2014 Season Review - Division 11

How the league was won - Division 11 proved to be the closest of all the Open Competition leagues, with Longford 2, Lucan 1 and Adamstown 2 battling it out until the very end. After six months of battle, only a few points separated all three. Lucan made the early running, winning their first five, before losing to Longford on June 1st. In such a tight league, each match is crucial, and looking back, that loss was the one which lost Lucan the title. Longford themselves lost to their rivals, Adamstown and Lucan before May was out. However, ten straight wins took them to the top of the table, and glory. Very few of Longford's wins were easy, and they scrapped their way to the title. That just leaves, Adamstown. They lost to Lucan twice in the first half of the season, and that always left them with too much to do. The destination of the runners-up spot was decided off the pitch, when it was discovered that The Hills vs Lucan scorecard from June had been incorrectly submitted. The extra point that Lucan received meant that even with maximum points from their last two games Adamstown could only match Lucan. They did indeed take maximum points, but due to Lucan winning both matches between the teams, it was them who finished second in the league.


How dreams turned to nightmares -  Wexford Wanderers 2 unfortunately had to withdraw partly through the season, leaving five teams to battle it out for the relegation spots. To characterise Cabinteely 1 has candidates for relegation is very harsh indeed. They were never close to going down, and had their best ever season, winning nine matches in total (compared with three in 2012 and six in 2013). They lost their first three matches, but after that, never looked like finishing anywhere but 4th. Malahide 5 similarly never looked like being at the bottom. They contrived to lose their last five matches, but even then finished well above the divisional strugglers. The Hills 4 started well, beating Wexford and Leinster in May. Their next wins were not until August, and they crucially beat Malahide and Leinster. Their big rivals for 7th spot in the league, North County 5, could only take a loss and a ti from their two games against bottom placed Leinster 6, and those two results were crucial in allowing The Hills to pull clear. Leinster 6 were the division's whipping boys, and those two results against North County were their only consolation


Heroes with the willow - A league in which bat dominated. Seven players passed 300 runs, with Ali Hashmi of Lucan finishing top of the pile with the ex Castleknock player scoring a brilliant 553 runs at 42.54, his best season by far, and the first person to score over 500 Division 11 runs in a season. Special mention to the three players who scored over 300 runs at an average over 50 - Mark Duffy of Malahide and  Manoj Monteiro and Sandeep Sihag of Adamstown. Jason Magee of The Hills extended his Division 11 run scoring record, which now stands at 814 runs at 38.76.   

Hell for leather - Bowlers from Lucan dominated the bowling returns in a manner rarely seen. They had five of the top seven wicket takers in the division. Only three bowlers took 20 wickets - Manjinder Singh (Lucan) with 21 at 23.43, Muhammed Shazad Asim (Longford) with 25 at 19.92 and Arijit Mustafi (Lucan) with 25 at 19.64. Diarmuid Power of Bagenalstown didn't even play in Division 11 this year, but keeps his all time wicket taking record, with 41 wickets in the divison.


Days to remember - As is always the case with this particular snippet, one team's joy is another teams misery. The Hills 4 finished off their season with a dead match against Adamstown 2 in late September, and to be honest, the game meant little to either side. However, Adamstown knocked up 400 runs in their 40 overs, only the 4th team to get to 400 since 2011 (after Greystones 1, Pembroke 1 and Laois 3). It was the highest score in Open Competitions this year, with 16 year old Hamza Mann scoring 151*

Stat you may have missed - Division 11 wasn't really a league for the allrounder, but a couple stood out. Arun Verma of Lucan was the only player to score a hundred a take three wickets in an innings more than once, and in a consolatory mention for Wexford Wanderers 2, Talat Manzoor was the only player to take 5 wickets in an innings and at some point score a 50 with the bat

Batting (Qualification - 100 runs)

Bowling (Qualification - 10 wickets)