This week we take a look at the fantasy figures on a divisional basis. It may be that these figures might give the OCC Starring List Committee a few things to think about, or it may not. It may raise questions regarding teams and their divisions, or it may not. It may even show which division the overall stars are playing in, or it may not. Statistics, as always, do not reflect the complete story. Like a drunken man and a lamppost, statistics are usually used more for support than illumination. As with all figures, there are provisos attached. These figures are up to last week and thus do not include the magnificent performances by Clontarf’s Currie and Poynter, nor indeed Bagnalstown 2 breaking their losing run which did go back to August 2012, until they “met and bet” Dundalk last weekend in the cup.
At this point I would also like to mention the Dublin Fire Brigade XI who defeated Pembroke 6th XI in a re-arranged first round cup game on Tuesday evening. A great result for the Firemen, but more importantly, a most enjoyable game of cricket which was played well within the Spirit of Cricket. They now go into the quarter finals and one hopes go even further.
Division 14
173 players have appeared in this division and top run scorer in this league is Wicklow County’s Khalid Chaudhary with 247 and no other players have over 200. Leading wicket taker is Balbriggan’s S. Cawley with 9.
Top point scorers – Div 14
Division 13
194 players have appeared in this division and top run scorer in this league is H. Shivmangal of Knockharley with 194. Leading wicket taker is Knockharley’s M. Rahman with 13 and S. Sudarsanan of Dundrum and J. Singh of Castleknock both have reached 10.
Top point scorers – Div 13
Division 12
190 players have appeared in this division and top run scorer in this league is Paul Byrne of R&SPU with 186 even though he has only played three games. Leading wicket taker is Manoj Jacob of Swords on 13, with both G. Howell of Merrion and DUCC’s N. Rajwar with 11 victims. DUCC also have another two players with 10 wickets, and V. Reddy of Merrion joins them on that mark.
Top point scorers – Div 12
Division 11
176 players in this league and leading run scorer is A. Hashmi of Lucan who must have played a big part in their league run, having scored 316 runs, whilst no other player has reached even 200. Leading the wicket takers with the ball is A. Mustafi of Lucan with 18 and Lucan also have another three who have at least 10 wickets, A. Verma (12), Manjinder Singh (11) and J. Kumar (11). Other players to have reached double figures are S. Mathews of Cabinteely (12), R. Kumar of Malahide (10) and M. Shazad Asim of Longford (10).
Top point scorers – Div 11
Division 10
188 players have made an appearance in this league and top run scorer with 241 runs is S. Illyas of Castleknock, but Rush’s K. Rehman has also crossed the 200 run barrier. Wickets are more evenly spread with 6 players having at least 10. Castleknock’s R. Abbasi leads with 11, but Slieve Bloom’s P. Auret, Rush’s J. Murphy and Adam Ellison, Clontarf’s H. Oppermann and Castleknock’s N. Qureshi all have 10.
Top point scorers – Div 10
Division 9
E. Lenehan also tops the run scorers with 280 and his closest challengers are more than 130 runs behind. He is also second on the wicket taking table although Terenure’s A. O’Neill leads that category with 13 and no-one else has even 10. 169 people have played Division 9 cricket.
Top point scorers – Div 9
Division 8
N. Srimal of Bagnalstown is the top run scorer with 186 and Dundalk’s A. Williams leads the wicket takers with 12. Three other players have breached the 10 barrier, R. Adi of Knockharley with 11 and again N. Srimal of Bagnalstown and H. Askew of Malahide who both have 10. 174 players have been involved although 8 have not troubled the scorers in the only game they played.
Top point scorers – Div 8
Division 7
S. Currie is the only player with more than 200 runs, having reached 239. No bowler has 10 wickets and only J. Mathew of Dundrum and K. Sabrie of Laois have even 8 wickets. 164 players have gained points in this league, even if it was only for turning up.
Top point scorers – Div 7
Division 6
S. Hussain of North Kildare leads the run scorers with 213, but two other players are hot on his heels having also passed 200 runs. Castleknock’s S. Tariq has 210 and Knockharely’s M. Ingamell has 204. Leading the bowlers are R&SPU’s S. Kumar and Sandyford’s ever-green Honorary Secretary Anto Burke who both have 12 victims and are the only ones to have passed 10. Consistency of selection seems to play a part in this league with a drop in numbers playing: 155.
Top point scorers – Div 6
Division 5
Fionn Hand of North County was the winner of the “Find-a-Bowler” competition earlier this season, but he can also bat as shown by his 240 runs, which are 54 more than the next highest. Only S. McGrath of Greystones has reached ten wickets amongst the bowlers.
Top point scorers – Div 5
Division 4
Runs appear to be hard to come by in this division with no player past 200 and whilst J. Dudgeon of Phoenix has 168, second placed Deepak Raj of Dundrum has only 121 with only a further 4 batsmen having in excess of 100. On the bowlers side Matt Lunson of Phoenix leads with 15 from 3 players who have just 8. Again the numbers appearing is dropping from the heights of the lower divisions with 142 playing.
Top point scorers – Div 4
Division 3
Again no batsmen have reached 200 runs, but D. Delany of Clontarf leads with 190, of which 131 came in one innings. K. Clarke of North County is leading wicket taker with 13 and no other bowler has more than 8. Although 130 players have played in this division, 97 have played less than three games.
Top point scorers – Div 3
Now here is a division with runs, and plenty of them. Balbriggan’s M. Farrukh leads the way with 473 ahead of the Leinster Lightning and Malahide’s Fintan McAllister who has 409. J. Tazman-Jones has 353 and a further 10 players have crossed 200 runs: S. Grobler (Cork County) 285; H. Pike (DUCC) 276; S. Doheny (Rush) 259; J. Paul O’Dwyer (Leinster) 253; P. Johnston (Leinster) 251; C. Riches (Malahide) 242; S. Iqbal (Rush) 226; E. Ahmed (Balbriggan) 225; R. Strydom (Malahide) 206; and Adrian Harper (Balbriggan) 204.
Bowlers too are making their mark here with a dozen past 10 wickets. P. Chase of Malahide and V. Mohanan of Clontarf both have sent 16 batsmen back to the hutch and the rest of the dozen are: on 13 wickets R. Kear (Balbriggan) and A Morris (Malahide), on 12 wickets A. Siddique (Cork County), on 11 wickets M. Farrukh (Balbriggan), W. Vohn Behr (DUCC), Duane Harper (Balbriggan) and M. Ahmed (Phoenix) and on 10 wickets, E. Peterson (Phoenix), Gareth Delany (Leinster) and M. Junaid Amin (Cork County). 167 players have taken the field and 61 have played less than three times.
Top point scorers – Div 2
Division 1
Even without last weekend’s superb performances where he scored over 300 runs without dismissal, Andrew Poynter leads the division is runs scored. 408 runs scored, it must be remembered against the best bowlers in the province. Second place is Irish international and R&SPU stalwart Kenny Carroll with 388. Merrion’s B. Thompson has 357 whilst last season’s run machine for R&SPU, Pat Collins has 333. Merrion’s Ben Ackland (295), John Mooney (288) leads the Leinster Lightning but also the North County Firsts run tallies, whilst YMCA’s Simi Singh has 271. Pembroke overseas player Jono Cook has 263 and North County’s T. Affleck has 249. Also above 200 are: P. Moor (YMCA) [238], Tom Fisher (YMCA) 238, E. Delany (Clontarf) 225, Ryan Hopkins (Pembroke) 223, SJP Moreton (Terenure) 222 and Conor McLoughlin (The Hills) 201.
Division One bowlers are also excelling with Y. Ali (YMCA) leading with 16 wickets. Jono Cook of Pembroke has 15 as does the Merrion pair of John Anderson and D. Carolus. On 13 wickets are North County’s T. Affleck and Pembroke’s Fiachra Tucker. 12 wickets sees YMCA’s Simi Singh, North County’s Eddie Richardson, The Hills’ N. Shoukat, Clontarf’s Z. Van Der Merve and C. Kelly. Conor D’Arcy also of Clontarf and Luke Clinton of The Hills both have 11. Also reaching double figures are North County’s John Mooney, Tyrone Kane of Merrion, J. Morrissey of Clontarf and R. Gamble of YMCA.
135 players, 465 wickets and 10,645 runs, “Now that’s what I call cricket!”
Top point scorers – Div 1
It is worth noting that no player appears in the top 10 point scorers in more than one division and that a combined table of the top 10’s sees 14 of the top 15 come from Divisions 1 and 2. The cream really does rise to the top. The only player from outside these divisions to make the top 15 of points scored in a single division is E. Lenehan of Greystones in Division 9, whose total of 570 points is enough for 11th place.
Which division has scored the most fantasy points year to date? Well there is no surprise that Division 1 has the most points scored, but what does surprise is the gap between Division 1, Division 2 and the rest.
And finally, in response to a request received by email last week, a split of all catches taken (with and without gloves) by division.
Division Catches
Perhaps one day we will be able to do a split of dismissals by division. Which division would YOU think has the most, or least LBW decisions given? The leagues with neutral umpires perhaps? Maybe we would all be surprised….. maybe…..maybe not.