THERE are a lot of familiar faces missing from the boundaries this summer. With a brutal sweep of the scythe, half a dozen men who made important contributions to Leinster cricket have passed away this year and our game is all the poorer.

I knew some more than others, but liked what I knew of them all, and hope that the memories of Joey O'Meara, Johnny Dawson, Alo McGrath, Paddy Delaney, Wesley Ferris, Aidan Dempsey and Niall McConnell will be kept alive in the clubs of Dublin.

Joey O'Meara was the best known to the public all over the island, due to his enormous contribution to the Ireland set-up over several years. Capped as a teenager, and discarded after a pair at Lord's, Joey was to enjoy greater success in green on the hockey field. He was an inspiring figure for many years, helping Ireland to some notable international successes.

He continued to play for Railway Union in the summers and was a dangerous middle order bat who enjoyed hoisting the ball into the club's bowling green. I was privileged to witness his first senior hundred in 1984 - he played more games than anyone else in history before a maiden ton, Derek Scott delighted in telling us.

Joey was later appointed manager of the Irish team, and his business skill ensured a higher level of sponsorship and a smarter range of uniforms for the squad. I interviewed him for The Sunday Tribune and he was most keen to get across the fact that he had now managed and played for Irish hockey and cricket teams. He reckoned he was sure to become an answer on 'A Question of Sport' on the strength of this.

He was laid low by a virulent disease which robbed him at the age of 57. His funeral was one of the biggest ever seen in Dublin and the testament of his son Graham was a thing of beauty.

Joey's former clubmate Niall McConnell also died over the winter. In almost thirty years of senior cricket, Niall took 1,033 wickets, a Leinster record. His bowling was the key to Railway's first senior title, the 1960 league when Niall took 70 wickets for the team captained by Derek Scott. He took 76 the next season and 71 in 1971. In another era he would have played for Ireland many times. He last played for Railway in 1978, when he moved to Wexford, where he was an important catalyst in the progress that club made over the next decade.

Alo McGrath was best known as father of three cricketers who made Belvedere a fun place to visit in the 1980s, but a difficult place to win. Con, Cathal and Johnny played the game hard, but fair, and in that they were presided over by Alo. 'The old man' eventually took the helm at Cabra, and was also president of the Old Belvedere rugby club. In a nice coincidence both OB sides played on the weekend of his death, and both claimed rare victories! Belvo were visiting College Park, where Alo's input as father of Johnny and loyal supporter earned him a vice-presidency. Both sides lined up before the game for a minute's silence.

There was a minute's silence at several games this weekend too, when Leinster Cricket Union president-elect Aidan Dempsey was remembered. Robbed of his chance to direct the game in the province for the next two years - and show us how he good he would have surely been - Aidan was nonetheless delighted to be recognised in this way by the clubs.

A useful opening batsman with Pembroke, mostly on the 2nd XI, Aidan was one of those who clubs need to keep the show on the road. A long-serving secretary, he also edited the annual programme and organised many of that most sociable of clubs' social activities and tours. As a solicitor, Aidan generously gave of his time and advice to the Leinster and Irish unions, and as a deep-thinker about cricket was at the heart of much of the drafting of laws and regulations that ensure the game runs smoothly.

Aidan was also one of cricket's true gentlemen. Visitors to Pembroke were always made welcome and his knowledge of the game made him stimulating company. His death at the age of 53 - of the same illness that laid low Joey O'Meara - is still a shock.

This weekend also saw the sad demise of Paddy Delaney, a name that might not mean much beyond Cabra. However there are many in Old Belvedere who are grateful for Paddy's contribution to their club over many years, and many visitors who are grateful for the pints he pulled so well. It is on such foundations that successful clubs are built.

The solid foundations of Leinster cricket were shaken with the death early in the year of long-serving secretary John Dawson. After a successful junior career as a hard-hitting left handed batsman in the ranks of Civil Service, Johnny was drafted in as LCU secretary on the death of Rory Yates Hale in 1977. His diligence and hard work ensured the union ran smoothly through the next quarter of a century.

He was always available to the press for consultation as well as comment and was enormously generous with his time in the service of cricket. Again, like too many of the men mentioned above, he was felled in his fifties and thus deprived of many years of what had been a full life. Johnny was enormously good fun, too, and his story-telling skills were legendary.

Wesley Ferris, who did more than most to encourage cross-border cricket through the difficult years, passed away at the age of 73. Wesley was a Leinster cricketer, through a spell at Malahide, but played most of his cricket at Waringstown and Eglinton, thus being one of the very few to have played in the Northern, North West and Leinster Unions. He was capped three times during the 1956 season, taking six wickets at 25.33, but his towering achievement was as president of the Mid-Ulster Cricket Group

At its peak the MUCG ran more than 30, mostly youth, competitions a season, including the Beckett Cup, for several years the only all-Ireland competition. Wesley's energy and commitment was legendary, and he organised tours to Canada, the US, Israel, Cyprus, Wales, England and Scotland. He told me once that his proudest moment was the standing ovation he received when exchanging plaques between the Boys Brigade and the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland in Craigavon.

There have been too many funerals this year, too many farewells to good men.