CRICKET: Malahide registered the first real surprise of this year's Leinster 45 Overs League with a rare victory over Fingal rivals North County at Inch. Put into bat, Malahide made 199 for eight off a rain-reduced 40 overs with Johan Botha (72) and Adam Shehabeddin (57) showing good technique, particularly against County's main strike bowlers, Andre Botha and John Mooney.
In reply, County made the worst possible start losing Conor Armstrong to the first ball of the innings. Andre Botha and Reinhardt Strydom threatened to bring it home for the home side but their 56-run partnership was broken by Stephen Smith and the rest fell relatively cheaply.
That puts unbeaten Malahide into the semi-finals where they are joined by The Hills, who had a fine win over Phoenix at the Park and Clontarf who beat Laois despite a mini-batting collapse chasing while chasing just 75 runs at the Heath. The fourth place is still up for grabs after Munster Reds beat Leinster in the Mardyke yesterday.
In Claremont Road, YMCA were celebrating the opening of their brand new clubhouse this weekend with their first home game in two years.
And by shortly before 7pm on Saturday they were celebrating their first victory on the newly-laid ground.
Before the match Railway Union skipper Kenny Carroll presented his YM counterpart Jonathan Harte with a commemorative pennant to mark the occasion of the first senior match back at Claremont Road but much to Carroll's frustration his team then proceeded to present YM with the points as well.
Coasting along at 69 for two in reply to YM's modest total of 160, and with John Anderson and Adrian Murphy looking good at the crease, it all went horribly wrong for the Park Avenue side.
A good spell of left-arm spin bowling by Stewart Taylor and Shay O'Gorman reduced Railway to 118 all out and brought YM's first win in this competition.
Earlier Stuart McCready scored 53 with only Mehmet Singh (28) and Carl Hosford (22) scoring any runs worth mentioning. With YM struggling on 78 for six at one stage it was a vital partnership between McCready and Singh that brought their team to what turned out to be a winning total.
At Sydney Parade, Charlie Kavanagh was unable to get the three victims he needed to reach the impressive Leinster milestone of 500 as Pembroke beat Old Belvedere by nine wickets. Peter Byrne was the pick of the Pembroke bowlers taking four wickets for just eight runs with Belvedere now looking in serious trouble for the season.
• Courtney Browne top-scored with 46 not out as West Indies were reduced to 152 for seven in their 50 overs in the second one-day international against South Africa at Sabina Park, Jamaica, yesterday.
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