The Hills make hard work of it

CRICKET/45 Overs League: The Hills and Clontarf will battle it out for the first piece of silverware of the season on June 11th after two very different semi-finals were played out on Saturday.

Despite a century by Ted Williamson at Castle Avenue, Clontarf easily overcame Munster Reds, with Alex Cusack (90 not out) and Jeremy Bray (56) making sure there was no upset as they passed the Reds' total with nine wickets and nearly five overs to spare.

Meanwhile, at Milverton, the real surprise was not that it was a tight finish but that, on perhaps the best batting surface in Leinster at the moment, it was such a low-scoring match. Batting first, Malahide made just 143 all out, with only Johan Botha (33) and Adam Shehabeddin (32) making any decent score.

Never ones to make life easy for themselves, The Hills stumbled and stuttered towards that total, eventually requiring a 10-run stand for the 10th wicket to see them home.

In all it was a good weekend for The Hills as they beat YMCA in their first WMK League Section B match of the season yesterday. Again though, their batting nearly let them down as they lost seven wickets chasing YM's dismal score of 113 all out.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Dublin University declared that their days as a competitive force are not over as they won through to the first round of the new-look Lewis Hohn Williams 20/20 Cup, beating Leinster and Old Belvedere at Observatory Lane.

Dom Joyce was out in the first over and dropped a catch in the students' first game against Leinster, but he certainly made up for it in their second match, making 105 off just 59 balls, an innings full of genuine shots in a form of the game often reserved for gashers. When Joyce bats like this, there can be no disputing his class and his worthiness for a place in the 14-man Ireland squad for the upcoming ICC Trophy.

Yesterday, Clontarf overcame a spirited CYM in Section A of the WMK League by 16 runs at Castle Avenue, despite being held to 221.