Division 11 - 2011 Season Review

Division 11 was all about one team and one team only - Dundalk. Much has been written about their debut season, so there is no need to expand here. They went throught the season unbeaten, and once the other teams had lost their unbeaten record, the title race was effectively over.

Bizarrely, other than Dundalk, the last team in this division to lose it's unbeaten record was Old Belvedere 3. They won their first match against Rush on May 15th, then had a rained off match, but then gave a walkover to Laois on June 4th. From this point on, it was Dundalk all the way.

Dundalk were no one man team either, as can be seen below. 36 players scored 100 league runs, and with six of those being from the Louth team, most of their top order got some form of runs. 11 batsmen passed the 200 mark, with the top three - Sajan Jeyaseelan of Dundalk (319 at 39.88), Tariq Islam of Laois (353 at 176.5 - see below) and at the top of the list Shiva Katta of Laois with 384 runs at 48.

There were also four centurions. The first three were obviously an achievement in their selves - Sean Tomlinson with 144 for Railway Union against Old Belvedere, Darrell Varney with 131 for Knockharley against Rush and Andre Hillebrand Snr - 106 for Bagenalstown against Laois on May 15th.

That match on May 15th will go down in history for another reason though, as Tariq Islam hit 239*, the 10th highest score ever recorded in organised cricket on the island. It was a marvelous knock as Laois ran up 409-1. All those who scored 100 runs are below

In other divisions I've been highlighting any bowler who took 15 league wickets, but Division 11 had 16 bowlers who passed that mark, so we'll highlight only those who took 20 wickets.

Under 15 David Carthy outfoxed 20 batsmen for Rush at the decent average of 15.25 to take third spot. Dundalk's bowling if anything was stronger than their batting (with three passing that 15 wicket mark), and Ahsan Shah was the pick of them with 21 at 9. Top of the pile though was Joe Brady of Civil Service, who took 22 wickets at 12.77

Finally Division 11 was definitely the division of individual performances. In top of Tariq's knock for Laois, there were multiple examples of fine bowling. Seventeen bowlers took five wickets in an innings (including four of them for less than ten runs), Daniel Bickers took 6-20 for Railway Union against Old Belvedere, Yaksha Jarwal took 7-38 for Old Belvedere against Rush but the pick of the bowling was from another incredible match.

When Knockharley were dismissed by Bagenalstown for 39, they must have been downhearted, and ready for an early shower. However Simba Mujenu had other ideas, and had the amazing figures of 8-6 as Bagenalstown were shot out for 29 and a rather surprising 10 run loss