From The Pavilion

This Season’s Draw
At last count 25 of the 53 teams accepted our invitation, but it may have been more; I was unable to check for a the few dasy before the draw was made. It wouldn’t take much more for this to become a larger 32 team competition with double the FTP award to the finalists. With your support, maybe we can next year.

I was unable to apply any adjustments, so I apologise to any new teams (I missed as not listed in the rankings) who entered and didn’t make the draw. The draw does include the lowest ranked 16 sides, at the start of the season, of those that accepted.

There are no teams from the top two tiers in either format. There is an almost even split between the 9 tier three teams and 7 tier four teams. Leinster Lightning are the only previous winners, and there is also three previous runners-up Western Suburbs Hacks; Belmont CC; and last year's, Dunbrody CC.

Starting with the lowest ranked means that there are four teams competing for the first time: Sparky; The Liffey Legends; Newtown Pirates and new team Mayers XI. Please welcome MAYERSXI who is new to the Irish League setup and good luck to everyone involved.

Note: Youth One Day rankings from the start of the season are used.

This Season’s Draw
At last count 25 of the 53 teams accepted our invitation, but it may have been more; I was unable to check for a the few dasy before the draw was made. It wouldn’t take much more for this to become a larger 32 team competition with double the FTP award to the finalists. With your support, maybe we can next year.

I was unable to apply any adjustments so I apologise to any new teams (I missed as not listed in the rankings) who entered and didn’t make the draw. The draw does include the lowest ranked 16 sides at the start of the season, that accepted.

There are no teams from the top two tiers in either format. There is an almost even split between the 9 tier three teams and 7 tier four teams. There is no previous winners and only one previous finalist (St John's Athletic); this guarantees a new winner.

Starting with the lowest ranked means that there are four teams competing for the first time: Sparky; The Liffey Legends; Newtown Pirates and new team Mayers XI. Please welcome MAYERSXI who is new to the Irish League setup and good luck to everyone involved.

Note: Youth One Day rankings from the start of the season are used.

The draw
Top half
#049 St Johns Athletic ( One Day 3.3 ) vs. #037 Marching On Together ( One Day 3.4 ) [ Senior Rivalry: 3-0]
#046 The Cross Lances ( One Day 3.2 ) vs. #050 Western Suburbs Hacks ( One Day 3.4 ) [ Senior Rivalry: 4-0]
#059 Muggles Cricket Club ( One Day 4.7 ) vs. #052 Sparky ( One Day 4.3 ) [ Senior Rivalry: 0-0]
#058 The Liffey Legends ( One Day 4.6 ) vs. #055 Newtown Pirates ( One Day 3.3 ) [ Senior Rivalry: 0-0]

As with the Junior Plate the highest ranked side, Marching On Together, have avoided there nearest competition. St Johns Athletic and The Cross Lances or the Hacks from the Western Suburbs should provide some testing opposition in the first two rounds. The other quarter looks very open too with all sides ranked between 52 and 59; this should offer three close matches.

Bottom half
#068 Mayers XI ( One Day 4.7 ) vs. #038 Dunbrody CC ( One Day 3.2 ) [ Senior Rivalry: ?-?]
#053 Xessux Club ( One Day 3.1 ) vs. #044 Leinster Lightning ( One Day 3.2 ) [ Senior Rivalry: ?-?]
#051 Belmont CC ( One Day 4.3 ) vs. #041 North Cardiff Cosmos ( One Day 3.3 ) [ Senior Rivalry: ?-?]
#054 Babylon5 ( One Day 3.4 ) vs. #062 Rocket City Trash Pandas ( One Day 3.2 ) [ Senior Rivalry: ?-?]

The bottom half looks more competitive. Babylon5 and the Trash Pandas look to have good matchup whilst the next three ranked teams (Dunbrody, Leinster and North Cardiff) would hope to progress against their respective opponents to the quarter-finals.