TODAY'S final of the Royal Liver-sponsored Irish Senior Cup is certain to bring one of the biggest crowds of the season to Clontarf's pristine ground at Castle Avenue.
By Karl Johnston
For, from a Southern perspective, this match has everything: the first all-Leinster final in the 21 years of the competition, and a confrontation between two Dublin northside clubs - Rush, from the heart of Fingal, and near-neighbours Malahide.
A difficult one to call, this. Neither club has exactly set the world alight in the Leinster Senior 55 Overs League for example; both Malahide and Rush are second-last in the Section A and B tables, respectively.
But in Irish cricket's only all-island club competition, both have come good in fine style. Rush, having never won an Irish Senior Cup match since they went senior in 1995, this time around have accounted for last year's runners-up Cliftonville, Lisburn, Merrion and Downpatrick, while en route to the final Malahide defeated Bready, CYM, Brigade and Donemana.
The family clash of the Morgan brothers - Malahide's Eoin and Gavin from Rush - adds human interest to today's final, but is unlikely to be decisive. Because of his representative commitments, Eoin has played only a handful of games for Malahide; Gavin, on the other hand, is second on the Rush batting list (in Leinster cricket), having scored 310 runs (highest 62) for an average of 34.44, while also taking 12 wickets, average 26.83.
The performance with bat and ball of skipper Nazeer Shaukat will be vital in the Rush scheme of things today. In Leinster he has scored 300 runs, average 33.33, taken 19 wickets, average 18.58, and is his team's top fielder with six catches.
Yesterday, Malahide's captain Dave McGeehan was confident that his side's walking wounded would be fit for today's engagement. The injured included Jim Govan, Steve Smith, Damian Ryan and Brian Gilmore, all of them key players who (along with the skipper himself) were prominent in the defeats of Brigade and Donemana.
In the Leinster averages, McGeehan has scored 306 runs, Govan 229 and Ryan 126, while Malahide's top bowlers have been Ryan with 21 wickets, Govan with 16 and Peter Saville with 14.
Gilmore has not figured much in Leinster cricket this season, but has played a huge part in Malahide's Irish Senior Cup campaign.
Predictions? Well, no thanks, except to say that both sides have everything to play for.
MALAHIDE: D McGeehan (capt), B Gilmore, J Govan, E Morgan, J Pryor, A Pyne, D Ryan, P Saville, S Smith, A Weir, R Weir.
RUSH: N Shaukat (capt.), A Butterley, J Carthy, W Cross, C Doyle, F McAllister, R McGuinness, L Metcalfe, G Morgan, N Mullen, I Worrell.
Umpires: D Caldwell (NWCU), J Boomer (NCU). Reserve: P White (NCU).
UNDER-16 INTERPROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIP at Fox Lodge: Leinster 243 for 7; (J Bennett 52, S McDonnell 39, M Tighe 32) North West Cricket Union: 216 all out (S McDonnell 3 for 36).
Leinster under-16 won by 27 runs.
