This week sees little change to the order of the top 10 points scorers. Pat Collins [R&SPU] has extended his lead over the chasing pack, having scored 180 points last week, whilst Simon Rice [Greystones] and E. Richardson [North County] retain the podium positions. Despite no RSA Senior Cup Final being played, Simmi Singh [YMCA] stays in fourth ahead of L. Jansen [Rush] and Diarmaid Tucker [Pembroke]. R. Gallagher [Malahide] moves up one place to seventh, overtaking I. Smillie [Clontarf]. The most dramatic move, at the top of the table, sees R. Abbasi [Castleknock] leap from 36th position last week to 9th this week. Four games worth of points, suggesting either a large number of games were not entered in time for last weeks figures or he has been playing every other day this week. Given the weather we experienced, one feels safe to say that it is liable to be the former. Tenth place goes to Fiachra Tucker [Pembroke].
Now for a quick run through the various categories and their leaders. First up, appearances are lead by Simon Rice [Greystones] who has now played 28 games. Where does he get the time? J. Kerrigan [Leinster] is but one game behind on 27 and a further 45 players have played twenty games or more.
Now we move onto the batting categories. 877 runs for Pat Collins leaves him 65 ahead of L. Jansen [Rush] and only one, albeit excellent, innings away from breaking the 1,000 runs barrier. It would have to be a season’s best innings for Pat, beating his current best of 120*. You wouldn’t bet against it though with the form he has shown this summer and perhaps with the Alan Murray plus league games this weekend he may not need a massive single innings. 28 players have scored more than 500 runs and a further 125 have more than 300.
J. Quinlan [Merrion] has returned to the field of play and, in scoring 7 last week, has seen his average fall from a table topping 168.00 to 87.50. Pat Collins is third, with 877 in 15 innings and 6 not outs giving an average of 97.44. Above him in second is B. Adams of Phoenix. In 9 innings he has only been dismissed once and has scored 102 runs. Top of the table is a member of Walnut Taverners, I. Cox. Two innings, one of 4 and the other of 103 not out produce the table topping average of 104.00. Fifty players are averaging over 50.00.
Five centuries in a season for Pat Collins merely underlines his great form this season and remains two ahead of L. Jansen. 11 players have scored two centuries and deserve recognition. E. Richardson and John Mooney [both North County], Kenny Carroll [R&SPU], R. Forrest [Leinster], T. Lynch [Terenure Titans], W. O’Neill [Mullingar], C. Keene [Sandyford], C. McLoughlin [The Hills], M. Mughal [Laois], M. Safeen [Civil Service] and S. McGrath [Greystones]. A total of 110 centuries are shared between 93 players.
800 half centuries by 495 players shows how much more difficult it must be to reach a century. Three player have reached 50 six times this season, K. Khan [R&SPU], R. Abbasi [Civil Service] and S. Iqbal [Rush]. Eight players have five half centuries and a further 185 have scored more than one.
A. Botha’s 170 remains the highest score this season with two players having made 168, one not out, H. Pike [Dublin University] and one dismissed, J. Quinlan [Merrion].
Simon Rice [Greystones] requires just one more wicket to reach 50 for the season and is 15 ahead of his nearest challenger, Fiachra Tucker. Brother Diarmaid Tucker is a further wicket behind on 33 together with Adam Ellison [Rush}, B. White [Phoenix] and Simon’s club colleague, M. Singh. Simon and Fiachra also top the overs bowled list, with Simon having sent down 152.4 overs and Fiachra 150.4 overs. 1,509 players have bowled, although only 366 have bowled more than 50 overs.
I. Mohammad [North Kildare] is the only player to have 3 five wicket hauls, whilst a further 12 players have done so twice. 95 other players have achieved this milestone once.
Nic Pretorius [The Hills] leads the catches with 19, whilst S. Smith [Cork] has an average of 3 catches per game. Ignoring those players who have played one or two games, I. Coleman [Cork] has 1.55 catches per game over an impressive nine games. J. Cassidy [YMCA] and M. Cotter [Terenure Titans] lead the stumpings with 7 each whilst 89 keepers have whipped off the bails in time at least once.
Moving away from the top of the tables, who is Mr. Average out of our 2,119 players who have taken to the field of play? How he is doing this season? Well, he has played in seven games, as 129 players have done, and had 6 innings, with one not out and a batting average of 14.487. The average total run scored, which does not tally with the other figures, is 93, which has been matched or bettered by 703 players. 4.58 wickets taken and 1.75 catches held, but not even 1/10th of a stumping. So who are the candidates for Mr. Average?
Having co-incidentially both scored 72 runs in five innings for an average of 14.40, the closest to average batting average goes to S. Ahmed [R&SPU] and B. Duggan [Clontarf].
Seven players match the average total of 93 runs, Zach Kelly [Malahide], R. Rye and S. Morrissey [both Merrion], V. Kumar and N. Smillie [both Clontarf], B. Varghese [Cabinteely] and O. Sivanantham [Adamstown].
Hard to pick out a Mr. Average wicket taker with 93 players having taken 5, but five wickets at the bowling average of 15.50 finds two players very close. S. Mehta [Pembroke] and R. Munwar Hossain [Cabinteely] are both within 0.1 of that average.
However, in a fantasy points table, when looking for Mr. Average the most important figure is average total points, which this week is 280.8 points. Closest to this figure are two players on 280 points, David O’Riordan [Pembroke] and P. Nair [Merrion]. Both have managed to reach this total without taking a wicket and with one catch between them. Hardly average across the board, but close enough for the title of Mr. Average.
As usual, you can request the figures for an individual, Club or the entire spreadsheet at craig@cricket.ie and it has been heartening to receive mails from a number of you. I thank you for your feedback, and also if there is any areas you’d like to see covered, please do let me know. I am now off to sunny Manchester for day 2 of the Ashes Test and hope that the weather relents enough to avoid too many re-fixes next week.