As the shouts of "Get a move on!" subside, and the slow hand clap fades away, we've finally got round to sorting out the final entries in our search for the 2013 Cricket Leinster Photo of the Year.
To kick things off, I'd like to thank all those who sent photos in over the last six months. The number of people who spend massive amounts of time at cricket matches over the season, clicking away never ceases to amaze. Some are there week in week out, whilst some did it when they have a spare minute. Throw in the many who casually take a photo now and again, and there is an extensive army making the lives of the rest of us that much richer.
Two photographers have submitted great photos over the summer, that although it would be nice to share everything around, they are also very difficult to ignore!
Michael Gavin has another four shots submitted in this shortlist. The first is a study of a familiar player - Richard "Whizz" Hastie of Pembroke. Whizz cam in with Pembroke 2 in the precarious position of 78-6, and with an invaluable 56*, got Pembroke to 173 - a total that was six runs too many for The Hills 2.
Michael has also sent in this shot of a sudden rain storm during The Hills vs Leinster match in August. Mercifully, a sight that was pretty rare this year!
Hadley Southall of Railway Union captured Zoe stepping into the shoes of Judy Cohen in the Park Avenue scorebox.
The fourth picture down, captures action from the women's Junior Cup final, a match won by YMCA. In Rodney Smythe's, Sophie MacMahon of Leinster watches Gaby Lewis of YMCA bowl.
The last six weeks have seen a pretty momentous event in the history of Clontarf Cricket Club. Ian Craig captured the aftermath, with champagne flowing freely
Whether to walk or not as been a much discussed issue on the international cricketing scenbe this summer, with Michael Gavin offering an alternative view. As Michael says, "It shows Martin Everard's two dogs (Bran, the Lab and Missy the little one) stretching their legs at the Vineyard during a break in proceedings. You see we don’t just train cricketers here at The Hills, we train our dogs as well!"
Rodney Smythe took the original photos from this triptych in May, but has only just got round to processing them!. It shows Dom Joyce making a mess of Peter Eakin's wicket in a 2nd round Irish Senior Cup match.
And finally, August's winning shot - and it's that man Michael Gavin again, with his fourth winnin photograoh in the six finalists. This picture is described by Michael thus - "Under 15 Boys game against Civil Service on August the 8th which we won. I love the way the boys can’t resist a peek at who is coming in next despite being in the huddle to focus on their job in hand!"
Once again I'd like to thank all the photograhers for their hard work of the season. The six winning photograohs will now forward to the Annual Dinner - where the winning shot will be announced