Saturday 3rd July - The 3rds made the short stroll through leafy Rathmines to Kenilworth Square. Paul Rodgers has the details.

This Division 5 fixture was, amongst much furore, switched to Kenilworth Square to accommodate the 4ths cup match in Observatory Lane.

It is fair to say that the venue itself would be coveted by a lot of clubs as their first ground, let alone their second, with its picturesque setting in the heart of Dublin 6, neat outfield and even paced mat: with some of the longest square boundaries in the country when fully extended it also offers a decent sized playing area and thus a tactical challenge for the batting and fielding side alike.

Malahide, winning the toss, inserted Leinster and, after some confusion with the batting order, Dylan Clancy and Ruhteg Mehta made their way out into the middle. The start was solid, if not spectacular, with Clancy punishing the bad ball and Ruhti looking to anchor. Ruhti succumbed with the score on about 30 after about 8 overs, and the returning Neil Lyons joined Clancy in the middle. a partnership of approaching 80 followed as both players fluidly dispatched anything wayward whilst at the same time not taking too many risks. Clancy made a well earned 50 before departing with the score on 104. Lyons followed shortly afterwards for 45, which was the cue for the all too familiar batting collapse, only Malcolm Rule offering any resistance with 37 as the cardinal sin of not batting the overs was committed and Leinster slumped to 187 all out, which looked to be at least 40 short, and probably 60-70 short in real terms with Malahide now having 50 overs in which to chase. Malahide's attack was only solid, not spectacular and the mat itself, while offering a bit of movement for anyone cutting or spinning the ball, was slow, low and even paced. Some of the shots played in dismissal by the Leinster line up were highly questionable and only really Dave Lappin can perhaps consider himself unfortunate in dismissal.

After the fine al fresco tea, Rob O'Connor and Brian Hanby took up the attack: Hanby picked up a wicket early on, to as fine a catch as you're ever likely to see in the slips from Clancy and O'Connor picked up two more clean bowleds (the second apparently as a direct result of consultation with his bowling mentor, Kenny Byrne) as Malahide were reduced to around 40/3 after 10 with Leinster well in the game. Rodgers replaced O'Connor and Lappin Hanby, but Malahide's 4th wicket partnership began to tick over. Mehta replaced Lappin as the frugal Rodgers worked away but the 4th wicket, when it eventually came, may have been too late, as Malahide had reached 3 figures, albeit with the handbrake having been applied.

Unfortunately, the recent trend of poor fielding continued, with 5 chances of varying degrees being put down over the day. O'Connor and Hanby did return to pick up another deserved wicket each, but Malahide exploited the wide open spaces to crawl home in over 48, and continue their unbeaten start to the season.

Not a good day, with the 3rds 3 from 5 in the league now and almost a carbon copy of last week's game with Merrion. The middle order needs to start producing again, the fielding needs to improve and more cutting edge from the bowling is needed in the middle of the innings. At least the match itself was played in good spirits (as is always the case against this opposition) and those experiencing the venue for the first time appeared to enjoy it.

Three points gained from the match, 71 from 125 (56.8%), which may see a drop down to fourth spot, behind Malahide 3, Mullingar and Phoenix 3.

Sunday 27th June - With the excitement of the first round victory over Phoenix still being felt, the 3rds were brought swiftly down to earth with a bump, after a five wicket defeat to Merrion in Anglesea Road. It should have been much better. Dylan Clancy rolled back the years with 48 at the top of the order, and with Ken Taylor and Dave Staunton also scoring well, Leinster were 133-3. Once pace had been taken off the ball though, O'Brein, Shimmons and Jim Walshe helped themselves to wickets as the middle and lower orders fell away. 133-3 became 162 all out, skipper Walshe the pick of the bowlers with 4-36. Although Rob Stanton departed early for Merrion, that was about as good as it got. Perhaps the slow bowlers should have come on earlier, as Malcolm Rule took two wickets (2-40 from 9), but Merrion cruised home for the loss of five wickets, with 51 balls left. It did however take a 6th wicket partnership between O'Keefe and Carty of 50 to see them home. Without that who knows what may have happened?

Wednesday 23rd June - After a two week delay, the 3rds middle cup game against Phoenix finally took place. Paul Rodgers reports.

The Middle Cup game postponed from the washed out bank holiday was refixed as a midweek 20/20 match and played in the historic surroundings of the Phoenix Park on a bright, sultry evening.

Skipper Malcolm Rule, winning the toss, opted to bat first and get a score on the board, perhaps also hoping to take advantage of the possibility of fading light in the second innings if the game went to the death.

Leinster were going at pretty much 8 - 10 an over the whole way, openers Dave Staunton and Dylan Clancy exploiting the unrestricted field with runs off virtually every ball of the first couple of overs, prior to then beginning an assault on the short boundaries from over 3 onwards. Clancy departed with the score on about 30, to be replaced by Asif Hussein, who took the score up to about 80 after 8 with Stan before mistiming a slower one. The score was up at about 100 after 10 when Stan went for about 40, leaving Niks Nagar and Steve Kenealy to continue the assualt - which they did in some style. Niks continued where he left off against Merrion with some brutal hitting and Kenealy's reliability in the middle order was evident again - the two of them took the score over 150 before Steve eventually holed out on the boundary (after hitting one particularly huge six that had the inhabitants of the big cat enclosure scarpering for cover). Niks got to 50 not out with aid from both Rule and Rob O'Connor and 190 was a score that probably wouldn't have been too bad in the longer format of the game.

Defending, Leinster opened with Brian Hanby and Steve Pullbrooke. Runs were actually reasonably easy to come by without too much effort, and Phoenix were pretty much going at the required rate from the start, losing only one wicket, caught at mid off by Rule off Hanby. O'Connor and Paul Rodgers came on to bowl in the crucial second third of the match as Phoenix really began to try and up the tempo. Rodgers managed to nick one batsman off having been despatched for consecutive boundaries before removing two more in the 11th over, with the score at about 100/2, one caught by Hanby off a slower delivery and the second thanks to an excellent piece of work by keeper Neil Griffen, collecting a ball bowled wide of the advancing batsman and then rolling it underarm back to hit the stumps and record another victim.

Phoenix were still in with a chance but two wickets in consecutive balls in about the 16th over by Rule, ruuning through his usual repertiore of variations, left them at about 150/6 and some tight bowling from Hussein and the excellent Hanby, picking up a much deserved second wicket in fading light, extinguished the Phoenix hopes completely.

Although 190 looked a huge score in this format, in the end it transpired that Leinster needed every single run -not helped by an ordinary display in the field. The batting is certainly the strong point of this thirds team at the moment, whose next match in this competition will be against Merrion 3rds at Anglesea Road.