Merrion produced a powerful statement win that eases their relegation woes, while at the same time putting a dent in Malahide's title ambitions as the Premiership reaches the business end of the season.

The Anglesea side never looked back after a record opening stand of 231 between Stephen Doheny and Jack Carty.

Doheny top-scored with 128 from only 119 balls (16 fours, 4 sixes), while Carty's 93 from 107 balls included 7 fours and 5 maximums.

The runs kept flowing with breezy cameos from Swapnil Modgill, Sam Harbinson and John Anderson as they made 346.

There was one over unused - James Newland's hat-trick the main reason for that.

It mattered little though as faced with such a daunting target Malahide never got a foothold in the chase.

Younas Ahmadzai's 33 and Matt Ford (30) their main efforts in 165 all out - three wickets for Tom Stanton and two apiece for Hugh Kennedy and Sam Harbinson in the 181-run win.

The Hills gave their survival hopes a significant boost with a 43-run win over Balbriggan, whose title defence has taken a hit.

A 32 overs match saw the hosts never look back atter an opening stand of 115 in 20 overs between Cormac McLoughlin-Gavin (73) and Murray Commins (64).

Nicolaj Laegsgaard (28) added a further 50 in 7 overs with Cormac, and a final total of 201 for 5 was always likely to prove tough against a determined hosts.

Cian Nulty (4-19) blew away the top order and when Farooq Nasr was run out, followed shortly by Farooq Nasr they were in deep strife at 64 for 6.

Connor Fletcher (45) and Dylan Lues (40) counter-attacked but they had too much to make up - bowled out for 158 in 27 overs.

Leinster go marching on as they went top of the table with a 110-runs win over Clontarf at Castle Avenue.

The win was set up by a solid batting effort spearheaded by Joey Carroll's half century, plus runs right down the order from Monil Patel, Michael Hogan, Saqib Bahadur, Peter Francis and Irish international Gareth Delany to get them to 241 for 7.

He then took four wickets as Clontarf were dismissed for 131, despite the best efforts of David Delany (40) and David Vincent (38).

Carroll (3-16) and Bahadur (2-29) completed fine all-round games, as Leinster stand on the brink of what has been a memorable season even more remarkable.