Railway Union won again as they beat Terenure by 41 runs. Batting first they made 208, with Hashir Sultan top-scoring with 53 (6 fours, 3 sixes), and cameos from Mark Canniffe (37), and Kenny Carroll (25) Kevin O’Brien made an appearance but was dismissed for 13, while for Terenure Raghav Grover and Zubair Khan each took three wickets. Seven Terenure batters made double figures, but Niqash Ali’s 33 was the best of their 167 all out. Sean O’Brien and Stuart De Klerk each took three wickets while Canniffe took two. Terenure will reflect on conceding 39 extras – not many teams win games having done that.

Leinster won the promotion battle as they beat North County by 17 runs in a rain affected contest at Inch. In a 39-over game, the Rathmines side 193 for 9 was set up by an impressive batting display from the top four, three of whom made half centuries. In-form Joey Carroll top-scored with 66 (8 fours), while skipper Bilal Azhar hit 54, and Tristen De Beer a rapid 50 from 43 balls (4 fours, 2 sixes). Usman Azhar (4-45) and Abdul Ghaffar (3-31) best with the ball for the hosts. John Devane (38) and Niall McGovern (32) added 75 for the first wicket in 15 overs, but a flurry of wickets saw them falter to 107 for 5 in the 25th – three vital wickets for Mark Tonge –which meant Leinster were 17 ahead on DLS when play was halted.

Llew Johnson’s rich vein of form continued as he almost single-handedly chased down Cork Harlequins modest 127 total as Rush won by 8 wickets. The New Zealander hit 10 fours and 8 sixes in his 96 from just 49 balls in the onslaught. Jarred Barnes finished off the chase with three sixes in his 25 not out as they won in the 18th over. Barnes (2-34) struck twice in the first over of Cork’s innings, and they never really recovered despite battling knocks from Cian Egerton (33), Dhawan Mehta (26), and Ru Jones (22) as they got to 127. Allan Eastwood and Daniel Coffey each took three wickets in an impressive Rush win.