2014 Season Review - Division 4

How the league was won - Phoenix 2's season was like a sandwich with two bits of stale bread, with the most sumptuous and tasty filling imaginable. They lost their first and last matches of the season, but went on an eleven game winning streak in the middle. After losing to YMCA 3 at the start of the season, the return fixture would have been crucial, however YMCA were unable to fulfil the fixture on the arranged date. Once Phoenix had beaten their other main rivals, Merrion 3 by 8 wickets in June, the result of the last match - which Merrion won was irrelevant. It may sound as if we have glossed over that eleven match unbeaten run. It wasn't spectacular, but Phoenix got the job done. Jeff Dudgeon was supreme with the bat with 429 runs at 85.80, with Adam Chester (236 at 47.20) and Eoin Cleere (139 at 46.33) weren't too bad either. Chester had a fine all round season, adding 14 wickets at 14.29, and Chris Cavanagh chipped in as well with 18 wickets at 13.44. But Matt Lunson was the hero with 33 wickets at an incredible 9.09. More details of Matt's season can be found below

Merrion 3 had an extraordinary season, but one that could only be looked back on with hindsight. At the weekend, they were supreme winning eight of their nine games, and proving almost unbeatable. However they also played five mid-week games, and only won one of these, with one tie. That may be entirely coincidental, but it was the difference between winning and losing the league. Four players took ten wickets, but none of them really at an average that hinted at devastation (Nitin Sharma, 19 at 17.37; Ajay Varma, 16 at 17.00; Derek Quinlan, 12 at 21.67; and Max Neville with 10 wickets at 17.20). Only two players topped 200 runs, with Beant Singh Bhatal top with 331 runs at 47.29 and the redoubtable Alan Parkinson with 283 runs at 23.58 leading the way.

YMCA 3 lost too many matches to be a real challenge at the top - in fact on July 15th they had a league record of 2-4. They were always too strong to be relegation material though, and won six of their last seven matches to finish in a very healthy third place. The undoubted star was under 14 player Harry Tector who scored 456 runs at 50.67, as well as 23 wickets at 18.39 (see 'Stat you may have missed below). Michael Kirk (261 at 32.62) and Sam Murphy (251 at 19.31) also passed the (not particularly) magical milestone of 250 runs. With the ball, Tector's youth was balanced against the age (and wisdom) of old pro Kamal Merchant, who matched Tector's 23 wickets, but at the excellent average of 9.70

Malahide 2 managed to muddle through the season, but for a team that was tipped for the top, that was not good enough. They were never in any danger of being dragged into the relegation battle, but that was as good as it got. The batting was the strong point, with Cameron Shoebridge scoring well with 350 runs from ten completed innings, and the old warhorse Andy Pyne contributing 290 at 30.25. Unusually for a Malahide side, it was the bowling side of things that was the weakest link. Glenn Kirwan took 14 at 18.43 and Atif Kamal 13 at 16.69, but that was as good as it got. In fairness to Malahide, their season was blighted by rain, and they only completed the first half of their season on August 16th - leading to a frantic last few weeks.

Railway Union 2 were another side that disappointed, but were also never in any real danger. Only Rachit Gaur had any real success with bat or ball (and he performed well with both), but Gaur was mainly required by the 1sts. That left the others, and "Satisfactory" is the best mark we could give. Abdullah Hafez (293 at 36.62) and Furqan ul Haq (252 at 31.50) were left to do as well as they could with the bat. The bowlers were a little better, with USA bound Shahrukh Shamim taking 16 wickets at 24.56. No one else took more than six wickets at an average of less than 25 apart from Gaur (11 at 15.18).

How dreams turned to nightmares -  The year when the Dundrum juggernaut finally stalled. The feeling was that key players had left the club during the season, but analysis reveals that the main difference between 2013 and 2014 was that several players had poor seasons. The major departure was Deepak Raj, who scored 164 runs at 54.67 and took 5 wickets at 16.20 before playing his last game in July. Other key players such as Alex Mathews, Sony Sebastien and Abilash Sukumaran just had an off year. Vinu Jacob scored 299 runs at 27.48 and Sukumaran 255 at 31.88 which was perfectly respectable, although on the bowling front, no one took more than 12 wickets. From a league perspective, they won six matches, and were never in any real danger of being caught by either of the two sides below them.

Pembroke 3 were predicted to struggle (our preview is here) and so it proved. The batting was a bit of a horror show, with no one passing 200 runs - Sean Bromfield was the best with 180 at 22.50. The bowling was much better, with Joe Prendergast's move from Leinster being rewarded with 15 wickets at 17.93, followed by Faran Khan's 13 wickets at 16.0. They only managed the three wins though, which left them some way adrift of Dundrum.

Mullingar 1 were also predicted to be at the wrong end of the table, and there were no real surprises when they had a tough time of this year. Their season was a mirror image of Phoenix's, as they won their first and last games, but lost twelve straight matches in the middle. Ali Haider was by a long way Mullingar's top batsman with 397 runs at 30.54 - no one else averaged over 25. The bowlers also struggled, with wickets being hard to come by. Nazmus Monon took 15, but at 29.47 runs, whilst PJ Mount (12 at 32.00) and Woody O'Neill (10 at 29.70) were even more expensive.

Heroes with the willow - North Kildare had dominated the career run scoring charts recently, but with the Kilcock men now in Division 3, there was an opportunity for several Division 4 batsmen to overtake Ian Walsh as the top Division 4 run scorer (he has 1158 at 38.60). Two players took advantage, with Rashad Ejaz of Mullingar moving into second spot with 1184 at 30.36 and the new Division 4 all time run scorer - Railway's Furqan ul Haq who now has 1214 Division 4 runs at 36.79. 2014 was an amazingly low scoring year in this league, with only two players passing 400 runs, and both have already been mentioned - namely YMCA's Harry Tector, and Phoenix's Jeff Dudgeon.

Hell for leather - In twenty years time, this may have the makings of a cracking quiz question. Which Ireland squad member holds the record for the most wickets in a Division 4 season? In fact we won't spoil the answer, except to say that he took 36 wickets in Division 4 in 2011. Matt Lunson came mightily close this year, and his tally of 33 wickets at 9.09 is an amazing achievement. He had ten wickets more than the next bowlers on the list, Harry Tector and Kamal Merchant. More on Matt's achievement below. On the all time front, another North Kildare player led before the season started, and he is still there. Manjeet Singh has 65 wickets at 16.02. Woody O'Neill of Mullingar has closed the gap after taking ten wickets this year, and is now six wickets behind, with 59 at 21.31

Days to remember - Matt Lunson has already been mentioned plenty of times in this review, but why not just once more? Adam Chester and Chris Cavanagh opened the bowling for Phoenix 2 when they played Pembroke 3 on May 25th in Sydney Parade. Pembroke had won the toss, and despite losing two early wickets, they were 56-2 and going well before Matt Lunson took his first. Unfortunately for Pembroke, once Lunson had his first, the rest quickly followed, and from the heights of 56-2, Pembroke lost their last eight wickets for only four runs, with Lunson picking up 7-5. They were the second best bowling figures in the Open Competitions this year, and the best by someone taking seven wickets since our complete records began in 2011. In that time there have been six eight wicket hauls, and Sandeep Sood's 9-15 for Civil Service against Malahide 5 in 2011.

Stat you may have missed - Only eight players reached the allrounders double of 400 runs and 20 wickets in a league this season. In Division 1, the double was achieved by Simmi Singh (YMCA) and Tim Affleck (North County). Three players passed the milestone in Division 2, namely Reinhardt Strydom (Malahide), Muhammad Farrukh (Balbriggan) and Stephen Grobler (Cork County). The Clontarf pair of Mark Collier and Asim Nazir were the only two to pass the mark in Division 3. And only one other player performed the feat in all the other eleven Open Comps divisions, let alone in Division 4. Step forward YMCA's Harry Tector.

Batting (Qualifcation - 100 runs)

Bowling (Qualification - 10 wickets)