Division 8 stats
Leading all time run scorer (2011-2016) - Nicky Fusco (Wicklow County) - 1331 runs @ 27.16
Most runs in a Division 8 season - Nadun Srimal Jasinghe (Bagenalstown) - 582 runs (2014)
Highest score - Umar Saleem - 166* - Knockharley 2 vs The Hills 3 - Milverton - 28 June 2014
Leading all time wicket taker (2011-2016) - Khalid Chaudhary (Leinster/Wicklow County) - 56 wkts @ 17.59
Most wickets in a Division 8 season - Ali Qasim (Balbriggan) - 29 wkts (2011)
Best bowling - Chris Siddell - 7-11 - Malahide 4 vs Dundalk 1 - Malahide - 27 Apr 2014
Most matches - Nicky Fusco (Wicklow County) - 51 - (2011-2016)
Highest team score - 293-5 - Balbriggan 2 vs Merrion 6 - Jack Harper Memorial Ground - 12 Aug 2012
Lowest team score - 32 all out - Dublin University 2 vs Knockharley 2 - Kentstown - 30 May 2015
Team of the Year (in batting order) - Rizwan Haider (Clontarf), Tayyab Rashid (Knockharley), Kamran Mirza (Knockharley), Syed Mehdi (Balbriggan), Safdar Ali (North County) Abdul Samad (Balbriggan), Cole Gaddy (North County), Shariq Agha (Balbriggan), Sohail Qaisar (Knockharley), Raja Akbar (Balbriggan), Foram Mehta (North County, wicketkeeper)
Review
Runs per wicket for all teams - 20.19 Runs per over for all teams - 4.46
Balbriggan 2 - Champions - (Predicted 6th) - Batting Rating 147 - Bowling Rating 140 - RpO for 5.40 - RpO against 3.93
A triumphant season for Balbriggan 2 who swept all before them, winning a third league title this century, 2004 and 2007 being the preceding successful seasons. But Balbriggan won't be missing the big picture. They need to keep going up the leagues. Currently ranked the 16th best 2nd team in the province, they should be challenging to be in the top ten, which would mean playing in Division 4. But that can wait for now, whilst the teams reflects on a brilliant season. Ably led by Roger Kear, the side were the first league champions to be declared in late August, and inflicted the damage equally with bat and ball. Once again, Syed Mehdi led the way, with a quite stunning season - 456 runs at 65.14. Five others passed 100 runs, with the best of those two being 15 year old Justin Kavanagh (233 at 23.3) and Abdul Samad with 240 at 40.0. The bowling attack was cheifly the domain of two bowlers who had distinctly useful years. Shariq Agha took 16 wickets at 10.50, and Raja Akbar was even better with 23 wickets at 8.78. And a word for captain Roger Kear, who led well on and off the pitch with 182 runs at 45.40 and 10 wickets at 15.1. Can they repeat the trick in Division 8 (or higher?) next year?
North County 4 - Runners up - (Predicted 7th) - Batting Rating 106 - Bowling Rating 107 - RpO for 4.76 - RpO against 4.63
Five successive wins in May and June raised the prospect of a successful season, but losses after that meant that North County were a long way Balbriggan by the end of the season. But that hardly matters. In a league with a run away leader, the vital position is the best of the rest, and North County 4 just about won that race. It is an achievement not to be sniffed at, with the team now being 14 league places (nearly two full divisions) higher than they finished in 2013 - a not too common occurence amongst more established clubs in recent years. It was a good effort, with the batting and bowling both being rated as the second best in Divison 8, and there can be no complaints of how deserved a runner-up North County were. Surprisngly for a team with a good season behind them, only one player managed to pass 200 runs as Safdar Ali scored 233 at 46.6 in only six innings. The statistics of the bowling unit look more like that of a promotion winning team. 16 year old Cole Gaddy led with 16 wickets at 13. The slightly more experienced Rafael Evans took 14 at 15.71 and Zia Mohyuddin 15 at 17.47.
Leinster 4 - 3rd - (Predicted 4th) - Batting Rating 102 - Bowling Rating 100 - RpO for 4.39 - RpO against 4.53
With Leinster's lower teams all having a little bit of a nightmare season, Leinster 4's relative success was appreciated by those in Rathmines. The team had a distinctly curious season in three phases - winning one game from three in May; then having four games in June cancelled; before winning four of the last six (and the two lost were against Balbriggan). It meant that for the third successive year, Leinster 4 finished 59th in the league ladder. Batting and bowling were very "average" - and that is a compliment in a league where only the top three did better than the average (mainly because Balbriggan were so good that the stats were skewed). Tom Halliday (206 at 25.75) and Anas Khan (209 at 26.12) were the most prolific batsmen - not stunning seasons but satisfactory none the less. Youth player Tom O'Neill was the leading wicket taker with 13 wickets at 17.54. Captain Michael Scully was next with 10 wickets at 31 in 61 very entertaining overs.
Knockharley 2 - 4th - (Predicted 5th) - Batting Rating 99 - Bowling Rating 109 - RpO for 4.39 - RpO against 4.41
A poor start to the season saw Knockharley 2 lose four of their first five games, before something of a recovery brought four wins in the last six. That saw the team finish in 60th pace in the league ladder, the same as in 2015 - which in itself was the highest the team have ever been. Tahir Rashid was leading run scorer with 321 rus at 35.66, and he was well supported by Tayyab Rashid with 250 at 62.5 and Kamran Mirza with 201 at 25.12. The leading wicket taker was Sohail Qaisar, who started the season with 89 career wickets for Knockharley 2, and had a pretty decent season, with 17 wickets in total, which made him the first player to take 100 wickets for the team - 106 at 13.79. Mirza also featured with the ball - 13 wickets at 11.46, and Zahid Rasheed chipped in with 13 at 14.31. Two players also reached a career milestone with the bat, Tayyab Rashid (1041 at 30.62) reached the 1000 run milestone, as did Sohail, who in addition to his 106 wickets, now has 1100 runs for Knockharley 2 at 19.30
Adamstown 2 - 5th - (Predicted 3rd) - Batting Rating 99 - Bowling Rating 88 - RpO for 5.09 - RpO against 4.78
Another all time high in the league for Adamstown 2, but in reality this wasn't a season to remember with any great fondness. It must be remembered that sides are unlikely to rampage up the leagues winning trophies every year. There have to be seasons of consolidation as well. Six matches were won (more than sides above them) but as the crucial double header against Dublin University 2 was lost, Adamstown had to make to with a fairly lowly 5th place. There were good wins along the way, the best probably being a 12 run win away to runners up North County. From 88-6, Kamil Mahajan's 53 (including five 4s and four 6s) resuced the side to 175, before Hanan Maan took 4-30 to bowl County out for 163. Two batsmen had fantastic seasons, Sunil Parashar scored 303 at 25.25 and Kamil Mahajan broke Manoj Monteiro's 2014 record of most league runs in an Adamstown 2 season with 446 at 34.31. The bowling struggled in comparison, but Arun Verma finished far ahead of his colleagues with 18 wickets at 15.39. Hammas Habib knocked off the 28 runs he needed to become the first player with 1000 runs for Adamstown 2, and he now has 1044 at 23.20.
Clontarf 4 - 6th (Predicted 2nd) - Batting Rating 93 - Bowling Rating 100 - RpO for 3.99 - RpO against 4.45
A disappointing season for Clontarf who have slipped back to the same position in the league as they were in 2011 - 62nd. some way below the high of 53rd in 2013 and 2014. The season started well with a win over Dublin University but the next win had to wait until early July as a run of five losses was ended with a win over bottom placed Wicklow County. Two more wins was then enough to stave off relegation. Clontarf chased in nine of their eleven matches, winning three and losing six. Only one batsman passed 150 runs and only one bowler took more than 11 wickets, which is never a return that is going to bring success. That can be down to a variety of reasons - sometimes players ar emoved up and down teams a lot, and don't play enough for a team to rack up a substantial return (and this seems to be Clontarf's problem - four players played nine of Clontarf's 11 games, and none played more than that), and sometimes players just don't perform. The exceptions were Rizwan Haider who scored 251 runs at 35.86 and Sean Devilly who took 22 wickets at 13.50, which broke Rory Sullivan's 2013 record of most league wickets in a season for Clontarf 4 (which stood at 21)
Dublin University 2 - 7th (Predicted 1st) - Batting Rating 78 - Bowling Rating 84 - RpO for 3.57 - RpO against 4.17
A season that didn't live up to expectations. Those expectations were that with a strong 1st team in 2016, the 2nd team would also be stronger, but it wasn't to be, and instead of the title that was predicted, Dublin University 2 slipped to relegation. Only six matches were played (attempts to play Knockharley weren't successful) and although there were two impressive wins against North County and Adamstown, it was not to be enough. With the bat, Ashish Bharvikar had a solid season with 194 runs at 32.33, but unfortunately no bowler got more than five wickets all season. So a lower league position (63rd) than in 2014 and 2015, but still higher than the period 2011-2013.
Wicklow County 1 - 8th (Predicted 8th) - Batting Rating 82 - Bowling Rating 78 - RpO for 3.77 - RpO against 4.58
It always looked like being a tough season for Wicklow County 1, and so it proved. The season started very well, with three games won in May, but that was as good as it got. Six straight losses on the pitch consigned Wicklow County 1 to bottom spot. In many respects that is not as bad as it seems, and the team would have needed their best finish since 2013 to avoid relegation and it wasn't to be. Four players passed 100 runs for the season, but only one of them with an average of more than 20 - Angus Hancock once again leading the way with 306 runs at 30.60. With the bowling Khalid Chaudhary, Shair-Afgan Chaudhary and David Rice all took 10 wickets in the season, but without someone taking over 15 wickets, it was always going to be tough.
The full Division 8 batting averages can be found here, whilst the bowling averages are here.