Division 3 review
Leading all time run scorer (2011-2016) - Vijay Gopal (Clontarf) - 1878 runs @ 36.82
Most runs in a Division 3 season - Barry Archer (Balbriggan) - 614 runs (2011)
Highest score - Vijay Gopal - 157 - Clontarf 2 vs Civil Service 1 - Castle Avenue - 7 Sept 2014
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2016) - Mark Collier (Clontarf) - 112 wkts @ 14.16
Most wickets in a Division 3 season - Mark Collier (Clontarf) - 32 wkts (2015)
Best bowling - Glenn Kirwan - 7-14 - Malahide 2 vs Pembroke 2 - Malahide - 17 July 2016
Most matches - Mark Collier (Clontarf) - 62 - (2011-2016)
Highest team score - 393 all out - North Kildare 1 vs North County 2 - Inch - 25 May 2014
Lowest team score - 46 all out - Pembroke 2 vs YMCA 2 - Claremont Road - 30 June 2013 and North County 2 vs YMCA 2 - Claremont Road - 20 Sept 2014
Team of the Year (in batting order) - Beant Bhatal (Merrion), Neil Brown (Merrion), Nathan Rooney (North County), Gareth Delany (Leinster), Vijay Gopal (Clontarf), Alan Lewis (YMCA), Bill Whaley (Pembroke), Glenn Kirwan (Malahide), Richard Forrest (Clontarf, wicketkeeper), Jay Shelat (YMCA), JJ Garth (Pembroke)
Review
Runs per wicket for all teams - 20.99 Runs per over for all teams - 4.51
YMCA 2 - Champions - (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 128 - Bowling Rating 114 - RpO for 4.62 - RpO against 4.13
As this column has bored everyone repeatedly for the last few years, Division 3 has lost its interest for the neutral. With the top three clubs turning down promotion year after year, and with rumours coming from the OCC last year that 2nd teams would not be accepted anyway, Division 3 has become stale. I appreciate that it may not feel like that for the teams involved, but for the neutral that is how it seems. For the record, YMCA 2 reclaimed the title that they last won in 2014, to take only their fourth league title ever. The chase for the league went all the way to the very end, as YMCA and Merrion both won nine games, with YMCA's last match against Clontarf effectively deciding the title. Fittingly, it was Mr YMCA, Alan Lewis who was the hero in that crucial game, coming to the wicket with YMCA in trouble at 89-4 chasing 197. He put on 68 for the 7th wicket with Jay Shelat (Shelat scoring 18), before a clatter of wickets saw YM needing 13 to take the title, with only one wicket remaining. Sam Streek only faced four balls (and wasn't required to score) as Lewis manipulated the strike to finish with 72*, giving YMCA a 1 wicket win, and the Division 3 title. YMCA had the highest rated batting line up in the division, and it is no surprise that Lewis led the way with 327 runs at 65.40. Two slightly younger batsmen also chalked up over 200 runs - Andrew Blair-White with 233 at 25.89 and Rory McGovern with 218 at 24.22. The bowling was rated second best to Merrion's and four bowlers got to ten wickets - Tamim Faqiri, Aviral Shukla and Sam Streek. One bowler was far ahead of the others though as Jay Shelat took 24 wickets at 11.88 in his first season in Leinster cricket. In terms of wickets in a YMCA 2 league season, it was second only to Yaqoob Ali's phenomenal 2011 season when he got 36 wickets in 13 matches.
Merrion 2 - Runners up - (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 117 - Bowling Rating 122 - RpO for 4.61 - RpO against 4.34
One more win would have been enough to retain their Division 3 title, and it is difficult to look much further than the loss to YMCA - the one time the two teams met in the league during the season. That loss on July 24 was largely down to 51 from the aforementioned Alan Lewis, and left Merrion 2 in the precarious league position of 4-3. They then managed to turn the season around with five straight wins, but it wasn't quite enough. Merrion's bowling was seriously impressive, with four bowlers having seasons to remember. Sean Stanton took 16 wickets at 16.31, captain Nitin Sharma had 17 wickets at 19.88, with Denny David also taking 17 wickets, this time at 16.71. The top bowler award for Merrion goes to Shreyansh Khanna with 18 wickets at 17.56. The batting wasn't quite of the same calibre, although still good enough to be the third best in the division. Beant Bhatal's run scoring has been mentioned in previous articles, and he scored 267 runs at 44.50. Neil Brown was the top run scorer with 278 at 39.71 whilst Christopher Allwright scored 228 at 38 in the league and his 302 runs for Merrion 2 in all competitions was enough to make him the second player to reach 1000 career runs (after Neil Brown) and at the end of the season, Allwright's record reads 1270 runs at 18.68 .
Clontarf 2 - 3rd - (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 125 - Bowling Rating 107 - RpO for 5.02 - RpO against 4.67
Our tip for the top had a season to forget, and their wait for a league title still goes back to 1993. In the end they weren't particularly close to the front runners, and the damage was done right at the beginning of the season. Malahide and Leinster were both victorious, after Tarf were dismissed for 102 and 133. But they soon came good, winning five of the next six to put them back on track. An unbeaten finish to the season would have given them a chance, but it wasn't to be, as Clontarf 2 lost to YMCA and Merrion in must win matches. It's no surprise that the batting was rated as highly as it was, with five batsmen passing 200 runs - four proven performers and an emerging star. That young player was Andrew Vincent who scored a very decent 273 runs at 30.33, with the proven players being Asim Nazir (258 at 36.86), Mark Collier (206 at 18.73), Junaid Altaf (356 at 35.6) and Vijay Gopal (364 at 36.40). It is difficult to evaluate Clontarf's bowling. They didn't dominate, but looking at the returns of the bowlers, there were some excellent returns, which didn't quite translate into wins. Mark Collier was his normal destroyer of Division 3 bowling, with 23 wickets at 17.74, but the support bowlers were merely ok. It wasn't that they were poor, just that they didn't bowl much. David Delany took 12 wickets at 16.25, Vijay Gopal 12 wickets at 13.58, Asim Nazir 13 wickets at 17.62 and the impressive Harry Opperman 14 wickets at 17.50. It's just an observation but it seems as if Clontarf just had too much bowling talent, and that the normal measure of the number of bowlers taking 15 plus wickets doesn't apply for Clontarf. Junaid Altaf became the third batsmen to reach 2000 runs for Clontarf 2 (2054 at 27.39), putting him behind Vijay Gopal and Mark Collier on the all time list.
Pembroke 2 - 4th - (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 87 - Bowling Rating 105 - RpO for 4.18 - RpO against 4.09
Pembroke 2 provided a ray of sunshine in the club this year, finishing solidly mid table, and two places higher than in 2015. It was something of a strange season in that they managed to beat everyone else in the league (except Leinster), but although they were capable of beating the top teams, they also managed to lose to the worst ones. By that measure, the highlight of the season has to be the Bill Whaley (5-26) inspired win over YMCA, the low point must be the one wicket loss to Laois. The batting struggled, with only Sunil Gupta having a season to be proud of with 247 runs at 24.7. The bowling was much better though. Aaron O'Neill took 11 at 31.82, Bill Whaley led from the front with 17 wickets at 12.71, with JJ Garth the ace in the pack. The fifteen year old took a brilliant 23 wickets at only 8.96. It was the most league wickets in a season for Pembroke 2 (beating Jaskaran Walia's 21 in 2011) and was only the second time a bowler had taken 15 wickets or more in a Division 3 season at an average of less than 10 - Muhammed Junaid Amin was the last with 23 wickets at 8.61 in 2013 for Cork County. Of all the players to have played for Pembroke 2 in the past six seasons, no one has got to the 1000 run mark until this year, when Gary Baugh crept over the line with 1020 runs at 23.72.
Leinster 2 - 5th - (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 94 - Bowling Rating 96 - RpO for 4.14 - RpO against 4.60
A second successive year at 21st in the league ladder, but whilst in previous years it has been a bit of a nailbiter, Leinster 2 aoided relegation with a bit to spare. Unlike Pembroke (see above), Leinster beat those around them in the bottom half of the table, but lost to those at the top. Performance levels stayed pretty level all season - winning the matches they were favourite for, and losing the others. Those who passed 200 runs for the season were very much at opposite end of the age spectrum. Stalwarts Peter Byrne (272 runs at 34) and Gavin Gilmore (225 runs at 22.5) provided the stability and experience when it was needed. Gareth Delany came back from a serious knee injury in 2015 to ooze class with 271 early season runs at 45.17, and Conor O'Gorman also showed his potential with 276 runs at 39.43. O'Gorman had an excellent season, also taking 15 wickets at 14.40, one of only three players in Division 3 to break the 200 run/15 wicket barrier in 2016 - Mark Collier (Clontarf) and Manmeet Singh (North County) were the others. The bowling was nearly good enough, but not quite. Six bowlers took at least ten wickets, but only one went past 12 wickets, and that was O'Gorman. Gavin Gilmore and Gareth Delany both needed a boundary at the beginning of the season to get to 1000 career runs for Leinster 2, to become the 2nd and 3rd players respectively to reach the milestone (after David Lucas). Both got there during the same match - against North County on May 1. Gilmore now has 1271 runs at 21.54 (very much a small part of his career) and Delany has 1469 at 50.66 - his whole Leinster 2's career so far.
Malahide 2 - 6th (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 88 - Bowling Rating 100 - RpO for 3.97 - RpO against 4.48
Congratulations to Malahide 2, who recorded their highest league position since our records started in 2011. Joe Jennings (5-22) and Cameron Shoebridge (4-31) blew away Clontarf in the season's first match, and although those standards weren't kept for the entire season, there were enough victories (five in total) to just about avoid relegation. The batting was only rated at 88, with only Pembroke being rated lower. But there was one glimpse of an exciting future as Samuel de Klerk hit 202 runs at 22.44 at the age of 14, complemented by Richard Wing's 291 runs at 24.25. Leslee Muttathottil and Cameron Shoebridge were further examples of the promising season for youth cricketers on Malahide 2, with Muttathotill taking 17 wickes at 18.29 and Shoebridge 14 wickets at 20. Glenn Kirwan had a brilliant season with the ball, taking 22 wickets at 12.95, which broke Ronan McGeehan's 2011 record of most wickts in a Malahide 2 league season. Kirwan's fine season was completed by him becoming the first player to reach 100 wickets for Malahide 2, and he now stands at 102 wickets at 17.74.
North County 2 - 7th (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 89 - Bowling Rating 86 - RpO for 4.64 - RpO against 4.78
North County 2 have had the misfortune to be a yo-yo club in recent years, and after gaining promotion from Division 4 last year, were always going to be up against it in 2016. It didn't look that way at the beginning of the season though, as they beat Pembroke and Leinster in April. But then followed a losing streak of nine matches that didn't end until two empty victories in September - and North County's fate was sealed. On paper, the performances of individual players don't look that bad. But those runs just didn't translate into wins - 235 ao vs YMCA but lost by 27 runs; 221 ao vs Pembroke but lost by 4 wickets for example. Niall McGovern led the way with 356 runs at 39.56, Manmeet Singh also passed 300 runs with 304 at 25.33 and Nathan Rooney scored 210 at 42. No one else passed 150 runs, and that may have been the problem. Similarly, three bowlers got to ten wickets, but no one went on. Asher Abbasi took 13 wickets at 14.62 before moving to YMCA part way through the season, Kashif Ali took 10 at 34.8 and Maneet Singh completed an excellent season with 15 wickets (at 22.73) to go with his 304 runs. But those stats are not good enough to avoid relegation in such a competitive league.
Laois 1 - 8th (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 89 - Bowling Rating 80 - RpO for 4.97 - RpO against 4.91
A bittersweet season for Laois 1. It has been much documented - retaining their Senior 2 Cup title, a fantastic run to the National Cup final - and relegation from Division 3. There were wins against YMCA, Pembroke, North County and Malahide, but in the end they were two wins short of safety. Leinster's one wicket in July was definitely one that got away - being 197-7 and then 197 all out with overs left may haunt the club. It brings to an end a four year stay in Division 3, but surely won't be away for too long. Mohammed Ramazan was by far away the top batsmen with an excellent 377 runs at 31.42, and Omar Rasool scored 199 runs at 28.42. But not a single other batsmen averaged over 20 - irrespective of how many runs they scored, and that is where the problem lay. The bowling was a similar story. Armand Smit (14 wickets at 31.29) and Amir Khan (11 at 37.82) took wickets but were expensive. That left the excellent returns of Mohammed Sheraz (15 wickets at 16.73) and Rashid Mehraj who took 24 wickets at 19.33, breaking Zeeshan Shuaket's 2015 record of 22 league wickets in a Laois 1 season. Mehraj is also the first player to break the 2000 run barrier for Laois 1, totaling 2249 runs at 33.07, whilst Phil Blackley is the third player to get to 1000 runs with 1253 at 20.54.
The full Division 3 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here.