Congratulations to Jane Maguire who has been selected for the Ireland squad to play against Australian and Pakistan in a T20 series from the 16th to the 24th of July.

Congratulations and the best of luck in the series from all your supporters and friends at The Hills

Full details can be found on the following link:

https://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/squad-announced-for-ireland-womens-t20i-tri-series-new-selector-panel-annou?fbclid=IwAR2vcVACXi-Y9oYX3pqCVi1fwMEvZqzoLr2H-TKZYfnSKoq9kmvpOrBmwrY

Third Man

The meeting between high-flying Balbriggan and near neighbours, The Hills, was eagerly anticipated by the players of both clubs and supporters of cricket in Fingal. On a beautiful sunny day at the Jack Harper Ground, Balbriggan won the toss and elected to bat first. Interestingly, The Hills chose to open the bowling with pace at one end, and spin at the other end, and this combination proved to be very effective with The Hills taking 4 wickets for 41 runs by the seventeenth over. Another wicket was taken in the twentieth over, and Jonathan Tall had taken 3 wickets for 25 runs in his ten-overs spell. Dylan Blignaut and Tomás Rooney-Murphy were the other wicket-takers during this period, and it appeared that the visitors were in the box seat. Balbriggan’s fight back was led by Gregory Ford (40), Ryan Hadley (20), Campbell Davies-Webb (10), and Andrew Darroch (10), and the home side’s total was 159 all out in 44.4 overs.  Jonathan Tall was the stand-out bowler for The Hills,  and the figures for the other bowlers were Tomás Rooney-Murphy (3 for 33), Dylan Blignaut (2 for 32), Levon Shields (2 for 28).

A former Balbriggan and Hills player expressed the view that any score in excess of 150 runs would be difficult to chase because there appeared to be the proverbial “bit in the wicket”. The Hills had a nightmare start with the fall of a wicket in the 2^nd over when there were only 5 runs on the board. Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin and Athar Farooqi set about re-building the innings and combined for a partnership of 39 runs which ended when Farooqi was run out. Dylan Blignaut and Cormac (37) put together another partnership of 39 runs when Cormac was unlucky to be bowled in an over which had already yielded 11 runs. Dylan Blignaut (19) was out to a brilliant catch on the boundary by Chris de Freitas off the bowling of Dylan Lues, and that was possibly the pivotal moment of the game. From that point onwards, Balbriggan managed to impose a stranglehold on the game through a combination of tight, accurate bowling and good fielding. Tomás Rooney-Murphy (19) and Bhavesh Lakhotia (16) led a spirited resurgence, but the last 4 wickets fell for 2 runs, and Balbriggan had won by 23 runs to maintain its unbeaten record in the league. The bowling honours for Balbriggan were taken by Ryan Hadley (3 for 22), Andrew Darroch (2 for 12), Dylan Lues (2  for 23), Farooq Nasr (1 for 31) and Malcolm McGregor (1 for 24).

Cricket is a game of fine margins, and the key moments in the game occurred during The Hills’ innings. If Dylan Blignaut’s shot had gone one foot either side of de Freitas, it would have been a 6 and Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin looked to have played on to his wicket when he was batting well. Balbriggan has assembled a very competitive team and will be difficult to beat either home or away. On this occasion, The Hills had bowled and fielded well, but the batsmen will be disappointed not to have chased down 160 runs. That game is gone, and there will be an opportunity next week to rectify matters when YMCA visit The Vineyard. Until then, it is onwards and upwards.

Luke Fagan has been named in the Leinster Under 15’s squad for the upcoming Interprovincial ODI series.

The full squad is as follows:

The games are scheduled as follows;

Luke has also been named in the T20 Interprovincial squad who will play the following fixtures;

Well done Luke on your selection and the best of luck in the games.

The famous Skerries 100 festival will take place this weekend and then roads around the club will be closed to facilitate practice and racing.

Roads will close on Saturday July 2nd from 12 noon to 8.30 pm.

Roads will close on Sunday July 3rd from 8.00am to 6.30 pm.

There will be live music in the Club on Saturday night provided by the legendary “HIPACLAPTICS”. There is no cover charge for this event.

The numbers drawn in last nights draw were;

 5, 8, 9 & 19

There was no winner of The Jackpot.

Lucky Dip winners were Paul McGrane and Sinéad Hoare, €25.00 each.

The Jackpot next week will be €4,200.00.

Special thanks to Specsavers, Swords for their continued support.

Andrew Russell

The Hills Development Team welcomed Adamstown 8 to The Vineyard on Saturday afternoon for a T20 Cup match. The Hills side was filled with young talent, guided by Stephen Archer and Andrew Russell. The Hills won the toss and batted first. Max Brophy (56) scored his first senior half century in an opening stand of 97 with Joseph Russell (38). Hayden Clinton (21 no) and Tristan Vincenzo (10 no) helped set a challenging target of 139 for the visitors.

Outstanding bowling by brothers Max Stead (2-18) and Peter Stead (2-21) left Adamstown reeling at 19 for 4 wickets after 6 overs. Adamstown’s senior batsmen then entered the fray and despite a valiant bowling effort by Alan Courell (0-23), Hayden Clinton (0-18), Max Brophy (0-37) and Tristan (2-22), Adamstown reached the target with just 3 balls and 2 wickets to spare.

An excellent fielding display made sure the match went down to the wire with Mathew Davis, Leo Russell and James Davis all playing their part. The team, whilst disappointed with the result, will once again have gained a huge amount of experience from this game. Next Saturday it is back to 35 over cricket at the MCG versus Adamstown 8, an immediate chance to settle the score!

Matthew Weldon has been selected to play for the Ireland Under 17’s squad for The Future Series competition.

Well done Matthew on your selection and good luck in the series.

Full details on the fixtures can be found on the following link:

https://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/cricket-ireland-future-series-returns-in-2022?fbclid=IwAR3-pNitboQjfiKxWwnHos9o2LM9McxTunpUzbDlSoX5CeFbyIzmCZgoNBI

Third Man

Traditionally games between The Hills and YMCA are close-run affairs, but today’s result constituted a major departure from tradition. YMCA won the toss and opted to field because the weather forecast was full of grim foreboding for the mid to late afternoon. The first wicket fell when the score was 14 runs, and the second wicket fell after 20 runs had been added. A partnership of 79 runs between Athar Farooqi (40) and Dylan Blignaut (42) gave The Hills hope of posting a competitive score, but their wickets fell at 113 and 114 runs respectively. Mark Donegan (31) and Levon Shields (12) added a further 42 runs, but the big partnership which the situation demanded never materialised. There were two run outs and The Hills’ final score was 227 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. For large parts of The Hills’ innings, there was a lack of intent with regard to scoring runs as distinct from blocking the ball or shots found fielders with great regularity.  

Had The Hills enough runs? It is rarely wise to pontificate on what constitutes a good score in the first innings, but among The Hills’ cognoscenti, it was being suggested that the team was about 50 runs short of a good total. The wicket of Mitchell Thompson was taken by Dylan Blignaut thanks to a smart catch by Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin, in slip, when YMCA had only scored 28 runs, and that was the last success which The Hills had during a very chastening afternoon. Jack and Tim Tector batted brilliantly, punished any loose bowling, and ran very well between the wickets. Jack scored 107* and Tim scored 105* and their performance was a bonanza for statisticians and sports historians as they wondered if brothers had ever scored centuries in the same game.

This was a day when two batsmen were totally in control, and it is greatly to the credit of The Hills’ bowlers and fielders that they persevered when nothing positive was going their way. In the words of Van Morrison, “there will be days like this” so it is a matter of learning from the experience and preparing for the visit of Rush to The Vineyard on Friday next. Until then, it is onwards and upwards.

Sunday 22th June

Andrew Russell

MCG

The Hills Minor B 140-3 (Nett 125) beat Pembroke 63-14 (Nett -7). For the first time this season the sun graced the Hills Minor B’s with its welcome presence. Morgan Leonard, The Hills Captain, elected to bat first having won the toss. The initial outlook had changed by the end of the very first over, clouds rolled in over the MCG and The Hills were 3-2 when their opening pair had chipped consecutive balls into grateful hands at mid-wicket. Thankfully at Minor B level (batting in pairs) the chance of redemption is always available and Morgan (23) and James Davis (11) took their opportunity adding 33 without further loss to finish on 36-2 after 4 overs. Daniel Adderley (16) and Chandrahas Chellagurki (11) added 30-0 to the total thanks to some great running between the wickets, including two 3s a rarity at Minor B level. Leo Russell ( and Cillian Fogarty (16) added 28-1, including two superbly struck boundaries from Cillian. As the visitor’s less experienced bowlers came on the extras began to mount up and Sean McFadden (5) & Cillian McKenna (3) added 26-0 with Shreyas Chellagurki (7) & Aram Akbar (6) adding 20-0 bringing the Hills’ total to 140 for 3 wickets (Nett 125 runs), a challenging target for the visitors to chase.

The Hills put in an energetic team performance in the field. Everyone bowled 2 overs with 8 of them taking wickets alongside 2 run outs. Morgan (1-3), Daniel (1-3), Chandrahas (1-3), James (4-0), Aram (1-6), Cillian (1-3), Sean (1-8) & Leo R (2-15). Special mention to James who had a superb spell with two double wicket maidens in addition to a run out in the middle of the innings. Shout out to Cillian McKenna taking a difficult catch in the deep towards the end of the match.Despite the visitors fielding several players playing their very first ‘hard ball’ match, they battled hard until the end and they can be very proud of their future stars.

Once again, the game was played in great spirts by both teams. Thanks to Dave Fogarty for doing the book, Mary Clinton for baking some lovely treats for the players and Mick L for providing refreshments for the thirsty teams.

Cheers, Mark, Simon, Stephen and Ravi