End of Year Records : Irish Senior Cup

As we come to the end of another season it is time to update the club records. The first of these we look at is the Irish Senior Cup.

Even though we only managed to get through one round of the competition in 2026, this has not impacted the club’s overall record in the competition. Merrion has played a total of 113 ISC matches over 43 seasons since the competition started in 1982. This is the most of any club in the competition, with only Waringstown [107] and Donemana [106] also playing over 100 games. The club has the fifth highest win ratio at 63.7% and the third highest in Leinster after Balbriggan and North County.

Merrion did not reach the final stages of the ISC in 2026 so the only update is that Pembroke joins a number of other Leinster clubs [Merrion, Leinster, The Hills and Phoenix] with two ISC titles. These are all a distance behind North County with their 5 trophies. Merrion has the dubious honour of having taken part in more finals than any other Leinster club, but losing five of them.

Home advantage seems to make a difference and playing at Anglesea Road resulted in a win ratio of 72.6% against 56.8% in away games.

In terms of individual batting performances John Anderson is well ahead with 2712 runs scored for Merrion, followed by Dom Joyce with 1966. With the threshold set at 500 runs, four players average over 50 for Merrion. Anderson again leads the way with an average of 67.80.

Six players feature in the Merrion ISC bowling figures with more than 30 wickets each. Damian Poder heads the table with 48 wickets and also at the lowest average of 20.50.

Finally, the all-rounder category based on one point per run and 20 for a wicket or dismissal by a wicket keeper. The qualifying mark is 1000 points with a minimum of 25 wickets / dismissals and 500 runs.