The best and worst of ...... Malahide

We continue to trawl through the recent histories of Leinster club sides with a look at the best and worst of Malahide teams over the first sixteen seasons of this century.

First, a bit of a spoiler. If you look below, you will see that like Leinster, Malahide's worst point was back in 2001, the first season that our rankings give a rating for. And many will be wondering if that is a mistake - why are the worst points always at the begining of the rankings?

It easy to forget that around the turn of the century, the standard of cricket in Leinster was a long, long way behind that in the North West and NCU. This was most apparent in the number of Irish Senior Cup wins that came to Leinster - just Phoenix's 1986 victory in the first nineteen seasons of the competition until 2000. That return is reflected in our rankings (see below)

Using May 1st 2001 as  starting point (the day of Malahide's low point), the top 16 in Leinster scored 25 - a figure using the ratings of the top clubs and standardising at 100. With the NCU Top 16 being rated at 41, and the North West at 33, Leinster were a long way behind. And that transfers to the rating that all Leinster teams were receiving in their league matches - Malahide pulled off some great wins in 2000/2001, but they were against Leinster opposition who were also poor in the general scheme of things.

Slowly, club cricket improved. The Top 16 in Leinster overtook the North West in 2011, and moved ahead of the NCU last season (It should be noted that looking purely at the top eight teams, Leinster moved ahead of the NCU ten years ago. The strength in depth of NCU cricket was apparent for longer. This will be further analysed in future articles)

Back to Malahide! 

Malahide's low - rating 49.229 - ranking - 39th - date April 15 2001 - after 50 run loss to Munster Reds

Malahide's lowest point was the very first rating they were given, which is another way of saying that they have improved ever since. And even that 15 April 2001 date is a bit misleading - Malahide didn't start the 2001 season until later, and in effect this rating is a reflection of their 2000 season. The Villagers were pretty decent in 2000, finishing third in Section B, but as we have said, the standard was so far below out northern counterparts, that even that third place received a low score.

Scorecards from the 2000 season are not currently available, so we need to look at the first match in 2001 for a look at how Malahide lined out at the begining of the century. The card can be seen on Cricket Europe here, an 18 run win over CYM. David McGeehhan, Jimmy Govan and Reinhardt Strydom all featured with the bat as Malahide made an old fashioned 155 -5 from 47 overs. The wickets were then shared around between Strydom, Govan, Savage and Beetge as Malahide snuck home. That win meant that they were never to fall below the mark set at the end of 2000.

Malahide's high - rating 102.617 - ranking - 12th - date July 21 2015 - after one wicket win over YMCA

Malahides's 2002 Irish Senior Cup win, was soon surpassed (in terms of ratings) by the team of 2006, which started the season well, but finished in Division 1 relegation. That highpoint remained the mark for Malahide team's until beaten  around the middle of July. 

2015 was another season in Division 1, and the team had gained some mighty scalps already, beating Instonians and The Hills in the Irish Senior Cup as well as Pembroke in the league.The highpoint was just after the visit to Claremont Road to take on YMCA. Tom Fisher scored 116 as the YM innings closed on 213-6 - James Newland the leading Malahide bowler with 3-47. However, Malahide were soon in trouble at 79-4 when James Govan came to the crease. That soon became 85-5, but with Govan there, there was still hope. James Newland was ninth out at 191, with Peter Saville joining Govan. Saville hit 9 from six balls, and if memory serves me correctly, Govan hit a last ball six to win the game by one wicket.

There hasn't been too much silverware in Malahide since that Irish Senior Cup win, but Govan has been there from that 2001 low point, guiding Malahide to 12th on the island in the middle of 2015.