Fantasy by Division - 1

Division 1

Champions – The Hills

League MVP – Eddie Richardson [North County]

The Hills deservedly won the Division 1 title, winning 11 of their 14 games, which was one victory ahead of Merrion. Merrion did score 9 more bonus points, but it was not enough to overhaul The Hills. YMCA in third were a further win behind with 9, whilst Pembroke made sure of a second successive season in the top division for the first time in ten years and finished fourth.

Leinster and Phoenix fell adrift of the others early on in the season and although they both won three games, they were a couple of wins away from safety and will be playing in Division 2 in 2014.

Eddie Richardson [North County] was named as the Club Player of the Year at the RSA Cricket Ireland Awards and so it is only right that he appears at the top of the fantasy points table for Division 1, despite sharing the overall fantasy crown with Pat Collins [R&SPU]. Eddie’s score of 1,667 is also the highest achieved by any divisional winner. Eddie’s margin of victory in Division 1 was 149 points ahead of Simmi Singh [YMCA], whilst Pat Collins [R&SPU] finishes in third place. The top ten point scorers in this Division were as follows. The Hills all-round performances are shown with players in 5^th, 6^th and 7^th places, whereas second placed Merrion have players in 4^th, 8^th and 9^th:

1. 1,667 – Eddie Richardson [North County]
2. 1,518 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]
3. 1,374 – Pat Collins [R&SPU]
4. 1,050 – John Anderson [Merrion]
5. 940 – Matt Sorenson [The Hills]
6. 921 – Nic Pretorius [The Hills]
7. 906 – N. Shoukat [The Hills]
8. 881 – B. Thompson [Merrion]
9. 843 – T. Kane [Merrion]
10. 782 – Stephen Moreton [Leinster]

162 players made appearances in Division 1, with only 24 players appearing just the once. The commitment of Division 1 players is shown with the amount who did not miss a single game. 8 players from 5 clubs were ever-present with a further 19 players who only missed one game. The ever-presents were: Simmi Singh, A. Van der Merwe and Jack Tector [all YMCA]; Nic Pretorius and N. Shoukat [both The Hills]; S. Raza [Phoenix]; N. Rowe [Merrion] and; Paul Lawson [Pembroke].

Thirteen players passed 400 runs in Division 1 and they are all shown below. Eddie Richardson [North County] leads this category by 63 runs from Pat Collins [R&SPU] and was the only Division 1 player to top 700 league runs:

• 737 – Eddie Richardson [North County]
• 674 – Pat Collins [R&SPU]
• 631 – B. Thompson [Merrion]
• 538 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]
• 485 – Conor Armstrong [North County]
• 481 – C. McLoughlin [The Hills]
• 461 – Nic Pretorius [The Hills] & Ben Ackland [Merrion]
• 460 – John Anderson [Merrion]
• 445 – M. Baumgart [The Hills]
• 460 – Matt Sorenson [The Hills]
• 421 – R. Strydom [YMCA]
• 405 – Kenny Carroll [R&SPU]

19 centuries were scored in the top Division. Pat Collins scored four centuries, two fo which were undefeated. In order of highest scores, the centurions were:

• 140* - Kenny Carroll [R&SPU]
• 121 & 106 – Eddie Richardson [North County]
• 120 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]
• 118*, 113, 102* & 102 - Pat Collins [R&SPU]
• 118 – John Anderson [Merrion]
• 113 – Conor Armstrong [North County]
• 111* - C. McLoughlin [The Hills]
• 110 – C. Kelly [Phoenix] & Conor Armstrong [North County]
• 109* - R. Strydom [YMCA]
• 109 – John Mooney [North County]
• 104 – Nic Pretorius [The Hills]
• 102* - B. Thompson [Merrion]
• 101 – T. Kane [Merrion]
• 100 – M. Baumgart [The Hills]

5 batsmen failed to convert ninties into hundreds by various amounts. Kenny Carroll (98*) [R&SPU]; John Mooney (97*) [North County]; A. Ward (96) [Leinster]; Jeremy Bray (94) [YMCA] and R. Strydom (92) [YMCA].

109 half centuries were recorded by 55 players, with 31 players making more than one. Top of the list was B. Thompson [Merrion] who raised his bat for a fifty seven times as well as once for a century. The multiple fifty scorers were:

• 7 – B. Thompson [Merrion].
• 5 – Eddie Richardson [North County].
• 4 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]; C. McLoughlin, Nic Pretorious and Matt Sorenson [all The Hills]; Ben Ackland [Merrion].
• 3 – John Anderson [Merrion]; M. Ahmed [Phoenix]; A. Van der Merwe [YMCA]; Andrew Balbirnie [Pembroke]; T. Sheil [North County].
• 2 -  Pat Collins, M. Tariq, Kenny Carroll & J. Uddin [all R&SPU]; Conor Armstrong & Shane Getkate [both North County]; R. Strydom & Jeremy Bray [both YMCA]; C. Kelly, S. Ali & C. Dickeson [all Phoenix]; Barry McCarthy, Robin Russell, Theo Lawson and Ryan Hopkins [all Pembroke]; A. Ward, Stephen Moreton and R. Forrest [all Leinster] and; N. Shoukat [North County]

The top 5 batting averages are the same whether there is a cut off mark or not. There are no statistical anomalies in this division and so only one batting average table is required:

1. 81.89 – Eddie Richardson [North County]
2. 74.89 – Pat Collins [R&SPU]
3. 63.10 – B. Thompson [Merrion]
4. 60.14 – R. Strydom [YMCA]
5. 57.50 – John Anderson [Merrion]

There were 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: Bill Whaley (23/2), Max Byers (13/1) and Gary Baugh [all Pembroke]; K. Ali (8/2), D. Bertram (4/1) [both North County]; W. Archer (3/1) [The Hills] and ; Jeff Short (2/2) [Merrion].

785 wickets fell to 88 bowlers in this Division. Again, our MVP Eddie Richardson tops this category as well. It’s really isn’t any surprise he was named theRSA Cricket Ireland Club Player of the Year. The top 5 (and ties) wicket takers were:

1. 33 – Eddie Richardson [North County]
2. 32 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]
3. 23 – Allan Eastwood [Pembroke]
4. 22 – N. Shoukat [The Hills]
5. 21 – Pat Collins [R&SPU], B. Azhar [Leinster] and Y. Ali [YMCA].

The bowling averages would normally come in two tables, in a similar fashion to the other divisions reviewed. However only one bowler in the averages table would not qualify for the second table (minimum 16 wickets) so rather than subject the reader to two tables the top six bowling averages are shown with the one bowler who would not have taken 16 wickets in italics:

• 15.38 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]
• 15.50 – Matt Dwyer [The Hills]
• 16.00 - Pat Collins [R&SPU]
• 16.18 – John Anderson [Merrion]
• 16.19 – Y. Ali [YMCA]
• 16.40 – T. Kane [Merrion]

In order of the best bowling analyses, the  players who took a five wicket haul were as follows, although the one player to do so twice was, yes of course, Eddie Richardson [North County]:

• 7/33 – Pat Collins [R&SPU]
• 6/24 & 6/39 – Eddie Richardson [North County]
• 5/18 – Trent Johnston [YMCA]
• 5/26 – John Anderson [Merrion]
• 5/27 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]
• 5/39 – S. Davis [Phoenix]
• 5/43 – Robert Garth [YMCA]
• 5/58 – Allan Eastwood [Pembroke]

Y. Ali [YMCA] also deserves a mention, for although he did not take a five wicket haul he did twice take 4 wickets; 4/9 and 4/10.

Plenty of bowlers were pushed through the 100 overs barrier and rather than just show the top 5 they all deserve recognition for doing so:

• 126.1 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]
• 122.4 – Eddie Richardson [North County]
• 117.4 – N. Shoukat [The Hills]
• 117.2 – B. Azhar [Leinster]
• 113.3 – Allan Eastwood [Pembroke]
• 111.2 – N. Rowe [Merrion]
• 106.0 – S. Raza [Phoenix]
• 104.2 – Y. Ali [YMCA]
• 102.2 – C. Shiel [North County]
• 101.4 – Paul Lawson [Pembroke]

408 players held at least one of the 111 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 they were regular keepers or not):

• 20 – Nic Pretorius* [The Hills]
• 13 – Simmi Singh [YMCA]
• 11 – C. Diviney* [R&SPU]
• 10 – A. Van der Merwe [YMCA] & B. Ackland [Merrion]

30 stumpings by 11 keepers:

• 5 – J. Cassidy [YMCA]
• 4 – Nic Pretorius [The Hills], C. Diviney [R&SPU] and S. Ali [Phoenix]
• 3 – B. Ackland [Merrion], Lee Cole [YMCA]
• 2 - Lorcan Tucker [Pembroke], R. Forrest [Leinster]
• 1 – Jeremy Bray [YMCA], B. Smyth [North County] and M. Ingram [R&SPU]

• Only 10 players made it to the middle and failed to score a run. M. Singh [North County had four games to try and even two attempts in the middle, but did not score a run.
• W. Lennon and R. Geraghty [both Leinster] bowled 10 overs without taking a wicket and
• N. Rowe [Merrion] played in every possible game (14) without taking a catch.
• Player Unregistered was not required in Division 1 and it would have been a surprise if he had.

 In terms of players used (including Player Unregistered), the league looks like this:

• 23 – North County
• 22 – Merrion
• 20 – Pembroke & Phoenix
• 19 – The Hills, Leinster & R&SPU
• 18 = YMCA

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, the author’s Club or anyone else dead, undead or actually living. They might match your views, but if they do, you might consider changing them. They are for entertainment purposes only and should not be used in a real discussion about talent. Any feedback or requests for individual, team, Club or all-encompassing statistics may be sent to craig@cricket.ie.