Knockharley 3 vs Naas 2 - Not much to report on in Group A of the Russell Court Trophy, where Naas' only match was rained off, and Knockharley 3 lost to Adamstown 6. Knockharley 3 are 1-2 in Division 16, whilst Naas 2 are 0-2 in Division 17, so neither team with a strong start to the season, and Knockharley should be the stronger. Knockharley won the one previous meeting between the teams, when Knockharley won by 6 wiuckets last year, chasing 137.
Clontarf 2 vs Pembroke 2 - No preview, as previous matches this season involving at least one of these teams still to be processed.
Phoenix 2 vs Merrion 3 - Both teams sit in mid table positions in Division 4, Phoenix after one loss, and Merrion with a win and a loss. Phoenix's last win in the fixture at home was back in 2016, when Graham Morris led an all round Phoenix bowling performance with 4-27, before Ian Anders top scored with 35 to see Phoenix home by six wickets. The last two league matches in Phoenix have been won by Merrion - in 2019 and 2022.
Sandyford 4 vs Leinster 6 - Two teams at the wrong end of Division 19, but with games in hand there are plenty of opportunities to move up, and today's winners will find themselves in the top half. A win and a loss in the league for both teams so far. In two matches so far this season, no one has scored more than 30 runs for Leinster 6, but with the ball Ritesh Bishnoi deserves a mention for his three wickets at 10.67. He is part of a select group of active players (85 in all) who have more wickets than runs in their Cricket Leinster career. The player with the most runs in this list is Knockharley's George Angel with 100 runs, but 171 wickets.
North County 5 vs Ongar 1 - Two teams who will have high expectations in the league after solid starts to the season. North County are 2-0, whilst Ongar are 3-1. There isn't too much between the teams though, and we know that as North County won by 1 wicket when the sides played two weekends ago. Ongar made only 83 (Sherjeel Illyas took 4-13) before North County collapsed in reply. At 65-8 it looked all over, but 24* from Mohammad Shoaib saw County home by the narrowest of margins. That was the first North County 5 win by 1 wicket we have on record, and remarkably, they followed up with their second, against Malahide 5 last weekend.
The Hills 3 vs Castleknock 2 - The Hills are yet to complete a match, whilst Castleknock have lost two matches. Castleknock 2 have played five matches against The Hills 4 (between 2013 and 2017), winning them all, but this is the first natch they would have played against The Hills 3.
Tyrrelstown 2 vs Finglas 1 - No preview, as previous matches this season involving at least one of these teams still to be processed.
Kilkenny 2 vs Athlone 3 - Unbeaten Athlone 3 travel to a Kilkenny 2 side who have lost twice. Kilkenny won the only previous match between the teams, a Division 17 match in 2021, when Kilkenny chased 133 to win by 5 wickets. Rana Faheem Riaz is Kilkenny 2's leading run scorer this season with 106 runs at 35.33, whilst the leading wicket takers are Kalyan Ram Kusuma and Ahsan Tasleem who have both taken three. No one has yet got to 100 runs for the season for Athlone 3, but Manish Choudhary is the leading wicket taker with five wickets at 6.80.
Civil Service 3 vs Merrion 4 - A mid-table clash in Division 7, with both teams having a similar 1-2 record. For Civil Service 3 this season, no batter has yet got to 100 runs, with Raj Nejandhi having most with 78 runs at 26. With the ball, no play has more than four wickets, and stats together show that Service are just missing abit of star quality in this team. Someone needs to stand up with a big performance. For Merrion 4, Rob Stanton is leading run scorer with 107 runs at 35.67, with the leading wicket taker being Samuel Joyce with 5 wickets at 17.80.
Terenure 4 vs Malahide 6 - Terenure have got off to a decent start this year, with two wins (and two games rained off). Malahide 6 unfortunately have one of the worst league records in the province, losing their first four matches. This Malahide's first full season (they played in the 2013 Minor Cup without winning a match), so the hunt for that victory continues. In the match between the sides on May 7, Manav Sarvaiya top scored with 86 as Terenure scored 250ao (his highest score in 26 matches for Terenure), before Gethin Kelleher took 4-6 (his best bowling in 17 matches played for Terenure) as Malahide were bowled out for 96.
Leinster 3 vs Clontarf 4 - Leinster's season has not started amazingly, with a 1-1 record, but that looks like league winning form when compared to Clontarf's 0-4. Batting has primarily been Clontarf's problem, scoring 192-9. 140ao, 135ao and 93ao. The bowling hasn't been blameless either, with only the effort in restricting Mullingar 1 to 94-9 really looking like a good day's work. Three previous meetings have resulted in two wins for Clontarf, and Leinster's sole win (in August 2021) was by only three runs.
Phoenix 6 vs DLR County 2 - One loss for Phoenix sees them in 6th place in Division 17, whilst DLR County sit top with four wins. DLR County 2 haven't lost in their last six matches, an all time record for the team. Only two of Phoenix's matches this year have escaped the rain, so limited stats for this season to look at. DLR have played five matches, although no one has played in all five matches. No one has scored 100 runs for DLR County 2, but Manoj Jacob is the leading run scorer with 7 wickets at 7.71.
Halverstown 1 vs Dundalk 1 - Two unbeaten teams meet in Division 13. Dundalk sit in first place with three wins, with Halverstown down in 4th with just the one win over Adamstown 5. The teams have never met before, which is something of a miracle. Dundalk 1 first entered the league in 2011, and in 2012 Halverstown finished 5th in Division 8, and Dundalk 1 won Division 9. But when Dundalk were promoted, Halverstown dropped a team and played 2013 in Division 12. Dundalk then played the next six seasons 20-30 places above their County Kildare rivals, before a post Covid shakedown once again sees them in league proximity.
North Kildare 3 vs Ashbourne 1 - North Kildare have had both of their league games rained off, whilst Ashbourne are 1-1. This is the fifth match between the teams, with North Kildare leading the head to head 2-1. The last match, in 2022, ended in a tie. North Kildare recovered from 75-8 to 159-8 thanks to Ahmed Dar (67) and Sumit Solanki (24) (the highest 9th wicket partnership for North Kildare 3 - 84). Ashbourne were cruising at 78-0, before a flurry of wickets left them doubting themselves at 85-3. Finally 42* from Nishad Sudhakaran took them to the finishing line, but not quite across it.
Mullingar 2 vs Terenure 3 - A decent start to the season with Mullingar winning both their matches - against Adamstown 4 and Phoenix 5. Terenure 3 need to turn their season around after three losses sees them down in 6th place. Terenure have only won once in their four trips to St Finian's College, and their win was the last match. Unfortunately that was back in 2014 and doesn't have impact on today's game. Danny Hogan scored 100 for Terenure, and despite a 54 run partnership for the 9th wicket between Declan Ashley and Tomas Mount, Terenure won by 16 runs.
DLR County 1 vs Phoenix 4 - Phoenix have already lost to DLR County at home, and have a tough task on their hands if they are to win their first game - after losing their first three. It should be said that Phoenix finished 3rd in Division 9 last year, and Division 8 represents a big step up. On top of that win on April 23rd, DLR County have beaten Phoenix 4 on three more occasions; all four times the teams have played each other.
Greystones 3 vs Railway Union 5 - Two teams with similar records in Division 15, Railway having won two and lost two, and Greystones having won one and lost one. All three previous matches between these two have gone the way of Greystones, with all having been played in Greystones - Druids Glen, and Greystones chasing successfully each time. The 187/4 they scored last August (Kunal Arora top score with 47) was the side's fourth highest successful run chase ever. The highest is 259/2 (Philip Jonker 106, Andrew Reynolds 55, Jim Stewart 59) to beat Balbriggan 3 by 8 wickets in 2013.
Swords 1 vs Clondalkin 1 - Two losses to start Swords' home league season, whilst Clondalkin have a win and a loss. No matches between the clubs at this level (although Swords lead the head to head for all levels 5-4). Swords have always been "just a bit" ahead of Clondalkin - normally being ranked three places higher in the list of 1st teams. Last year there were five 1st teams between them, with Swords finishing 7th in Division 7 and Clondalkin fifth in Division 8
Adamstown 7 vs Lucan 3 - Two wins and a rained off match in Adamstown's first three Division 17 games, a good start, which seems them in second place. Lucan have won one and lost one, which sees them down in 5th place. Mohan Kumar Satyanarayana has been the star for Adamstown with 87 runs at 43.5 and 5 wickets at 10.8. For Lucan 3 Chirag Nagavekar is the top run scorer and wicket taker with 64 runs without being dismissed, and 5 wickets at 5.
Balbriggan 3 vs Wicklow County 1 - Top plays bottom in Division 10, as Wicklow County (one match played, one loss) travel to Balbriggan, who are 2-1. That loss for Wicklow County was against Balbriggan last weekend. For Wicklow County, 88-2 became 123 all out, with Roger Kear taking 4-19. Kear is one of only 35 players to have scored over 2000 runs and take over 200 wickets in Leinster cricket since 2011. Balbriggan then knocked off the runs for the loss of only three wickets.
Slieve Bloom 1 vs Merrion 6 - Two teams who have yet to break their winning duck in the league - Merrion with two losses, and Slieve Bloom with one. Two previous matches between the teams, all the way back in 2014. Both sides won their home game, with Slieve Bloom;s being a real team performance played in Kilcormac. No Slieve Bloom player scored a fifty as they ran up 220/6. Then no one took more than two wickets as Merrion were bowled out for 94 to give Bloom a 126 run victory.
Dublin University 2 vs Lucan 1 - Dublin University have only played one game so far, losing to Civil Service 4, and welcome Lucan 1 to College Park - the first time that a Lucan team has visited the historic ground. Lucan have beaten Castleknock 2 and sit in third place.
Adamstown 5 vs Gorey 1 - No preview, as previous matches this season involving at least one of these teams still to be processed.
Castleknock 1 vs Tyrrelstown 1 - A Dublin 15 derby in Porterstown with unbeaten Tyrrelstown taking on a Castleknock side who are 1-3 and in seventh place. Their only previous match was the 2021 Inter Cup semi final, when Castleknock successfully chased Tyrrelstown's 167/7 from 20 overs. Castleknock's individual performances have been fine this year - Qasim Raza Sethi is the highest scoring batter with 199 runs ar 33.17, whilst the leading wicket taker is Gurjeet Singh with 13 wickets at 13.31 - the second highest in the province this year. For Tyrrelstown, no one has yet scored more than 100 runs; Rajkumar Koka has 9 wickets at 9.89
Malahide 3 vs YMCA 3 - Malahide play their first YMCA Salver match of the season, whilst YMCA lost their first match to Longford 1. Staggeringly, the sides have not met since two Division 5 league games in 2013. In the first match on May 18, Harry Tector took 4-25 and then scored 27* as YM won by 4 wickets. It remains Harry Tector's highest score in Leinster cricket when he has also taken four wickets.
Knockharley 3 vs Tyrrelstown 4 - Knockharley's second match of day after playing Naas 2 this morning. Before this weekend, they had played one match in Group A of the Russell Court trophy, losing to Adamstown 6. Tyrrelstown meanwhile have just had their two atches rained off. Their one previous match was last year in Division 16, when 136 from Sarath Macha took Tyrrelstown to a massive 308/7. That is the highest individual score for Tyrrelstown 4, with the clubs highest score being 140* by Levon Shields for Tyrrelstown 1 against Slieve Bloom in 2019.