The Leinster Senior Cup - sponsored by Conqueror aptly enough - usually produces some excellent matches in the course of a season. The final, irrespective of the quality of the play produced, is always a special day, in fact the day in Leinster cricket. The host ground is normally colourfully decorated for the occasion with flowers and bunting, the bustling beer tents busy throughout the day, a fine attendance and a general air of jollity predominant, though not on the field of play, understandably.

We didn't have anything like this when I was a lad growing up in Limerick, about two thousand years ago, or so it seems. In a city were rugby reigned supreme (as it still does), cricket was a dismally poor relation, with only two clubs, whose existence bore testimony to the religious divide - Limerick Protestant Young Men's Association (LPYMA) and Catholic Institute. Both are now long defunct as cricket clubs.

Limerick CC, the successor to "LP" and Institute, is now the sole cricket club in the city. Frank Lynch, the club professional, says membership varies between 30 and 40 and though three teams are fielded each week, he admits that finding players can be a challenge at times.

The club plays at the University of Limerick, and its teams compete in the All Munster Cricket Union competitions. These include the Munster Senior Shield, both senior leagues, in the second at division one, two and three levels, as well as in the provincial senior, junior and minor cups.

Frank, whose son Alan is an opening batsman and an off-spin bowler, is the current captain and is glad to say that the future is looking good. He says the first eleven is a very young team, while there are also several talented and promising youngsters on the way up. All told, the Limerick players today get much more competitive cricket than their predecessors. I belonged to Catholic Institute. Hardly surprisingly, Institute and LPYMA played against each other rather a lot in the course of a summer, for to take on non-Limerick opponents entailed journeys to places like Cahir, Lismore and far-flung Cork, and cars were none too plentiful in the Celtic field-mouse economy of the time.

One memorable afternoon, we arrived for a match against Cork County at The Mardyke in the midst of an outbreak of typhoid fever, or bubonic plague, or some similar contagious disease. We were warned not to drink the local tap water, and I swear that it was then that I developed a taste for AKA gin.

But we did have our own local cup competition, even if, with only two clubs involved, the path to the final was, well, rather easy. It was called the Auchmuty Cup, named after and donated by the late `Tish' Auchmuty, doyen of LPYMA and Bohemians RFC. Many a titanic battle was waged in pursuit of the coveted trophy.

The respective teams were invariably about equal in talent, that is to say depressingly low in standard. LPYMA - or "Young Men's" as it was known locally - could often drum up a few handy visiting players - a certain Ian Lewis among them at one stage - but sometimes Institute were obliged to press cricketing newcomers into service for the occasion.

One such lad, I recall, was a hurler from Kanturk, and was press-ganged into the team to make his (unwilling) debut in the Auchmuty Cup final. He was not, shall we say, a success, and next day at work somebody asked how many runs he had made. "Three", he replied, tersely. "One out, one across and one back".

But we had other devilish ploys designed to confound the opposition. If we happened to be the fielding side, we would insist on play being stopped whenever the Angelus bell rang, and we would stand around silently for a few minutes, hands clasped and heads reverently bowed, all to the discomfiture of the two Protestant batsmen. And the really sweet thing about it all was that hardly any of us actually knew the words in the first place!

I was eventually destined to be the one to break the mould, says he modestly, by being invited to play for LPYMA against a visiting English touring team. To do so, incredible though it may seem in these more enlightened times, I had to get permission from the Institute management, who in turn had to get permission from the (Catholic) Bishop of Limerick, who was the patron of the club, but who never set foot in the place.

When on match day I walked into the LPYMA pavilion, I was greeted by the long-time YMCA stalwart Donny Thompson, now a senior LCU umpire, who was then domiciled in Limerick. "Congratulations!", he said. "You've seen the light at last!"

But in truth we had always been united in the religion of cricket. So, to borrow the Australian rugby slogan, "here's the toast they make in Heaven, to the game they play there".

This season's Conqueror Cup final will be played at the Old Belvedere CC ground at Cabra, on Saturday July 31st.