As the dust settles on another season we look back at the outcome of the different league competitions. Although some teams have already been proclaimed as champions there are still matches to play and promotion and relegation fortunes to be decided in most leagues. At this point only one league have had all their matches completed and results posted – Division 1.
By most people’s reckoning the top league this year has been the closest for many years. For those who remember back to the league structures of old, it is worth mentioning that this yearthere were no matches that did not have some bearing on promotion or relegation outcomes all season. More to the point, on the last weekend we had in effect two league finals with league honours [Railway Union v The Hills] and relegation [YMCA v Phoenix] being the results of shootouts between the teams.
At this point the main results are well known – Railway Union are the winners, with North County the runners up, and Pembroke and Phoenix are relegated. But this really does not tell the story of a competition that went down to the wire and where small margins determined the difference between success and failure.
Railway Union probably started the year with the strongest team on paper and had a string of good results in the first month with only one loss to The Hills. However, three losses in a row to YMCA, Merrion and North County in late June / early July looked like it had ended their title hopes. But a remarkable recovery from 20 for 5 wickets against Merrion to win the return match got their season rolling again and they did not loss another match all season. Although they were unable to count on turning out their full team due to international commitments [Cricket and Hockey], Railway nonetheless had a strong batting line-up with no less than seven players averaging more than 30. The standout performance was 594 runs by T Fischer with an average of over 50. Railway struggled more on the bowling front with only one player [T Lambert] getting over 20 wickets but it was enough.
North County had a mixed start to the season, a couple of wins were secured but losses against Clontarf, Pembroke and Railway Union meant that they were playing catch up from an early on. A tight victory against Merrion, and then wins against YMCA and Railway seemed to get then back on track, but a fractious win against YMCA in the return fixture resulted in multiple suspensions which ultimately cost North County dear. Although they maintained their challenge to the end, losses to The Hills and Merrion in the run in left them too much to do. J Reeves with 20 wickets and 465 runs was the main contributor. R Lawrence and A Coughlan took 21 wickets each and J Mooney scored 534 runs at an average of 53. NC ended up with 218 points at an average of 62.29%.
Merrion had a roller coaster season with a couple of bad defeats to start the year but ended up with eight victories and 197 points [60.62%] Two outstanding all round performances from J Anderson [who got 568 league runs] and D Joyce [winner of the All Rounder Award] with 431 and 18 wickets were the mainstay of the team. On the bowling front Matt Petrie took 28 wickets [the second highest in the league].
The Hills remained in with a chance of the title until the last match when they lost of Railway Union. Looking back on the season they will look to a tight loss against Merrion [3 runs], a 100 run defeat to Pembroke and failure secure a win against Railway in either match as key moment of their season. M Baumgart scored 423 runs and M Sorenson 385. M Dwyer [20W], N Shoukat [19] and Sorenson [16] shared most of the wickets.
Have skirted with relegation for most of the season, YMCA made a remarkable comeback to end in 5th position. Key to remaining in the top Division were end season victories against relegation rivals Pembroke and Phoenix. Five wins and a couple of outstanding individual performances [Strydom 6/11 against Pembroke and Van der Merve 35 and 4/26 against Phoenix] eventually got them over the line. R Strydom end up top wicket taker [22] and top run scorer [401] for the club.
Clontarf started the season with a couple of impressive victories against Merrion and North County but ended up losing eight matches in all and were underable to maintain a challenge for the league. Although only finishing one spot above relegation they were never really in danger and a poor end to the season saw them drop down the placings. Lack of availability of players meant that they ended up using 26 players during the league campaign, the most of any club. A Cusack with 397 runs [39.70] was the top run scorer and R Hokin the top wicket taker with 22.
Despite making a strong run towards the end of the season to give them a chance of survival, a loss in the final match agasint YMCA means that Phoenix go back to Division 2 after one season in the top flight. In most years, five victories and over 40% would have been enough to secure survival but not in 2011. During the year Phoenix relied heavily on D Langford Smith who, in his last season in Ireland, was top scorer [263] and top wicket taker [29].
Pembroke, with a very young team, won four matches during the year but it was not enough to avoid relegation. The outstanding all round performance was from captain S Moreton [346/22W] P Lawson also got 22 wickets and J Hickey top scored with nearly 500 runs [482]. They also are relegated after one year in Division 1.
For the league as a whole there were 56 scheduled matches, of which four were abandoned to the weather.