Quietly and without fanfare Dom let it be known at the start of the season that he was retiring from Senior Cricket. Many in the club cannot remember a time when he was not on the 1st XI. He made his debut in 1996, against Phoenix in the Park, the latest off the assembly line of cricketers that is the Joyce family.
Although he only played one game that year, it was part of a rare winning effort in a league match against Phoenix. His brother Ed got an undefeated century that day and fellow team mates included Brett Saxon, Richard Dowse, Kevin Allwright, Angus Fleming, Paddy and Michael O’Herlihy. Joe Morrissey, Tristan Mclaren and his other brothers Gus and Damian.
Statistics, over a career of 28 seasons for Merrion, don’t lie. In all Dom played 374 Senior Club matches [excluding Alan Murray T20 and Irish Senior Cup games] for a total of 8,476 runs and 209 wickets. He also took 139 catches. Most of these games were for Merrion, but he did play 31 games for Dublin University as a student.
His career figures for Merrion are as follows:
| Dom Joyce : Senior Career Figures for Merrion | ||||||||||||
| Batting | Bowling | Field | ||||||||||
| M | Inns | NO | HS | 50/100 | Runs | Ave | Wkts | Runs | BP | 5W | Ave | Cts |
| 343 | 311 | 33 | 197 | 37/10 | 7738 | 27.83 | 195 | 4027 | 7/66 | 2 | 20.66 | 131 |
His best season was probably 2011 when in 18 innings he made 553 runs [including 3 50s and a century] and took 33 wickets, including his best ever bowling performance of 7/66 against Pembroke in the Cup at Sydney Parade.
Of the 491 cricketers who played Senior Cricket for Merrion going back to 1927, he is the third highest run scorer, after Simon Curley [9510] and John Anderson [7964]. He is also third in terms of aggregate all-rounder points on 11,638 [runs and wickets]. In matches played he ranks fourth after Bob Stanton [394], Simon Curley [369] and Eddie Lewis [351]. Finally his 197 against Pembroke at Anglesea Road in 2005 is the second highest ever scored by a Merrion bat [Brad Spanner made 204* against Railway Union in 2000] and his partnership of 277 in 2019 with John Anderson against Leinster in Rathmines is the second highest partnership in the club’s history. Top spot goes to Spanner and Chris Torrisi [280] against The Hills in 2001, again at Anglesea Road.
In terms of silverware, Dom has won more trophies than anyone else playing for Merrion 1st XI. He has been on teams that have won the Irish Senior Cup [2], the Leinster Premier League [3], the League Cup [2], the Alan Murray T20 [8] and the Senior II Championship [3].
Dom has had an exceptional career with Merrion. Hopefully sometime in the future he will don the pads again and play a few games with his young family when they too turn out for the club. The good news is that Dom is going to continue his direct involvement in the club and has taken on an expanded coaching role.