A somewhat fortuitous draw has ensured that one southern team will contest the final of the Irish Senior Cup, sponsored by Royal Liver, next August 31st. Saturday's semi-final draw, made after North County's annihilation of Malahide, means that Merrion will be at home at Anglesea Road to the Fingal club, while Cliftonville will be away to Brigade at Beechgrove, on Saturday, August 11th.

Leinster were the last southern club to reach the final when they lost to Limavady at Beechgrove in 1997. With either Merrion or North County contesting it, this year's final will be staged at a Dublin venue, most likely at Rathmines.

North County will expect far stiffer opposition from Merrion than they got from Malahide in Saturday's quarter-final tie at Balrothery. Malahide were not at full strength, but even had they been, it's doubtful that they would have halted a simply rampant North County side.

Despite good knocks from skipper Dave McGeehan and Brian Gilmore, and useful support from Alistair Dalton and Philip Markey, Malahide's total of 176 was far too low, barring a disastrous North County collapse.

Both McGeehan and Gilmore hit six fours in their respective knocks of 36 and 37, while Dalton clobbered three bundaries and one massive six in his lively contribution of 22.

A feature of the North County attack was the superb wicket-keeping of Dara Armstrong. He held four catches in all, one of them a magnificent effort, a left-handed, full-length diving take to dismiss Dalton.

But an early end to the day's play was in sight when North County's opening pair, Conor Armstrong and Sean O'Connor, started scoring at the rate of some 10 runs an over. Malahide's 16-year-old all-rounder John Pryor smartly caught and bowled O'Connor with the score on 95, but that was to be the visitors' sole success, as the irrepressible Andre Botha joined Armstrong to get the 82 runs needed for victory.