THE new season began with a whimper in Dublin at the weekend, just one 37-over game being possible as the rains returned.
There are a few new faces at most clubs, with most interest focusing on the overseas players who have arrived, notably former West Indies batsman Brandon Parchment (North County), Gold Coast Dolphins all-rounder Mick Grainger (Clontarf) and Ryan Ninan of Royal Challengers Bangalore (Merrion).
Returning pros include Fez Farrukh (Balbriggan), Stephan Grobler (Cork), Joe Carroll (Leinster), Jono Cook (Pembroke), Lynal Jansen (Rush) and Nic Pretorius (Hills).
Most of the inter-club movement has involved relegated Terenure, who have seen an alarming exodus of talent, both old and young.
Eleven of those who played first team last year have departed, plus coach Ted Williamson. One eye-catching transfer was of David Langford-Smith to Merrion, who have lost Deon Carolus to The Hills.
The Milverton attack of Max Sorensen, Nazeer Shaukat, Tomás Murphy and Carolus would be too strong for most Division 1 sides and they will expect a stroll back to the top level.
Clontarf have picked up Stephen Moreton, who started his Irish career with them back in 2006. They will hope he doesn’t bring his lucky rabbit’s foot with him – the former Warwickshire 2nds man has been with Pembroke (2011), Leinster (2013) and Terenure (2014) when they went down to Division 2.
Railway Union too will be looking to a returning hero to help them arrest their recent slide. Former West Indies Under-19 Adrian Murphy has been working and playing in the north-west but has returned to Park Avenue where he won an Irish Senior Cup in 2006.
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UP IN Malahide there are plenty of fingers being crossed that the weather forecasters are wide of the mark when they say there will be rain every day next week running up to the visit of England.
The September 2013 fixture was blessed with great weather but that was just the fifth of 16 ODIs against Full Members since 2007 to be unaffected. The 11 other games abandoned or reduced saw a whopping 422 overs lost to the elements.
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ONE other victim of the weekend rain was the debut of the youngest qualified umpire in Leinster. Seán Condron (15) was down to umpire alongside Jeremy Jeffrey in a Division 12 game in College Park.
“I’ve always enjoyed umpiring”, Seán told the Star. “Kenny Carroll advised me it was a great way to watch players up close and learn.”
When not playing for Railway Union’s youth sides, Seán completed the umpires’ exams and hopes to get a call up again soon.
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It should be a busy weekend for Leinster Lightning’s new spinner Yacoub Ali. The YMCA man is off to Stormont on Friday morning for what could be his IP20 debut, then back to Dublin that night before a trip to Cork for a Division 1 game and home to Tralee after a dizzying 1100km and two games in two days.
Two days later ‘the Yak’ makes a 600km round trip to Dublin for YMCA v Merrion.
Besides the dangers of driving or playing when tired, it seems a bit daft to schedule a top league game at the other end of the country 17 hours after an interpro finishes.
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Saturday: Division 1 (12.30): Clontarf v Railway, Merrion v Pembroke, North Co v Malahide, Cork Co v YMCA; Div 2: The Hills v Leinster, Rush v Terenure, Dublin Un v Balbriggan, Phoenix v YMCA II.
Monday: Div 1: Clontarf v Malahide, YMCA v Merrion, North Co v Cork Co, Pembroke v Railway, Div 2: Leinster v YMCA II, Balbriggan v Terenure, Phoenix v Dublin Un, Rush v The Hills