Cricket: As the Irish Senior Cup, our premier (and indeed, only, all-island club competition, sponsored by Royal Liver) swings into its first round today, south of the border cricketers will be hoping this will be the start of a three in a row eventual outcome.
Two years ago, North County became only the second southern winners, and last year Malahide became the third, defeating Rush in the first all-south final since the competition was inaugurated in 1982.
Phoenix is the only other southern club to have won the Senior Cup, in 1986, while the Dublin clubs who lost in finals were Leinster (1982, 1996, 1997), Clontarf (1990) and, of course, Rush last year at Castle Avenue.
The competition has been dominated by the northern clubs since then, but that merely adds to its appeal and the successive victories of North County and Malahide in the past two years should be a considerable incentive for southern teams this time around, showing that their cross border opponents are not (quite) invincible.
Malahide, the holders, have been drawn away to Strabane, a side which includes Peter Gillespie, capped 60 times between 1995 and last year, and his brother Mark, who has made three recent international appearances.
Rush, by contrast, have home advantage against Limavady, but what the indomitable Decker Curry might achieve with the bat in the relatively limited confines of Kenure hardly bears thinking about; Rush will need sterling performances from the likes of Nazeer Shaukat, et al.
Merrion, Railway Union, Phoenix, North County and Old Belvedere are the other Leinster clubs drawn at home.
With respect to the opposition, Merrion and Phoenix should not be unduly troubled by Cork Harlequins and UCC, but for Railway, North County and Old Belvedere - facing Instonians, Lisburn and Glendermott, respectively - the story may be different.
Six Leinster clubs will be the guests of North West CU and Northern CU opposition sides - Pembroke, The Hills, CYM, Clontarf, Leinster and YMCA. The last-named were, in fact, drawn at home to Bangor, but because of restoration work going on at Claremont Road, the venue has been switched.
Some good and hard fought contests are on the cards then, always providing the advent of that dreaded phrase "rain stopped play"; so let us put our trust in that great umpire in the sky and hope that in the event it will be a case of "prayer stopped rain".
Meanwhile, the North Leinster XI will be unchanged for its next two inter-regional challenge matches, against NWCU X1 at Beechgrove on Saturday, May 31st, and against NCU XI at Bangor on Sunday, June 1st, and Patrick Byrne (The Hills) will be 12th man for both matches.
The Southern XI for the same weekend will be selected this Sunday.
Finally, well done to the Leinster Cricket Union (LCU) which has asked the senior clubs to nominate PROs for this season; so far, this writer has already heard officially from two of them.
UMPIRES
Saturday: Irish Senior Cup - First round: At Anglesea Road: S Moore, P Byrne: At Balrothery: S Daultrey, D Walsh; At Cabra: E Gilmour, N Parnell; At Phoenix CC, Phoenix Park: J Bristow, M Russell; At Park Avenue: R Molins, P Thew. Senior 2 League: At Portlaoise: T Byrne, L Hewson. Senior 3 League: At Sydney Parade: N Adams, PJ Carroll.
Sunday: Leinster Senior League Section A: At Balrothery: G Lyons, M Russell. LHW Leinster Senior League Section B: At Sydney Parade: S Daultrey, J Bristow; At Park Avenue: R O'Reilly, E Gilmour. Senior 2 League: At Civil Service CC, Phoenix Park: J Ford, J Fennell. Senior 3 League: At Balbriggan: P Cooke, S Moore; At Malahide: D Thompson, S McCann.
NORTH LEINSTER XI: J Molins (Phoenix, capt), B Archer (The Hills), Conor Armstrong, D Armstrong, A Botha (all North County), J Bray (Phoenix), J Mooney, P Mooney (both North County), G Molins (Clontarf), E Morgan (North County), N Shaukat (Rush). 12th man: P Byrne (The Hills).
