A dramatic final weekend for the RSA Open Competitoins D1/D2 was focused on the relegation places with three key matches, North County v The Hills, Merrion v Clontarf and Leinster II v Cork County.
It was an early start and before we had even time to consider luncheon it was clear that there was only one match of interest in D1. As news filtered [unfortunately somewhat irregularly] through to the RSA Live Scores Match Centre that The Hills were 25/5, 50/6 and finally 79 all out it was clear that the head-to-head at Anglesea Road would determine who would go down. As confirmation arrived that North County had won by 10 wickets this meant that Clontarf had to win or get within 20 runs of whatever runs Merrion scored to stay up. Merrion simply had to win.
I will leave it to the Stu Daultry who was in attendance to describe the match 'in another place' but for the moment I would simply say that Clontarf may count themselves unlucky that Ben Ackland decided to wait until the final match of the season to show what a powerful batsman he can be. In an innings reminiscent of the days of Brad Spanner he simply tore the attack apart with a display of controlled hitting [eight 6s] and when he was finally out on 170 in the 49th over he had provided the foundation and most of the walls and roofing of what was a very competitive Merrion total of 291/8 off 50 overs.
The Anglesea Road pitch is pretty batsman friendly generally and the opportunity to avail of some good weather to prepare it meant that it was even flatter than usual. A bit of turn and low bounce but against this a very fast outfield meant that a score of 292 was not outside the realms of the possible, especially with the powerful Clontarf batting line-up. But Joe Morrissey during the Merrion innings had shown that accurate, short of a driving length, bowling could contain and put the batting team under pressure and Merrion had finally managed to put together a bowling attack suited to the conditions.
Clontarf got off to the worst possible start as captain Bill Coghlan was dismissed without scoring. The innings progressed at a steady pace of around three rising to four runs an over but once John Anderson had made the initial breakthrough, wickets then fell steadily and the required run rate rose sharply to 10 an over for the last 100. At this stage it was probably fair to say that Clontarf were targeting the lower figure of 272 in the hope of getting enough bonus points to get ahead of North County. What they needed was a really quick 50 plus from someone that would get them close to the required rate. Instead they took their singles and scored steadily but gradually fell further behind and when the time came for a final acceleration they had lost too many wickets. Merrion bowled well and the ground fielding and catching was the best it has been all season.
At the end of the day great relief for the Merrion supporters and huge disappointment for Clontarf, who will certainly look back on a season in which they won the Leinster Senior Cup with mixed feelings.
The other important match that was played yesterday was between Leinster II and Cork County. For the Open Competitions [and for the OCC] this may well prove to have been an even more significant result than the one at Anglesea Road. It is clear that a very strong Leinster squad of players have not only won the D1 league but more than maintained their own in D2. It will be interesting to see what lessons other clubs will take from this. The loss by Cork County, who have been perhaps the most unfortunate club this year in terms of weather disrupting their home fixtures, and their relegation from the D2 also raises interesting issues.
Nothing much else needs to said about the rest of the matches in D1 and D2. Leinster had a low scoring and ultimately successful match against Railway Union and YMCA continued their good form with a comfortable win over Terenure who have played much better in the second half of the season and can take positives from this into D2 next season.
In D2 wins for Pembroke and Phoenix simply went to confirm their dominance of the league this year. They will both come up to D1 next season with strong hopes of staying up.
The full results for the day are:
Division 1
Leinster beat Railway U by 28 runs
Leinster 128. Railway 100. [No details provided]
YMCA beat Terenure by 113 runs
YMCA 226/7 [S Singh 105*], Terenure 153 [Y Ali 4/30]
North County beat The Hills by 10 wickets
The Hills 79 [E Richardson 4/7, T Richardson 4/19]
North County 80/0 [C Armstrong 50*]
Merrion beat Clontarf by 41 runs
Merrion 291/8 [B Ackland 170]
Clontarf 250/9 [E Delaney 60*]
Division 2
Pembroke beat Malahide by 27 runs
Pembroke 241/8 [A Balbirnie 51]
Malahide 214
Leinster II beat Cork County by 5 wickets
Cork County 229/8 - Leinster 230/8 [No details]
Phoenix beat Rush by 3 wickets
Rush 178
Phoenix 179/7 [J Steenkamp 71]