Sunday dawned bright and sunny for the finals of the Lewis Hohn Williams Twenty20 Alan Murray Cup, hosted in Sydney Parade. The first semi was between the hosts, Pembroke, and Rush. The 'Broke won the toss and asked the Russians to post a score.

The first eight overs, four each from Rick Francis and Bill Whaley, yielded only 25 runs. Dan van Zyl, who had faced only one ball from Whaley and been kept quiet by Francis, felt obliged to have a go at Andrew Balbirnie's off breaks, missed, and was bowled for 7.

In the same over Tipu Gull wafted and was caught by Brían O'Rourke. In came Shahid Iqbal to keep the fluent Fintan McAllister company, but after Finto had scored 42 of the first 53 runs he was bowled by Jono Cooke.

Shahid was lbw to Graham McDonnell with the score on 63, and Nazeer Shaukat played a few shots before falling lbw to Balbirnie for 16 with the score on 86 in the 18th over. (By my reckoning, Naz has been out lbw four times in a row when I've been watching. I know he doesn't move his feet much until he's got 20, but I think he's been unlucky!)

Wasim Akhtar made 3 before he was bowled by Balbirnie, and Lionel Jansen finished unbeaten on 12 as the Russians could only scrape 95/8 in twenty overs. All the Pembroke bowling was good, the fielding very good, and Balbirnie deserved his Guildford Four-for 17.

He didn't fare so well with bat, making 7 out of 24 when he was bowled by Nazeer. That was the only good news for Rush. Cooke batted fluently for 60* and Graham McDonnell ran himself out for 15 as Pembroke cruised to 99/2 off 17.3 overs with 12 wides to help them. Nazeer took 1/19.

As the Russians togged back and drifted home, Merrion took first hit in the second semi against Phoenix. Paddy Conliffe bowled a waist-high full toss to John Anderson, who carved it to Masood Ahmed at backward point. John stood his ground waiting for Joe Connolly to call and signal no ball.

Joe quite correctly did no such thing: I don't think it was above waist height, and the batsman was two yards out of his crease, thereby exaggerating the height. Dom Joyce played a couple of nice shots before being well caught by Kirk Edwards at slip of Langford-Smith for 15 and 30/2.

Ritchie (Ronnie) Barker ran himself out for a lusty 22, and Matt Petrie joined Kade Beasley. They took the score to 93, a platform to make 160. Then upped stepped Mr. Ancher. I've never seen him before, and I'm not sure of his precise name.

He bowled Beazo for 24, and then trapped Jeff Short lbw. Six runs later Masood Ahmed had Petrie lbw for 16. Petrie is a pro in his second season: he must know that you play across the line at your peril when Joe is at the bowler's end.

Willie Ancher had Alex Morison caught by DLS for 15: 110/7. Corey Dickieson caught Cillian O'Donoghue for 1 off Walter Ancher: 118/8. Tiktish Patel was bowled by Wesley Ancher for 7: 131/9. Finally Pradeep Ladang was bowled by Winston Ancher for 1, and Merrion were 134 all, Simon Morrissey unbeaten on 12 and Ernie Extras on 23.

DLS took 1/23 off his 4 overs, Masood Ahmed 1/20 off his 4, but star off the show was Garth Ancher with a Birmingham Six-for 27. Rory Flanagan nicked off in Matt Petrie's opening burst, and Lanky was bowled by Ladang for 6 to make it 18/2.

Kirk Edwards and Corey Dickieson batted carefully to move the score to 63, when Edwards was bowled by Patel for 29. Garth Ancher missed the next ball, a straight one, and Patel completed his hat-trick by trapping Graham Flanagan obscenely lbw.

Dickieson and Conor Kelly steadied the ship, but wanted 35 off the last four overs, two of which were to be bowled by Petrie. His penultimate went for 5: 30 off 3. John Anderson's leggies had been milked like a Frisian cow, so the ball was thrown to Simon Morrissey.

A single, three successive sixes by Dickieson, two of them whoppers, and a single left 10 off 2. Matt Petrie's last over went for 5, but included the wicket of Dickieson, caught behind by Beasley for 63. Unsurprisingly, John Anderson came back for the last over.

Four to tie would have been enough. Masood Ahmed worked a single. Conor Kelly was caught by Morrissey for 22, and Matt Plunkett-Cole couldn't manage even one of his two barrells. Merrion won by three runs, principally because they conceded only 7 extras.

Matt Petrie took 2/14, Tiktish Patel 3/30 and John Anderson 1/23 off three overs. Merrion won the toss for the final, and decided to set a score for Pembroke to chase. Francis and Whaley were as lively as in the semi.

Barker was bowled by Francis for 1, Dom Joyce played a couple of nice shots then a poor one to be caught off Francis for 10. Beasley was caught behind off Bill Whaley, and Matt Petrie holed out off Francis. That was 36/4 and the game slipping away.

It was game over when Anderson was lbw to Balbirnie for 21 and Jeff Short was bowled by Cooke behind his legs. (Kick it away the next time, Jeff; Jim McGeehan won't give you out.): 53/6. The lower order scraped together another 23 runs, but it didn't matter.

76 all out off 18.5 overs, with Ernie Extras second top scoring with 11. The bowling figures were very tidy: Francis 4-0-18-3; Whaley 4-0-18-1; Balbirnie 3-1-7-2; Cooke 4-0-13-2; and Graham McDonnell 3.5-0-17-1.

With Merrion already broiled, and having played their get-out-of-jail-free card in the semi, the barbeque reopened for business. Merrion thought they might have a sniff when Andrew Balbirnie did a very good impression of nicking the ball through to Kade Beasley standing up.

Andy's body language said out, but the man from Kilbarrack said not out. Next over from Petrie, Balbirnie flaked one low to cover where O'Donoghue took a good catch. But that was it.

Even though Graham McDonnell was bowled by Patel for 15, and Jono Cooke ran himself out for 21, Rick Francis hit some lusty blows in his 27* to pass the target in the 11th over.

The sun still wasn't over the yard arm, so LCU President Arthur Vincent and sponsor Alan Lewis spoke at length during the presentations. Pembroke have a young team on the up, and barring disasters should be promoted to Section A. How they'll fare against the big beasts remains to be seen.