As the season for most teams reach / approach their halfway point, the Merrion senior teams have been performing well.
The August bank holiday weekend was the most successful yet with a clean sweep across all adult teams.
Things started well on Thursday evening when the Merrion Womens 1st XI had a comprehensive victory over close rivals YMCA. Merrion batted first and fifties from openers Rebecca Stokell [64] and Leah Paul [52] laid the foundation for an excellent total of 158/2. Merrion’s bowlers never let YMCA into the game and after the prized wicket of Gaby Lewis in the first over to a great catch by Stokell off Celeste Raack wickets fell steadily. Stockell followed up her batting with 3/14 but the wickets were well spread among round the attack – Raack, Julianne Morrissey, Leah Paul and youth players Niamh Macnulty and Isabel Light.
Saturday saw the Open 1st XI take on Phoenix in the Park. It was a top of the table clash but as it turned out a somewhat one sided match. Merrion batted first and a third half-century in a row from John Anderson [74], with good support from Michael Lewis [39] and Max Sorensen [25], saw the visitors post a very competitive 172/4. The Phoenix innings never really got started following the dismissal of Jamie Grassie by Hugh Kennedy in the first over. Jamie Macnulty quickly followed up to remove the other opener and then the floodgates opened. Tom Stanton was the pick of the bowlers with 3/6. Phoenix ended up on 60/9.
Over the rest of the weekend there were wins for
4th XI v Lucan, where a Merrion side with eight youth players beat the visitors in Anglesea Road. A maiden Open half century by Oisin Bhoja helped Merrion to a score of 140/2 and then in a tight finish Merrion held Lucan to 129/6. Three wickets for Eoin Macnulty at the top of the innings were crucial.
3rd XI v Laois. The 3rds had a great win against Laois defending a very low total of 97. That they even got that many was down to a last wicket partnership of 24 between Sean Hussey [16 ] and Zander deBeer [13*] Raghav Khurana was the pick of the bowlers taking 3/17 as Laois were held to 90.
The Bank Holiday Monday saw the 5ths secure their first win thanks to another maiden Open half century, this time from Declan deKock. The total of 147 proved too many for Naas who made 132.
Finally, the 2nd XI had an evening game v Longford. It was a very exciting affair with some big hitting from Longford who batted first [eight 6s] and made a useful 132. Peter Forkin, who opened the bowling with his off-spin, took 3/17 in his four overs. Merrion looked to be cruising as James Hitchcock [53] and Jack Atkinson [28] put on an opening partnership of 91 in good time. But when the openers fell pressure began to mount until 18 were needed from the last two overs. A fortuitous 4 byes on the last ball of the penultimate over made the difference and only needing six from six Merrion scraped home with a ball to spare.
So where does that leave the Merrion teams. The 1st XI and 4th XI are best placed with three wins out of three. Merrion Women have 2/3 but are chasing Leinster who beat them in the first round and remain undefeated. The 2nd XI and 3rd XI both have 2/3 wins and so remain in the shake up for the end of season finals. Finally the 5ths, with 1/3 have work to do to get into contention – but there is still time.
And a final word for the Womens 2nd XI who played their first league game during the week. They lost but it was for many the first time ever playing a match with a hard ball. I am informed that rumours that the team is sponsored by a brand of Prosecco are unfounded.