Clontarf and Leinster look well matched

Cricket:  While the Ireland team are attempting to get a result from their four-day InterContinental Cup match against Namibia today in Castle Avenue as the rain does its best to thwart them, the best of the rest from Leinster will be fighting it out in the first round of the province's premier knockout tournament, the Antalis Senior Cup.

There will be a couple of intriguing games and none more so than the clash of Leinster and Clontarf at Rathmines. In recent years you would have pencilled the name of the mighty 'Tarf in the second-round draw; the only way a struggling Leinster could reasonably have expected to be involved in the latter stages of this cup competition would have been to host the final at their historic Observatory Lane ground.

But after a number of additions to the squad this year, Leinster are a force again in the province that shares their name and their unbeaten run so far in 2006 includes the scalp of Clontarf, seven-time winners of the cup.

In a miserable start to this season, Clontarf failed to win any of their 2006 Dublin Grass 45 Overs League matches, a competition they won last year, so Leinster have reason to feel confident going into today's game.

Unfortunately for them, however, they have been hit by injuries and will also be without their in-form batsman JP O'Dwyer because of a family bereavement.

Engineering student Ken Taylor has exams coming up and is another doubt while Robbie Kenealy and Byron Vermaak are definitely out.

Skipper Mark Jones (back), Anton Schultz (hamstring) and Matt Brownie (rib) will have to pass late fitness tests.

It gives an opportunity for seconds players like Safraz Anwar, CJ Hollenbach and Craig Mallon to show their skills. Medium-pace bowler Anwar in particular has been knocking on the door and is likely to cause Clontarf a few problems with his away swingers and the occasional one that jags back to the right-hander.

"We are missing a few guys but the lads coming in are handy enough and we're confident, especially with home advantage," said Jones.

Clontarf will be without Trent Johnston, who is on international duty, and Greg Molins but have potential match winners in Alex Cusack, Dom Rigby, Ian Synnott, Ronan O'Reilly and Oxford University's Stephen Moreton.

While their confidence will be low after an uncharacteristically mediocre start to the season they have not become a bad team over the winter, so you can expect a good contest in Rathmines.

Elsewhere, CYM host Old Belvedere, Merrion play Railway Union at Anglesea Road, YMCA face Rush at Claremont Road and Pembroke play Malahide at Sydney Parade. All games start at 11am. The draw for the second round will be live on NEAR fm (101.6 fm) tomorrow at 8pm.

SATURDAY'S FIXTURES: ICC InterContinental Cup day four (10.30) Ireland v Namibia, Castle Avenue. Antalis Senior Cup first round: CYM v Old Belvedere, Terenure; Leinster v Clontarf, Rathmines; Merrion v Railway Union, Anglesea Road; YMCA v Rush, Claremont Road; Pembroke v Malahide, Sydney Parade. There are no senior club games on Sunday.