JACK CARTY – 2021 SAMUELS CUP WINNER!

The winner of the Samuels Cup, for the leading all-rounder for the 2021 season, has today been confirmed as Jack Carty of Merrion CC. Jack’s haul of 466 runs and 23 wickets gave him 926 points in the all-rounder stakes, putting himself 359 points clear of next best in the league, Gavin Hoey of Pembroke.

Carty has become the 4^th different Merrion player to win the Samuels Cup since 2011, following in the footsteps of Dom Joyce who won that year, John Anderson who’s claimed the award twice, in 2012 and ’18, and Max Sorenson who claimed the trophy in 2019.

The highlight of Carty’s season was no doubt his man of the match performance in the SportsHub Senior League Cup final in late July, when he made 59 in the first innings and then bowled two overs at the death taking 1/9 when YMCA looked like they had given themselves a chance of winning, he then put in another excellent big-game performance in the BUAKIT Premier League final against Pembroke, making 55 as his side compiled 261 which proved to be a winning total.

The most startling part of the players in contention for this trophy is arguably the age of the players who were leading the way – the winner Carty is 26 years old, and the next three players on the list, Gavin Hoey (19), Mitchell Thompson (19) and Rory Anders (23) were all even younger. All three of those, as well as Carty featured prominently in the Leinster Lightning Bolts programme as well as appearing in the senior InterPros this year.

Whilst this remains relatively comparable with the ages of those in the top 5 bowling averages, when compared to the top 5 batting averages, where 3 of the players are aged 32 and older, it shows the strength of the younger players who are now starting to make their mark on the top level of club cricket in Leinster.

Congratulations from all at Cricket Leinster to Jack on winning the Samuels Cup for the 2021 season.