THE ORIGINS OF THE LEINSTER SENIOR CUP

Historical Background

Although the Leinster Intermediate Cup competition dates back to 1895 and the Junior Cup to 1910, there was no knockout cup competition at “Senior” level until much later. The previous article in this series detailed the forming of the Leinster Cricket Union and the starting of the “Senior” League in 1919. Once the league was well established, thoughts turned to the creation of a knockout cup competition.

In 1935 the Leinster Senior Cup competition commenced. In the first year the eight teams in the Senior League took part – 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 took part.

Formats

The format for matches in the competition has changed a few times over the years. It was conceived initially as a one innings match with unlimited time. Up to 1971, matches could commence on Friday evenings, continue on Saturday and then, if necessary, on weekday evenings until a conclusion was reached. This format led to some examples that have become the stuff of legend. One famous tie saw a team put on over a hundred for the tenth wicket over several evenings to win the match. Another involved a player who’ discovering his team were drawn away, decided to do things in style and booked into the local hotel for the weekend. Unfortunately his side’s batting suffered a major collapse and the match was completed on the Friday evening.

The advent in the 1960s of one day limited overs cricket in the first class game in England and the popularity of the 60 overs a side Gillette Cup led to the LCU adopting this format in 1972. This saw limitation on bowlers being introduced for the first time, much to the chagrin of some players who were happy to wheel away for an entire match if needed. This format continued until 2017 even though the rest of the world had moved to 50 overs a side as the standard. While not everyone agreed, many players felt that the format was outdated. Given the apparent increase in popularity of T20 cricket, one proposal made in the ensuing debate was to have the Senior Cup in this format. The majority of clubs did not support such a proposal and wanted the league, cup and T20 retained as three separate competitions. Only a minority wanted the existing sixty over format with two intervals to continue. But, since league matches had become standardised at 50 overs a side, it was still felt by many that the cup should be different in some way and a competition longer than 50 overs a side was not ruled out completely. After some debate, the LCU Executive settled on trying a 40 over a side competition which all other cups had already adopted. This has continued for 2018 although some might argue that the jury is still out on what should be the format.

Winners

The Phoenix record is made up largely of three periods of dominance in the 1930s (1937 to ‘39), 1940s (’45 to ‘ 49) and the 1970s (’73 and ’75 to ‘79). However their last win was in 1982. Clontarf had their first win in 1943 and had sporadic successes between then and the 1990s. They have however been the dominant team of the 21st century. Since 2000 they have appeared in eleven finals winning eight of them, including a three in a row in 2004/5/6 and a double in 2014/15. Pembroke won the trophy in its first season, were also the first winners in the revised format in 1972 and were regularly successful from then until 1999, despite never managing to retain the trophy. They have not won the cup in this century but with the final on their ground this year may be hopeful that they can repeat their 1993 winning performance, the last time the final was in Sydney Parade. YMCA had to wait until 1984 for their first win but followed that with five wins in six years (1986/7/8 and 90/91) and have been regular winners since. Dublin University appeared in quite a number of finals in the first thirty years of the competition, including three in a row wins in 1961/62/63. However that was their last final appearance and they eventually dropped out of the competition. Somewhat ironically with hindsight, Trinity’s last success was followed by another three in a row (1964/5/6) by Old Belvedere who are sadly no longer with us at all. The current holders – The Hills - came into Senior cricket in 1983, had their first win six years later and have been regular winners since.

Doubles and Trebles

There are quite a number of cases of a club winning more than one trophy in the same year. Clontarf have the greatest number of Senior League/Senior Cup doubles. They have achieved it five times, all in relatively recent times, their first being in 1992. Three clubs Leinster, Pembroke and Phoenix have each done it four times but all cases, except Leinster in 1998, were before Clontarf’s first. Phoenix did their most recent double in 1979 while Pembroke’s was as far back as 1957. Merrion were the first club to achieve the feat in 1940 but have not done it since. Malahide and North County are the only other clubs to do it, each on one occasion only. North County’s success was in 2013 making them the only club, apart from Clontarf, to achieve it in recent seasons.

The Senior League/Alan Murray cup double has been done four times and in the days of the Wiggins Teape league (see previous article), it was won together with the Senior League on three occasions.

There are only two cases of trebles. In 1954, Pembroke won the Senior League, Senior Cup and Alan Murray Cup – a feat not since repeated and in 1975 Phoenix did the treble of Senior League, Senior Cup and Wiggins Teape league, an achievement which, with the competition changes since then, will remain unique.

The Trophy and Sponsors

It is pleasing to note that the current trophy is that that was first provided in 1935. It went missing for some years. For most of those, the union enjoyed the sponsorship of the RSA company who did in fact provide a new trophy. When the original was found in late 2016, it was agreed to revert to it. The current sponsors of the competition are IBI Corporate Finance

The Present

As the 2018 competition gets underway, there are thirteen clubs in competition. No doubt they will all hope to see themselves taking the trophy at Sydney Parade on 25th August. Three of them will be keen to register their first success in the competition. Rush and Terenure have each been losing finalists on one occasion and Balbriggan have yet to reach a final.

In recent seasons technological developments in the communications area have been used with good effect. For some years, Near FM, through Fergus Carroll, have provided a radio commentary on the final and have also covered the draws for the earlier rounds. Also now the possibility of live screening of the final to an international audience exists, as has been used for some other competitions.

It is probable that those administrators who started the competition eighty three years ago would be surprised at some present day developments. However the basic formula of a knock-out competition with all the excitement that that entails still remains. As in previous years, there will no doubt be tight matches, changing fortunes, amazing performances and all the drama associated with cup competition.

Report of the first Cup Final