By this stage most people involved in Leinster cricket will know of the unique set of cricket records created by the late Derek Scott. For those that need reminding Derek’s lifetime passion as a cricket statistician included the compilation of the complete records of Leinster Senior Cricket. These provide details on every player who took the field in a senior* club game since the Leinster Cricket Union was founded in 1919. Every match is recorded and there is an abundance of figures and background information. Derek was also the only one who knew the pseudonyms that certain players used and which appeared in the newspapers each week when the person concerned should have been at work.
When Derek died the records were passed to Cricket Leinster and in the intervening years the individual player details have been digitised and made available online. With the updating of the records from the last two clubs over the past few months this process is now complete and the statistics available online on the CL website. In total there are career details for over 5500 individual players and over 25,000 records of annual performances.
Thanks goes to all those volunteers across the clubs who have contributed to this effort. But a special mention for Gerry Byrne who kept the statistics flowing towards the end of Derek’s life when he had to stop due to ill-health.
To access the records go to the Cricket Leinster website and from the Menu on the right hand side of the screen choose Archive and then Players. There are three separate databases - the first is the annual averages for each player, the second the overall career averages and the third the Honour Board of winners of trophies for individual performances. You can filter the records to find the player you want, search by club or year or simply browse through the names.
Inevitably there will be a few transcription errors. If you come across anything that does not seem right please let us know and we will check it out and if appropriate correct. Contact cricketleinster@gmail.com.
There is always more to do but the uploading of the complete player records for Senior Cricket since 1919 is a major milestone in the creation of the Online Archive of club cricket in Leinster.
*Senior Records covers the Leinster Senior League, the Leinster Senior Cup and the Leinster Senior League/Cup - originally known as the Wiggins Teape League.