Another wet weekend has seen games called off across Leinster with another spate of refixes in prospect. But despite the disruptions there were a number of important results across the top three divisions.
In D1 YMCA maintained their hold on the leader’s jacket with another hard fought win, this time over Clontarf. Despite the heroics of Joe Morrissey [who put in an outstanding effort with the ball – 10 /3/16/5] YMCA scraped home on the second last ball of the innings for a two wicket win. This puts even more pressure on Merrion whose match against The Hills was abandoned to the weather on Saturday. The two sides meet next Saturday and if YMCA win the league race is all but over.
At the other end of the table Railway [thanks to Kenny Carroll] have put themselves in a position where they can escape relegation. Two weeks ago this seemed beyond them but back-to-back wins against Merrion and Pembroke means that they probably only need to beat North County in their last scheduled match of the season to stay up. In the meantime they have a very winnable game against Terenure next weekend that could consolidate their recovery.
The results of Railway’s efforts is that life is a little more uncomfortable for some other teams in the bottom half of the table. North County are immediately in the frame [they now have the same number of points as Railway] and have a tricky encounter against The Hills as well as the probably decider with Railway.
Looking at the table The Hills seem comfortable enough but their remaining three opponents include YMCA and Merrion. Were they to lose all three games and other results did not go their way, they could be overtaken by both NC and Railway.
The big result in D2 over the weekend was the comprehensive mauling of Cork County by Balbriggan. Cork have had a great season but had a poor day on Saturday losing by 89 runs. But the key point is that they are still only 20 points behind Malahide and the two teams have yet to meet in their second fixture. With their existing point lead, Malahide only need to win next Sunday in the Mardyke to take a commanding lead. A victory for Cork would see the league go to the wire with both teams scrambling for points in their remaining matches.
Finally, this is the time of year that clubs in D3 start looking more closely at what it would mean to get promotion to D2. This season there are a number of teams in with a chance. With the differences in the number of games played any one of seven teams still have a mathematical chance at securing one of the two top spots.
Over the weekend the second cancellation of the Laois v Clontarf II tie means that both teams get eight points, certainly not the result Laois would have been hoping for. At the same time The Hills did them [and themselves] a big favour by beating YMCA IIs. As matters stand at the moment the battle for promotion is likely to be between the joint ‘unofficial’ points leaders [North County II and Laois] and third placed YMCA, who are 16 points behind but with two games in hand on NC and one on Laois. But there is still time for one of the other teams to spring a surprise.