Given their hitherto unbeaten three-match run in the Lewis Traub-sponsored Leinster Senior League, Clontarf naturally will fancy their chances in today's Leinster Senior Cup clash with Rush at Castle Avenue. The game was postponed from last Saturday, which was set aside as the reserve day for the West Indies-Bangladesh World Cup confrontation.
Still, Clontarf's skipper Johnny Daly will hardly take anything for granted. He'll remember the Irish Senior Cup second round match two weeks ago when Downpatrick triumphed by seven wickets at Strangford Road, with only Brian MacNeice's 40 saving Clontarf from further embarrassment.
Admittedly, Rush suffered an equally emphatic Irish Senior Cup clobbering at Cliftonville the same afternoon, as the local side cantered home by nine wickets. Rush were skittled for 79, and that would have been worse, but for Gavin Morgan's useful 28-run innings.
Deryck Vincent has been named in the Clontarf line-up, though there are doubts about his availability. Clontarf, meantime, have chosen the same side for Sunday's Leinster Senior League Section A top-of-the-table encounter with Merrion at Anglesea Road; both clubs are undefeated, though Clontarf have a match in hand.
So far this season, Merrion are very much on a roll. "If we win this one, I cannot see us not making it to the semi-finals," said wicket-keeper and captain Gus Joyce, understandably pleased with his team's performances to date.
Merrion's form certainly has been impressive. On the last two Saturdays they beat Ballymena by 36 runs away in the Irish Senior Cup, Gus Joyce's 80 earning him the man of the match award, and then saw off Dublin University by 171 runs in the Leinster Senior Cup first round, when Stephen King's 78 won him the same honour. Their Australian all-rounder, Brad Spanner, has also been performing well. For the next few weeks, Merrion welcome back his compatriot Brett Saxon.
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