CSNI’s lower order put up some resistance and managed to reach 200 before Anderson took the last of his three wickets.
Perhaps not surprisingly given its relatively short history this will be the first time that Clontarf and Merrion have gone head-to-head in the final of this competition. There have been three encounters between the two clubs in the Leinster Senior Cup [Merrion won in 1960 and Clontarf in 1995 and 2007] but these will count for little on the 24th.