2014 Season Review - Division 8

How the league was won - Division 8 was split into three distinct parts. There were three clubs who were battling to escape the drop (see below), there was Leinster 4, and there were five teams chasing Leinster 4.

Leinster's title challenge was slightly unheralded, but they ended up with a winning margin greater than anyone apart from Wicklow County 2 in Division 14. On June 20th, Leinster were just another mid table team, having won one and lost one at that stage. They then won their next ten matches to win Division 8 at a canter. It was a real team effort with the bat, with eight players scoring at least a hundred runs - although of those who had more than one completed innings, none averaged over 32. With the ball ,the four pronged attacked of Nisar Hotac, Owen Berryman, David Lappin and Chirag Dolia made sure that those runs were defended.

Civil Service 2 beat Leinster at the begining of the year, and the return fixture was evenly poised when rain came. Apart from those games, they were too inconsistent to challenge for the big one - at no stage did they win more than three in a row. Their bowling attack was strong, with Stephen Bruce, Alan O'Hara, Shamil Shahzad, Tariq Quadri and Usman Aslam all performing well. Batting proved to be the difference between being crowned champions and runners-up. No batsman scored over 200 runs at an average of more than 30.

Knockharley 2 were in a great position at the end of August after a run of four wins, looking ot be favourites to finish in second place. However, two losses in September to Civil Service and Wicklow County brought disappointment. Tayyab Rashid was the star with the bat with 297 runs at 29.7, whilst skipper Raj Adi led the bowling, with Ramiz Hussain and Harry Shivmangal providing the main support.

No team in the province had more matches not played than YMCA 4. Five times they didn't take to the field for one reason or another. In fact, on the morning of September 12th, they had still ony played seven games. If they had managed to play the other five games (against Leinster, Knockharley, Bagenalstown and the bottom two of The Hills and Dundalk), then who knows. How much of this misfortune was down to the regular skipper is not known, but with him on holiday, James Fitzgerald stepped in to claim the Inter Cup. The league season is best forgotten about.

Bagenalstown 1 started the season well, but mid season losses to Leinster, Knockharley and Malahide knocked the stuffing from the title challenge. In Nadun Srimal, they had the undoubted star of the Division (see below), but he could have done with a bit more support. Anees Shah and Bobby Iype led the rest of the bowling attack, with Bernard O'Mara the next best batsman.

Wicklow County are the final team in the bunch that were chasing Leinster. They lost four of their first five matches, and lost three of their last four, but in between put together a decent run. In Nicky Fusco (401 runs at 33.42) and Angus Hancock (323 at 46.14), they had two of the top batsmen in Division 8, but the bowlers struggled for penetration.

How dreams turned to nightmares - Three teams found themselves well off the leading pack, and battled between themselves to avoid the bottom two places. Malahide 4 were the ones to "triumph" in the end, and on the basis of beating The Hills 3 twice deserved to do so. The bowling quartet of Martin Nicholl, Conor Herbert, Conor Gibbons and Howard Askew was amongst the best around, but there was nothing from the batsmen to back up this honest toil. No one passed 250 runs for the season.

Three wins for The Hills 3, over Civil Service, Dundalk and Wicklow County meant they finished one off the bottom. But that spells disappointment for a club usedd to recent success. Unlike Malahide, the batting wasn't too bad, with Gary Hynes, Raj Valson and Mark Donegan all passing 200 runs at over 20, but the bowling attack was non existent.

For Dundalk 1, it was a long tough season. The Andrews, Pike and Williams had some success with the ball, but it was the batting where they really struggled, and the team only passed 150 once all season. Developments of the pitch in Dundalk continue to hint at success on the pitch, and this should only be a blip.

Heroes with the willow - The undoubted batting star in Division 8 this season was Bagenalstown's Nadun Srimal. He smashed Raj Valson's 2011 record of most runs in a Division 8 season (453 runs in 2011 for Balbriggan 2) by scoring 582 runs at the princely average of 48.50. Five others passed 300 runs - Nicky Fisco and Angus Hancock of Wicklow County, Andrew Blair White (YMCA), Gary Lawler (Leinster) and Bernard O'Mara (Bagenalstown). Raj Valson had been the leading career run scorer in Division 8. Before 2014 Valson had 718 Division 8 runs for Balbriggan and The Hills. Although he added to his aggregate this year, his relatively unsuccessful year has allowed Nicky Fusco to move to the top. Fusco now has 1022 Division 8 runs at 35.24 and is one of only four players outside of the top four divisions to have scored over 1000 runs in a division (since records for all divisions began in 2011)

Hell for leather - Although the ball was seemingly on top for many of this season's matches, this has not been reflected in the number of bowlers who had wicket laden seasons. In fact, only three bowlers passed 20 wickets. Knockharley captain Raj Adi was the top dog, with 24 wickets at 13.54, followed by Leinster's Nasir Hotac (23 at 11.35) and that man again, Nadun Srimal of Bagenalstown with 20 at 14.10. Ali Qasim of Balbriggan hasn't played cricket in the province since September 16th 2012, but he remains the highest Division 8 wicket taker with 44 wickets at 11.70.

Days to remember - It was a tough year for Dundalk 1, but there was one accolade that they can be garlanded with. After being bundled out for 40 in their first game of the season against Malahide, they must have been trembling ahead of Malahide's visit to Dromiskin on July 20th. Malahide inserted Dundalk, hoping for a quick match, but led by Andrew Pike, and well supported by many others, Dundalk ran up 269-9, the highest score in Division 8 this year. They went on to win by 69 runs.

Our other Division 8 day to remember is something of a bitter sweet one for those involved. At 3-2, Wicklow County were in some trouble in their June 22nd match against The Hills. However Nicky Fusco (105*) and Angus Hancock (120) put on 239 for the 3rd wicket, the highest 3rd wicket partnership in all Open Competitions this season, with Wicklow finishin up on 242-3. The Hills were up to the challenge though, winning by 2 wickets with 7 balls to spare.

Stat you may have missed - Chris Siddell arrived in Malahide as the club's new Cricket Development Officer, and in fairness to Malahide, Siddell is very much a coach compared to many who are given the CDO title! He took the ball on his debut against Dundalk  on April 27th, and took 7-11. It was the best bowling by a player making his debut in Leinster cricket this year. Three others also took five wickets on debut - Arijit Mustafi (5-19 for Lucan 1 vs Cabinteely 1 on April 12th), Sham Kamat (5-18 for Tyrrelstown 1 vs Clontarf 6 on June 18th) and Sijo Mathews (6-26 for Cabinteely 1 vs Leinster 6 on April 21st)

Batting - Qualification 100 runs

Bowling - Qualification 10 wickets