With just six weeks remaining in the season the opportunities and challenges facing Merrion’s league teams are coming into focus. And sadly it is more about challenges than opportunities.
The latest official league tables for the club’s six teams in Open Competitions at the end of July look like this.
| Open Competitions [End July] | |||||||||
| P | W | NR | Tie | L | BP | Total | Rank | ||
| 1st XI | Premier | 11 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 32 | 192 | 3/6 |
| 2nd XI | Premier II | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 121 | 2/8 |
| 3rd XI | Division 5 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 16 | 61 | 8/8 |
| 4th XI | Division 9 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 22 | 62 | 7/8 |
| 5th XI | Division 15 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 21 | 41 | 9/9 |
| 6th XI | Division 17 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 37 | 7/8 |
On the positive side the top two teams remain in contention for honours, although the 1st XI have the more difficult task and would need an almost perfect set of results across their last five games, and also for someone else to beat Pembroke.
After their victory in the Senior II Cup the 2nd XI turn their attention to the Premier II League. Last season the outcome of the league went down to the final round of matches when Merrion pipped Pembroke for the title. This year Leinster IIs also in the hunt, 32.5 points ahead of Merrion and Pembroke, but Pembroke have a game in hand. Whether Merrion can mount a challenge for the title will be determined over the next two rounds of matches.
For the rest of the teams the picture is not so bright and the pathway to survival in all cases will require almost a clean sheet of wins and other results to go our way.
In the Women’s Competitions Merrion continue to perform well.
| Womens Competitions [End July] | |||||||||
| P | W | NR | Tie | L | BP | Total | Rank | ||
| 1st XI | Premier | 10 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 35 | 215 | 1/9 |
| 2nd XI | Division 2 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 26 | 158.5 | 3/8 |
| 3rd XI | Division 3 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 110.5 | 5/9 |
The Women’s 1st XI go into the last round of matches top of the league with another win against Clontarf this week that is not included in the official table. Their closest rivals now are Balbriggan who they are due to meet again on the 20thAugust . This has the feel of a decider, although Clontarf, despite losing to Merrion this week, are not completely out of contention.
A strong finish to the season by the 2nd XI would see them in with a good chance of retaining their title. They are within a single win of the leaders Clontarf 2s and the two tems have to meet again on the 25th August.
Despite recording a memorable win against Rush IIs, the Rush team are well ahead in the Division 3 and it is very unlikely that anyone will catch them. A good end of season will see the 3rd XI achieve a commendable top order placing with a very young team.
Key match-ups to look out for in the coming weeks.
Open 1st XI All matches are important for a high finish.
22nd Aug – Merrion v Pembroke, Anglesea Rd
29th Aug – Balbriggan v Merrion, Jack Harper Ground
Open 2nd XI 9th Aug – Pembroke IIs v Merrion IIs, Sydney Parade
22nd Aug – Leinster IIs v Merrion IIs, Rathmines
Women 1st XI 20th Aug – Balbriggan v Merrion, Jack Harper Ground
Women 2nd XI 25th Aug – Merrion W2 v Clontarf W2, Anglesea Rd.