With the early season break now behind us some teams will be hoping that they can get their season back on track. The 3rd Round of the RCD1 provides the opportunity. But the two clubs with most to do have stiff challenges this weekend.
The four matches [all starting at 13.00] are:
YMCA v The Hills
Cork County v North County
Pembroke v Phoenix
Leinster v Clontarf
YMCA have had a tough start to the season and have yet to record a win. They have home advantage this weekend but perhaps would have been happier if they could have avoided the in-form team of the moment - The Hills. But as the league has shown this season the gap between winners and losers has not been much in most of the matches played. In their two games YMCA have made big totals [249 and 287 against Phoenix and North County respectively] but in each case they were chasing even bigger totals. Their bowling options won’t be helped this weekend with Simmi Singh absent on international duty but they do welcome back Bobby Gamble for his first match of the season and Anthony Moor [younger brother of Zimbabwean international,PJ] returns to the club after a season’s absence.
The Hills on the other hand have had something of a dream start winning all three matches [including in the Irish Senior Cup] with good all-round bowling and batting performances. They make the journey south side this weekend confident they can continue their good run.
YMCA: J Tector (C), T Fisher, O Gunning, H Tector, S Murphy (W), S McCauley, AJ Moor, R Jones, B Gamble, J Parkinson, S Streek
The other team yet to record a win this season is Cork County. They will no doubt hope that home advantage will give them some added edge this weekend but they are up against an experienced North County side with Eddie Richardson in great form leading the way. Cork really need an early win to show that they are capable of surviving at this level. They are sufficiently competitive that they will always present a banana skin for the unwary - but the challenge they face is getting themselves to mid-table and relative security. This week and next [when they take on Pembroke] may well determine how their season shapes up.
North County had a reasonably comfortable win in the first round v YMCA but this was followed by a loss to The Hills followed by exit from the ISC to a very strong CIYMS team. NC will be keen to get back to winning ways. Niall McGovern returns to the team and Nathan Rooney turns out for the first time this year.
North County: Eddie Richardson [C], Jamie Grassi [W], Niall McGovern, Andrew Sheridan, Jonathan Andrews, Adam Coughlan, Conor Sheil, Tomas Sheil, Terry Richardson, Cian Mulvaney, Nathan Rooney.
Cork County: Stephan Grobler [C], Ross Durity, Ian Coleman [W], Gary King, Kevy Bray, Marc Smith, Muhammad Qassim Butt, Matthew Reed, Bakar Saddique Wattoo, Diarmuid Carey, Adil Hameed.
Pembroke and Phoenix have one league win each [and both are through to the next round of the ISC]. This match is perhaps the pick of the round with not much between the teams. Phoenix may have struggled to stay in D1 last season but they look much more confident now with a good balance to the side and a more than useful cadre of young bowlers. Ari Karvelas has also added considerably to its all round strength. With only Adam Chester missing [exam commitments] they are able to call on a close to full strength side.
Pembroke's young side relied heavily on Daniel Salway last season to get them the runs they required. This season the runs have been more spread around. But it is to the bowling that Pembroke will mainly be looking if they are to make bid for competition honours.
Phoenix: Nicolaas Pretorius [C/W], Reinhardt Strydom, Ari Karvelas, Tom Anders, Ben White, Rory Anders, Andy Brawders, Ian Anders, Gordy Millar, Graham Morris, Richie Lawrence
Pembroke: Lawson P [C], Balbirnie J, Cutler N, Garth JJ, Gupta S, Hogan D, Hopkins R, Lawson T, Tucker D, Tucker F, Vermaak D
The final game of the round is between Leinster and Clontarf. Clontarf are the current champions and are leading the table with two wins out of two. They did come unstuck last weekend in the ISC when they were on the wrong end of a big century by Gary McClintock of Donemana that wrested the match from them. Clontarf have the same team as last weekend but are still missing David Delany and Bill Coghlan [injured] and Andrew Poynter in South Africa with the Irish women’s team.
Leinster have had a mainly positive start to the season. A win against Cork County in the first round and a very exciting match against Pembroke which they lost by only 14 runs. But they did get something of a hammering last weekend where Brigade scored 324/5 off 42 overs. Gareth Delany returns after missing last week’s game.
An interesting match in which Leinster will feel they are in with a good chance at home. But will their bowling be able to contain the Clontarf batting with John Mooney in great form.
Clontarf: Joe Morrissey [C], Andrew Vincent, Declan Gallagher, Shariful Islam, Waqar Azmat, Sameer Dutt, Naveed Khan, Conor Kelly, Robert Forrest, John Mooney, Brad Barnes
Leinster: JP O Dwyer [C], Craig Mallon, Gareth Delany, Ian O’Heirlihy [W], Arslan Anwar, Joe Carroll, Chris Janik, Bilal Azhar, Saqib Bahadur, Jayden Brown, Peter Byrne