The hills will be alive with the sound of vociferous Fingal support tomorrow as North County take on near-neighbours Clontarf in the final of the Leinster Senior Cup amid the pleasant country setting of Milverton. The senior final, of course, is the day of the summer in Leinster club cricket, and this particular confrontation is unique in that North County will be contesting the ultimate stage of the knock-out competition for the first time.
Clontarf are no strangers in this regard, having played in many finals over the years and winning five of them, in 1943, 1950, 1969, 1992 and 1995. In that last victory, both Deryck Vincent and Andre Botha scored centuries as Clontarf, batting first, ran up a huge 363 for 9.
Botha and Vincent will be key players in tomorrow's game. The Clontarf team, captained by Ronan O'Reilly, includes several other potential match winners, among them the vastly experienced all-rounder Brian MacNeice, the accomplished Australian batsman Tinnis Fourie and Ally McIntosh from Scotland.
North County's captain, John Andrews, will be hoping that that the resilience the team showed in their 100-run semi-final victory over Railway Union at Park Avenue will be reproduced. On that occasion, North County started disastrously, losing both openers, Andrews himself and Michael Murphy, with only seven runs scored.
But excellent batting by man of the match David Ford (51), Paul Mooney (42) and Dara Armstrong (41), with more modest, but useful, contributions from Sean O'Connor and Conor Armstrong, gave Railway a total of 201 to chase.
Superb bowling by Conor Armstrong, who took 4 for 26 off his 12 overs, and Joe Murphy with 2 for 20, set North County up for victory, before spinner Paddy Martin mopped up the tail-enders with 3 for none off 3.2 overs.
Tomorrow's team shows only one change from the semi-final side, as John Mooney, captain of the Ireland team which recently won the Under-19 European Championship, comes in for Tony Rooney, who is 12th man.
The present standing of the two opponents in the Leinster Senior League tables may be an indication of present form. Clontarf are second to Phoenix in Section A, with a game in hand, while North County trail Malahide in Section B by two points.
But of course the cup - and especially the final - brings its own infinitely different challenges.
Meanwhile, Ireland's women cricketers will take on England A in three one-day internationals at Oundel in Northampton tomorrow, Sunday and Monday.
Limavady and Brigade meet in the North West Senior Cup final at Eglinton today and tomorrow in a repeat of last season's Irish Senior Cup final.
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