Clontarf pip Waringstown as top team of 2016

Cricket Leinster's All Ireland team ratings have been redesigned and recalculated, and after a bit of a delay, the end of season 2016 rankings can be revealed.

The redesign has meant that we can now look at the rakings on a day by day basis, comparing teams over time, looking at who the best teams have been over the past sixteen seasons of cricket across the island, as well as looking at when individual clubs were good.... and bad!

All that is to come over th enxt few weeks, but first we will look at how the 2016 season finished. For the whole of 2016, there were only two teams when it came to the top performers in the land. Waringstown and Clontarf have been alternating as the number one team ever since May 2015, and the lead between the two changed hands five times during the season - with Contarf eventually coming out on top.

It was looking as if Waringstown would finish as top dogs for the second successive year, but their late season collapse - league losses to Instonians, Carrickfergus and CSN saw them fall from a rating of over 137 on August 16th (the highest ever recorded) to "only" 129.94 - not good enuogh for top spot. That went to the Leinster league champions, who perhaps didn't have a classic season (only a league title), but arguably were the best Clontarf team to have competed this century - leaving other teams in their wake.

Looking at the spread of unions, the North West again struggled to make an impact, with Brigade being the leading North West club in only 10th place. Four NCU clubs were in the top ten, with Leinster having five in the top eight. Looking at the top twenty, it was the same story, with only four North West clubs now in the top twenty. Cork County finished the season at 16th, and hopefully it will be possible to get more Munster sides into the rankings in 2017.

A number of sides had their best ever seasons (these rankings started in 2002). Waringstown have already been mentioned, but Pembroke in Leinster were mightily impressive, and are still promising more next year, finishing in 6th place. Further down the table North Kildare entered for the first time, finishing in 38th, and in the North West, Newbuildings had a successful league season, coming in at 35th.

Several other clubs also had 2016 seasons that were the best they have had in the 21st century, and more of those in future weeks. Step forward and take a bow Ardmore, Balbriggan, Carrickfergus, CIYMS, Clontarf, Coleraine, Cork County, Donacloney, Eglinton and Killyclooney.

Next time we look at the twelve clubs who have been the best on the island since 2002. Can you name them?

NB. Due to rounding, average does not exactly equal the points divided by games played