The Hills claim Bob Kerr trophy

The Hills made Castle Avenue a home from home yet again in the final of the RSA Irish Senior Cup on Saturday as they beat hosts Clontarf by nine runs to claim the Bob Kerr Trophy and end 'Tarf's hopes of a hat-trick of cup trophies this summer.

Again it was their experienced bowling attack that helped them defend a low total of 239. Man of the match Cormac McLoughlin’s 75 and his third-wicket partnership of 106 with Mike Baumgart (62) put the Skerries side in a strong position .

Clontarf had other ideas and their bowlers were outstanding in the final 10 overs, with Zander van der Merwe (four for 30), Paul Ryan (three for 54) and Joe Morrissey (two for 30) restricting The Hills as seven wickets fell for just 33 more runs.

Third-wicket stand

Clontarf's reply was also built around another third-wicket stand between opener Bill Coghlan and Ireland international Andrew Poynter. But after putting on 77 runs they both departed within the space of four balls, on 41 runs apiece, as the home side were reduced to 95 for four in the 28th over.

Skipper Eoghan Delany and Adrian D’Arcy set about rebuilding yet again and kept the match in the balance. D’Arcy departed just after making a fine half-century off 49 balls. The other worry was the return of The Hills’ opening bowlers for the final six overs, at which stage Clontarf needed 47 runs to win with five wickets in hand.

Delany was stumped by Nicolaas Pretorius off the bowling of Naseer Shoukat for 41 and the 48th over saw Ryan run out going for a second and Morrissey depart.

The equation was 20 runs off two overs with two wickets in hand for the home side and nine runs off the first five balls of Shoukat’s final over looked to have swung it back in ’Tarf’s favour.

Shoukat turned it right back with his last delivery as he ended Azim Nazir's stay and Sorensen wrapped it up with the second ball of the last over when Zander van der Merwe holed out to Tomás Murphy off Sorensen to signal a pitch invasion from the away supporters.

THE HILLS N Pretorius b Coghlan 34 P Byrne c Poynter b Van der Merwe 14 C McLoughlin b Van der Merwe 75 M Baumgart st Currie b Morrissey 62 M Sorensen b Ryan 15 J Andrews b Ryan 2 N Shoukat c Poynter b Ryan 8 T Murphy c&b Morrissey 12 M Kumar b Van der Merwe 0 M Dwyer c A D'Arcy b Van der Merwe 0 L Clinton not out 0 Extras (b1, lb6, w10) 17 Total (all out, 49.3 overs) 239 Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-59, 3-165, 4-207, 5-216, 6-218, 7-234, 8-236, 9-238. Bowling: Z van der Merwe 10-0-30-4; J Morrissey 8.3-2-30-2; C D'Arcy 10-0-40-0; B Coghlan 8-0-50-1; P Ryan 8-1-54-3; A Poynter 5-0-28-0.
CLONTARF M Collier lbe b Sorensen 0 B Coghlan c sub (W Archer) b Dwyer 40 C Currie c Clinton b Shoukat 7 A Poynter c Pretorius b Murphy 41 E Delany st Pretorius b Shoukat 41 A D'Arcy c Baumgart b Kumar 51 J Morrissey c Baumgart b Sorensen 11 P Ryan run out 4 A Nazir c Dwyer s Shoukat 3 Z van der Merwe c Murphy b Sorensen 6 C D'Arcy not out 1 Extras (b3, lb6, w16) 25 Total (all out, 49.2 overs) 230 Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-18, 3-95, 4-95, 5-190, 6-208, 7-216, 8-220, 9-229. Bowling: M Sorensen 9.2-1-50-3; N Shoukat 10-2-40-3; L Clinton 8-1-37-0; M Kumar 9-0-34-1; M Dwyer 7-0-37-1; T Murphy 6-1-23-1. The Hills won by 9 runs.