Division 10
Champions – Phoenix 4
League MVP – Anto Coates [Ring Commons]
In the interests of journalistic standards the author must declare his interest in this Division, having spent the season starred on the Pembroke 5th XI (below the line). This is also an opportune time to explain the acronym R&SPU being used by these, and other, articles for Railway Union. The acronym is shown on the iron gates at the top of the very narrow lane off Park Avenue and the initials stood for Railway and Steam Packet Union. To the best of my knowledge, the company that ran the mail-boat and the railway was named thus. Certainly in the early days of the twentieth century in newspaper reports the Club was formally known as Railway and Steam Packet Athletic and Social Club. When they became a Union nor of when they dropped the Steam Packet and became known as just plain old Railway Union is unknown. However, I for one (and I may be the only one), like the idea and look of the older name and the acronym R&SPU, which is far easier to type than Railway Union and will continue to use it until such time as a R&SPU official contacts me to request I desist. Later in this series there may even be an explanation for Terenure Titans…. As always your views and thoughts and any feedback from the readers are most welcome and can be posted below in the comments or sent directly to craig@cricket.ie.
Anyway, we now move on to Division 10 and the stars thereof, individual and otherwise. In 2012, Anto Coates was one of the overall stars of the Leinster leagues, finishing atop the table after scoring a double century and leading Ring Commons from the front. Ring Commons this season finished the construction of their pavilion and now have fine facilities to match the strength of their team. However Anto continues to show his class and led the Overall MVP statistics for Division 10 in 2013. He could easily perform and showcase his talents at a higher level, but enjoys his cricket in Ring Commons. He appears to play a full part in the running of the Club off the field as well as on it. On the pitch he was, also as shown below, the leading run scorer and also the leading wicket taker. In spite of this individual brilliance, as in the Divisions covered thus far (14 to 10), the MVP does not come from the league winners. Phoenix took the Divisional title 10.61% clear of Ring Commons, having won three more games than anyone.
The statistics below are unfortunately incomplete as the game between Merrion and Ring Commons has still at this stage not been reported to the OCC. This is a shame, not only for the purposes of this article, but also for the final finishing positions. According to the cricketleinster.ie league tables these two teams were second and third with only 1.15% between them and so that missing game could have had a huge effect on the second promotion place behind Phoenix. This looks like one for the OCC to sort out over the off season.
One thing not in doubt was Malahide finishing bottom. Minus 33 points is not a great score by any count and Malahide also gave a number of walkovers. It is a shame to see such a good friendly and welcoming club suffering in such a fashion and undoubtedly the powers that be in Malahide will be looking at either ensuring recruitment is stepped up or reviewing if they can field 5 sides. On the positive side, Malahide did put on a superb show for the visit of England to the ground and the Club and Cricket Ireland are to be congratulated on the events on that sunny day in September. The other relegation place in Division 10 came down to very little between Pembroke and Civil Service with just 1.51%, or 6 points, the gap. Both sides had identical playing records of played 16 won 5, 1 walkover win and 5 defeats. Civil Service celebrated their 150th season and survival by this slim amount. One hopes that when Pembroke reach their 150th season in 2018 they too will benefit from the feel-good factor.
The top ten point scorers in Division 11 were as follows. The top five players all accumulated more than 1,000 points although Anto Coates’s total is nearly 40% ahead of the rest.
301 players appeared in this 9 team Division, with 89 appearing just the once. B. White [Ring Commons] might have been the only player to appear in every possible game, but without the missing scorecard it is impossible to say. Therefore he is one of three players to have played 15 times, along with MT Raza and A. Ravi [both R&SPU] The top of the appearances table were the aforementioned trio three plus a further nine players who appeared on 14 occasions. They were: Anto Coates, C. Murtagh, D. White and K. Healy [all Ring Commons], S. Ahmed and S. Mirza [both Rush], Diarmaid Tucker [Pembroke], R. Mehta [Civil Service], Willie Clarke [Phoenix and LCUSA Umpire (but we don’t hold that against him - much)].
Anto Coates scored exactly 25% more runs than any other player in the Division. His total of 600 left him 120 ahead of the next highest. It should also be noted that he may have scored even more, but for the missing scorecard. The top five run scorers were:
5 centuries were scored in Division 12. Predictably Anto Coates is the player who scored two. Unpredictably Anto Coates did not have the highest individual score. In highest score order they were:
81 half centuries were recorded by 52 players, with 20 players making more than one. Top of the list, with 5 fifties, was S. Ahmed [Rush].
Whilst Anto Coates averaged exactly 50 with the bat, he does not top the averages, neither has he the best average of batsmen who batted at least 8 times. Teammate R. Chaslissery [Ring Commons] does sit atop the batting average with 117.00 with 117 runs from his two innings and one not out in this Division. The top 5 batting averages (with no qualifications, but innings shown in brackets) were as follows:
There were 16 batsmen who technically have an average of infinity, having scored runs and not been dismissed at all. They are shown here with their runs and number of innings: Rob Farrington [Pembroke] (60/1), J. Outram [Merrion] (26/1), Ossie Desouza [Civil Service] (19/1), E. McGuinness [Rush] (17/2), Player Unregistered [Malahide] (15/1), A. Hallows [Malahide] (13/2), S. Mohan [Civil Service] (11/1), H. Shaikh [Merrion] (7/1), Player Unregistered [Civil Service] (5/1), A. McGuire [Rush] (3/1), H. Ramasetty [Merrion] (3/1), M. Atiq [R&SPU] (2/1), A. Khaliq [R&SPU] (1/1), D. Bell [Rush] (1/1), J. Kenny [Rush] (1/1), Ronan Walsh [Merrion] (1/1).
When a qualifying mark of 320 runs is included the batting averages are:
898 wickets fell to bowlers in this Division. 150 bowlers took at least one wicket. The top 5 (and ties) wicket takers were:
The top five (and ties) bowling averages were as follows with the number of wickets taken in brackets also:
With a minimum mark of 16 wickets the bowling averages are:
In order of the best bowling analyses, the 11 players who took a five wicket haul were as follows, although no player managed to do it more than once. 8 overs go past oh so quickly:
In another category that Anto Coates did not top, B. White [Ring Commons] was the only bowler to have bowled more than 100 overs and the top five bowlers in terms of overs delivered were as follows.
There was a bowler who has missed this list by one ball. It seems a shame to leave him out, especially as he played for the league winners and also spent a lot of time umpiring this season. However top 5 and ties mean top 5 and ties doesn’t it Willie….
126 players held at least one of the 338 catches this season in this Division. D. Monk [Laois] with 12 had the most catches, but as he also took stumpings we assume he had the help of batsmen’s edges, gloves and pads. The top five (and ties) were as follows (players who also had a stumping are shown with an * although we do not know if they were regular keepers or if they were keepers but couldn’t get a stumping):
One name who is definitely a keeper is P. Byrne [R&SPU] who had a Division leading 5 stumpings. One might wonder how many of those came from one Nicky Jagoe’s right arm around. The top 5 and ties are:
Player Unregistered played one game each for Civil Service and Malahide, scored 20 runs without being dismissed, and bowled 6 overs.
In terms of players used (including Player Unregistered), the league looks like this:
As with all of these articles, the views expressed therein of those of the author and definitely do not represent those of the Leinster Cricket Union. They might match your views, but if they do, it is more likely to be a co-incidence than anything else. They are to be considered merely the inconsequential ramblings of a fool. Any feedback or requests for individual, team, Club or all-encompassing statistics may be sent to craig@cricket.ie.