Anderson Retains Marchant Cup for 2020 – Three in a Row!

Congratulations from Cricket Leinster to John Anderson of Merrion CC, who, having won the award for the first time in 2018, and retained it in 2019, has been confirmed as the winner of the Marchant Cup for 2020, allowing the trophy to rest on his mantelpiece throughout yet another winter.

In what has been described many times as an unprecedented season, John showed that while the circumstances around the game may change, his ability to score runs certainly doesn’t.

In just 6 games, he chalked up 364 runs at an average of 72.8, passing the half-century mark on no fewer than four occasions, with his highest score of 81 coming against North Kildare at The Maws.

Looking down the list, John’s season is even more remarkable when it’s considered that the next man, in terms of aggregate runs, Kenny Carroll, took 9 games to reach 326 at an average of 40.75 (which itself was an excellent achievement).

The next batsman on the list was Greg Ford, whose 263 runs at 52.6 contained two not out innings so well done to him too.

Last year, Anderson became the first player to retain the Marchant Cup since 2003, which was a year which saw an end to a remarkable run for Jeremy Bray, who had won it for 6 seasons on the trot in that period since 1998.

The only other player to have won the Marchant Cup three times on the bounce is Alf Masood, who having regained the trophy in 1985, won it again in ‘86 and ’87, as such Anderson finds himself in some truly exalted and worthy company.

This year is the 100th time the Marchant Cup has been awarded, and as impressive as Anderson’s average of 72.8 may be, it is extremely unlikely anyone will able to come close to the average posted by the inaugural winner, R.H Lambert of Leinster CC, who set a very high standard back in 1921 with an average of 217.33.

Congratulations from all at Cricket Leinster to John on this fantastic achievement – he is certainly a modern day legend of cricket in Leinster.