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A Busy Bank Holiday Weekend

With all six Open teams in action this weekend it will a busy few days. The season has started badly with losses across the board, except for the 1st XI. Some of this is down to players not being available, but it is not immediately obvious why this should impact Merrion more than other clubs. 

The 1st XI have two outings, Saturday in Anglesea Road and Monday in Balbriggan. It will probably need a win from at least one of these games to keep their hopes of qualifying for the final stages alive. John Anderson and Dom Joyce come back into the team having missed the win over North Kildare last weekend. 

The other teams are all involved in the start of the various T20 competitions. To check out go to https://www.merrioncricketclub.ie/fixtures-results/ 

The Women [in contrast] continue to enjoy a strong start to the season with their third win. On Thursday they got their Senior League [T20] off to an excellent start by defeating Clontarf by 20 runs. This was especially pleasing as it took place even though the team were missing four of their key players and thus provided an opportunity for some of the younger players in the club to step up. But it was Leah Paul who stole the show with an impressive all-round performance, an undefeated half-century and four overs 3/10. 

For full scorecard go to https://www2.cricketstatz.com/ss/runreport2.aspx?club=4536&mode=100&match=444744 and report on the match to https://www.cricketleinster.ie/news/merrion-see-of-tarf-thanks-to-paul-round-performance 

The other match in Anglesea Road this weekend is first of the Arachtas Super Series between the Typhoons and the Scorchers which takes place at Merrion on Sunday. There is an early start time of 10.45. 

Players on the squads from Merrion to look out for,  Rachel Delaney and Niamh MacNulty [Scorchers] and Celeste Raack and Rebecca Stokell [Scorchers]. The third team in the competition, the Dragons, is captained by Leah Paul. Congratulations also to Celeste Raack who, together with Gaby Lewis from YMCA, has been selected to play in the SDG Fairbreak Invitational Tournament in Dubai in early May. 

Returning to the theme of player availability. A quick review of selections for this weekend shows:

1st XI 10 of the 11 players starred playing, one unavailable. 

2nd XI 6 of the 11 starred playing, 3 of the 11 starred unavailable, one playing on 1st XI and one playing down from 1sts. 

3rd XI only 4 of the starred players available for 3rds, one playing down from 2nd XI and 3 playing on the 2nd XI. 

4th XI only 5 of the starred team available, two playing on 3rds. 

5th XI 7 of the starred team playing, and one playing down from 4th XI. 

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