The LHW Senior Cup Final finished early enough on Saturday for me to call into Rathmines on my way home to see how the Leinster v Pembroke Senior A league match finished up. When I drove in, the scoreboard showed Leinster needing fifty-odd from nine overs with four wickets in hand. I recognised Anton Scholtz as one of the batsmen.

My flabber was ghasted when I realised his partner was Gavin Gilmore, coming out of retirement for the occasion. No sooner had I recognised him than he was out, caught in the deep for 22, and Leinster were still 45 short with seven overs to go. Andy McConnell swished all round a straight one, so in came Hugh McDonnell.

Scholtz had reached his ton, his first for Leinster , and now took over, favouring the leg-side boundary and the gardens beyond. There was no bowling to him as he finished on 142*, Leinster winning by two wickets with seven balls to spare, with McDonnell 5*. As I watched, the story of the day was told to me.

Pembroke had at one stage been 205-3, Anthony Brooks scoring 82 and Andrew Balbirnie 58. But once Theo Lawson was run out for 27, the visitors could only reach 236 off their 50 overs. Nevertheless, when they reduced Leinster to 51-5, they were nearly home and hosed. Will Lennon's 20 helped take the score to 138-6, and then Gillie's 22 to 192-7.

The win puts Leinster 40 points clear of Pembroke, and leaves the Sydney Paraders an awful lot to do to prevent an immediate return to what will be the new, disimproved, Senior B. Having enjoyed my first Sunday roast since early April, I made my way down to the 'Broke on Monday to see if they could bounce back with a win over Clontarf.

Even with a dodgy weather forecast, Joe Morrissey had no hesitation in batting when he won the toss. The pitch at Sydney Parade never improves, and frequently deteriorates markedly. Bill Coghlan had stroked four lovely drives to the boundary, and wasn't best pleased to be given out padding up to one from Bill Whaley that I too thought was way too high. On his bike he went for 20 out of 28.

Rod Hokin played one nice shot off his legs, and then joined the old-fashioned look club as he had to go, lbw to Eastwood for 10. Again, he had my sympathies. One run later, Adrian D'Arcy was bowled by Eastwood, and Clontarf were 40-3. Andrew Poynter was joined by Eoghan Delany, and the pair batted very positively.

Barry McCarthy had started a testing spell, and hit Poynter's middle stump with one that appeared to come back at him. Poynter had made 34, and the score was 93. Vijay Gopal flapped McCarthy to Ryan Hopkins, Joe Morrissey nicked one behind off Andrew Balbirnie, Richard Forrest was obscenely lbw to McCarthy, and Clontarf had subsided to 123-7.

Thirteen runs later Matt D'Arcy was unarguably lbw to Brooks and Niall Delany came in to bat with his brother. Before we could find out which one would run the other out, Eoghan miscued Balbirnie high to Bill Whaley at deep mid wicket for 42, and on the same score Niall was bowled by Balbirnie.

Clontarf were all out for 136 in 40.4 overs, Eastwood returning 2/14 off his 10, bowled straight through, McCarthy 3/17 off 6 and Balbirnie 3/24 off 5.4. Pembroke had to bat before tea, and in Joe Morrissey's first over lost Anthony Brooks, caught low at slip by Rod Hokin, and Lawson lbw, both for ducks.

Ryan Hopkins stroked a beautiful drive to the mid wicket boundary, flicked Jordan Coughlan into the garden wall, but then lobbed Coghlan tamely to Matt D'Arcy at cover for 13, when tea was taken at 18-3 off 6. Robert Garth added 25 with Andrew Balbirnie before being adjudged lbw to Morrissey for 15, another one I thought would have gone over the top.

Knowing that Pembroke were slightly behind on D/L, and that if he were out they would be much further behind, Robin Russell played a silly shot to be caught by Hokin at slip to give JoMo his Guildford Four-for. Allan Eastwood helped add another 17 runs, and was not happy with his lbw to Rod Hokin. I don't think he had a lot to be unhappy about.

Balbirnie was dropped behind the stumps down the leg side, and then got away with an lbw that we all thought was bat-pad but which he later confessed to be pad-bat. With 20 overs bowled, meaning D/L could decide the match, the rain started and quickly got heavier. Andy Leonard hit a six, and when the rain got too heavy was 9*, Balbirnie on 28*, Pembroke on 78-6 off 22.2 overs with a D/L par score of 91.

The rain eased a couple of times, and briefly stopped once, raising Pembroke's hopes, but it was never possible to resume and Emmett Whaley eventually accepted the inevitable and shook Joe Morrissey's hand to end the match with a victory to Clontarf by 13 runs. JoMo had also bowled straight through for 4/21, his second match-winning contribution of the long weekend. And still no toys have come out of the pram!