CRICKET: Now that Ireland's initial international commitments have been completed, this weekend's concentrations move first to the second round of the Irish Senior Cup - sponsored by Royal Liver - before swinging to the Inter Regional competition, which was inaugurated last year as the successor to the old Inter-provincial Championship.

On Sunday, the Southern X1 takes on North Leinster at Anglesea Road and are likely to find the going tough against an almost all-Fingal squad comprised nearly entirely of players from North County, The Hills and Rush. North Leinster have won two of their four outings to date, with two no results, so they will go into this match undefeated.

The Southern X1 also had a brace of no results but have lost one of their two other games.

The North West Cricket Union (NWCU) and the Northern Cricket Union (NCU) are also in opposition on Sunday, at Limavady. The NWCU, runners-up in the table to North Leinster, field an unchanged and very strong squad, which includes the likes of Peter and Mark Gillespie, Decker Curry, Gary Neely and William Porterfield.

The majority of that talented North West panel will also be in action on Saturday in the Royal Liver Cup second round. For example, Jordan McGonigle, Porterfield and Andre Riddles will all be in the Donemana side which takes on the holders, Malahide, Curry and Richard McDaid will be in the Limavady line-up against The Hills, while George Montgomery, Neely and Johnny Thompson will be in action for Glendermott against Merrion.

All of those matches are to be played in Dublin.

Malahide, who won the Cup by defeating Rush in the first-ever all-southern final last year, do not have a representative in the North Leinster selection. But the morale of new captain Gerry Kirwan and his men should be boosted by the memory of their home semi-final victory over Donemana last year, and in the build-up to that match, they had also defeated Brigade.

In fact, could it be that the virtual strangle-hold which the Northern clubs had on the Irish Senior Cup since its inception in 1982 has been broken, at least pro tem? Of the 16 clubs competing in this second round, no fewer than 11 are Southern, including Cork County, who have reached this stage of the competition for the first time in their history.

North County won the Royal Liver two years ago, while Malahide and Rush were last year's finalists. Rush have fallen by the wayside, but both Malahide and North County are still in contention, while the five northern clubs in action on Saturday are Donemana, Brigade, Glendermott, Bangor and Limavady; four of those are away, as only Bangor enjoy home advantage at Upritchard Park where they take on North County.

The Royal Liver second round and Sunday's Inter Regional matches mean that there is only one Leinster Senior League game on offer, the WMK Section B encounter between Old Belvedere and YMCA at Cabra. The LHW Leinster Senior League has reached the penultimate stage, and the semi-finals - North County v Phoenix at Balrothery and Clontarf v Rush at Castle Avenue - will be staged on Saturday, June 28th with play commencing at 12 noon in both cases.

Miriam Grealey of YMCA, winner of last season's Division 1 batting award as well as being the Howard Cup All-Rounder, will captain South Leinster against North Leinster in Sunday's women's inter-provincial at College Park. Also in the Southern side is Jo Day (Pembroke), the most improved player of the season last year, who won the Division 2 wicket-keeping award.

FIXTURES:

SATURDAY:

Royal Liver Irish Senior Cup - 2nd round: (all 1.00)

Malahide v Donemana, Malahide; Railway Union v Brigade, Park Avenue; Merrion v Glendermott, Anglesea Road; CYM v Cork County, Terenure; Pembroke v Clontarf, Sydney Parade; Bangor v North County, Upritchard Park; The Hills v Limavady, Milverton; Leinster v Phoenix, Rathmines.

WMK Leinster Senior League Section B: (1.00)

Old Belvedere v YMCA, Cabra, 1.00.

SUNDAY:

Inter-Regional Championship: (all 1.00)

Southern X1 v North Leinster, Anglesea Road; North West Cricket Union v Northern Cricket Union, Limavady.

Women's Interprovincial: (1:00)

South Leinster v North Leinster, College Park, 1.00.

TEAMS:

SOUTH LEINSTER: M Lax (CYM, capt.), J Blakeney (Merrion), K Carroll (Railway Union), P Davy (Pembroke), R Hastie (Pembroke), D Joyce (Merrion), B Koch (Munster Reds), K O'Brien (Railway Union), I O'Herlihy (Leinster, W/K), E Whaley (Pembroke), T Williamson (Munster Reds). 12th man: C Mullen (Railway Union).

NORTH LEINSTER: J Molins (Phoenix, capt.), B Archer (The Hills), C Armstrong (North County), D Armstrong (North County, W/K), A Botha (North County), J Bray (Phoenix), P Byrne (The Hills), G Molins (Clontarf), J Mooney (North County), P Mooney (North County), N Shaukat (Rush). 12th man: G Morgan (Rush).

NORTH WEST CRICKET UNION (squad): P Gillespie (Strabane, capt.), B Allen (Fox Lodge), D Curry (Limavady), M Gillespie (Strabane), R McDaid (Limavady), J McGonigle (Donemana), G Montgomery (Glendermott), G Neely (Glendermott), W Porterfield (Donemana), B Rankin (Bready), A Riddles (Donemana), J Thompson (Glendermott).

SOUTH LEINSTER WOMEN: M Grealey (YMCA, capt.), L Banahan (Merrion), U Budd (Merrion), N Coffey (Pembroke), J Day (Pembroke, W/K), C Joyce (Merrion), I Joyce (Merrion), C O'Leary (YMCA), J Smythe (Merrion), H Whelan (Leinster), K Young (YMCA), 12th: S Smyth (Leinster).

UMPIRES:

SATURDAY:

Royal Liver Irish Senior Cup - 2nd round:

At Terenure: M Sheridan, M Russell; At Rathmines: P Byrne, N Parnell; At Malahide: S Daultrey, J Andrews; At Anglesea Road: L Fourie, E Gilmour; At Sydney Parade: G Black, G Lyons; At Park Avenue: D Walsh, J Connolly; At Milverton: P Thew, R Molins.

WMK Leinster Senior League Section B:

At Cabra: L Hogan, T Byrne.

Senior 2 League: At Phoenix CC: C McIntyre, J Maypother.

Intermediate Cup: At Marley Park: B Noone, J Ford.

SUNDAY:

Women's Interprovincial: At College Park: J Connolly, P Cooke.

Senior 2 Cup: At Balrothery: G Lyons, E Gilmour; At Sydney Parade: L Hewson, N Parnell; At Milverton: S Moore, M Russell.