MCNALLY AND SYAM TAKE HOME WOMEN'S DIVISION 4 AWARDS

Division 4 welcomed some new teams to the fold in 2021. One of those teams was Clontarf 3^rd XI who won both the league and the cup, so it’s no surprise to see one of their players take home the batting award. That was youngster Julie McNally who scored 246 runs at an average of 123.

McNally played just five fixtures for the Castle Avenue side, and they won every game she played in. Her best performance was against Greystones in the semi-final of the Stella Downes Cup when she made 81* in a 43-run win. She followed that up in the final with 59 against a strong Phoenix outfit to help Clontarf raise the trophy.

The next highest run-scorer was Greystones’ Alexandra Orpin who scored 208 at 69.33. In third place was Natasha Robinson from Pembroke CC who made 216 runs in the season with an average of 36.

Julie McNally's batting exploits helped her Clontarf 3 side (above) to the final of the Division 4 Cup Final, where they defeated the Phoenix 2 side (below) who had made their way to the final with the help of some excellent bowling from Diya Syam.

Phoenix youngster Diya Syam won the bowling award, taking the most wickets for the season with 16 at an average of 11. A consistent wicket-taker, Syam was central to Phoenix 2^nd XI’s success in Division 4. She started the season strongly, coming away with impressive figures of 5-1-24-3 against Clontarf 3^rd XI – even more impressive when you find out her team still lost by 104 runs.

Her best performance came against Terenure 2^nd XI when she bowled five overs and took three wickets for just 19 runs. She also took two wickets in five overs for less than 20 runs against both Merrion 3^rd XI and Pembroke 3^rd XI.

Terenure’s Caoimhe O’Brien came second, taking 13 wickets at an average of 11.69 with Pembroke’s Jessica Robinson joining her mum with a third-place finish, this time in the bowling, also taking 13 wickets but at a slightly more expensive 14.77.