Dublin duo within ace of breaking stranglehold

The less-than-inspirational impact of the southern clubs on the Royal Liver Irish Senior Cup, our only all-island competition, continued in the semi-finals on Saturday. Playing at home provided no tangible advantage to either Clontarf or YMCA, with the result that next Friday Strabane and Ballymena will contest the final, at Beechgrove.

It's no consolation, but both Dublin clubs lost by tantalisingly narrow margins. Strabane's three-wicket victory over YMCA came through with only three balls to spare and at Castle Avenue, Clontarf, with one wicket standing, needed three off the last ball of the match but skipper Johnny Daly, the day's top scorer with 38, could manage only a single.

Brian Nolan got an early break-through for Clontarf, removing the Ireland Under19 star Simon Carruthers, with just 16 runs scored. Thereafter, only five wickets fell, Seamus Boylan picking up four of them, three clean bowled, suggesting he should have been brought on earlier than third change.

Robert Kennedy was Ballymena's top scorer with 36, while man of the match, opener Jimmy Ireland, contributed 35. But it was the unbeaten seventh-wicket stand between Mark Adair and Ballymena's captain Neil Fullerton that proved Clontarf's undoing. Their contribution of 41 was invaluable, even if a total of 167 was hardly unattainable.

Ballymena's impressive young pace bowler Adrian McCoubrey did the early damage, removing both Clontarf's openers, Deryck Vincent in the first over and Boylan in the seventh. The second wicket fell with just 18 runs on the board.

Clontarf badly needed some big hitting and a major stand to take hold of the match. It didn't happen, although Daly's partnership with Derek Quinlan promised much before the plucky youngster was needlessly run out.

Earlier, the redoubtable Ireland provided what may well have been the turning-point of the match. Angus Hancock, who has made plenty of runs this season, looked to be settling in, only to be brilliantly caught at (very) deep mid-on by Ireland.

It was a great match, with the final overs providing much drama, suspense and tension. But this was a bitterly disappointing day for Clontarf, for all that.

Good knocks by Paul Linehan, John Hoey and Carl Hosford were not enough to save YMCA from a similar fate at Claremont Road. Mark Gillespie's three wickets and valuable innings of 36 runs earned him the man-of-the-match award.