Firstly many thanks to the 472 people who viewed last week’s article and to the many people who got in touch requesting the figures for their own clubs, or indeed the full All-Leinster rankings. It is good to know someone is reading this trivia and that some are even enjoying it. Many thanks must go to Paul Reynolds of the OCC for providing the figures garnered from result cards. So if your own figures seem incorrect, then you need to contact your captains, not the OCC. Again, copies of figures relating to your own club or all clubs are available from craig@cricket.ie.
There was no great clamour, or indeed any clamour at all, to ideas recently floated in this column, such as an All-Star season ending game, or even a MVP Manager game next season, so we will probably leave those on the back burner for the time being, unless…
Twelve days of the season to go and Jack Tector [YMCA] is making his move to top the MVP rankings by the season’s end. Long term leader, and currently still at the top, R. Meraj [Laois] remains on 1,611 points, but his lead has been whittled down to just 37 points.
Jack Tector has made tremendous strides since 12 July, when he was 273 points behind in 8th place. In the period 12 July to date Jack has doubled his wickets from 16 to 32, scored 143 runs, taken 2 catches and played 8 games. In contrast R. Meraj has played only two games, taken 5 wickets and scored 207 runs (including a century).
So we will await the final figures with baited breath and see who will emerge on top for the season 2012. The weather has greatly improved and games will get played, so points and the title are up for grabs.
R. Nair [Dundrum] (1,541) and A. Ravi [R&SPU] (1,520) also remain in overall contention by one feels that Sean Smith’s [Pembroke] challenge is over as he is now 139 points from the leader. It would take a very special performance to bridge that gap. It just goes to show how right the OCC were to not allow him to play Division 12 cricket this season after just one game for Pembroke’s Sixth XI and to monitor his future deeds[ii].
At the other end of the table a mere 10 points would move a player from 2034th to 1,897th, a jump of 137 places for just taking the field. 352 players have turned out just the once this season and one hopes that these players will play more next season. 156 players have made their first appearance in the past 55 days.
76 players have appeared 20 or more games, with the ever-green John Andrews [North County] turning out 30 times and batting 30 times. Either John always opens or the North County line-ups ensure he makes it to the crease each time. John is only 16 runs behind R. Meraj [Laois] as leading run scorer. This will be another race that goes to the final game.
Martin Sheridan-Pope’s [Wexford Wanderers] lead in the batting average category has gone as his average has plummeted to a mere 76.50. New leader here is S. Hughes [Knockharley] (106.00), but with only one inning he is likely to be excluded from the final awards. Should there be a qualifying mark for end-of-season accolades? What should it be? More impressive than Mr. Hughes’ mark is the 104.40 of S. Dempsey [Halverstown] achieved over 13 matches, although 6 not outs in 11 innings hasn’t done his average any harm at all, but it’s not his fault bowlers can’t get him out. I. Synnott [Dublin University] has the most runs without having a batting average having scored 63* in his one appearance at the crease. David Grey [Halverstown] has batted three times without suffering dismissal which leads this obscure category. He has scored 30 runs and surely must be looking for promotion up the order in future games. AA Meer [R&SPU] has the most games without even holding a bat in the middle having played four games and not batted.
175,641 runs have now been scored by batsmen, although bowlers have conceded 192,191 runs. That would mean, according to my basic maths, that there have been 16,550 wides and/or no-balls. If the regulations allowed it, that would be a lot of free hits! Alternatively it has meant an extra 2,758 overs worth of deliveries being bowled.
Even allowing for the difference between the base6 of cricket overs and the base10 of excel spreadsheets, over 48,500 overs have been bowled thus far this summer[iii]. 10,535 wickets have been taken with just six bowlers taking over 40 wickets each. S. Gallagher [Halverstown] (47) remains the leader, but is only one ahead of A. Ravi [R&SPU]. It certainly is close at the top of the respective categories isn’t it!
P. Crosse [Wicklow County] has recorded the best bowling figures in a match with 8 for 9 and over the season has 19 wickets at 2.74, whilst Jack Tector’s [YMCA] 8 for 40 is the only other instance of eight wickets falling to one bowler. H. Kamzi [Clonee] has played 12 games and bowled only one ball, but took a wicket with it. Clonee must have some bowling attack when they can ignore such a strike rate. S. Jose [Swords] is in a similar position having played 13 games and having total bowling analysis of 1-1-0-1 for the season. N. Niak [Phoenix] has taken 11 wickets in his 12 games at an average of 3.73 and yet has only bowled 18 overs. It seems strange that he bowls on average 9 balls per game, takes on average 1 wicket per game and yet is not used more. However, I am sure there is an explanation and it is a statistical anomaly.
Old Belvedere and Wexford Wanderers both added to their unregistered players total in the last week and brought the total of games played by “Player Unregistered” in Leinster cricket to 43. With the advent of smart phones, surely this figure can only come down next season as people realise they can register players online. I do wonder, however, of these 43 how many of these are youth players who have represented your club in youth section games, but were not registered for adult[iv] cricket.
Well, good hunting to those playing more games before the season closes on 16th September and then we see the sun come out all guns blazing until we will be warned to save water again in November. All winter sports, such as rugby union and premiership soccer seem to be considering a move to summer, perhaps we need to think the opposite and play in October to March, although grounds-men of Leinster may disagree with me[v]!
Finally happy birthday this week to Paul O’Neill [Sandyford] and the very best of luck to him and the other devotees heading out to Sri Lanka to support Ireland in the World T20 Cup. What price another win for Ireland over a full member? 2007 – Pakistan, 2009 – Bangladesh, 2011 – England, 2012 – West Indies or Australia? Now wouldn’t that be great…