Division 7
Champions – Greystones
League MVP – Jeremy Dunleavy [Pembroke]
This season Greystones continued their rapid ascent through the Leinster leagues with a comprehensive triumph in Division 7. Their final winning margin over second placed Knockharley was a fantastic 22.07%. Ten wins from 14 games (with 3 no results) and just the one defeat is an extremely laudable and praiseworthy record, especially for a team which had been moved up five divisions by the OCC after their performances in winning Division 12 the previous season.
In one game versus Balbriggan, the Greystones batting went ballistic, scoring 425/3 off 35 overs. Three of the five batsmen who went to the middle reached centuries and did not take their time either with the slowest one taking 41 balls. 26 sixes and 28 fours resulted in 13 lost balls. One partnership yielded 196 runs in 11 overs. It is not often you see a 314 run margin of victory in any league.
Their one defeat in the league came when Greystones “allowed ourselves to be cleaned up by a couple of 12 yr olds bowling leg-spin” against Pembroke. However you would have to agree that 2013 has proven a most successful league season for the Greystones Club with titles for both their Firsts and Seconds.
Their dominance of Division 7 is revealed in the figures below. Three of the top ten points scorers, 2 of the top 5 run scorers, 8 out of 15 total centuries, 10 out of 55 fifties, 4 out of the top five batting averages (no qualifying mark), the top three batting averages with a cut off of 320 runs, 2 of the top five wicket takers, 2 of the top 5 bowling averages (no cut off), 4 of the top 5 bowling averages (16 wicket cut off), 4 out of 14 five wicket hauls and least players used during the season. Now that is what I call quite good. It will be interesting to see if the OCC reward Greystones First and or Second teams with further multi-divisional jumps next season and if so, just how many. For instance will we see Greystones taking a place in the RSA National Cup in 2014?
The Knockharley club suffered another second placed finish having missed out with their Seconds in Division 9 to an undefeated Dublin University. In Division 7 the First team fell behind the rampant Greystones team but again the consolation was that they beat Wexford Wanderers, and the rest of the Division, by one victory and 5.38% for second place and promotion.
At the bottom of the Division, Bagnalstown recorded just the one victory to finish with 11.69% and indeed had to commence their home game against Greystones fielding with just 6 men. One hopes that their fortunes will improve next term in Division 8. The other relegation position went to Merrion 5 who finished 4.36% (or 23 points) behind Balbriggan. It was good to see no walkovers given in this Division, even if 6 games did fall foul of the weather.
Astoundingly, the MVP overall winner did not come from the Greystones ranks, which shows two things. Firstly, Greystones are a team with strength in depth without reliance on one or two star players, as shown by the fact that 15 Greystones players’ names appears below (although 4 should be discounted as their appearances were minimal, although not their performances) and secondly the MVP had a fine all-round season. Division 7 therefore joins all of the Divisions reviewed thus far, below 7, in that the league winners did not supply the MVP.
Jeremy Dunleavy [Pembroke] topped the table after his move across Dublin 4 from Merrion during the winter, scoring 1,046 points and being the only player to cross the 1,000 points threshold. The top ten point scorers in this Division were:
242 players appeared in this eight team Division, with 61 players appearing just the once. No player made every game, but the Pembroke side did have four players who only missed one game. The top 5 appearances came from:
No batsmen made it past 500 runs for the season, although 6 did pass 400. S. Mehdi [Balbriggan] is the unlucky one not to make the top five run scorers:
More centuries were scored this Division by just Greystones players then were scored in Divisions 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 or 14. Of the 15 centuries scored in Division 7, 8 came from the Greystones ranks with S. McGrath topping the table with 3 but the highest individual score of 160 went to Tayyab Rashid [Knockharley]. The centurions were (with their scores):
Faran Ahmed Khan [Pembroke] came closest to three figures with 98, but also close were S. Hughes [Knockharley] with 96 and J. Fitzsimmons [Greystones] 92*.
55 half centuries were recorded by 42 players, with 10 players making more than one. These players were:
With three innings, two not outs, a highest score of 92, total runs of 92 and an average of 92, J. Fitzsimmons [Greystones] tops the batting average in this Division. The top 5 batting averages (with no qualifications, but innings shown in brackets) were as follows:
With a qualifying mark of 320 runs, the batting average table top three and the only batsmen to average over 50 for the season all come from the Greystones Club.
There were 9 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: Y. Batt [Bagnalstown] (34/1); R. Hussain [Knockharley] (29/1); R. Adi [Knockharley] (26/1); MF Saleem [Greystones] (16/2); S. Nakka [Clontarf] (15/1); R. Pollock [Knockharley] (13/1); A. Summers [Greystones] (6/1); P. Wilkinson [Greystones] (4/1); and Mike Davies [Pembroke] (2/1).
The top 5 (and ties) wicket takers were:
The top five (and ties) bowling averages with no qualifying mark, were as follows with the number of wickets taken in brackets also:
With a cut off of 16 wickets, the bowling average table (with wickets also shown) changes to a Greystones-heavy table with four out of five:
In order of the best bowling analyses, the players who took a five wicket haul were as follows. One player managed a six wicket haul, although four players managed to five wicket hauls more than once.
A. Murphy [Wexford Wanderers] was the only bowler to have bowled more than 100 overs and the top five bowlers in terms of overs delivered were as follows.
Gary Burrows [Pembroke] had the most catches, and also had no stumpings. However my inside knowledge is that Gary did keep wicket, although not in every game. 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 not):
There were 11 stumpings between 9 keepers and they were:
K. Ranganatham and V. Kasana [both Merrion] played in 2 games, batted twice, and did not score a run.
H. Ramasetty [Merrion] bowled 14 overs without taking a wicket and
Shugata Gupta played in 13 games without taking a catch.
Player Unregistered played twice, for Pembroke and Merrion, scoring 7 runs and taking one wicket.
In terms of players used (including Player Unregistered), the league looks like this:
Disclaimer…. 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.