Half-way in Division 1

At the halfway mark the RSA D1 League is, not for the first time, resolving itself into two separate battles. At the top Merrion and YMCA are challenging for the Championship with a clear gap between them and third place Clontarf. Although they are not out of contention, Clontarf need both YMCA and Merrion to drop a lot of points in the run in to have a chance.

If the final round in the first cycle of matches saw a widening of the gap at the top of the table, the opposite was happening at the other end. Terenure failed to secure their second win so they are the only team with one win and will struggle to survive in D1. Four other teams are within a win of each other and any dip in form could spell disaster.

Two teams over the past five years have been dominant throughout the season, North County in 2010 and Leinster in 2012. Both lost only one match in taking the title. At the half way stage this year two teams are in a position to emulate those feats. Merrion make the turn undefeated, and thanks to the requirement to replay matches [at least once] in the event of bad weather, have a 100% record. Although one looks to their batting line-up as their main strength, the difference between this year and last is in the bowling. Whereas last year Merrion struggled to contain sides this year they have bowled out teams in six out of their seven games. The introduction of Deon Carolus to lead the attack has been the most visible difference from last year but of equal importance the has been the control exercised by U17 Tom Stanton who has send down over 50 overs at just less than 2.85 runs per over [as well as taking 9 wickets at 16.78].

YMCA came into 2014 with a much changed side with a number of their big guns from the previous year absent, transferring to another club [Strydum], moving abroad [Bray], only playing in a few matches [Johnston] or stepping down to the 2^nd XI [Lewis]. Fisher and Moor joined the ranks but no one really knew what to expect and many predicted that the gaps created would be too big to fill. As it turned out YMCA youth policy has borne fruit and ably marshalled by skipper Albert van der Merve the team has had an excellent first half of the season. Employing the cricket equivalent of the scrambled defence the team has shown great resilience to come through a number of hard fought matches, with different players making telling contributions at different times. Whether they have the all round strength to take the Championship remains an open question but they will be certainly fighting hard come the end of the season.

The competition to avoid relegation is a great spectacle each year, but more fun if you aren’t directly involved. Terenure are already fighting for their D1 survival and every match is a ‘final’. Realistically they need to win at least three and probably four of their final seven games to stay up. A tall order.

The end season league tables for the last five years are interesting in this regard. Last year Phoenix and Leinster were relegated with three wins each – Railway were safe with five. The previous year Clontarf went down despite having five wins [four other teams had five wins as well that year]. Phoenix also dropped to D2 the year before with five wins [the same as Clontarf who stayed up having 8 more bonus points]. In 2010 both Leinster and Malahide were demoted with four wins.

Looking at the mid-year table, Railway and The Hills have only two wins and North County and Pembroke three. A case can be made for saying that any of the clubs involved is too strong to go down and must surely have the ability to secure the few wins needed. The Hills are last year’s champions and allowing that they have had a few injuries this year, are basically the same side. Railway Union have match winners in Pat Collins , Kenny Carroll and, when he is available, Kevin O’Brien. Surely they will fire enough times to wins sufficient games [as they did yesterday when Kenny Carroll hit a quick century]. North County with John Mooney and Eddie Richardson leading the way have one of the best bowling attacks in the country and surely enough batting to survive. Finally, Pembroke, perhaps not the strongest team on paper but there is none better in scrapping for a victory, which they nearly did against Merrion at the start of the season.

So no predictions beyond the obvious – it is going to be tight and may well once again go down to the last round of matches. Nobody is guaranteed a place in Division 1 and survival will be hard fought. One has only to look at what happened over the last few years. Leinster won the league in 2012 and were demoted the following year. Railway won in 2011 and are far from safe this year. North County won in 2010 and have flirted with relegation for the past two years. Clontarf won in 2009 and got demoted three years later, losing a relegation ‘play off’ final match against Merrion. The Hills won in 2013 and ....

Winning the Championship is no guarantee of future success. And clubs need to heed the warning that unless they build up a strong club infrastructure, and in particular are able to provide a steady stream of young players to their top team, D1 success will not last.

Mid Year Table [unofficial until final scorecard for the Terenure / Pembroke game is uploaded]

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