2014 Season Review - Division 5

How the league was won - At the beginning of the season in our league previews, it is only fair to say that Division 5 is as bad as it got. We thought that Malahide would come 2nd, so we weren't too far away with that one. Unfortunately we thought it would be Clontarf 3 who pipped them to top spot (see below for a look at Clontarf's season!). So Malahide were tipped to do well, and they did that, holding off a strong Greystones side to lift the Division 5 title.

After a less than impressive first up loss to Merrion, they then won their next ten matches to effectively wrap up the title by mid-August. The crucial game was against Greystones on July 26th. In an allround team performance (no one scored 50, no one took more than three wickets), Malahide won by 6 wickets. Although they lost to Greystones later in the season, the subsequent defeat was inconsequential. That allround team performance can be seen by the fact that only Des Horstmann (291 runs at 32.33) and Hamish Manks (279 at 34.88) passed the 250 barrier. The ball was where the real strength was (as is the case with many Malahide sides), although only Chris Siddell passed 20 wickets, with 23 at 14.35. Manks and Conor Gibbons supported well.

The progression of Greystones Cricket up the leagues continues, but the title eluded them this time.  They were slow out of the traps, lsoing to a Ross MacMahon inspired Leinster first up, and after that they could no lomnger afford any slip ups. They only lost once more, but as can be seen above, that was in the crucial match against Malahide. It is fair to say that Greystones lacked a fifth bowler (after Stephen McGrath, Tariq Iqbal, Manpreet Singh and Martin Potts), but that was more than made up for by the batting, with Danny Barclay (395 runs at 65.83) and John Fitzsimons (316 at 52.67) reigning supreme.

Terenure 2 were the surprise package of the league. They were tipped to struggle, but finished in a solid third place. It was something of an odd season for them though. They won their first match, and then their next three completed matches were against Malahide and Greystones, which not surprisingly, they lost. Of their next seven (or the last seven as they are also known), they won five. In fact if they had won the two lost games (against North County and Leinster), they would have been pretty close to second place. Only Kenny MacDonald passed 250 runs (267 at 38.14), with Michael Hogan (186 at 46.50) also noteworthy. The bowling struggled though, with only Ruadhan Jones (11 at 17.64) and Mark Thomas (10 at 22.90) really providing any impact.

Leinster 3 went down the "YMCA route ©" of having a young side with an old ex pro at the helm. It worked well, with John Moffat taking the Kamal Merchant role with 438 runs at 54.75. The youth side of things was provided by Conor O'Gorman (304 at 50.67) and Ross MacMahon (280 at 46.67), but there was not much there to support the threesome. Leinster were up with the pace before August, and had only lost twice. However a poor end to the season, (they were 1-4 in August) saw them slip away. With the ball, O'Gorman was again head and shoulders above the others with 16 wickets at 11.50. Paul Rodgers, John Moffat and Ross MacMahon were also useful, and Nasir Hotac burst on to the scene at the end of the season.  
 

How dreams turned to nightmares -  Merrion 4 were tipped to struggle, and as such, their solid fifth place was something of a success. As is the case with nearly all Merrion teams, they were the top team of their type team in the province - the best fourth team in Leinster. The season was a bit up and down, with no real consistency, but that is to be expected for a mid-table team. They didn't win two in a row at all, and lost four in a row across May/June/July but recovered well enough. The top bowlers were Mohsin Tarar with 18 wickets at 15.17 and Ajay Varma with 13 at 16.54. The batting was where the struggles were though, with only Vikas Dhiman really putting in a solid season, with 315 at 28.64

It's all too easy to sit down at the end of the season and pinpoint matches that were crucial, but with Railway Union 4 this has to be the case. They finished fractionally above North County 3, and in the middle of July beat County twice. Without those wins, they would have been in the bottom two. The season had started badly, losing the first three matches. That mid-season recovery was then nearly spoiled by an end-of-season relapse (they only won one of the last four), but they held on. Badal Kumar had an excellent season with 540 runs at 45, but it wasn't matched - no one else got within 298 runs of him. Asim Nazir was next with 241 runs at 20.08. The bowling was less of a problem, with the indefatigable Susheel Kumar taking 19 wickets at 16.58 and Kumail Toori collecting 12 wickets at 18 runs a piece.

North County 3 started the season ok (1-2 from their first three), weren't too bad in the middle (1-3 from their next four), and then finished pretty well (3-3 from their last six). But that wasn't enough, as they lost the crucial games, with those two defeats to Railway Union being cheif amongst them. Fionn Hand was the only player who scored well, with 334 runs at 66.80, and Brian Smyth chipped in with 218 at 54.50 (including a brilliant match winnig century against Leinster), but there was precious little else. The bowling was much better - Kashif Qazi came top with 16 wickets at 20.56, and he was well supported by Sean Sludds, Ciaran Mackey, Cian Mulvaney and Umar Khan all taking at least ten wickets, but all at an average of over 20. The side lost at least eight wickets in 11 of their 13 games.

It will be of little consolation to Clontarf 3 that we thought they would win the league. They started well enough, and as late as May 27th, they were top of the league after winning their first two matches, but then the season turned sour. Availability was the big problem, with no one getting near a full season. In fact only four players played as much as eight games. Only Bailey Boland scored 200 runs (207 at 41.40) and only Ian Dent (10 at 20.20) and Vidyanand Shettu (11 at 20.91) put together any sort of form with the ball. The team only passed 200 twice all season, and in Castle Avenue, their highest score was 161-6

Heroes with the willow - Badal Kumar (Railway Union) fell just short of Brian Gilmore's 2013 record of 558 runs in a Division 5 season. He led with 540 runswith three hundreds. Quality oozed through the batting of Division 5, whether it was youth or experience. John Moffat (Leinster), Danny Barclay (Greystones), John Fitzsimons (Greystones), Fionn Hand (North County) and Conor O'Gorman (Leinster) all scored heavily (see above for details). On the career front, Malahide's Brian Gilmore remains way out ahead (Rob Stanton of Merrion is second with 937 runs at 39.04). For more details of Brian Gilmore's record, see "Stat you may have missed" below.

Hell for leather - Before the 2014 season, the career bowling figures were led by the Leinster pair of Rob O'Connor and David Lappin. O'Connor went up to Division 3 this year, and Lappin down to Division 8, so that opened the door for others. The veteran triumvirate of Jim Walsh (Merrion - 57 career Division 5 wickets at 19.84), Conor Gibbons (Malahide - 56 at 16.61) and Hamish Manks (Malahide - 53 at 14.58) have now all moved past them. There weren't too many wickets taken in the division as a whole though, and Malahide's Chris Siddell was the only one to take twenty - 23 at 14.35.   

Days to remember - Some acheivements are sufficently rare that they just have to be included. Double century partnerships don't happen too much, although it may be the case that they are a bit more common than previously thought. 2014 was the first year that all partnerships in the province have been recorded, and there were ten over 200 in all competitions - and two of them were in Division 5, and both in the same week

On July 9th, Leinster 3 welcomed Clontarf 3 to a midweek match in Rathmines, and after winning the toss, Leinster were in early trouble at 52-4, with Patrick Kirk taking three wickets. John Moffat joined Conor O'Gorman at the crease and the pair were still together at the end of the innings, with Leinster closing on a match winning 258-4. O'Gorman had scored a 123 ball 89* and Moffat, a distinctly brisk 90 ball 108*, with the partnership reaching 206. It was the highest 5th wicket partnership of the year.

Four days later, it was something of a similar story. Greystones were at home against Railway Union, won the toss and batted. Stephen Stone was first out with the score on 5, but then Danny Barclay and John Fitsimons smote the bowling to all parts or rather Barclay did. The Kiwi hit 152 (balls faced was not recorded) from the 217 the pair added. Fitzsimons finished on 63* out of the total of 260-2 - a winning total by the margin of 120 runs. It was the highest partnership for Greystones all season, but only the 2nd highest 2nd wcket partnership in all cricket.

Stat you may have missed - Brian Gilmore has scored 1253 Division 5 runs at an average of 36.85. Since our detailed records began in 2011, only three other players outside of Division 1 and 2, have scored 1000 runs at a higher average than Gilmore. They are Ramji Padmanaban (Sandyford - 1040 Division 6 runs at 41.60), Ian Walshe (North Kildare - 1158 Division 4 runs at 38.60) and Vijay Gopal (Clontarf - 1470 Division 3 runs at 39.73)

Batting (Qualification - 100 runs)

Bowling (Qualification - 10 wickets)