Division 5 stats
Leading all time run scorer (2011-2017) - Brian Gilmore (Malahide) - 1316 runs @ 37.60
Most runs in a Division 5 season - Hamish Manks (Malahide) - 575 runs (2015)
Highest score - Nicky Kenny - 160* - Merrion 3 vs Railway Union 3 - Park Avenue - 14 May 2011
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2017) - Conor Gibbons (Malahide) - 79 wkts @ 20.33
Most wickets in a Division 5 season - Adam Craig (Clontarf) - 27 wkts (2012) and Fadi Khan (Longford) - 27 wkts (2017)
Best bowling - Aidan McDonald - 7-29 - Clontarf 3 vs Balbriggan 2 - Castle Avenue - 17 April 2017
Most matches - Conor Gibbons (Malahide) - 57 - (2012-2016)
Highest team score - 406-8 - Mullingar 1 vs Terenure 2 - Terenure - 14 June 2015
Lowest team score - 29 all out - North County 3 vs Clontarf 3 - Castle Avenue - 5 May 2012
Team of the Year (in batting order) - Hamid Ali (Adamstown), Conor Fletcher (Balbriggan), Fadi Khan (Longford) (Division 6, 2013; Division 11, 2014), Declan Vermaak (Pembroke), Cormac Devilly (Clontarf, wicketkeeper), John Moffat (YMCA) (Division 4, 2015; Division 5, 2014), Ian Dent (Clontarf), Luke Prior (Clontarf), Richard Hastie (Pembroke) (Division 4, 2013; Division 5, 2015), Aidan McDonald (Clontarf), Andrew Leonard (Pembroke)
Review
Runs per wicket for all teams - 20.62 Runs per over for all teams - 4.88
Longford 1 - Champions - (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 126 - Bowling Rating 105 - RpO for 5.59 - RpO against 4.62
Back to back league titles for Longford 1, as the rise of the club continues. With major improvements to the ground in 2017 (such as sheds and outfield mowers), and further improvements (sightscreens etc) for the winter, there looks to be no stopping the rise of one of the province's most vibrant clubs. On the pitch, an experienced team was improved with the addition of Hamza Hamayun, and incredibly ten members of the squad either passed 100 runs, 10 wickets, or both. And it was that strength in depth that can be most important over a season. The path to the league title looked fairly simple, with a run of eight wins at the start of the year putting them in pole position. A blip of two home losses (to Adamstown and Clontarf) threatened the title chase, before wins over Merrion, Pembroke and Greystones sealed the deal. Surprisingly only one Longford player, Fadi Khan made our Team of the Year. That is testament to the quality of Division 5 rather than any slight to Longford. Khan equalled Adam Craig's 2012 of 27 wickets in a Division 5 season, taking 27 wickets at 12.89 (as well as 228 runs at 28.5). Sheraz Tariq wasn't too behind, his fifth season in Leinster cricket not bearing much resemblance to the previous four! He dominated with bat and ball (being the leading run scorer for the team), with 394 runs at 30.31 and 26 wickets at 16, an overall performance that in many ways was better than Fadi Khan's. His 141 against Balbriggan 2 was the highest score for the club this year. Hamza Hamayun was the one addition to the team for 2017, and he looks a class act, his 96 against Greystones to seal the title being a delight to watch. He totalled 367 at 28.23. Much of the rest of the squad also deserve length mentions but will have to be content with foot notes. In decreasing number of runs scored, the other seven stars of the team were - Shamas Sarfraz (288 at 28.8), Ashir Javed (241 at 20.08), Adnan Sarfraz (206 runs at 29.43), Husnain Raza (179 runs at 22.38, along with 11 wickets at 19.64), Danish Javed (149 runs at 13.55 and 10 wickets at 37.6), and then Mehar Imran (10 wickets at 18.3) and finally Umar Sarfraz (15 wickets at 20.60). An exciting 2018 stretches ahead of the club.
Clontarf 3 - Runners up - (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 98 - Bowling Rating 120 - RpO for 4.71 - RpO against 4.53
A welcome return to form for Clontarf 3, whose 34th place in the league was their highest since their 32nd in 2013. Our rating has the bowling attack as very much Tarf's strength, and a look behind the headlines reveals the same thing. 213 was their highest total of the year - not disastrous but not exactly the batting form of a promotion winning team. Much of that lack of big scores is down to their predilection towards chasing. Batting first, they finished the season 4-2, whereas chasing they were unbeaten in six matches, their batting performing better when under a bit of pressure. Luke Prior was the best batsman by far, the Hiberno-Australian making our Team of the Year with 242 runs at 48.2 (and 13 wickets at 15.54). Cormac Devilly made the team as the keeper in the division with most dismissals including five dismissals against YMCA in August. The other two on the team led Tarf's bowling attack. Aidan McDonald had his best season for years, making his first Team of the Year since the Division 8 team in 2012. He took 25 wickets at an incredible 9.20, which included the best bowling recorded in Division 5 - 7-29 against Balbriggan 2 in April. Ian Dent was the other prong in the attack, taking 22 wickets at 13 (along with 125 runs at 25). Prior may have grabbed the batting highlights, but he wasn't the leading run scorer, an accolade accorded to Daniel Ashton who scored 293 runs at 32.56. He was followed by Junaid Altaf (176 at 35.2), Ian Smillie (160 at 17.78 as well as 10 wickets at 21.3), Damian Gargan (156 at 19.5) and Rana Asad (139 at 15.44). Clontarf will presumably take their place in Division 4 in 2018, a place where only the very best 3rd teams succeed.
YMCA 3 - 3rd - (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 143 - Bowling Rating 100 - RpO for 5.00 - RpO against 4.44
A quite bewildering mix of young and old, YMers and blow ins, Irish and otherwise propelled YMCA 3 to third place. Some of the stats look promising, but it was the team's lowest league position since 2012, and they were ranked as low as being the fourth best 3rd team - again for the first time since 2012. So in many ways, the third place was a disappointment, but as has already been mentioned, there was some good cricket in Division 5 this season, and third place may not have been too bad a result. The season was built around a run of seven victories across the height of summer, making up for a dodgy start and an indifferent finish. The rock around which most of the season was built was John Moffat, the veteran finisher scoring 32, 45*, 47*, 40, 63*, 46*, 6*, 48*, 55*, 1 and 61* to end up with 444 runs at an average of 148. Jacques Zaayman had his first experience of Leinster cricket, and found this level pretty easy with 322 at 40.25. The youth was provided by a trio representing an exciting future - Tim Tector (264 runs at 29.33), Mitchell Thompson (246 runs at 27.33 and 14 wickets at 18.14) and Nathan Johns (211 at 30.14). The batting was astoundingly strong, the bowling less so. Thompson was the leading wicket taker, followed by another promising youth player, Mike O'Reilly (12 at 24.17) and a familiar face in Seanan Jones, returning to Leinster cricket for the first time since 2014 with 12 wickets at 22.25. That was it from the bowling point of view, and was probably the difference between promotion and 3rd. A couple of other batsmen were also worthy of mentions - Aviral Shukla scored 142 at 28.4 and Chris Minch had 110 at 12.22.
Pembroke 3 - 4th - (Predicted 9th) - Batting Rating 109 - Bowling Rating 104 - RpO for 4.56 - RpO against 4.78
Pembroke 3 managed to put a proverbial two fingers up to this column's prediction of a last place finish, with a creditable 36th place in the league - up from last year's low of 38th. In fairness to that prediction, two "new" players came to the club in 2017, with one becoming the 3rd's leading wicket taker, and the other the leading run scorer. That made for quite an improvement on 2016! Zimbabwaen Declan Vermaak only averaged 18 in nine games for the 2nds, but found Division 5 to his liking, with 364 runs at 45.50, a performance good enough to earn a place on our Team of the Year. The "new" bowler was the returning Andrew Leonard, coming back to the Broke after a couple of years in Dubai. He only played in eight games, starting in mid-July, and took four wickets in four of those games, to finish up with a Team of the Year place and 23 wickets at 8.96. Pembroke won six of the eight games he played in, and lost four of the six games he didn't play in. Pembroke's third member of the all star team was perhaps no surprise, Richard Hastie putting in another superb season with 19 wickets at 13.47. Experience definitely dominated the squad, with a handful of players of yesteryear making their mark. David O'Riordan scored 232 runs at 29, Colin Kavanagh 163 at 23.29, and Peter Davy 151 at 25.17 in only six games. Joe Prendergast was the one glimpse of the future, scoring 179 runs at 13.77 and taking 16 wickets at 23.44. The picture is completed with Alec Barrett's 123 runs at 20.50 and Faran Khan's all round season with 134 runs at 33.5 and 11 wickets at 18.91. A season not to be sniffed at, but it is unlikely that Leonard's bowling will be a luxury allowed in Division 5 in 2018!
Balbriggan 2 - 5th - (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 108 - Bowling Rating 101 - RpO for 5.69 - RpO against 5.06
Whilst Conor Fletcher was blazing his way through Division 5 in the early part of the season, it seemed as if anything was possible. He scored 15, 5, 100, 98, 117* and 92* before he was banished to Division 2. The first ton resulted in a loss to Pembroke, but the next three innings were in a winning cause, getting Balbriggan's season up and running after losing their first three. The next eight games saw a further four wins, with the highlight of the year probably being the 35 run win away to Adamstown, Cian Nulty the hero with 44 and 3-24. For the record Fletcher's contribution was 427 runs at 106.75, and Nulty went on to take 17 wickets at 18.18. Neither of those two actually led the way with bat or ball. The accolade of leading run scorer went to Syed Mehdi with 456 runs at 38, with the leading wicket taker being Tariq Faheem taking 24 wickets at 15.50 (on top of scoring 222 runs at 24.67). Such was the strength across the division, that neither was quite good enough to make the Team of the Year. The full significance of Balbriggan's mid table finish is that they finished 17 league places than their previous best (54th in 2013). They are now the 11th best 2nd team in the province, a rank much more in keeping with their 1st team's position. Four other players are worthy of mention. Abdul Samad had a fine all round year with 375 runs at 31.25 and 13 wickets at 22.85, and sixteen year old Justin Kavanagh wasn't too far behind with 219 at 18.25 and 10 wickets at 14.60. Paddy Martin took 11 wickets at 28.82 and Shameem Ahmad scored 107 runs at 17.83.
Adamstown 1 - 6th (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 104 - Bowling Rating 100 - RpO for 5.15 - RpO against 4.75
The sixth straight year that Adamstown 1 have improved their league position, setting up what should be a promotion push in 2018. It is now three years since Adamstown's last league title, and the first reaction when looking over their season was disappointment. But after a bit of reflection, that disappointment quickly turned to a realisation of a good season's work - we've come to expect so much from Adamstown, that a 6th place seems a disappointment. The season itself was up and down, ranging from the excellent (beating Longford away) to the not so good (losing to Greystones). Hamad Ali was the star, becoming the first player to score 500 league runs in a season for Adamstown 1 (he was also the first to pass 400 runs), totally 510 at 46.36, as well as 10 wickets at 27.6. But the problem was that no one else passed 200 runs. Haseeb Khan had 196 at at 21.78, Kamil Mahajan 142 at 15.78, Bradley Fernandes 142 at 47.33, Aman Yadav 121 at 20.17, and Niranjan Shankar 113 at 28.25. If a couple of these had gone on to 250 runs, then who knows? The bowling was a similar affair albeit without a figurehead with 20+ wickets. Jimmy Bansal was top with 17 at 18.41, followed by Rajan Singh (14 at 15.86), Aman Yadav (13 at 15) and Hamid Ali. A new player ot two for 2018 and no one sill stop Adamstown.
Merrion 4 - 7th (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 94 - Bowling Rating 94 - RpO for 4.73 - RpO against 5.10
Not the best of seasons for Merrion 4, whose 39th was their lowest league place since coming 42nd in 2013. Three consecutive wins around June gave hope, with the third of those over Adamstown being the peak of their season. That was as good as it got though, and the last eight matches brought only one more win. It wasn't that bad a season though - the bowling and batting were both a bit under par, but not by that much. The undoubted star was Timcy Khanduja who was leading run scorer (398 at 36.18) and second highest wicket taker (16 at 14.31). And against Longford on August 12, he had the match of his life with 122 & 5-41 (for a full list of those who have achieved the feat, read here ). Only one other Merrion player managed to beat Khanduja's figures in that match - for the whole season. That was Hari Ramasetty who had 222 runs at 22.2 (and 6 wickets at 19.5!). No one else did the allrounder's double. The batsmen with 100 runs were Ashish Bharvirkar (182 at 20.22), Ankit Mishra (135 at 27), Chandra Aramalla (131 at 10.08), Vaibhav Sapra (126 at 21), Sainath Reddy (111 at 22.2) and Jack Atkinson (104 at 26). Leasing wicket taker was Vidit Sukhramani with 19 at 18.11, Vishal Singh took 13 at 28.46, and Pat Carty who seems to find time to do everything in Merrion, chipped in with 10 wickets 16.3.
Greystones 1 - 8th (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 83 - Bowling Rating 86 - RpO for 4.32 - RpO against 5.12
The first game of the season saw a loss to eventual champions Longford 1 - no shame there. There followed wins over Merrion and Adamstown, and everything was looking good. But then a heavy 207 run defeat loss at home to Balbriggan stopped them in their tracks - although it may not have felt like it at the time. The following match saw a handsome win over eventual wooden spoonists Leinster, but they then lost their last six games of the season. Their 40th place was their lowest league position since 49th in 2013. Looking over the squad's stats, and there doesn't appear to be any particular reason for Greystones' failure. Michael Kirk filled the role of bowling spearhead - 21 wickets at 14.71 (as well as 177 runs at 17.7). Manpreet Singh was leading run scorer with 319 at 31.8 and 15 wickets at 23.53. Will Houston led the side with a solid 243 runs at 22.09, and there was lots more support - John Fitzsimons 166 at 27.67, Luke Mascarenhas 152 at 16.89, Aidan Longstaff 13 wickets at 26.85 and Stephen Roughan 11 wickets at 27.45. When all is said and done there just wasn't much between Greystones and some of the other teams above them. Someone had to finish 8th!
Leinster 3 - 9th (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 84 - Bowling Rating 69 - RpO for 4.43 - RpO against 5.66
Leinster 3 have been a solid bottom half of Division 5 team for the last six seasons - always being between 36th (4th in Division 5 this year) and 39th (7th). And a horror season in 2017, saw them slip just enough to drop down to 41st and out of Division 5. The batting was up there with Greystones, but the bowling was much worse than anyone else. A few examples - Pembroke chased 221, Merrion chased 256, Adamstown chased 152 (for two) and then 119 (for one the week after) - and that was just the first four games of the season. The one ray of sunshine was provided by Euan Mackay, the sixteen year old taking 16 wickets at 14.75, despite only playing in seven games. Only one bowler bettered that mark - SivaKumar Abbaiahgari who took 18 at 22.78 in thirteen matches. No one else really got close to ten wickets. The batting was better, and in fact you could almost call it good. Chris Oosthuizen was best with 270 at 25.44, and Somasekhar Rapolu also passed 200 with 213 at 17.75. Another sixteen year old, Patrick Lynch scored 191 at 27.29, whilst Peter Masterson and Chirag Dolia both scored 182 runs (at 22.75 and 26 respectively). The sixth batsman into three figures (over the season) was Will Rolfe who hit 168 at 15.27. After so many years in the ultra competitive world of Division 5, it may be no bad thing to regroup in 2018, with the aim to come back stronger.
The full Division 5 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here.