Waringstown captain Greg Thompson looking to create more special Irish Senior Cup memories

​The Leinster-based side are familiar foes for Waringstown with the two teams meeting in three recent finals (2015, 2016 and 2018) while the County Down outfit also ran out victorious in the 2017 quarter-finals on their way to lifting the trophy thanks to a stunning James McCollum century.

Some of Thompson’s favourite moments as both a player and captain have came in this competition and there’s also an added incentive for success with the 2023 decider being held at their home ground.

"We've won it the most times so we have a good record, but particularly since 2011 we have gone on a good run,” he said. “We've won it four times since then and we've great memories of cup finals and great performances.

"There have been some really tight games and there's the added incentive of the final being held at The Lawn this year.

"We're looking forward to it and we've came up against Merrion quite a lot over the past 10-12 years and inevitably they always tend to be good games. No doubt Sunday will be quite similar.

"They have a proud history in the Irish Senior Cup too and they'll be a strong outfit. It's a game that we are looking forward to."

It has been another superb season to date for Waringstown as they remain on track in the Robinson Services Premier League, where they’ll take on CSNI tomorrow, and progressed into the Gallagher Challenge Cup quarter-finals.

Thompson is in fine form, averaging 73 with the bat, and has been impressed by the showings of some young stars that have taken their opportunity.

"I'm not just pleased with the victories and manner of some of them, but also the fact that we've had guys producing performances that maybe didn't see themselves in our starting 11 at the start of the season,” he added.

"We've needed them because we have had unavailability when it comes to Graham Hume and James McCollum, Lee Nelson is injured, we've missed James Mitchell for a while and a couple of other niggles that has meant we've needed to use our squad.

"That's been a really positive sign that we have went deep into our squad and still had good performances.

"Jack Snell at the weekend got 69 against Derriaghy which was great experience for him, Ben Snell and Seby Best have bowled good spells and it's really pleasing to see those guys get the opportunity and take it."

Waringstown are amongst the league challengers in what is a tightly-contested race, but Thompson feels many teams are still finding their feet.

“If it stays as tight as this and you're going into the last couple of weeks with three, four or five teams all still vying for top spot I can think you can call that a competitive league,” he said. “At the minute I think teams are very much finding their feet and it's good to see that everyone has a victory on the board.”