Review of the season - RSA Division 3

How the league was won - at the same time as turning into a nightmare for others - All of this season's reviews have been broken down into sections looking at those at the top of each division, and those at the bottom.

For Division 3, this seems inappropriate and perhaps a little unfair to those involved. Division 3 was quite simple, the tightest league imaginable, with many teams thinking they were about to be promoted, before realising they may be relegated - or vice versa.

Rain ruined the division in many respects, with 11 of the 56 matches being lost to the weather. These matches were spread fairly evenly though, and only Pembroke's ground in Sydney Parade had more than two matches rained off. 

As you may expect, the season can be characterised by all the teams beating each other, and the last two weeks of the season tell the story of delight and despair quite well.

Civil Service were the first to know their fate, purely due to competing their fixtures first. They were always chasing the pack, but a loss over YMCA on September1st put the nail in the coffin. Victory over Clontarf on September 9th was academic, and put an end to Clontarf's title ambitions at the same time.

The Hills meanwhile were in all sorts of trouble, and were left with a tricky last two matches against table toppers Merrion to salvage their season. Remarkably, they won twice, with Wasim Akhtar to the fore with the ball. Those two wins had a major impact on Clontarf's season - as can be seen below.

Remarkably though, those title ambitions quickly changed to feelings of dread. A Danny Barclay inspired 154 run defeat by Pembroke on September 15th meant that Clontarf had gone from top two to bottom two in a couple of matches.

Pembroke 2 and YMCA 2 didn't really have a chance of promotion in the last fortnght of the season, which left Balbriggan 1, North County 2 and Merrion 2 to fight it out (along with Clontarf 2!). Merrion had done the hard work, and were virtually over the line. Two end of season losses to The Hills proved to not matter, and Merrion 2 will take their place in Division 2 for the first time in 2013, after grabbing the runners up spot.

That just left the title to be decided. Balbriggan missed out on promotion by the narrowest of margins in 2011, and it was looking desperate again. A narrow defeat to Civil Service on August 26th, along with two rained off matches meant that Balbriggan were going to have to beat arch rivals The Hills 2 in order to gain promotion - with an outside chance of the league. Chasing 244 to win, it looked all over at 159-8. Barry Archer provided a small chink of light though, and found an able partner in Ali Qasim. The pair added 85 for the 9th wicket, inching over the line with 15 balls to spare.

Promotion was confirmed there and then, and after Merrion lost twice the following weekend, the Division 3 title was confirmed for Balbriggan.

What a season.  

Heroes with the willow - The close nature of Division 3 is emphasized by the individual performances. Fifteen players passed 200 runs, but only five did it with an average over 30, and four of them belonged to teams who finished in the bottom half of the table.

Two players stood out though. Barry Archer's performances continue to reflect the qualities of a player who should have played more than he did for Ireland, and his contribution to Balbriggan's promotion was highlighted previously. He scored 283 at 40.43. Head and shoulders above everyone else though was Vijay Gopal - 353 runs at 58.83, and still Clontarf went down.

Hell for leather - To go with Vijay Gopal's dominance of the batting, Paul Ryan of Clontarf finished to of the bowling with 22 wickets at 14.64. Five others took 20 wickets which across the divisions has been the measure of an excellent season with the ball. For North County to have two (Terry Richardson and Asif Ali) shows that their batting should have been better. 

Sum Wijesundara picked up the Oulton Cup for bowling though - his six wickets in the Cup took him above the other contenders. In the league, Sum had 21 at 16.14.

Days to remember -  A bittersweet acheivement for a player and club that have already been mentioned several times. Clontarf visited North County in August, and after losing the toss, watches as North County ran up 291-8 from 50 overs.

In reply Clontarf struggled, and at 25-3 Vijay Gopal came to the crease. Whilst his colleagues continued to struggle, Gopal found the going easy. Clontarf  kept losing wickets (slipping to 93-7), but our hero kept hitting boundaries. David Delany hung around, scoring 18 runs (the second highest score), the pair doubling the score to 186.

Gopal was last man out, for 154 from 230. That equates to 66.96% of the Clontarf total. In an international context, Viv Richards' 189* against England in 1984 is the highest - Gopal would have been next (should Clontarf 2 vs North County 2 ever be given full ODI status)

Stat you may have missed -  Given all the rain, there were still four teams who played at least 12 matches - Merrion, The Hills, North County and YMCA. However only four players played 12 games all season. Step forward Malcom Byrne and Mick Dwyer of The Hills and Alan Parkinson and Sum Wijesundara of Merrion

Batting (Qualification 100 runs)

Bowling (Qualification - 100 wickets)