Review of the season - RSA Division 6

How the league was won - An exciting two horse race, although Merrion 4 were there and there abouts in chasing the tails of the successful teams, YMCA 3 and Sandyford 1.

Sandyford took the early lead in the division, and despite losing to Merrion on May 12th, beat YMCA to be at 6-1 by the middle of July. At the same stage YMCA were 5-2 after another loss, this time to Phoenix. But a crucial victory for YMCA against Sandyford on July 22nd meant it was to be neck and neck for the rest of the season. 

September 2nd nearly decided the destination of the title - YMCA lost, and three extra runs would have given Sandyford the title. It wasn't to be though as bottom of the table pipped Sandyford by 3 runs, and YMCA finished the season 0.46% ahead.

How dreams turned to nightmares -  Clonee found their first season in competitive cricket tough, winning only two league matches all season. It must be said that for a team to be entered in Division 6 gave the team a huge task - no new club has entered the leagues at such a high level for many years. They didn't finish bottom though, as Old Belvedere  2 were deducted multiple points during the year for a variety of on and off field transgressions. Even those 48 lost points would have left Belvo in the relegation places.  

Heroes with the willow - Division 6 received a bit less rain than may have been expected. For example, only eight matches were rained off, as opposed to 13 in Division 7. So those extra matches allowed the noble willow wielders of the division to make hay. Ten batsmen scored over 200 league runs, and three of those did so at an average over thirty. 

The averages of those three can be very neatly categorised. Ramji Padmanaban of Sandyford scored 311 runs at 31.1. It was a better than decent performance - Marlay Park it's not a batsman's paradise, and in home matches he only scored 129 runs at 25.8.  In the next category up was Vikas Dhiman of Merrion who was the division's top run scorer with 367 runs at 40.78. That's a good season in anyone's scorebook, although it was somewhat blighted by failures at a higher level.

Head and shoulders above the two of them though was a certain Kamal Merchant of YMCA who scored 349 runs at 116.33. The stats speak for themselves although he was most useful in shepherding the tail, scoring 197 runs from number six - and only being dismissed the once.

Hell for leather - Division 6 seems to have been won by it's batsmen (see above). Bowling resources were shared across the clubs pretty well. Twenty four players took ten wickets or more, twenty three of them at an average of under twenty. All clubs were represented in those twenty four - a good sign. Two bowlers took 19 wickets though - Vinu Jacob of Sandyford (at 15.0) and Benn Hoey of Terenure who had a remarkable Division 6 season. He took 19 wickets in seven matches.

Hoey's whole Terenure 2 season was in July and August, and he had figures of 3-14, 1-24, 5-28, 3-11, 4-25, 3-40 and 0-10

Days to remember -  Going into the last weekend of the Division 6 season, the best score of the season was Jack Tector's 95 on May 5th. However one player managed to pass the magical barrier, scoring 124  for Merrion 4 against Clonee 1. Vikas Dhiman was mentioned above, but as the only Divsion 6 player who had the opportunity of acknowleging a century this season, he deserves another mention. 

Stat you may have missed - Four players completed the Division 6 double of 200 runs and 10 wickets. Step forward Aaron Joseph (Phoenix), Shakeer Khaja (Old Belvedere), Yaovinder Reehal (Sandyford) and Mohammed Usman (Rush)

Batting (Qualifcation - 100 runs)

Bowling - (Qualification - 10 wkts)