Mark Collier

Huge congratulations to the Men’s 2^nd team for a fantastic win in the rain affected Senior Cup final against North County. It was a perfectly timed run chase against a very good County team who play some excellent cricket on the day.

We have another Cup Final coming up on Friday evening. The Women’s 2^nd team take on Leinster 3rds in Rathmines with a 5pm start. Best of luck and I hope the Clontarf will be out in force.

On Thursday the 3^rd our Women’s 1^st team travel to Malahide for a Division 2 clash at 6.30pm.

On Wednesday the 4ths host Pembroke at 1pm in the Bull Ring. The 4ths are currently top of Division 8 and now we’re into the business end of the season. A win here will put them in a great position for the run in.

For the Bank Holiday weekend in the Bull Ring we have the 1^st on Saturday, the 2^nd’s on Sunday and the 1^st’s again on Monday.

On Saturday the 1^st’s will host Leinster at the slightly earlier start time of 12.30. After weeks of 20/20 this marks the return to 50 over cricket. Our Firsts are top with 7 wins from 8 games (the loss came in a refixed 20/20) and have a 45 point gap to 2^nd place, but no one ever won a league in August. Leinster are a good side and have themselves hit a good run of form in recent weeks. This will be a good challenge. They follow that up on Monday when they host Cork County. The Munster men have struggled so far this season but it’s worth remembering that all teams in Division 1 deserve to be there and none should be taken lightly. Corks finish to last season in Division 2 to gain promotion gives the insight you need to the fight in the team.

Sunday see’s the 2^nd’s host Merrion at 12.30. Merrion are 3^rd in the league (they were most people’s tip for the top at the start) and are a very strong side. Our 2nds are bottom and they have underperformed in the league to date. Boyed by the Cup win last Sunday and with some key players coming to form at the right time we can rightly expect a good game and to see a team play to their potential.

Now to the away games.

The 6ths head up the motorway to Laois on Saturday. They had a hard weekend just falling short in the cup semi-final on Saturday and a loss to Adamstown in Mount Temple on Sunday. The trip to Laois is coming at a good time for them to bounce back. They are sitting mid table in Division 14 after getting promoted last season and with some good young players in the side and under the stewardship of captain Aido can go toe to toe with anyone in this league.

On Sunday the 5ths will replay their rained off Cup Semi-Final of last weekend (pending OCC approval). They will head back to North County in great form. Again a side with plenty of good young players coupled with accomplished experience. They were in a great position last week and will aim for a repeat, but we don’t have to tell anyone what a north county side can bring to a game. This is the game of the weekend.

On Monday the 4ths travel to Adamstown. This is a tough place to win matches, but we have to install the 4ths as favourites. Their league form (to date) has been excellent and they are the team to beat in Division 8.

Best of luck to everybody playing this weekend and especially the 2 sides in the cup, The Women’s 2nds in Friday’s final and the 5^ths in Sundays Semi-Final.

Hope to see you at some games.

Let’s get right down to it. The Really Big game this weekend is the Senor 2 Cup Final. We’ve had plenty of success in recent years in this cup but this year it’s in Clontarf, and we’re in it!!!

Sunday at 1pm we take on North County 2’s over 40 overs. We’ve had a good run to the final.

https://www.facebook.com/clontarfcricket/videos/1913148665613663/

Round one we Drew Dundrum at home. Dundrum are a league lower and the step up against a strong Clontarf proved too much for the visitors. Dundrum were all out for 126 in the 32^nd over with Dec being the pick of the bowlers picking up 3 for 13 off 5. Everyone who bowled got in on the act and all returned pretty decent figures. There was no let-up in the second half. Dec (again) and Robbie were playing my bat, my ball. The target was reached for the loss of no wicket in the 18^th with dec on 69 off 48 and Robbie 37 off 57.

The second round saw us drawn away to Merrion whom many consider to be amongst the best 2^nd teams in the country. Winning the toss and batting on a dry wicket got the game off to a good start. A lot of the hard work was done in the first innings with 50’s for VJ and Dec and a quick 44 not out of 29 balls for Nibbler setting an imposing (it is 40 overs) target of 244.

The 2^nd half saw Kirky get the openers early and 2 quick wickets for Sameer had Merrion 77 for 4. Despite a good mid innings partnership Merrion never really got going as we know they can and were all out for 172 just shy of 35 overs. Ali bowled well for 2 for 19 off 6.4 but Nibbler bowling like the ginger Warney returned 3 for 38 in the best spell I’ve seen him bowl.

The Semi Final could have been a tricky one, drawn against Knockharley and away. Luckily a few of the 2nds had spent some time in #FrankiesArmy and are no strangers to Knockharley. That was certainly a factor on what was to follow, there were no surprises. Knockharley won the toss and batted (they always do) but in Rory Krik we had a bowler who has known success on this ground and picked up 3 of the top 6 with Naveed accounting for both the openers. At 6 for 31 Nibbler got a run picking up 2 in tandem with the returning Naveed to take his tally to 4. The odd wicket was a run out by Luke Prior. All out for 70. Again, there was no let-up for the second half. This time it was Juno and Nibbler making sure of a home final. Juno with 40 and Nibbler 25.

With a good number of the above mentioned players turning up for Sunday we will be in for a good game.

The Final is not the only reason to come down on Sunday.

We invite you to support fundraiser in aid of MatthewHayesTrust.org.

There will be a BBQ run in the afternoon/evening and opportunity to sponsor Synno and Dunner on their coast to coast cycle, please see below words from Iain.

“Myself and Andy Dunne are participating in a 320km fundraising cycle from Clontarf to Sligo on August 18th & 19th with a group of 75 Clontarf lads and lassies. It is a fundraising initiative (started in 2015) for an amazing young local boy, Matthew Hayes, who has severe autism with many additional complex and challenging behaviours.

As Matthew has now turned 18, a significant proportion of State provision of care and support for Matthew’s complex needs will stop.

The objective of the Matthew Hayes Trust is to provide resources to keep Matthew living at home with his family, bridging the gap in carer support for Matthew and to provide some respite for his Mum, Dad & siblings. I couldn’t do justice describing what the Hayes family deal with every day. Please click on the website to learn more about Matthew and the daily challenges in caring for him –www.matthewhayestrust.org”

That’s not all we have for you this weekend

On Saturday the 6^ths are in Castle Avenue in the Minor Cup Semi-Final hoping to make it a hat trick of final appearances when they host Bagenalstown 2’s at 1pm I hope you have also lend your support. The 6ths have been on a great run of late and have a good mix of new players and youth players taking their first steps in Men’s cricket.

Also on Saturday the 3rds travel to table topping Longford for a 1 pm kick off. Despite going out of the cup to an excellent performance by YMCA 3rds last Saturday they are one of the form teams in the League. But in order to continue the fight for the title they will have to do what no other team has managed and beat Longford at home. A big ask, but if this team knows anything, its how to win. Huge Game

Back to Sunday and lets have another Cup Semi-Final!! The 5ths travel to North County for the semi of the Junior Cup. The 5ths of late have been well documented and even though they are away, their form over the past 2 months makes the the bookies favourites here. Scroll down the page if you need a refresher

Finally the 6ths are on again, this time in the League and in Mount Temple. They host Adamstown in a crucial league encounter.

All games start at 1pm. A note for next week, Division 1 and 2 (1^st & 2nds) games will start at 12.30 next weekend for the bank holiday

https://www.facebook.com/clontarfcricket/videos/1909499529311910/