Can The Hills continue where they left off from a broadly successful 2017 season? Winners of the Leinster Senior Cup, finalists in the Irish Senior Cup, semi-finalists in the Alan Murray T20s and in contention for league honours until Leinster made their late run, The Hills had a very successful year. But they have lost some key players who collectively contributed over 1000 runs [over a third of the total scored] and over 30 wickets [just short of a quarter of total wickets]. These will be difficult to replace.

Two important signings, Nicholaas Pretorius and Cian Nulty, will certainly help address any gaps in the batting, but it is the lose of Ryan Cartwright that may prove the most challenging. A pace attack that includes Max Sorensen, Nazeer Shoukat and Luke Clinton [with over 750 wickets for the club between them] certainly has pedigree, but the club will be hoping that all stay injury free during what could be a demanding season.

What the club can point to is a very promising group of younger players - Harry Archer, Mark Donegan, Andy Kavanagh, Ryan Tobin, Killian Everard and Cian Nulty - who can together make a difference in 2018.