Cricket/ Irish Senior Cup: There will be five Leinster clubs taking part in the last eight of the Irish Senior Cup, accurately illustrating the rise in standard among clubs south of the Border.
The best win on Saturday was undoubtedly North County's trip to The Lawn, where they comfortably beat Waringstown, who are currently the pick of the NCU clubs.
Despite a number of Waringstown's batsmen getting a good start, not least Simon Harrison (62) and Kyle McCallan (59), the home side were unable to dominate the County bowling, headed, as usual, by Andre Botha, who ended with figures of 4-19 off his 10 overs. A crucial contribution.
In reply, with the target reduced slightly to 189 off 48 overs, County passed that at a canter, with seven wickets and six overs to spare. Brothers Paul and John Mooney reminded us they are not just bowlers as they saw their side home with scores of 75 not out and 72 not out respectively.
It was an accomplished performance by North County and one that will surely have them believing, if they didn't already, that this cup is certainly theirs for the taking. And who would bet against them taking it for the third time in five years?
Well, Clontarf might just take a bit of that action as they comfortably defeated Malahide by eight wickets on Saturday. Ronan O'Reilly hit an unbeaten 73 to see his side past Malahide's meagre total of 182 all out.
There were wins, too, for Railway Union over Ballyspallen, Rush over Downpatrick and Merrion against Pembroke. Merrion's Dom Joyce carried on his run of good form with the only century of the day, giving the Ireland selectors a welcome headache as they consider who will partner Dom's brother Ed in the middle order for the ICC Trophy.
Elsewhere, YMCA's trip to the northwest ended in failure, albeit after the near-lottery of a 10-over bash at Glendermott when heavy rain left the home ground decidedly soggy for much of the day. Glendermott scored 121 off their 60 balls and YM fell just 16 runs short in reply.
Staying in the northwest, Phoenix were beaten by Limavady, despite a fine knock of 80 by Thinus Fourie, and in a mild surprise in the only all-NCU affair, North Down beat Lisburn by five wickets.
Today is the second round of the Conqueror Senior Cup, with Clontarf returning to Malahide to see if they can inflict more pain on the villagers, while in what could be the match of the day The Hills take on North County in a Fingal derby that has all the makings of a classic.
The draw for the next round of the Conqueror Cup will be made this evening in Malahide CC and will be broadcast live on NEAR 101.6 FM.
