Division 2
Champions – Clontarf
League MVP – Lynal Jansen [Rush]
Clontarf stormed their way through Division 2 winning every one of their 13 games to reclaim their place at the top table of Leinster cricket emphatically. Each game played brought over three bonus points to show how resounding their triumphs were. The Division 2 title was one part of a successful season that saw Clontarf crowned as Club of the Year at the RSA Cricket Ireland Awards and also saw them capture the RSA Bob Kerr All-Ireland Cup.
In Clontarf’s wake Terenure were the best of the rest to finish second and also make the move to Division 1 in 2014. Terenure’s nine wins put them two clear of Rush and technically one clear of Dublin University who played each other team only once, but for double points. Terenure will be hoping that the addition of David Langford-Smith will enable them to challenge in Division 1 next season.
Leinster’s second team fell to the bottom of the division with a solitary win and a point deduction for a starring list offence. The second relegation place could not have been decided by a narrower margin. Both Balbriggan and Merrion’s second team finished with identical records of winning four games and losing nine and with both teams gaining exactly the same 28 bonus points and ending the season on 108 points. The deciding factor for who would finish in 6th and who would be in 7th was to be the results of the games between the two teams, thus leaving Balbriggan beneath Merrion.
As it has transpired the LCU OCC released proposed league structures for 2014 have increased the size of Division 2 to nine teams and both Balbriggan and Merrion remain in this division. The Wisdom of Solomon has prevailed.
On an individual level, Lynal Jansen [Rush] captured the MVP title by the not inconsiderable margin of 387 points. Scoring 911 runs was appropriate seeing as he won the leading run scorer in a similar fashion to a 911 taking on a Nissan Micra in a drag race. Second place in runs scored was 690 runs or 25% less than Lynal’s total. In a league when small margins count second place overall was also 25% less than the winning total. That is not to say that this was a weak league. On the contrary, 3 players passed 1,000 points and one player was a mere 6 points short of that mark. The top ten point scorers in this Division were as follows:
182 players appeared in this Division, which although it had 8 teams, one of them was the aforementioned Dublin University who played each other team only once. This meant that the other teams only had 13 game seasons and Dublin University had a 7 game season. 33 players appeared just once for their teams. Four Dublin University players played every possible game, J. Tasmin-Jones, H. Pike, MA Anwar and N. Delany, whilst a further 16 players played 13 games. They were: Adrian Harper and M. Byrne [both Balbriggan]; R. Gallagher, Fintan McAllister and Y. Kashyap [all Malahide]; H. Kennedy [Merrion]; Lynal Jansen and N. Donnelly [both Rush]; Z. Van Der Merwe [Clontarf], Robert Forrest, Andre Botha and E. Delany [Clontarf] and; Tom Fisher, Ben Hoey, J. Smith and E. Ahmed [all Terenure].
As already stated, Lynal Jansen [Rush] was the principal run scoring player in the division with the top 5 all passing 400 runs albeit by differing margins. The top five run scorers were:
The surprise is that no Clontarf player featured here, but it just goes to show the depth of their batting line up that they never relied on just one player to score runs. Clontarf players did fill 10th, 13th and 15th places.
23 centuries were scored in Division 2 and in order of highest scores the centuries were scored by the following players:
10 of the 23 centuries were scored against the Leinster bowling attack.
A further seven scores in the 90’s were recorded and the players who failed to convert them into full centuries were: A. Godfrey [Leinster], K. Beasley [Merrion], D. Van Zyl [Terenure], Adrian Harper [Balbriggan], Lynal Jansen [Rush], Tom Fisher [Terenure] and A. Venkat Muntha [Malahide].
64 half centuries were recorded by 39 players, with the following players making more than one. Top of the list were four players who each made 4 fifties of various sizes:
The top 5 batting averages are the same whether there is a cut off mark or not. There are no statistical anomalies in this division and so only one batting average table is required:
There were batsmen who technically have an average of infinity, having scored runs and not been dismissed at all. They are shown here with their runs and number of innings: K. Taylor (49/1) [Leinster]; Conor Hoey (17/1) [Dublin University]; H. Sharma (16/1) [Merrion]; D. Delany (7/1) [Clontarf]; S. Attwood (6/1) [Dublin University]; Zack Kelly (5/1) [Malahide] and; W. Baird (3/1) [Merrion].
With less games played in this division the number of wickets also appears lower than other divisions. 695 wickets fell to bowlers and 95 bowlers took at least one wicket. The top 5 (and ties) wicket takers were:
The bowling averages come in two tables, in a similar fashion to the other divisions reviewed. The first table requires nothing more than taking a wicket as can be seen by the appearance of Terenure’s Head Coach Ted Williamson appearing top of the list with his sole wicket. The top five (and ties) bowling averages were as follows with the number of wickets taken in brackets also:
The second table shows the bowlers who took a minimum of 16 wickets, and thus worked all season long:
In order of the best bowling analyses, the 9 players who took a five wicket haul were as follows, although no player managed to do it more than once:
There were three bowlers who still managed to pass 100 overs, even with the reduced league programme in Division 2. The top five bowlers in terms of overs delivered were as follows:
110 players held at least one of the 368 catches this season in this Division. The top five (and ties) were as follows (players who also had a stumping are shown with an * although we do not know if they were regular keepers or not):
18 stumpings were snaffled by 9 keepers. Leading this category is G. Russell [Balbriggan] who had the distinction of claiming more victims by stumpings than catches. In fact Balbriggan were responsible for half of the stumpings taken, which may be a reflection of their bowling attack being more slow bowlers than others in the division. The top 5 and ties are:
In terms of players used (including Player Unregistered), the league looks like this:
Dublin University’s figure is not available as players who played for them also played for other clubs after Dublin University concluded their season.
Disclaimer…. As with all of these articles, the views expressed therein of those of the author and definitely do not represent those of the Leinster Cricket Union. They might match your views, but if they do, it is more likely to be a co-incidence than anything else. They are to be considered merely the inconsequential ramblings of a fool. Any feedback or requests for individual, team, Club or all-encompassing statistics may be sent to craig@cricket.ie.