The final preliminary round of LHK Insurance T20

The final day of the preliminary stage of the LHW Insurance [Alan Murray] T20 Competition for 2018 is upon us. We start by re-stating that anything said here is unofficial [the ultimate arbiter in these matters is the Open Competitions Committee] and is subject to alternative conclusions from someone with a smarter pocket calculator. With these caveats in mind there are the knowns and the known unknowns [this competition has also had its fair share of the unknown unknowns] going into the final day:

• Clontarf are through to the final stages although if they lose their last game they could forego home advantage,
• with a single match to play [against Clontarf] a loss by Pembroke will likely mean that they won’t get through,
• Terenure and Railway cannot qualify so we are looking for four other teams not to qualify,
• looking at 6 points as the cut off point, it is possible for 12 teams to reach or exceed this figure [four more than needed].

So what to look out for. 

So let us start with Castle Avenue as this is the easiest to deal with given there is only one match. If Clontarf win they will go through with a home draw. If Pembroke win they will qualify [and Clontarf may still have a home draw depending on other results but probably not]. If Pembroke lose they are likely out of it but mathematically may still be able to qualify. Too early in the morning to try for all possible permutations. This game will be an early indicator for other teams of what they need to do to qualify.

In Anglesea Road the three teams are the hosts Merrion, Malahide and Rush. Depending on the results either one or two teams could be in the mix at the end of the day. Rush need to win both games to get to the 6 point mark. If each team wins a game then Malahide go through and Merrion reach the 6 point mark. If Merrion win both their games they are through. 

In Park Avenue the hosts are out of contention but could still influence events. The Hills just need one game to automatically go through and Leinster need one to reach 6 points. The key game [which could determine who has a home draw] will be between The Hills and Leinster.

Phoenix Park, where North County and Balbriggan join the hosts, all three sides can reach 6 points. Phoenix have already reached this point so a win in either of their games will see them qualify. The other two teams need to win at least one game. After that it is about home draws. Needless to say if the home team win both of their games then it will be the winner of the Balbriggan v North County game that will determine who remains in contention.

The final set of games are in Claremont Road where YMCA welcome Munster Heat and Terenure. Terenure cannot qualify, but the other two teams can. The key match will be the first one between YMCA and Munster. If YMCA win they will go through and set themselves up for a home draw [they may need to beat Terenure in the last game for this].

We will try to keep track of results during the day so that we can update the [unofficial and provisional] table and give teams an idea of what they need to do to qualify in the concluding matches.

At this point I am going to stick my neck out and suggest who are most likely to go through at the end of the day. Clontarf, The Hills, YMCA and Phoenix to qualify with Home draws. Munster and Malahide to qualify and two from Merrion, North County or Leinster. Or some other outcome. 

The key first round matches are between Clontarf and Pembroke and Merrion v Malahide.

I am presuming that players who are involved in the current Ireland v India T20 series and also for the Leinster Lightning game on Sunday will be given a break. This will impact YMCA, Leinster, Railway, Malahide and Pembroke.

The teams as submitted.

Clontarf rest Bill Coghlan and Conor Kelly but otherwise look to have a full team.

Clontarf : Joe Morrissey, Declan Gallagher, Obus Pienaar, David Delany, Robert Forrest [W], Sameer Dutt, Andrew Poynter, Faisal Zaman, Andrew Vincent, Shariful Islam, Waqar Azmat

Pembroke : Tucker F, Tucker L, Lawson T, Lawson P, Barrett A, Ruttle S, Hoey B, Hoey G, Garth J, Ridley A, Hopkins R

At Park Avenue

Railway Union: C Divney, K Carroll, A Hafiz, A Stiles, M Cannife, S Khan, A Jackson, D Singh, R Dhammika, R Nicol, D Mishra

The Hills: Nicolaas Pretorius, Max Sorensen, Naz Shoukat, Tomas Rooney Murphy, Cian Nulty, Mark Donegan, , Killian Everard, Andrew Kavanagh, Ryan Tobin, Daya Singh, Harry Archer

At Anglesea Road Merrion with injuries to last week’s centurion David Langford Smith and Max Nevill continue to rotate their squad. Tyrone Kane is back from injury.

Merrion [from]: D Joyce, T Stanton, P Tice, J Anderson, J Carty, P Mehta, M Lewis, S Stanton, B Lakhotia, V Dhiman, R Shivmangel, T Kane.

Rush [from]: Neil Rock, Stephen Doheny, Conor Armstrong, Saadat (Tipu) Gull, Shahid Iqbal, Daniel Coffey, Prashanth Viswanath, David Carthy, Alex Neary, Eoghan Conway, Niall Mullen & Nick Donnelly

At Claremont Road

YMCA [from] H Tector, O Gunning, A Shukla, S Murphy, T Tector, R Gamble, J Barnes, S Streek, A Abassi, Andrew Blair White, SJ De Klerk, J Zaayman, W De Klerk, C McDonnell

In the final set of matches from the Phoenix Park.

Phoenix: Tom Anders ©, Reinhardt Strydom, Rory Anders, Brad Kneebone, Fletcher Coutts, Ben White, Adam Chester, Gordy Millar, Sine Tsotsa, Dave Vernon, Louis McDonagh

Balbriggan: Duane Harper, Connor Fletcher, Adrian Harper, Farooq Nasr, Timycen Maruma, Nathan Rooney, Adam Keefe, Kashif Ali, Ehteshan Ahmed, Tariq Faheem, Emad Uddin, Syed Harris

North County bring in Luke Whelan [recently selected for ireland U15s] for his first senior match. He takes the gloves.

North County [from]: Niall McGovern [C}, Jamie Grassi, Malcolm Nofal, Jonno Andrews, Eddie Richardson, Safdar Ali, Andrew Sheridan, Luke Whelan, Craig May, Sean Kingston, Cian Mulvanny, Sean Sludds

Unofficial Table