Division 5 - 2011 Season Review

Division 5 was for a long time the division that no one wanted to win. It turned out that it was a two horse race between Pembroke 3 and Railway Union 3, but at the beginning of June, it was unlikely that either of these teams would have fancied their chances of promotion.

Pembroke lost two of their first five matches (with one rained off), and Railway's start was even worse. They lost to Pembroke, Clontarf and Merrion, and on June 5th had a record of P5 W1 NR 1 L3, which isn't the form of title winners. If anything, it looked as if Clontarf and Leinster would be the ones battling it out, with Leinster in particular only losing one match by July.

Railway Union though turned round their season dramatically, winning their next eight matches, and facing Pembroke on September 11th to decide the league champions. Sean Tomlinson scored 75 and Mohammed Farooq 55, as Railway set the none too daunting target of 213-9. However a good all-round bowling display, and the inability of any Pembroke players to get past 31 (Deepak Raj top scored), meant that Railway won by 43 runs and took the league title.

Fifty six players passed 100 runs, with 24 going on to get 200 runs, five 300 runs, and one a piece passing 400 and 500 runs. The top four makes for a fascinating comparison. Nicky Kenny burst on to the 2011 season, with 321 runs at 160.5, including 160* on the mat in Railway. However, injury then cruelly ended his season - who knows what he may have been able to achieve? Mohammed Farooq of Railway Union, had a solid season, 335 runs at 47.86, but with only two 50s and no centuries. Railway won the league however,, so he did enough! Rob Stanton was his normal dependable self, anchoring the Merrion innings with 480 runs at 43.64 whilst top of the list was Bryan McDermott of Clontarf - a magnificent 519 runs at 57.67.

McDermott was dismissed for 20 or fewer four times, but once he passed 20, (which he did on seven occasions), he scored 453 runs at 90.6. A note to bowlers in 2012 - make sure you dismiss McDermott early.

There were eight hundreds - Nicky Kenny hit two, Abdullah Hafiz (107 for Railway against Merrion) ,Deepak Raj (110 for Pembroke against Railway), Rob Stanton's top score of the year - 112 for Merrion against Phoenix and Bryan McDermott's highest - 118* for Clontarf against Pembroke. Mohammed Rizwan hit 120 for Railway against Leinster, and Kenny MacDonald ventured down to Terenure's 2nds, and found the Division 5 bowling to his liking, hitting 144 against Clontarf.

The top of the bowling illustrates the classic cricketing choice - the experience of the gnarled veteran over the romance and promise of the young buck. Rex Walsh of Merrion, representing the corner of youth,  came top of the pile, with 25 wickets at 19.6 With Jim Walsh being Merrion's next bowler in 13th place it looks like if Merrion's bowling attack could have done with a bit of help from someone outside the Walsh family.

In the corner of wisdom, experience and creaky knees is Nick Jagoe of Railway Union , who chased Walsh jnr all the way with 22 wickets at 11.27. Following Jagoe, is a triumvirate of medium pace Rob O'Connor of Leinster (19 at 18.05), Deepak Raj of Pembroke (18 at 15.28) and Faran Khan of Pembroke (17 wickets at 19.12)

Division 5 was definitely a league in which batting dominated bowling. The only bowler to take more then five wickets in an innings was Mohammed Rizwan of Railway, who took 6-34 against North County on June 6th