Before we Christmas, the All Ireland club rankings were given their new home on the Cricket Leinster site, and we looked at how the top clubs in Leinster fared.
Today's musing looks at how the strengths of the three main provinces have changed over the last dozen years. The Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup has given us an excellent guide as to where the power lies since its inception in 1982. Even by looking at the winners of the competition, we can come up with a pretty good guess as to where the game is strongest.
In the first twelve seasons, from 1982 to 1993, NCU clubs won ten Irish Senior Cups, with the North West and the LCU winning once each. The next seven seasons saw six North West wins, before Leinster took over in 2000, winning eleven of the next thirteen. That shows who was the best, but by using our rankings, we can delve a little deeper.
We looked at the average ranking for the top eight clubs from each province, and the results show very clearly how the three biggest unions have got on from 2001-2013.
The 13 season period can be split easily up into four eras, and as imagination is somewhat lacking on a dark January afternoon, let us call these era, A, B C and D.
A. 2001-2003 NCU period of domination fades, but still the best.
Althought the glory of the years of the 1970s and 1980s had passed, the NCU was still the top dog in town. The national team that played in the ICC Trophy in Canada normally had half of it's number made up by NCU players. But the signs of doom were there for all to see. In 2001 the NCU only had three Irish Senior Cup quarter finalists (Cliftonville, Lisburn & Downpatrick) and it was down to two in 2002 (Downpatrick & Muckamore).
It was the North West where the real quality was. Decker Curry was in his prime, as were the McBrines and McDaids. William Porterfield was just starting out for Donemana. A clue to the North West's later falling away, can be seen from the fact that many of the top players of this period are still the top players now.
As for Leinster, the province was slowly emerging from a very long slumber. The Phoenix team of the 1970s and 1980s may have been a match for any team on the island, but that was something of a one off, and with the top eight teams being averaged in this analysis, it wasn't until the 21st century that the LCU started improving. And that move was spearheaded by North County.
They won their first Irish Senior Cup at the begining of this period, and their second in 2003, and with Malahide's 2002 win, the province was moving up.
B. 2003-2006 LCU on the up and up
If era A showed the first signs of the LCU resurgence (or perhaps surgence!), then era B confirmed it. Half of most Irish sides were from Leinster, and the Celtic Tiger travellers had arrived. Bray, Botha, and Johnston were all well established in the province, and along with healthy local talent such as Morgan and the O'Briens, there was no stopping the club game in the province.
These four seasons saw another three Irish Senior Cup wins (two for North County and one for Railway Union), with four or five quarter finalists normally coming from the LCU. This was as low as the NCU got. With the North West winning three Ulster Cups in this period, the NCU was a sideshow perhaps for the first time in its history.
C. 2007-2008 North West in freefall
Only a relatively short time period, but graphically this proves to be when the standard in the North West kept sliding away. Donemana and Limavady were still mightily fine teams, but below that teams struggled. 2008 serves as a good example. Limavady and Donemana had great runs in the Irish Senior Cup, and Limavady beat Strabane in the Ulster Cup final (with Glendermott also being a semi finalist) But in the league Bready were in a very distant third to the Donemana and Limavady.
North County recorded two more Irish Senior Cup wins in these two seasons, with the graph showing the LCU disappearing from the other two.
D. 2009-2013 NCU comes back, but LCU a long way ahead
Since 2008, the NCU has slowly come back. Waringstown have proved to be a match for anyone, but it is the supporting cast that have proved the difference. North Down have always been tussling with Waringstown, but with CSNI & Instonians also having their moments, the Northern Union has responded well to those dark days of the mid 2000's.
This is however against a backdrop of an LCU growing in depth, with any of the top teams capable of lifting the Irish Senior Cup. Leinster, The Hills, Merrion and Clontarf all won in this period. Admittedly Clontarf's victory as a Division 2 club looks something like a statistical freak, but it hard to see the 9th placed team in the North West or NCU winning the Bob Kerr - Muckamore or Ardmore.
But the real beauty of cricket in Ireland is its cyclical nature. As we have seen at the start of this article, the NCU dominated the Bob Kerr Irish Senior Cup for the first twelve seasons. Leinster's rein is now 13 years. Will there be another change soon?