SKELLIG SIX 18 - LEINSTER SENIOR CUP (1ST ROUND - 11.5.2024)

This most prestigious Open Senior Cup competition dates back 89 years to 1935 and was initially played for by eight clubs - Leinster, Civil Service, Clontarf, Merrion, Dublin University, Pembroke, Phoenix and YMCA. By 1940, there were thirteen entrants, the then seven Senior League teams plus Carlisle, Cremore, Imperial Tobacco, Malahide, Monkstown, and Railway Union. For some years in the 1940s, some second elevens even took part.

The competition has been played in various formats over the decades. The 2024 iteration will, once again, be played as a white-ball (coloured kit) knock-out competition. Dublin University will be participating in the competition again in 2024 having last won the Senior Cup trophy in 1963 (as the third year of a treble success in the competition). 

Clontarf are the holders having won the 2023 competition defeating The Hills in the Skellig Six 18 Senior Cup Final at Sydney Parade last August. The holders have won the trophy on 15 occasions and were due to begin the defence of their title with a home draw against Railway Union at Castle Avenue, however due to the international series taking place in Clontarf this weekend, the game was flipped to Park Avenue instead with both sides unbeaten in their respective leagues so far this early in the season.

In a reverse of last season, Dublin University will travel to last year’s finalists, The Hills, at The Vineyard on Saturday (11th May) with uncertainty surrounding the situation in College Park meaning a fixture swap, in what was unfortunately due to be a show-piece event at the iconic ground. 

Meanwhile Irish Senior Cup holders, Leinster CC, will host North County in Rathmines with both sides having a win and a loss from the first two matches in the Premier League and Championship respectively.

Phoenix (who have won the trophy 15 times) face a tough home draw against Merrion as they look to claim this prestigious trophy which they last won in 1982 (some 42 years ago).

Finally, Balbriggan are already through to the Quarter-Final stage having been drawn to play YMCA CC who recently withdrew from the 2024 competition due to ground availability issues. Sadly, this will be the first year ever in which YM will not compete in this historic competition. 

These 7 ties are set to throw out some enthralling cricket over the course of Saturday afternoon, so we’ll dive into proceedings with the clash at The Vineyard.

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY VS THE HILLS

As noted already, this fixture will be played at The Vineyard this weekend after uncertainty surrounding the re-opening of the Trinity College Campus this week, and whilst disappointing for those associated with “The Students” both clubs should be commended for accommodating this solution.

The Hills will be eager to hit the ground running here and put the disappointment of last season’s final well and truly behind them. Not playing last weekend won’t necessarily have them in the best of positions heading in to this weekend, especially when considering that even those players that did play in the District Cup for Fingal, Brandon Kruger and Yaseen Sherzad, were part of a victory so facile neither of them even needed to step up to the plate with bat or ball. Both are in good form however, having made 62 apiece in the opening fixture of the season against Civil Service, sharing a partnership which saw the side recover from a rocky start. Whilst their form is a strong point, the home side will be hoping to see Nicolaj Damgaard burst into life this weekend, with the explosive Danish-man likely to appear at the top of the order and obviously crucial to the side’s chances of success this season. With the ball, they have real experience in the shape of skipper Tómas Rooney-Murphy, which will be important to them if push comes to shove, whilst their other seamers will likely feature the more raw talents of left-armer Matthew Weldon, and pair of right-armers Muzamil Sherzad and Cian Nulty. Damgaard and Kruger provide left & right arm off-break options respectively in a side which has plenty of bowling options available.

Dublin University meanwhile are led by Gavin Hoey and will feature many familiar faces from across the league as they are set to have a real crack off this competition. Their batting whilst possibly slightly thin has plenty of experience, David Vincent will provide a nice foil for the rest of the unit to bat around, whilst Nicolaas Pretorius and Gavin Hoey are a pair of explosive boundary hitters, they have a pair of excellent seamers in Mikey O’Reilly and Theo Dempsey however their options run thin there quite quickly too, one area where that certainly isn’t the case is in the spin bowling department. Frontline they have Hoey’s leggies, along with Matthew Humphrey’s left-arm offies, supported by Jamie Forbes’ left arm and Vincent’s right arm offies. Ultimately the side’s successes will come down to whether not having played a game at full strength hinders them and how fast they get out of the blocks, however with experienced InterPro cricketers such as Hoey and O’Reilly in their ranks they ought to put together a strong performance.

The Hills have some real talent in the ball-striking of Nicolaj Damgaard, and considering the week one rescue job which their side had to do, he will no doubt be keen to get them off to a flying start. That will make his opening battle with Mikey O’Reilly an incredibly important part of the game, with Dublin University’s left-arm seamer sure to be fired up to get his team on the board early on.

KEY BATTLE: Nicolaj Damgaard vs Mikey O’Reilly

Leinster vs North County

Two sides who started the season with excellent performances in week one in the league were both brought back down to earth with a jolt in week two with humbling results. That makes this tie somewhat of a battle between two enigmas, both with match-winners available to them that could change the game based off one performance.

Leinster’s Matthew Vercoe-Curtis was the first man to feel the harsh reality of Mother Cricket last weekend, as he was castled first ball of the innings against Clontarf off the back of a century the previous weekend, the away side will be hoping he can get them off to a good start again this weekend. Monil Patel and Joey Carroll have been consistent forces for them over the last two seasons with the bat and will need to stand up here to get the side into a good position, especially where they are without Gareth Delany’s power hitting, which assisted them massively against Merrion in week one. Tristan de Beer and Mark Tonge both showed glimpses of their power hitting abilities in round one of the District Series, and are two options which are potentially under-utilised by the Rathmines outfit. With the ball, Jai Moondra and Aussie Luke Callanan provide the real pace angle, with skipper Bilal Azhar the next seamer up, whilst Carroll and Tonge are two more skilful operators, the spin options both come in the shape of their all-rounders, with Saqib Bahadur supported by de Beer.

North County left themselves with a mountain to climb last weekend against North Kildare, when only Eddie Richardson’s century provided any level of resistance to a sensational team effort from their hosts. That mountain will be even steeper this weekend if they put themselves into that position again, with Richardson unavailable. Shreehari Madyalkar will move up the order to account for his absence, having put together two good performances for North County 2 last weekend. Suliman Safi hasn’t fired in three knocks since his opening weekend century against Terenure and is a player they will be looking to lead the side with bat in hand this weekend. Skipper Niall McGovern is another man who’ll be looking to step up to the plate and with the potential absence of Simi Singh too, County will need to pull out all the stops as a unit in order to produce a good batting effort. With the ball, they are boosted by the return of Abdul Sattar, who comes back into the seam attack that without Richardson still features Abdul Ghaffar and Sean Sludds, two bowlers who in spite of a wide variance of pace have both proven likely to produce match-winning spells from time to time. Alan Joseph Mathew will be the primary spinner in the side if Singh is absent, and he has shown time and time again that he is a classy operator.

North County are a side which thrives with it’s back to the wall, and without Richardson and potentially Singh this weekend, they could rightly be deemed underdogs in this instance, with Suliman Safi set to be absolutely crucial to their chances. They do however come up against a Leinster side which made it’s mark by defying people’s expectations last season and faltered last weekend just when there was a suggestion that they needed to be deemed a major threat, one player they have who is certainly a major threat is Joey Carroll, and it could well be his ability to consistently threaten the off-stump which causes Safi problems this weekend, whoever comes out on top in that instance is likely to come out on the winning side.

KEY BATTLE: Suliman Safi vs Joey Carroll

Pembroke vs Rush

Pembroke go into this weekend with not quite the “dream team” of their opening league fixture of the season, but a side which is still expected to feature no fewer than five players who have represented Leinster Lightning at Senior IP level. That before mentioning overseas man and skipper Nick Stapleton, or former Lisburn 1^st XI opening bowler Mark Berry who makes his Senior debut for the Sydney Parade outfit this weekend. With several of these players making their first 1^st XI appearance of the season in this fixture, it’s hard to say they will definitely hit the ground running, however that doesn’t by any means lessen the ability on show. Tim Tector is in fine form, opening the IP20 season last weekend with a pair of half-centuries on his new home ground. The Broke’s batting unit is led by Tector, Stapleton and JJ Garth, whilst Diarmaid & Fiachra Tucker, Jack Tector, Joe Prendergast and Danny Hogan are all players who have featured in the top 6 in previous seasons and offer real depth to the team. With the ball, Berry as mentioned already will likely share the new ball with Stapleton, whilst Olly Riley is the next seamer up. Paul Lawson is likely to be the primary spinner in the absence of Gavin Hoey and his knack for taking big wickets could well prove vital in that vein. Fiachra Tucker and Prendergast are likely to share a bowling load to help further account for Hoey’s absence.

Rush entered the season in the Championship as a complete unknown, however two weeks in they have 49 from a possible 50 points and seem to have a reliable unit to call on with both bat and ball, this however is no doubt their biggest test of the opening few weeks. Overseas Josh Doyle hasn’t fired quite as yet, with two starts not being capitalised upon, whilst fellow opener Nathan McGuire showed his devastating ball-striking ability last weekend against Terenure. The Kenure men appear to still be testing the balance of their middle order, with Brandon Morris having batted at three last weekend, however along with Rahmatullah Sahaq, Hashir Sultan and Jack McGee they do have the bones of a good unit if they can balance it out correctly. Finn McGee behind the stumps is another solid batting option, whilst their week one victory centred around the resistance of their tail in not rolling over and compiling an ultimately imposing total. With the ball, Jarred Barnes and Allan Eastwood are still two good operators and will be hunting early wickets, with Asher Abbasi being a solid third seam bowling option. The real key operators however are their spinners, who accounted for a total of five wickets last weekend, two for Doyle and three for Afghan Nasir Totakhil who has already made a strong start to life in the Cricket Leinster leagues, five wickets coming at an average of just 7. Totakhil’s skills will be massively important against a Pembroke unit which is so deep in it’s batting stocks.

As mentioned already, Paul Lawson is the man in Pembroke’s side which has the main proclivity for claiming big wickets at important times, and in this instance, in spite of not quite firing in the games so far this season, Josh Doyle is likely to be the big wicket the home side need to take to get on top of Rush, if he gets through the opening spell, it’s likely Stapleton will look to Lawson to find the breakthrough.

KEY BATTLE: Paul Lawson vs Josh Doyle

Clontarf vs Railway Union

The wait goes on for Clontarf’s overseas man Rahul Dalal to make his debut for the side as he’s yet again not arriving in time for this weekend’s first round clash. There is however a return for the stand-out club cricketer in Leinster for the past two seasons, as David Delany is back in the side having returned from his winter in Perth. Delany overcame a late arrival last term to claim the Samuels Cup as the leading all-rounder for the second successive season, whilst he also claimed the O’Grady Cup in 2023 as the leading bowler to add to his Marchant Cup success in 2022, his return could arguably prove a bigger boost to the side than the eventual addition of Dalal. With the bat, Mitchell and Henry Thompson are two of the off-season additions to Clontarf which make them an extremely formidable unit, whilst John McNally comes into the games off the back of a decent week on loan with the Munster Reds at the IP20 festival and more runs in last weekend’s victory over Leinster. Skipper Eoghan Delany and emergency gloveman Andrew Poynter add the depth to the batting unit. Having missed last weekend, all-rounder Fionn Hand will lead the way with the ball alongside Reuben Wilson who’s first delivery in Clontarf colours saw him claim a wicket, going on to finish with 4/22, they are backed up by Delany and McNally, with spin coming in the shape of Cillian McDonnell and Paul Ryan.

Railway’s side meanwhile sees a couple of changes from last weekend, as Hamza Maan and Zaman Safi replace Kevin O’Brien and Sankeerth Karpe. Skipper Liam McCarthy and Sean O’Brien will lead the way for the seamers, with their bowling attack now firmly spin-heavy with Maan’s leg-spin added to Srihan Karpe’s offies. Piyush Sharma and Zaman Safi are the other two seamers in the line-up. With the bat, Rob O’Brien has been the backbone of the side across both of their opening games, and he’ll need support from Ashil Prakash & Srihan Karpe at the top of the innings, as well as McCarthy and Zaman in the middle order to give them a chance of posting a competitive total. There’s an element of a hunt for revenge in this fixture for Railway also, after Clontarf saw them off by just a single run in the semi-final stage of the competition last season, with a run out on the final ball earning the visitors victory.

The key man within the batting line-up for Railway Union for the past 2 games has been head and shoulders Rob O’Brien, having made an 80 and big hundred in his opening two knocks. He hasn’t however been tested against real high quality bowling as yet, and that’s where the returning David Delany comes in, no doubt he will be eager to impress ahead of a potential return to the Leinster Lightning squad next week and his opening spell of the season will be the biggest test O’Brien has faced as yet.

KEY BATTLE: Rob O’Brien vs David Delany

Phoenix vs Merrion

Phoenix’s side is missing three regular fixtures on duty with Dublin University this weekend, with Stephen Black, Theo Dempsey and Nicolaas Pretorius all on duty with the Students for this competition. They do however still boast an embarrassment of riches with both bat and ball, including two of the premier all-rounders in club cricket both in Leinster and North of the border in recent years in Tyrone Kane and Shane Getkate. Jack Lalor’s addition to the side last weekend helped account for the absence of George Dockrell who is on Ireland duty, and between these three Phoenix already have enough talent to be more than competitive in any game. With the bat, Johit Munjal and Levon Shields will likely be at the top of the order and are a decent opening pair, whilst Adam Chester can be found in the lower-middle order looking to capitalise on any decent starts made by the side, whilst being equally adept at digging his side out of trouble. With the ball, Ash Bain and Kane offer a good new ball pair, whilst Lalor and Getkate’s seamers are further strong options. Amish Sidhu and Dev Ranolia are a seasoned pair of high quality left-arm spinners, whilst leggie Ben White has been an excellent performer for Munster and Ireland over the last 18 months and when he carries that form into club games can be a real asset to the side.

Merrion are another side missing key players to Dublin University duty, with opening bowler Mikey O’Reilly absent from their usual XI. This game comes too soon for Adam Rosslee’s return from injury, meaning his debut will have to wait, however the side does contain some seriously in form batsmen at the top of the order. Stephen Doheny comes into this game off the back of a century last weekend, whilst Swapnil Modgil has compiled half-centuries in each of the two league games so far. Aside from John Anderson’s half-century last weekend, the middle order has largely struggled to get into the game, possibly due to the boost which their oppositions have gotten when removing the stubborn opening stands, however what’s certain is they will need to find some form if the side are to put together consistently strong batting efforts. With the ball, Merrion’s attack will now be led by Max Sorensen and skipper Sam Harbinson, with support in the seam department coming from vice-captain Hugh Kennedy and debutant Melvin Christopher Devaraj. The are in which they certainly need to stand up is with their spin bowling, Tom Stanton and Danny Forkin offer two quite different left-arm options, and whilst they are proven to a good level, this weekend they are up against an extremely strong Phoenix spin attack, making them a vital component to this weekend’s game.

Merrion are a far better side when Stephen Doheny is in it, and no doubt they will once again be hoping for runs from him to build the backbone of their innings around. His ability to make big scores is sure to be something which Phoenix are aware of and they will be extremely eager to dismiss him early in the piece. That job and expectation will likely fall to Tyrone Kane with the new ball, and if he can knock Doheny over, it will expose the Merrion middle order to a scenario they haven’t faced as yet this season.

KEY BATTLE: Tyrone Kane vs Stephen Doheny

Malahide vs North Kildare

The Village plays host to what ought to be a decent fixture between these two sides. Malahide enter the game as the obvious favorites, their batting unit is strong, Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin leading the way at the top of the order ahead of some brilliant stroke makers in the middle order featuring the likes of Younas Ahmadzai, Jeremy Martins and powerful all-rounder Andy Sheridan. Aaron Doyle’s power game should also be well suited to this weekend’s match-up. With the ball, skipper James Newland couldn’t wish for more options to pick from, after his own left-arm seamers, he has a pair of experienced right-arm fast men in Kelvin Donnelly and Cameron Shoebridge, as well as Jordan Hollard who debuts this weekend off the back of taking 4 wickets in the 2^nd XI last weekend. Mohit Sane is the left-arm spinner in the side, whilst Sheridan as mentioned already offers more seamers in his all-round role. The man however not yet mentioned for his bowling, Jeremy Martins, comes into this fixture off the back of a five-wicket-haul in Monday’s District Series game against Dublin City, and he will surely be looking to continue his excellent rhythm from that fixture into this weekend’s cricket.

North Kildare meanwhile come into this game on a high, sure to be buoyed by their success last weekend when a spirited lower order effort ensured they had enough runs on the board to just about see off the Eddie Richardson-propelled North County by 23 runs. They saw runs for former Malahide man Waqar Azmat, Josh Uddin and Bakhtyar Nabi build their innings last weekend, and realistically will be looking to both Azmat and Uddin once again at least to offer them a competitive showing with bat in hand. They will hope that runs for that pair will allow their all-rounders in Husnain Maroof and Abid Taniwal to play their shots freely and give the side an opportunity to go slightly beyond being competitive. With the ball, Taniwal and Maroof have done a decent job opening the innings so far, however it’s Nabi who appears to be their most dangerous bowler once again this term, his 3/28 last weekend was vital to their success and against a Malahide middle order that likes to get on the front foot and dominate his spell could be particularly important.

Malahide have a team full of game-breakers, however this fixture could well be the moment that Younas Ahmadzai’s season bursts into life, North Kildare will be desperate to take his wicket, and realistically they will be looking to Bakhtyar Nabi as their most dangerous bowler in the hope of doing so.

KEY BATTLE: Younas Ahmadzai vs Bakhtyar Nabi

Terenure vs Civil Service

Two winless sides so far this season face off in the final game we get to in this weekend’s previews. The difference between the pair however is likely in where expectations ought to have lay within those two fixtures, Civil Service entered the opening couple of weekends to face up to the two sides relegated from the Premier League last season knowing they had an uphill battle on their hands, and two heavy defeats weren’t necessarily to be unexpected. Terenure however have opened the season with a home tie against North County, followed by an away trip to Rush, both fixtures in which they came out on top in last season, and have been heavily defeated on both occasions without even firing a shot, which no doubt will be disappointing. These two sides split their first two fixtures in Senior Cricket last season with a win each, home advantage proving to be the key on both occasions, and therefore they will both no doubt see it as an opportunity to get their season’s up and running.

The home side this weekend is able to call upon Aussie seamer Mark Thomas for the first time this season having recovered from a pre-season shoulder issue, and he will lead a bowling attack which features a host of seam options including Dylan Cleary, Kripesh Shetty, Raghav Grover and Darsh Shetty who all offer right-arm alternatives to Thomas. There’s a debut for wrist-spinner Abdul Shokoor Amiri who adds yet another option to the attack alongside the off-spin of leading batter Henry Dall who has started to come into his own at the bowling crease again this season. With the bat, Gethin Kelleher returns to the side having missed last weekend’s clash with Rush due to injury, and will likely join Séamus Lynch at the top of the order, Dall and Grover have been an ever-present force for the side over the course of the past two seasons and will be two key men once again. Sid Nair and captain Dónal Lynch round out the batting unit which will need to fire in a similar manner to how it did against Civil Service last season in order to ensure they are in the game.

Service meanwhile will be desperate to get their season up and running, they have once again suffered badly from the lack of a consistent 5^th bowler in their opening two fixtures. Last weekend saw Mubasher Siddique, Digamber Mishra and Adnan & Asadullah Ahmadzai all performing nicely and bowling 37 of the 50 overs between them, however the remaining 13 overs went for 100 runs, and this is an issue which they will desperately need to address if they are to be competitive this weekend. One player who could help address this would be Arjun Chandrasekar, who missed last weekend’s fixture whilst Binson Thambi is another bowler who has been relatively consistent who also didn’t feature against Railway, a return for both would shore up the side’s 5^th bowler concern somewhat. With the bat, Chandrasekar made a big score in this fixture in the league last season and will be important in the middle order, however it’s Nilesh Joshi, Junaid Altaf and Simranjeet Singh in the top 3 who will be crucial to a good start for the side, Singh’s efforts last season stood him out as a particularly impactful player for the side.

Neither of these two sides’ batting has been up to standard as yet this season, however both teams feature players who have shown glimpses of what they can do. The return of Mark Thomas for Terenure could galvanise them, and if he can get an early look at Simranjeet Singh, that’s a battle he’ll need to win to ensure his side get off to a flying start with the ball.

KEY BATTLE: Mark Thomas vs Simranjeet Singh

SKELLIG SIX 18 SENIOR CUP - FIRST ROUND (Saturday 11th May 2024)

Dublin University vs The Hills (The Vineyard)

North County vs Leinster (Inch)

Pembroke vs Rush (Sydney Parade)

Railway Union vs Clontarf (Park Avenue)

Phoenix vs Merrion (Phoenix Park)

Malahide vs North Kildare (The Village)

Terenure vs Civil Service (Terenure)

As the 2024 competition gets underway next Saturday, there are fifteen clubs competing for the trophy. No doubt they will all hope to see themselves lifting the Cup at Sydney Parade on Saturday 3rd August. Five of them will be keen to register their first success in the competition. Rush and Terenure have each been losing finalists on one occasion whilst Balbriggan, Civil Service and North Kildare have yet to reach a Final.

You can follow all the action via the CL Match Centre - www.cricketleinster.ie/match-centre

The Quarter-Finals are scheduled for Sunday 2nd June with the Semi-Finals pencilled in for Sunday 23rd June.

The Skellig Six 18 Senior Cup Final will take place on Saturday 3rd August in Sydney Parade and will be live-streamed with full commentary throughout the day. There will also be a CL Patron's Lunch that day hosted by Siobhan McBennett, CL 2024 President.