It was very sad to hear of the passing of Gerry (Gerard Andrew Anthony) Duffy on Monday. Our condolences go to his family and to his wider cricketing family. As cricketers, and especially in this column, we like to deal in easily measured, definitive statistics, but the influence Gerry Duffy had in Irish cricket can not be measured in mere numbers, but in the people who were lucky enough to cross his path and to know him. Cricket Europe has a biography page that is well worth a read. http://www.cricketeurope4.net/CSTATZ/IRELANDBIOS/d/duffy_gaa.shtml. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.
There were over 50 games of cricket in the weekend just passed. Youth matches starting early morning, Leinster Senior Cup quarter-final games starting mid-morning, and open league and cup ending early evening. That is a lot of cricket. Even my old body was dragged out twice. Well it would have been a shame to miss a game whilst the sun was there or thereabouts, the rain was missing and one could leave the second jumper in the bag.
College Green was as usual picturesque and a delight to play in. Saturday saw a close, tight, but fair game versus the Students of Division 13. There might not be the talent or skill levels as evidenced in the Leinster Senior Cup, but it would be hard to match for honest endeavour and enjoyment. The Student’s 138 all out enough for victory by just 14 runs, but both teams walked away from the Pavilion in good cheer. The founder of the Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin once was quoted as saying... “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” How right he was.
Sunday saw a new ground to be visited for the first time, and a debut game for the author as new skipper against a new team, Lucan, in St. Catherine’s Park, in the Junior Cup. Last week’s column ended with the hope that Pembroke 5’s could catch Lucan’s A. Hashmi off-guard as he was the only player in the province to have two centuries to add to his other 50. Well thank you to the gods or whoever organised for him to be stuck at work with another 5 of his regular teammates also unavailable. It led to a thrilling encounter that swung one way then the other to such an extent that Ray Winstone and his floating head would have had trouble setting in-play odds, picking favourites and cash out time. Novices to cricket often ask, “who’s winning” when watching a game. On Sunday they would have got a different answer every over. It was cricket at its best with both teams striving for victory, but with due regard to the spirit of the game. Last wicket pair Justin Doherty and Kieran “The Bash” Vulker saw Pembroke to a penultimate over, exciting one wicket win and a home draw in the second round against The Hills 4.
Pembroke 5’s are also due to return to St. Catherine’s Park in the league in a fortnight and will do so knowing they will get a hard fought, but fair game with superb hosts who are building a fine club in West Dublin. The ground has great views over Dublin, a fine mat in place and although the outfield could do with a trim, it is fair for both sides. One hopes that Lucan CC get to keep moving forward and get all of the assistance they need to improve the facilities off the field and match their hospitality off and their endeavours on the pitch.
In the Leinster Senior Cup semi-finals, YMCA will now host Pembroke, whilst Cork County will play at home again, this time against Clontarf. The Senior 2 Cup sees YMCA (with teams in both Senior and Senior 2 Cup semi-finals) host Merrion 2 and LCU President Roland Bradley’s Laois will welcome Greystones in the semi-finals. Greystones’ David Drane continues to defy age and medical bulletins to hit a second consecutive Cup half century and continue his club’s meteoric rise through Leinster cricket to their first Senior 2 semi-final as well as putting himself at the top of the batting averages. Greystones are blazing a trail which clubs like Lucan can aspire to follow to the very top. Greystones have quickly moved from niche team to centre stage Club with multiple open competition teams, a Women’s team and a thriving youth section. All of which is hosted in the fine Druid’s Glen resort. It just goes to show what can be achieved given the right people and the right attitude. Trail-blazers.
In other news snippets garnered from Twitter, congratulations to S. Bannerjee for his century over the weekend in the game between Dublin University and Wicklow, whilst in the same game K Threadgold took 5/24. Mullingar posted a club record 406/8 in 45 overs with R. Ejaz, 126 and F. Nasir, 97 to the fore. Cork County’s Stephan Grobler continued his fine form with 109 in Munster Division 1, which sadly doesn’t count for fantasy points. Graham McDonnell’s 147 for Pembroke 2’s wasn’t enough to stop Laois progressing to the semi-finals of the Senior 2 cup and the ever-green “portrait in the attic” Conor Gibbons of Malahide took 5/27 as they beat Adamstown 2’s. Lorcan Tucker scored his maiden century for Pembroke and professional Jono Cook took a hat-trick (although there are no bonus points for hat-tricks) as they defeated Terenure in the Senior Cup. Jack Tector scored a century for YMCA in the same competition. Ex-Pembroke, but now North Kildare player, Loui Hofmeyr enjoyed his game against his former club as he took 5/68 as his side won by 41 runs. Pembroke Fourths benefitted from Jeremy Dunleavy, 55, Gordon Clarke 54 and Sanil Gupta 55* all striking form as they beat Castleknock.
However, all seem to pale when held against the performances of James Hall from Warringstown. James hit a double century at the weekend to add to his previous three innings of 125, 101 and 206*. That is over 600 in 5 innings. It takes me 3 seasons to score that many. Now that’s what I call being in form.
The statistics and questions about them can be sent via twitter to @FantasyTableLCU.
Top 20 Overall Point Scorers
Our previous overall leader, Harry Tector [YMCA], not only retains his lead, but has extended it from 51 points to 110 points over the new second place, N Thambi [Dundrum]. Last week was another successful week for Harry, garnering 145 points. YMCA can point to five players in the top 20, reflecting a good season for the Club with their Firsts and Seconds in Divisions 1 & 2 and both in their cup semi-finals.
1. 856 Harry Tector YMCA
2. 746 N Thambi Dundrum
3. 707 L Prior Clontarf
4. 693 Paul Ryan North Kildare
5. 675 Tom Anders Phoenix
6. 663 B Parchment North County
7. 614 A Varma Merrion
8. 605 N Johns YMCA
9. 594 Richard Forrest Leinster
10. 591 David Carthy Rush
11. 589 Manjeet Singh North Kildare
12. 588 Mick Collier Clontarf
13. 588 M Nurulain Boda Castleknock
14. 576 Ben Hoey Pembroke
15. 576 A Verma Adamstown
16. 574 S Streek YMCA
17. 569 Jerson Santhosh Swords
18. 567 Sam Murphy YMCA
19. 566 Tomas Rooney Murphy The Hills
20. 559 Padraic Flanagan YMCA
Top Runs Scorers
Pembroke’s Achmed Carr leads the run chase, albeit by a mere 5 runs. 82,440 runs have been scored by batsmen, although the total figure could possibly make 90,000 when extras are added in. A Hashmi missed an opportunity to lead this category by missing Lucan’s Cup game at the weekend due to work commitments.
1. 341 A Carr Pembroke
2. 336 N Thambi Dundrum
3. 334 A Hashmi Lucan
4. 333 B Parchment North County
5. 328 Richard Wing Malahide
6. 325 N Johns YMCA
7. 323 Paul Ryan North Kildare
8. 317 Jack Tector YMCA
9. 315 H Archer The Hills
10. 313 N McGovern North County
11. 311 A D'Arcy Clontarf
12. 299 A Parkinson Merrion
13. 282 B Speake Terenure
14. 282 R Neavyn North Kildare
15. 280 Andrew Poynter Clontarf
16. 276 Tomas Rooney Murphy The Hills
17. 276 M Lewis Merrion
18. 271 Tom Fisher YMCA
19. 261 Sean Rooney North County
20. 258 V Jacob Leinster
Top Wicket Takers
Overall leader, Harry Tector leads by three wickets and again YMCA feature heavily.
22 Harry Tector [YMCA]
19 A Varma [Merrion] and S Streek [YMCA]
18 L Prior [Clontarf] and Padraic Flanagan [YMCA]
17 Muhammad Saleem [Clontarf]
16 Jerson Santhosh [Swords], M Nurulain Boda [Castleknock], R Kear [Balbriggan] and Joe Prendergast [Pembroke].
15 M Collier [Clontarf], B Thambi [Dundrum], Balbir Singh [Castleknock], Harry Balbirnie [Pembroke] and Alex Cusack [Clontarf]
14 13 Players
Centuries and highest scores abounded at the weekend. As the weather improved so did the amount of runs being scored across the province. This category also has benefitted from the amount of artificial mats now installed. Peter Auret’s 184 still tops the highest scores and will take some beating. Players only get one highest score and will only appear here once.
· 184 Peter Auret Slieve
· 156 S Kant Trikha Carl
· 147 GMAC McDonnell Pembroke
· 143 S Sarfraz Longford
· 135* Jack Tector YMCA
· 132 Lorcan Tucker Pembroke
· 130 A Hashmi Lucan
· 126 David Carthy Rush
· 126 N Srimal Jasinghe Bagenalstown
· 125* Simranjit Singh YMCA
· 125 R Ejaz Mullingar
· 120 B Singh Bhathal Merrion
A Hashmi [Lucan] has been joined on two centuries by Jack Tector [YMCA], whose 135* is the fifth highest score in Leinster in 2015. A further 39 players have raised their bats in celebration of three figure scores.
· 2 A Hashmi [Lucan] and Jack Tector [YMCA]
· 1 S Hameed [Ashbourne]; N Srimal Jasinghe [Bagenalstown]; S Kant Trikha [Carl]; H Fernando [Castleknock]; A D'Arcy, Andrew Poynter & Stephen JP Moreton [Clontarf]; M Kilroy [CSCC]; P Jonker [Greystones]; M Ingamell [Knockharley]; Eamonn Byrne [Leinster]; S Sarfraz [Longford]; R Strydom & M O' Brien [Malahide]; A Parkinson, B Singh Bhathal, P Mandati & M Navid [Merrion]; R Ejaz [Mullingar] Niall McGovern, Terry Richardson, Z Imran & Joe Murphy [North County]; S Dalton [North Kildare]; Lorcan Tucker, GMAC McDonnell & David O'Riordan snr [Pembroke]; Tom Anders [Phoenix]; David Carthy, Lynal Jansen, & P Monks [Rush]; Peter Auret [Slieve]; Sunil Thomas [Swords]; H Archer, Tomas Rooney Murphy, M Donegan & M Muhammad [The Hills]and D McDonough-Kinkade & Simranjit Singh [YMCA].
Half-Centuries
222 players have scored 50’s and not gone onto to convert them into centuries. Paul Ryan leads this category with 4 half centuries in 9 innings. Stephan Grobler [CCCC] and Declan Moore [Ring Commons] have both scored three 50’s in just four innings.
· 4 Paul Ryan [North Kildare]
· 3 B Speake [Terenure], N Thambi [Dundrum], Stephan Grobler [CCCC], Declan Moore [Ring Commons], B Parchment [North County], V Jacob [Leinster], Y Kashyap [YMCA] and Achmed Carr [Pembroke].
Ducks
The opposite of celebrating scores is the slow lonely trudge back to the sidelines after being dismissed for nothing. Sometimes there is sympathy, sometimes not, but it is never a pleasant walk and no more pleasant seeing your name under this category. 626 players have endured the walk, the scorn and the derision. Here are the players who have done it the most.
· 4 I Sabir [R&SPU], Declan Ryan [Greystones] and V Mohanan [Clontarf]
· 3 A Varma [Merrion], M Godwin [Phoenix], K O'Connor [DUCC], S Ayyappath [Terenure], M Kakkar [Lucan], O Shorthose [Bagenalstown], D Ahmed [YMCA], Conor Shoebridge [Malahide], Padraic Flanagan [YMCA], G Lawler [Greystones], G Lynch [Terenure], Manpreet Singh [Lucan], A Battan [Clontarf], Jithin Jose [Lucan], V Kasana [Merrion], J Altaf [Clontarf], and M Hippolitus [Dundrum].
Batting Averages
David Drane has been consistent in his batting to top this category. Three games with two innings, but only dismissed once, with scores of 79* and 76 gives an average of 155.00. K O’Herlihy [Leinster], M O'Brien [Malahide] and S Moloney [Clontarf] all have scored over 100 runs and have yet to be dismissed and thus are not eligible for this category. However, one dismissal will see them appear quite high and quite quickly on this list. 79 other players have also scored runs without dismissal. 55 players are averaging over 50, but the top 10 are:
1 155.00 David Drane Greystones
2 131.00 H Fernando Castleknock
3 105.67 Jack Tector YMCA
4 105.00 D David Merrion
5 103.67 A D'Arcy Clontarf
6 103.00 S Hameed Ashbourne
7 98.00 Peter Auret Slieve
8 91.00 M Murphy North County
9 89.00 E Sykes Leinster
10 82.67 Declan Moore Ring Commons
Overs Bowled
1,135 players have turned their arm over, but some are taking, or being given, more than their fair share of the work. Although like Boxer in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Conor Gibbons continues to give, give, give...
· 92 S Streek YMCA
· 78 Padraic Flanagan YMCA
· 77 Harry Tector YMCA
· 73 Tom Anders Phoenix
· 69 M Nurulain Boda Castleknock
· 69 A Sahota Sandymount
· 68 N Sharma Merrion
· 66 Conor Gibbons Malahide
· 64 Jinto Mathew Dundrum
· 64 James Smith Terenure
Best Bowling Analysis
To make this category now takes a minimum of 6 wickets in an innings. 37 players have 5 wicket hauls and a further 113 have four wicket hauls. Two of these have taken four wickets for no runs, which seems worth a mention (S Sudarsanan [Dundrum] and L Bingham [DUCC]) and another two players, Jono Cook [Pembroke] and AN Other have also taken 4/0. Jono’s was in an Alan Murray game where the result has not yet been submitted and ANOther has already beaten that for his best bowling.
7/30 Mick Cotter [Terenure]
7/49 N Anjum [WWCC]
6/9 William Clarke [Phoenix]
6/14 Susheel Kumar [R&SPU]
6/19 Sean McCarthy [Clontarf] and Harry Balbirnie [Pembroke]
6/33 Jeremy Dunleavy [Pembroke]
6/35 S Rahim [Adamstown]
6/39 M Collier [Clontarf]
6/41 E Conway [Rush]
Best Bowling Averages
A category which can throw up some unexpected names, although for anyone who has faced Ray Stapleton [Bagenalstown] can testify to his accuracy and longevity. Never been a great fan of poetry, but sometimes it seems appropriate in Ray’s case. 22 overs going for just 30 runs in four games with a wicket every 13 balls. Ten wickets at an average of 3.00.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.”
0.00 (4 wickets) L Bingham [DUCC]
1.00 (1) C Gomes [Adamstown]
1.00 (1) Sibu Jose [Swords]
2.00 (3) H Rafiq [Adamstown]
2.00 (2) A Ahmed [Slieve]
2.00 (1) O Sivanatham [Adamstown]
3.00 (10) Ray Stapleton [Bagenalstown]
3.00 (1) S Sreenivasan [Dundrum]
3.20 (5) T Dempsey [Phoenix]
3.33 (3) D Bertram [North County]
3.33 (3) M Quinn [Longford]
Dismissals in the field
This week the easy route has been taken and the list of dismissals in the field is catches plus stumpings. Catches are traditionally dominated by the glove-men and a large number of players shown here have kept at some stage if not full-time.
19 (13c+6s) Sam Murphy [YMCA]
18 (16+2) Robert Forrest [Clontarf]
(12+6) Richard Forrest [Leinster]
12 (9+3) Lorcan Tucker [Pembroke]
(8+4) H Habib [Adamstown]
11 (9+2) Mick Cotter [Terenure]
(11+0) J Grassi [North County]
10 (10+0) David Carthy [Rush]
(5+5) R Smith [Merrion]
9 (9+0) N Thambi [Dundrum] and Diarmuid Lynch [Terenure]
(7+2) M Donegan [The Hills]
Club statistics
Whilst arranging and re-arranging the figures kindly provided by Paul Reynolds some interesting* (the author’s definition of interesting may differ from yours) statistics.
Merrion and Leinster have used the most players with 93 each. Clontarf and Phoenix are next with 81 and 80. There is then a gap to the Park Avenue duo of Pembroke and R&SPU on 68 where they are joined by relative newbies, Adamstown. YMCA have used 66 and trail-blazers, Greystones are only one behind.
On an average point per game per player basis (can this get any more convoluted?) Slieve Bloom are in a class of one with a figure of 55 points per player per game as a result of having used only 12 players and their one team having a successful season, again.
The rest are closely packed as shown by the table of the top 20 Clubs.
Club – Players Used – Points per game per player.
1. Slieve Bloom 12 55.0
2. Balbriggan 37 41.7
3. Carl 15 41.7
4. North Kildare 48 41.0
5. YMCA 66 40.9
6. Malahide 62 40.6
7. Pembroke 68 40.1
8. Merrion 93 38.9
9. Phoenix 80 38.9
10. Clontarf 81 38.2
11. Adamstown 68 38.2
12. The Hills 48 37.7
13. R&SPU 68 37.7
14. Knockharley 38 37.0
15. Rush 47 37.0
16. Laois 36 36.6
17. Leinster 93 36.5
18. CSCC 64 35.0
19. Longford 29 34.7
20. North County 59 34.4
1,698 players have now taken to the field in LCUOCC games.
Finally for this week here are the top 3 overall point scorers for each Club.
pts rank Name Club
576 14 A Verma Adamstown
366 148 Harpreet Singh Adamstown
356 165 Hanan Maan Adamstown
328 210 S Ullah AIB
220 431 A Srikanthan AIB
199 506 D Iqbal AIB
356 165 L Ali Ashbourne
331 204 J Conway Ashbourne
299 248 T Bruton Ashbourne
520 35 N Srimal Jasinghe Bagenalstown
371 138 Colin O'Neill Bagenalstown
351 177 Ray Stapleton Bagenalstown
521 32 R Kear Balbriggan
313 230 E Ahmed Balbriggan
305 241 John Mooney Balbriggan
360 158 V Jain Cabinteely
351 177 A Abdullah Cabinteely
187 543 H Singaraju Cabinteely
473 55 R Butt Carl
353 171 S Kant Trikha Carl
223 419 M Islam Carl
588 12 M Nurulain Boda Castleknock
452 70 Balbir Singh Castleknock
397 113 K Narang Castleknock
358 164 Stephan Grobler CCCC
200 500 Matt Bauer CCCC
186 547 M Saddique CCCC
707 3 L Prior Clontarf
588 12 M Collier Clontarf
548 24 Robert Forrest Clontarf
421 86 A Shapon CSCC
401 112 M Syfuzzaman Khan CSCC
394 119 F Babar CSCC
412 96 P Kingston DUCC
394 119 W von Behr DUCC
355 168 N Rajwar DUCC
234 382 A Pike Dundalk
204 490 S McDonnell Dundalk
197 511 L Mathew Dundalk
746 2 N Thambi Dundrum
545 27 Jinto Mathew Dundrum
521 32 B Thambi Dundrum
486 48 Eoin Lenehan Greystones
474 54 P Jonker Greystones
465 61 Manpreet Singh Greystones
296 252 M Neville Halverstown
240 370 J Threadgold Halverstown
234 382 N Case Halverstown
365 150 Z Rasheed Knockharley
359 162 J Condie Knockharley
318 223 Tayyab Rashid Knockharley
359 162 R Mehraj Laois
344 185 Z Shauket Laois
286 268 M Ramazan Laois
594 9 Richard Forrest Leinster
548 24 V Jacob Leinster
417 92 M Usman Leinster
407 105 Conor O'Gorman Leinster
382 127 Ashir Javed Longford
380 128 F Khan Longford
340 190 S Sarfraz Longford
484 49 A Hashmi Lucan
424 84 A Ashraf Lucan
409 101 Manjinder Singh Lucan
544 28 W Kindley Malahide
504 39 N Boyne Malahide
498 44 Richard Wing Malahide
614 7 A Varma Merrion
478 53 R Smith Merrion
470 57 N Nagar Merrion
380 128 F Nasr Mullingar
273 291 T Mount Mullingar
272 293 W O'Neill Mullingar
663 6 B Parchment North County
523 31 Niall McGovern North County
496 46 Fionn Hand North County
693 4 Paul Ryan North Kildare
589 11 Manjeet Singh North Kildare
441 73 Loui Hofmeyr North Kildare
576 14 Ben Hoey Pembroke
549 22 Jeremy Dunleavy Pembroke
521 32 Achmed Carr Pembroke
504 39 Joe JP Prendergast Pembroke
675 5 Tom Anders Phoenix
433 79 S Anderson Phoenix
418 91 Masud Ahmed Phoenix
415 93 Susheel Kumar R&SPU
378 131 D Singh R&SPU
336 200 K Khan R&SPU
448 71 Declan Moore Ring Commons
188 537 Anto Coates Ring Commons
140 741 C Murtagh Ring Commons
591 10 David Carthy Rush
493 47 D Coffey Rush
484 49 K Rehman Rush
546 26 Ravinder Singh Sandyford
514 36 A Sahota Sandyford
503 41 Gurmeet Singh Sandyford
286 268 Peter Auret Slieve
169 609 D De Silva Slieve
128 800 Q Khan Slieve
569 17 Jerson Santhosh Swords
368 145 A Jacob Swords
252 341 M Jacob Swords
552 21 B Speake Terenure
549 22 Mick Cotter Terenure
508 37 James Smith Terenure
566 19 Tomas Rooney Murphy The Hills
525 30 H Archer The Hills
507 38 M Donegan The Hills
59 1224 S Goud Ayella Tyrrels
37 1381 S Pallae Tyrrels
32 1413 V Reddy Gaddam Tyrrels
469 59 T Koen Wicklow
404 110 D Rice Wicklow
396 115 Damian Joyce Wicklow
254 335 Nicky Fusco Wicklow
370 142 S Shaikh WWCC
356 165 N Anjum WWCC
133 772 T Murray WWCC
856 1 Harry Tector YMCA
605 8 N Johns YMCA
574 16 S Streek YMCA
The End....