2014 Season Review - Division 3

How the league was won - Division 3 is traditionally a very tight league. When I say tradition, it is along the lines of people habitually posting "Happy Birthday" messages on Facebook - it happens every year without fail, but has only been a tradition for all of three years. As such, this article, which separates those who battled for top spot from those who scratched around at the bottom of the league, struggles when it comes to Division 3. There was a gap between 2nd and 3rd, and a bit of a gap between 7th and 8th. So in the interests of symmetry, those in this section are the top four, and below that are the exploits of the bottom four.

Despite all these statements outlining the competitiveness of Division 3, YMCA 2 and Clontarf 2 were predicted to take the top spots, and were easily the best two sides in Division 3. YMCA lost at least one match (nearly) every month, which kept other teams interested. Crucially though, they beat Clontarf 2 both home and away. YMCA's season (and the race for the title itself), concluded in an unusual - and somewhat unsatisfactory manner, with YM playing three T20 matches on the final weekend of September. Three wins, including one against Clontarf were enough to lift the title. The squad was a classic blend of youth and experience. Sam Murphy topped the run scoring charts with 284 runs at 25.82, followed by Jack Tector with 262 at 87.33. The age and wisdom were provided by one of the most famous double acts in Leinster cricket, with Alan Lewis next with 243 runs at 60.75 and Angus Dunlop with 210 at 35.0. Padraic Flanagan led the bowling with 21 wickets at 10.19m with Callum Donnelly (16 at 18.38) backing him up.

Clontarf had a distinctly iffy first half of the season, which extended well into the third quarter (they were 3-3 as late as August 15). Their season was transformed by a six match winning streak in August/September. A win over YMCA on September 21 would have won them the league, but it wasn't to be. Asim Nazir (28 at 9.50) and Mark Collier (21 at 17.33) dominated the bowling. With the willow, five players had stellar seasons, all passing 350 runs (see below for details). Step forward Mark Collier, VJ Gopal, Junaid Altaf, Asim Nazir and Robert Forrest.

Tipped to be a lower mid-table team, North Kildare surprised many and delighted the neutral. They overcame the institutional bias against 1st teams (see Civil Service below), and after the magical day in North County (see below also), won five of their last eight to finish a solid season in third place. It is fair to say that the batsmen didn't dominate, with Imran ul-Haq scoring 400 at 33.33, Tom Satchwell 317 at 28.82 and Rob Neavyn 261 at 26.10. Similarly, the bowling was a team effort, with five bowlers geetting ten wickets. Manjeet Sing was top with 21 at 19.85.

Around the end of June many people around the province were genuinely worried about The Hills 2. By June 28th, they had only played one single match (a defeat to North County 2), and to the outsider it looked as if they weren't playing any matches. The situation was simply explained by a run of bad luck with the weather (four of their first five games were rained off). From a precarious position of 0-3 on July 18th, the next six games were won to effectively seal Division 3 status for another year. Tomas Murphy scored 343 runs at 42.88 and Joseph Clinton had a handy 253 at 31.62 (William Archer and Howard McDonnell also passed 200). Skipper Archer was the leading wicket taker with 21 wickets at 16.48

How dreams turned to nightmares -  Leinster had a virtually identical record to The Hills (seven wins, seven losses and one less point), and will probably feel in a similar manner - relief at survival. The Rathmines men's survival was a bit less clear cut though, and they needed to win their last two matches - against Civil Service and The Hills to get to safety. The batting relied extensively on Gareth Delany, who's 591 runs (at 65.67) was over 300 more than the next highest scorer - the evergreen Gavin Gilmore. In fact, only six players scored more than 100 runs. The bowling was a little better, with Paul Rodgers shuttling between Bangkok and Dublin to take 18 at 21.17. Gareth Delany was vital with the ball (15 at 24.80), with Malcolm Rule having the excellent figures of 14 wickets at 8.50 (the best average in the division)

At the half way stage of the season, Laois were looking good for promotion. They were 5-2 and still had to play all the bottom sides. It wasn't to be though, and heavy defeats to Clontarf, YMCA and The Hills ruined the dream. The batting was on the cold side of tepid - only Jasmeet Singh (300 at 33.33) really had a season to write home about. The four man attach of Raees, Siddiqui, Auret and Smit all took between 13 and 16 wickets, but with averages ranging from 16.50 (Raees) to 24.69 (Auret), they were not potent enough to threaten.

North County had an excellent start to the year, and at the end of July were 5-3. Not title winning form admittedly, but mid-table form all the same. They then embarked on a catastrophic six match losing streak to slip into the bottom two, leading to the probability of Division 4 cricket in 2015.

As alluded to above, 1st teams, especially in Division 3 and 4, are fighting a losing battle before the season starts. Even with a well policed starring system, 2nd teams can bring a 1st team player down from "above" in order to strengthen their team. With a bit of judicious management, these teams can bring in a few extra 1st teamers as well - making the first team's task nigh on impossible. Civil Service were not a great side this year, but with a level playing ground, they would have been mid-table. It wasn't to be though, and two wins in late August couldn't make up for the 1-7 start to the season. Mubasher Siddique led the bowling (17 at 25.41) and was supported by Naveed Khan (12 at 27.75), but those averages hint at the fact that Civil Service were leaking runs at an alarming rate. The batting wasn't up to the task of chasing those targets down, although Siddique (a impressive 429 at 33.0), Keith Webster (299 at 33.22) and Muhammed Safeen (259 at 21.58) did their best. Service will be back.

Heroes with the willow - Three players clocked up over 500 runs, with Gareth Delany coming 23 runs short of breaking Barry Archer's 2011 record of 614 runs in a Division 3 season. Before the season started VJ Gopal of Clontarf led the career run scoring charts, and he extended his record, the tally currently standing at 1453 runs at 40.36. Two other Clontarf players come second and third on this particular list - Junaid Altaf (1113 at 30.92) and Mark Collier (1000 at 27.78) are next on the podium. Twenty players passed 250 runs in total, with Delany (65.67), Gopal (55.56), Asim Nazir (Clontarf - 422 at 52.75) and Jack Tector (YMCA - 262 at 87.33) all averaging over 50.


Hell for leather - Asim Nazir was far and away the highest wicket taker in Division 3, with 28 wickets at 9.50. matching Duane Harper's 2011 return for Balbriggan (28 at 12.86). Harper was also top of the all time lists before the season started (45 wickets at 14.16) but as he is now plying his trade in higher divisions, Mark Collier (57 at 14.35) and Padraic Flanagan (48 at 16.60) took the opportunity to move above him. Flanagan was one of four bowlers who took 21 wickets (seven less than Nazir), the others being William Archer, Mark Collier and Manjeet Singh.


Days to remember - Division 3 was very slow to get going, and even by the end of May, it was difficult to know who the successful sides were going to be, and who would be spending the season looking over their shoulders. North Kildare had had one early season loss to Clontarf, and some inclement early season weather, North County had won one and lost one. So nobody really expected what happened when North Kildare turned up in Balrothery and lost the toss. On being inserted, they took an instant liking to the North COunty bowling attack. Kishan Mistri hit an explosive 94 from 84 balls, and when he was fourth out, the score was already 196-4. BY this stage, Imran ul-Haq was in the middle of his own little tour de force - a blistering 124 runs from only 65 balls. Assisted by Tom Satchwell, North Kildare reached 393 all out, the highest score recorded in Division 3 since records began in 2011. North County never got going, and lost by 310 runs. It was an accurate picture of what the season was to being - for both teams.  

Stat you may have missed - Five of the eleven "Highest Scores by Position" in Division 3 since 2011 were broken this season. The five are Junaid Altaf's 143 for Clontarf vs North Kildare (batting at number 1), Mark Collier's 130 for Clontarf against Civil Service (batting at number 2), VJ Gopal's 157 for Clontarf against Civil Service (batting on number 3), Joseph Clinton's 113 for The Hills against YMCA (at number 6) and Tom Satchwell's 100 for North County against Clontarf (at number 7). The full list is below.

Batting (Qualification 100 runs)

Bowling (Qualification - 10 wickets)