This week’s headlines: Reinhardt Strydom retains his overall lead, his yellow jersey if you will; The Hills’ Joseph Clinton earns 299 points in one week and two games and; M. Shazad Asim of Longford and G. Morris of Phoenix take 5/14 to earn best bowling honours of the week.
It was a strange week for cricket. Under-age sides are playing and winning tournaments, but the RSA Alan Murray Cup Finals Day only saw one semi-final completed with The Hills triumphing over YMCA. The other semi-final had but one ball bowled before the precipitation caused the cessation of hope and abandonment of the game and therefore also the final. The price of living in the emerald isle is water, and plenty of it coming downwards.
One game to see it through to a conclusion was in Division 12 where there was some good old-style cricket. The visitors arrived at the ground, once a few of them had managed to find it, to be welcomed by the home team with an optimism for playing the game probably born from the knowledge they had recently knocked their opponents over and this was their patch. When using the phrase “good old-style cricket” about this game, it was the little things that made it seem almost dated.
These days it seems to only need an overcast morning before players and captains are discussing playing less overs. Thirty overs a side, or just straight down to T20 and be done with it? Where does it stop? Is a “super over” game or a league based on remote bowl-outs going to appear in the future? How about a knock-out bowl-out cup to be held in one day, on possibly two wickets with each cricket club putting forward a team of five bowlers. An open draw at the start of the day and a final possibly held under lights. That would be a good season opener in 2015 wouldn’t it?
However back to reality and our two leaders, “The Ayatollah” McNamara and the ever-green Ray Stapleton agreed on a full game despite the forecasts of Met Eireann, BBC weather and AccuWeather (other apps are also available). They were proved right and instead of a long drive for no cricket we played and hid, and played and hid until 9 o’clock.
When the rain came down, as it did frequently, players from both sides ran to get the covers and worked side by side and of course laugh when one player tripped and found himself run over by the tarp. He emerged a lot wetter, and somewhat wiser. The players spent the rain delays relaxed, sitting around, chatting about this game, the previous meeting and other teams played, walking out into the rain to declare “it’s getting brighter over there, 20 minutes” and discussing the merits of this bat and that bat. There was very little talk about how soon we could get the game abandoned and hit the road home. Everyone gave the impression they were willing to play the whole game however long it took.
The captains took the very sensible route of not wasting any dry playing time for drinks or tea, but to take those breaks as rain breaks and maximise the time in the middle. Common sense these days does not seem common, but in this case it was more like the Wisdom of Solomon. Tea was taken during another shower and was delicious with the traditional sandwiches, cakes and hot tea.
Is cricket the only game where our ‘athletes’ need to stop half way through and have afternoon tea? In these days of performance coaches and nutritionists why do we stop for tea? Should we not all be slugging back tins of Red Bull (other energy drinks are available) and eating protein bars by the case?
Anyhow we did stop for tea and it was lovely. The game itself saw the 76th over of the day and whilst some might say that the 163 runs scored by the two teams is not terribly good for spectators, every run was hard earned under tight bowling and good fielding by both sides. You do also have to remember this is Division 12, we are a long way down the ladder and the terms tight and good usually have a looser meaning.
So the game was competitive, well worth the travelling time and most of all, fun. Faith in cricket restored and roll on the next game. In case anyone was wondering about the Mr. Grumpy of previous columns, he has been banished since he went quiet and runs started coming (instant jinx here - putting it right up to the cricketing gods, wish me luck).
For the other players who got to play and finish games congratulations. For those of you who wonder why your scores aren’t up to date, ask your captain. Here are the point leaders in the overall, batting and bowling categories for the past week, top 10 and ties)
Overall point scorers this week
Wicket takers weekly winners – top 10 and ties
Runs scored – weekly leaders – top ten and ties
Reinhardt Strydom leads the overall table by 210 points, his lead cut by ten points by Clontarf’s M. Collier. Balbriggan star M. Farrukh continues in third.
Name Club pts
Pembroke’s third S. Gupta, that is Sanil rather than DUCC’s Sid or Pembroke’s Shugata, leads the province with 31 appearances from Division One to Ten. Sanil is a single game ahead of M. Collier and a further game ahead of club-mate Diarmuid Tucker.
The race to 1,000 runs is nearly over. Fintan McAllister, eleventh in the overall table, is the leading run scorer in Leinster. Fintan requires just 22 more runs, whilst club-mate Reinhardt Strydom needs 102. Whilst Sandyford CC may have found a new star in S. Boddu who averages 40 plus. Clontarf have three players in the top ten and Kenny Carroll continues to collect runs quietly, efficiently and without fanfare.
Fifty wickets would bring the same points as 1,000 runs and seems to be a reasonable target. However Merrion’s K. Neela is closing in on that mark and seems destined to go on through to 60. The top ten (and ties) are shown below.
The Hills provide the man with the most catches in Nic Pretorius who has also added a leading 6 stumpings. Dundrum’s S. Kurian does not feature in the top ten and ties catches, but does match Nic’s stumpings total.
Name Club Ct St
Fiachra Tucker of Pembroke is the bowler to have conceded the most runs (719) but does have the excuse of having bowled 142 overs and taken 28 wickets.
E. Chester of Phoenix holds the unenviable category of overs per wicket with a figure of 30 overs per wicket, whilst Ring Commons’ D. Clarke has a wicket every 3 balls. Mullingar’s C. Mount has a wicket every four balls.
Knockharley’s S. Hughes is the only player with more than 100 runs and not been dismissed. His total stands at 103. A further 58 players have scored at least a run and not been dismissed.
Highest batting average goes to I. Mohammed of R&SPU who continues to rest on his laurels and his knock of 160. Highest score remains U. Saleem’s 166*.
1,966 is the number of players on my list, although P. Unregistered remains in there a few times. He is almost a regular for The Hills having appeared four times. Knockharley and Merrion have used him three times, he has also played for Adamstown and DUCC twice. His other clubs have been Pembroke, Greystones, Rush and YMCA. 99 runs with four catches, this man is not a bowler, without any wickets to his name.
Summer is now sliding by, August is two weeks old and the nights are closing in. The 2014 season is now entering the final straight when trophies are won and lost, league titles are up for grabs and relegation/promotion issues are probably best left to the OCC. Enjoy it whilst you can for once the glory or despair has faded, there are trips to IKEA, shopping and D-I-Y list as long as your arm.