Worse may follow in the Sam Maguire of Irish cricket as the second round has four of the five NCU teams playing away and the fifth, Civil Service North, will be the only home team if they can beat Phoenix in their rearranged match next Saturday.
On the face of it perhaps a dismal performance if you look simply at results, but most of the results were predictable, and despite a few anomalies caused by the weather down the years, the stronger teams usually do well if they can avoid the first round banana skins. Instonians will be disappointed to go out early, but they started badly and found it difficult to regain the advantage against one of the tournament favourites YMCA. Not so Waringstown, North Down and CIYMS who were always going to be the best hopes for success with respect to their NCU peers. Derriaghy had a weekend in Cork and an opportunity to play at the beautiful Mardyke. It resulted in a five wickets success, but only the Queensway faithful could see them landing the Bob Kerr Cup this season, or indeed any season. However, good luck to them going forward.
The North-West clubs have earned a reputation in recent times for talking a better game than they play and that was reflected in a dreadful series of defeats. The great Donemana remain their best hope and have what appears to be an easy tie against Coleraine in the second round to guarantee one North-West team in the last eight. They may be the only one left as Brigade host Waringstown and the Villagers have already shown their intent on retaining the trophy with a comprehensive win over Strabane, reputedly the best team in the North-West region this season.
Despite conceding home advantage North Down and CI will fancy their chances against North County and The Hills. Both County Dublin teams won close games against North-West teams last Saturday and are not the great teams of yesteryear. John Mooney (78no) saved North County at Creevdonnell and he may not be available in the next round if his trial at Sussex proves successful. He’s a talented and gritty all-rounder and deserves the chance to make it at county level.
Mooney’s brilliant performance was one of several outstanding performances, but he was well short of Bob Forrest’s undefeated 154 for Clontarf against Cork Harlequins. And in the bowling ranks Bond’s Glen were savaged by CI’s Taimur Khan (8-21) as the former North Down all-rounder produced the best bowling figures in 30 years of the Irish Senior Cup. Neither CI nor North Down were really tested by Bond’s Glen and Fox Lodge, but the next round will identify the serious contenders as the field narrows to eight and northern clubs will hope to have at least parity with their Leinster counterparts by that stage.
Predicting winners of the Irish Senior Cup after the first round is pure speculation, but what may be missing in NCU quantity is certainly present in quality and at the end of the day that’s where the winners come from.
Let’s hope the Ulster rugby team sets the tone next Saturday and our cricketers do the same two weeks later!
Clarence Hiles
Editor
