homepage

Merrion Women win the Pilkington

For the 7th time since the competition started in 1981 Merrion took the Pilkington trophy. The Pilkington is the only Womens Club competition in the longer [50 over] format of the game.

A 12.00 start in Sydney Parade saw Merrion win the toss and bat first against Leinster. It did not start well with Cecelia Joyce retiring hurt with a hamstring injury. Rachel Delany and Rebecca Stokell fell shortly thereafter and Merrion looked in a little bit of trouble. But the innings was rescued by a 100 plus run partnership between Leah Paul and Celeste Raack. Even when Raack [ ] was out with the score on 201, Paul continued on to an excellent. When she was finally out for 145 the score had moved on the 272, thanks in part to a generous supply of extras from Leinster. The final score of 289 for nine was augmented by another 12 penalty runs for slow over rate.

300 was always going to require a massive effort from Leinster. It got even harder after Julieanne Morrissey removed the two openers. Although Irish captain Delaney kept interest alive in the end she had no one to stay with her and wickets fell steadily. There were a brace of wickets each for Morrissey [2/28 ], Raack [2/19], Isabel Light [2/10], and Rachel Delaney [2/38].

In the end a comfortable victory by 159 runs with Leinster bowled out for 142.