Clontarf show style

North County's bid to win the Leinster Senior Cup, sponsored by Conqueror, for the first time was seen off by Clontarf with some degree of panache at Milverton on Saturday. The silverware thus returned to northside Dublin, but to the suburban area, rather than to the wider expanses of Fingal.

Clontarf won the trophy for the sixth time, but their skipper, Ronan O'Reilly, will (or should) be the first to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to their number seven batsman, Paul Ryan.

Ryan's 68 not only won him the man of the match award (adjudicated by Jim Bennett), but certainly was the key difference between defeat and victory, with, mind you, vital help from his colleague Brian MacNeice.

Ryan was the game's top scorer with 68 (74 deliveries, eight fours), while the indomitable MacNeice was second in that particular table with 35 runs (two fours, one six).

Yes, there were of course a few invaluable contributions from other Clontarf batsmen, among them O'Reilly himself, Andre Botha, Tinnis Fourie and Deryck Vincent, but Ryan and MacNeice were the real match-winners.

What can one say about North County? The best comment, obviously, is that they reached their first final; the match was close to the end, and without a doubt, the Fingallians will be back.

On the bowling front, North County suffered. Joe Murphy did best, with 2 for 32 off 12, but Conor Armstrong - who had been a major force in the semi-final - was smashed, ending up with a solitary wicket for a massive 72 runs off his 12 overs.

But the Armstrongs gave their all to the North County cause when it came to the batting, with Conor hitting 31 (one six, three fours) and Dara his team's second highest scorer, on 24. But Clontarf's match winner, it could be argued, was Andrew Cullen.

His running catch - superbly taken away out on the boundary - which dismissed Conor Armstrong was the game's turning-point.