At the start of the season it was envisaged that by now we would be all finished, our gear all put away for another winter and our thoughts turning to other matters. Heineken Cup, Champions League, D-I-Y, gardening, family, friends or any of the other things that got neglected as we pursued our dreams of cricketing glory around the grounds of Leinster. However, the weather during our summer (summer, jk… lol… as my daughters would say) has meant that the original seasons closing date has been moved by a week. With so many re-fixes to be completed that will affect promotions and relegations the OCC had no other option. So it will be next week before we can officially declare the MVP of Leinster cricket, the MVP of each club and the final tallies of runs scored, wickets taken and catches held (and recorded).
However, as our national side take part in the World T20 finals in Sri Lanka (Ceylon to our older readers) it seemed only natural to use this week’s article to see who excelled in this truncated form of the game in our domestic competitions. From players in the Alan Murray, down to the new LCU T20 sponsored by The Russell Court Hotel[1], 948 players appeared in these competitions, although 7 of them were unregistered[2].
The T20 MVP[3] for 2012 is A. Coates (Ring Commons)[4], who in 5 games scored 226 runs, which was the most scored, whilst his average was 75.33. His top score of 124* was the top score overall and was one of only two centuries scored in T20. With the ball in hand, A. Coates also took 6 wickets at 25.17 at under 7 per over and held 3 catches. In total he amassed 466 MVP points. Our congratulations to him on his virtual-table-topping performances.
A mere 18 points behind was Simmi Singh (YMCA) whose 12 wickets was only one behind the leading wicket taker H. Asad (Old Belvedere) who finished fourth overall. Third overall was S. Sabastian (Dundrum).
Conor Gibbons (Malahide), W. Archer (The Hills) and D. McDonough-Kinkade (YMCA), all managed to play 7 games and logically must have doubled up, playing more than one competition and probably doing well in them too.
As well as A. Coates’s century, T. Richardson (North County, 105) was the other centurian. S. Sabastian (Dundrum), Patrick Byrne (The Hills), David Russell (North County) and N. Brown (Merrion) were the only players to score two half centuries. A further 44 players scored a single 50.
E. McArthur (R&SPU) topped the batting averages with 202. A reflection more of the inability of the opposition to get him out as in four innings he fell only once. However it should be noted that even if he had been out every game his average would still have been a very impressive 50.50. Simmi Singh (YMCA) also fell just the once which gave him an average of 118. Kenny Carroll (R&SPU) in two games (also out once) achieved an average of 103, and Jack Tector’s (YMCA) two innings of 60* and 31 gave him an average of 91. Patrick Byrne (The Hills) tops the averages for someone out more than once with an impressive 84.50.
Runs per innings, regardless of dismissals, would be topped by M. Singh (North Kildare) with 65 runs from one innings. R. Meraj (Laois) is second with 59* from one innings.
216 players did not score a run, whilst 105 of these did not even make it to the middle. G. Singh (Old Belvedere) and W. Lamb (Ring Commons) both strode to the middle three times without troubling the scorers.
Onto the bowling side of the game and eight players took five wickets in an innings with best figures going to Simmi Singh (YMCA) with 5/7. S. Symanivas (Sandyford) and H. Asad (Old Belvedere) both took 5/13, whilst S. Sharma (Clonee), M. Gibson-McKenna (Phoenix), Z. Azhar (Clonee) and A. Tudor (Laois) were the other to capture 5 wickets.
As mentioned above, H. Asad (Old Belvedere) was the leading wicket taker, with 13. Simmi Singh (YMCA) and J. Toor (Adamstown) both collected 12 victims and only 9 players took 10 or more wickets.
Ian McElwain (Pembroke) tops the bowling averages (with no qualifying cutoffs) with two wickets for one run in his solitary over before he headed off to Bangkok[5]. A. Chetkovich (Merrion) and A. Bagadi (Merrion) came second and third with averages of 1.50 and 1.75. A Bagadi’s figures of 4/7 from just two overs being particularly noteworthy and thus we have duly noted it.
Conor Gibbons (Malahide) bowled the most over with 28 and only conceded 5.5 per over[6]. 821 players did bowl, even if two only bowled two balls, A. Weir (Malahide) (0.2/0/1) and R. O’Byrne (North County) (0.2/9/0) and firmly planted themselves at opposite ends of the economy rate table. Least economical bowlers who did complete an over would be H. Mullen (Leinster) and S. Groves (Cabinteely) who both conceded 25 runs from their one complete over.
D. O’Brien (Sandyford) and N. Nagar (Leinster) took 5 catches each to lead this category, although it is impossible to tell if either took the gloves. R. Maybury (Clontarf) however did take the gloves and to great effect. Four catches and 5 stumpings put him three dismissals ahead of B. Smyth (North County).
In summary, 17,462 runs were scored by players and 1,015 wickets fell to bowlers. 402 catches were held (and recorded) and 49 stumpings were taken as batsmen charged like rhinos down the track seeking quick runs.
On a team basis, Clontarf seem to be the most impressive club with five players in the top 25 overall. R. Maybury 11th, F. Quinn 13th, Conor D’Arcy 20th, Andrew Poynter 21st and Andrew Delany 22nd all posted more than 256 points each.
As usual, all of the figures for your club or for all clubs are available from craig@cricket.ie.
[1] Still not enough to get me into Krystle I’d say…
[2] None, surprisingly, from Pembroke 6th XI.
[3] This “award” is calculated using the same points system devised by the author as used for previous articles and the MVP for all Leinster cricket.
[4] Not North County as previously stated.
[5] For work reasons I hasten to add. The life of an ex-pat….
[6] In his attic, is there a portrait?