Perhaps it has more to do with home advantage than anything else. This year 7 out of the 9 games played have been won by the home side. Given the highly competitive nature of the league winning your away games is beginning to look especially important.

A beautifully sunny bank Holiday Saturday for the Mason Alexander / LHW Financial Planning Premier League saw a number of exciting finishes. Three teams without a win managed to get off the mark and there are now 6 teams within 10 points of each other. Every team in the league has lost at least one game.

The Match of the Day [Click Here] was in Milverton between The Hills and YMCA. The Hills batted first and struggled to 201/9 with a top score for debutant Mohammed Ramadan [36]. Padraic Flanagan [not for the first time this season] was the pick of the bowlers with 3/26. Simi Singh was also in the wickets [3/31]. A score of 201 should not have been enough and with Singh and Oliver Gunning going strong at 61/1 the match seemed well within the visitor’s grasp. But for the first time this year the pressure told and three wickets in an over from Tomas Rooney Murphy [4/33] turned the match. As long as Singh [67] was at the crease YMCA had a chance but once he fell [8th wicket] the odds were stacked in favour of The Hills who duly won by 36 runs.

Phoenix were another team looking for a first victory. They narrowly lost out to YMCA the previous weekend but this time, in an even closer affair, they prevailed. Batting first Phoenix put up their first  250 plus score of the season. Brad Kneebone led the way with 88 off 100 balls and was well supported by Adam Chester [59] and a late blast from Tom Anders [35*]. Andrew Clough took the wickets for Leinster [4/45]. With all five of the top order making telling contributions Leinster were well in contention and at one point they were 221/3. But when captain George Dockrell [70] fell on 225 [6th wicket] the pressure was on the visitors. Phoenix used eight bowlers and six took a wicket or more - so it was very much a team effort from the bowling side. Seven overs from Fletcher Coutts [3/27], including the key wickets of Dockrell and Joe Carroll, was the most telling contribution.

The fortunes of the two teams [North County v Clontarf] after R2 were very different. Clontarf had secured a good win against The Hills and North County had been badly mauled by Merrion. But of all the teams in the league North County have by far the best record v Clontarf. Since 2011, Clontarf have only won 33% of their encounters in the top league. And so it proved, NC were once again Clontarf’s undoing. The key to the win was a solid batting performance with three half centuries from Jamie Grassi [58], Jonathan Grassi [76] and Andrew Sheridan [65]. The final total of 262/9 is very gettable at Inch but this early in the season it was a formidable total. With three players out for 50 the home side were on top but a half-century partnership between Andrew Poynter and Abraham Pienaar [77] gave Clontarf hope. A middle order collapse, however, pretty much put paid to Clontarf’s chances despite some late order heroics by Joe Morrissey [33]. North County win by 31 runs.

The final game between Pembroke and Merrion was the only one without a close finish. But this did not look likely at the midway point when Merrion were bowled out in the 49th over for 192. Earlier Merrion had progressed steadily against the battery of Pembroke spinners and at 157/3 [mainly thanks to 64 from Dom Joyce] in the 38th over might have expected to well pass the 200 mark but wickets from Paul Lawson [who finished up with 4/42] and the demolition of the tail by Alex Ridley [3/30] saw Merrion fall short of expectations. But that was as good as it got for Pembroke. Two wickets to Poonish Mehra in the first over put Merrion in the driving seat and wickets fell steadily thereafter. John Anderson took a couple and Max Neville three to finish off the innings. Merrion ended up winning by 91 runs.

Attention now turns to Monday where the teams all match up again.

The Hills v Pembroke

Phoenix v Clontarf

Leinster v Merrion

YMCA v North County