An eventful week saw Merrion’s 1st and 2nd XIs successfully navigate the first rounds of the Irish Senior Cup and the Leinster Senior II Cup. In what must count as an unusual coincidence, I certainly don’t recall the like, the 3rd XIs in Open and Women’s leagues games both recorded a tie. But the most notable feature of the week was the number of personal milestones achieved.
In the Irish Senior Cup skipper Sean Stanton took five wickets in a senior match for the first time in his career. This followed another important first by Tom Squires [5/22] who the previous week took his first five wicket haul in Open Competitions for the 2nds in their league win over Civil Service IIs. This was just the first of a series of excellent performances by youth players in the club.
First there was the 145 by Aisling Lawlor as the Womens 2nd XI got their season off to a winning start against North Kildare. There is only one higher score for Merrion in Leinster Women’s T20 Cricket and that is by Bella Armstrong who made 146 in a match against Rush in 2025. In the Women’s D2 league it is the second highest individual score recorded, after the 146 for Tahlia Dunne for The Hills II v Leinster II in 2023. The highest recorded score ever in a competitive women’s T20 game was 154 made by Gaby Lewis for YMAC against Pembroke in 2022. Impressive company. Aisling’s 145 is the third highest recorded score by a Merrion player in any competition. Although I will entertain claims from players of earlier eras for which records do not exist if they can provide some evidence.
There was a first half century in Womens cricket for Trudy Molins [51] in the tied D3 game v Phoenix II and for Sibha Bhoja [69] for the Women’s 2nd XI v North Kildare. The partnership of 238 by Lawlor and Bhoja in the North Kildare game is the highest ever recorded by a Merrion pair and beats two previous 200 plus run partnerships by internationals Rachel Delany and Leah Paul [228] v Clontarf in 2021 and 214 by Paul and Rebecca Stokell in 2020 v The Hills.
Finally, and in the context of the game an outstanding performance, was the 81* scored by Oliver Molins, his first for Merrion’s 2nd XI, in which he batting through the innings to help Merrion overhaul a total of 240 by Leinster II in the Senior II Cup.