Division 9
Champions – Dublin University 2
League MVP – Diarmaid Lynch [Terenure]
Division 9 was a strange league. Two teams, Dublin University and Knockharley, ran clear at the top of the table, leaving the remaining seven to dispute the relegation places.
Dublin University were the early pace setters and they set the standard early with their season finishing on 3 June. They went on to emerge as undefeated champions with eight wins from a possible eight plus 24 bonus points (from a possible 40) to finish their season with 92%. Knockharley’s record would, in any other year, have seen them probably crowned as Divisional champions. However two defeats meant they had to settle for second. These two teams were in a league of their own as they finished a full 30.31% ahead of third placed YMCA.
For the remaining seven teams the season became a battle to avoid the relegation places and only three wins came between third placed YMCA and bottom of the table, Terenure. Joining Terenure in the relegation places were North County as both won only 4 games, whilst YMCA won 7 games.
As has been the case in all divisions covered thus far, the MVP did not come from the division champions. As mentioned in a previous roundup the Dublin University players are handicapped in their pursuit of Fantasy points by only playing each other time once. Diarmaid Lynch [Terenure] was neither leading run scorer nor wicket taker, but a consistent all-round season saw his take the title from R. Hussian [Knockharley] by a full 91 points. The top ten point scorers in this Division were:
One player played in every possible game, M. Cotter [Terenure]. Four Dublin University players made maximum appearances possible for their team, R. Kane, F. O’Halloran, K. O’Connor and L. Jordan.
With Dublin University playing each team only once, the maximum number of games was 15. 267 players appeared in this team Division, with 68 appearing just the once. The top five and ties for appearances were:
No batsman scored more than 400 runs in Division 9. R. Kane [Dublin University] would have probably topped this table if Dublin University had played a full league programme. The top five run scorers were:
5 centuries were scored in Division 9, with no one player scoring more than one. The centurions were (in highest score order):
Donal Lynch (125) [Terenure], J. Meier (112) [YMCA], K. O’Connor (111) [Dublin University], R. Kane (106*) [Dublin University] and S. Sludds [North County]. O. Saleem [Knockharley] was close to reaching three figures, but fell one run short. Others to come close were: J. Ingamells (98) [Knockharley] and Daniel Hogan (97) [Terenure].
72 half centuries were recorded by 49 players, with 13 players making more than one. Top of the list was Sanil Thomas [Swords] who made four fifties with a highest score of 70. The players who made more than one fifty were:
With regards to the batting averages, following receipt of a representation there are now two batting average categories. One for the statistical, with no minimum runs, with no qualifying target and another for the players who have scored over 320 runs in the season. This will then hopefully include those players who have played more games, scored more runs, but still allows those players who may have only played a handful of games to shine.
The batting average with no qualifying targets is headed by the batting average with with runs from his innings in this Division. The top 5 batting averages (with no qualifications, but innings shown in brackets) were as follows:
The top batting averages for batsmen who scored over 320 runs were as follows. Only four batsmen reached the 320 runs qualifying total:
Note also has to be taken of R. Kane [Dublin University] who scored 319 runs at an average of 63.80 who needed one more run to top this table and only had half a league programme.
There were 7 batsmen who technically have an average of infinity, having scored runs and not been dismissed at all. They are shown here with their runs and number of innings: C. Whelan [Leinster] (38/1), T. Bruton [Knockharley] (23/1), D. Rice [YMCA] (20/1), Charles Richards [Leinster] (17/1), Roney Zacharia [Swords] (6/1), D. Goode [Terenure] (4/1) and M. Rehman [Knockharley] (2/1).
856 wickets fell to bowlers in this Division. 137 bowlers took at least one wicket. P. Mount [Mullingar] led this category with 29 wickets, five clear of anyone else. The top 5 (and ties) wicket takers were:
In a similar fashion to the batting averages figures, we have now two bowling average categories. The qualifying mark for the second average table is 16 wickets, whilst the first table requires no minimums.
The top five (and ties) bowling averages (no minimum) were as follows with the number of wickets taken in brackets also:
The top five (and ties) bowling averges with a minimum mark of 16 wickets (wickets shown in brackets) were:
In order of the best bowling analyses, the players who took a five wicket haul were as follows, although overall points winner Diarmaid Lynch [Terenure] managed to do it more than once.
James Mooney [North County] was the most heavily worked bowler in the Division with 93.5 overs sent down and the top five bowlers in terms of overs delivered were as follows.
Top of the catches category are two wicket-keepers, M. Cotter [Terenure] and M. Haider [Mullingar]. 126 players held at least one of the 293 catches this season in this Division. The top five (and ties) were as follows (players who also had a stumping are shown with an * although we do not know if any were regular keepers or if they were keepers but couldn’t get a stumping):
The Division saw 19 stumpings, with M. Cotter with more than a quarter of the total. Knockharley have three of the total with three different names. Ten keepers managed to stump at least one and all ten are named here.
Player Unregistered played just one game for Knockharley and scored 29 runs.
In terms of players used (including Player Unregistered), the league looks like this:
Post-script: In previous articles, Terenure had been referred to by this author as Terenure Titans. Terenure were formed in the early years of the twentieth century as CYM and retained this name until very recently. However, in what I assume (correctly or otherwise) was an attempt to broaden their appeal and to reflect the diversity of the club membership the name was changed to Terenure. Shortly after the change, during a visit to play their Third XI a leaflet advertising a Club’s social event was found in the away dressing room which included the phrase from the film “Any Given Sunday”, ‘remember the Titans’. From then on the name Terenure Titans stuck and seemed to fit the new logo. It has been nothing more sinister than that. It appeared to meet the current day requirements of nicknames and has been used in the fantasy columns since. However, the Terenure Twitter page happened to take issue with it during the season and wonder why if it was used, why YMCA were not referred to as Young Men etc. No disrespect to Terenure or its members was intended and therefore the club will now be referred to as Terenure going forward.
Disclaimer….As with all of these articles, the views expressed therein of those of the author and definitely do not represent those of the Leinster Cricket Union. They might match your views, but if they do, it is more likely to be a co-incidence than anything else. They are to be considered merely the inconsequential ramblings of a fool. Any feedback or requests for individual, team, Club or all-encompassing statistics may be sent to craig@cricket.ie.