The best and worst of ...... Merrion

Our next look at a Leinster club's ups and downs since the turn of the century looks at Merrion, the current Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup champions.

Merrion differ from some of the sides that we have already looked at - they were strong at the beginning of our analysis in 2001, and they were strong at the end. As can be seen from the graph below, there was a rather long furrow in the midst of that period, when Merrion sunk.

It may be worth having a look at the period before and after that slump, before looking at Merrion's recovery and path to two Irish Senior Cups.

Merrion dominated one form of cricket in the late 90s and early 2000s. They won the Alan Murray Cup six times between 1996 and 2002, as well as having some success in the longer game - Senior B/Division 2 titles in 1997 and 1999, a league cup win in 1999 and one Senior A/Division 1 title in 2001. That Senior league was built around the talents Gus Joyce, Dom Joyce, Gus Fleming, Damian Poder, Richard Dowse and Kade Beasley, a sextet who along with others formed the basis of Merrion's success over a long period. However the icing on the cake was provided by the overseas pair of Brad Spaner and Chris Torrisi. The bulk of those eight played in every game in 2000 and 2001, and success followed.

Torrisi left before the 2002 season, and as others also drifted away, the team started to struggle. 2003-2005 was an especially bleak period, but the arrival of Thinus Fourie in 2006 started an improvement that has lasted to this very day. Promotion was acheived in 2006, before the arrival of Matt Petrie in 2007 took Merrion to the next level. He stayed for five seasons, and is still worshipped in Merrion to this today.

The final piece in the jigaw was John Anderson who moved from Railway Union for the 2008 season. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Back to that lowpoint in 2005!

Merrion's low - rating 58.955 - ranking - 36th - date August 29 2005 - after 5 run loss to The Hills

Many of the reasons behind Merrion's slump have been described above. The gory details of the lowpoint can be seen via CricketEurope here . The match in question saw a pretty decent performance from Merrion, as they went down by only 5 runs to The Hills. Michael Lax's 105 saw The Hills make 265-8 with Damian Poder (2-39) and Titkish Patel (2-36) the pick of the bowlers. Overseas player Dan Payne held the innings together with 94, and Patel and Poder completed fine matches with 35 runs each (Patel was not out), but it wasn't quite enough.

The following week saw Dom Joyce's remarkable 197 (to go with his 4-17!) as Pembroke were hammered, and Merrion's recovery had started.

Merrion's high - rating 130.202 - ranking - 2nd - date September 2 2015 - after one wicket win over North County

Merrion's highest rating took them to second place on the island. But there have actually been four previous occasions when Merrion were at number one - albeit with a lower ranking. Over the 2014 season. Merrion has a tussle with YMCA as to who was the top team across the 32 counties. The first time they came out on top (for one day!) was on June 2nd, followed by another day two days later. From June 6th to July 14th, Merrion were supreme, and after being supplanted by YMCA once more, Merrion returned to the top for one more day on July 20th, after being number one for a total of 39 days

In terms of the quality of the team, there was still room to improve, and Merrion's peak (so far) came about towards the end of the 2015 season. In a crucial match, Merrion travelled to North County, and it was a day of leg-spinning success. John Anderson took 4-44 and David Rhoda 4-28 as North County were bowled out for 183. Robin Smith hit a 65 ball 59 at the top of the order, but when he was out with the score at 119-5, Merrion were in trouble. Michael Lewis scored 44, taking the sore to 181-8, and it was down to Tom Stanton (17*) to see Merrion home, winning by one wicket. The other players in that "best of" team were Rory Allwright, Dom Joyce, David Langford Smith, Lionel Bester, Hugh Kenedy and Nitin Sharma.

The following week, Merrion lost to Waringstown (who were then ranked 3rd overall) in the 2015 Irish Senior Cup final, and the season ended with more disappointment with two losses to Railway Union and one to eventual champions Clontarf. Merrion famously got revenge in 2016, when Merrion (then ranked 6th) overcame Waringstown at the second time of asking - they were now the number one.