The best and worst of ...... North County

The latest in our series of the "Best and Worst" looks at the one truly "Great" side to have come out of Leinster during this century.

I know, I know. What is the definition of great? How can you quantify such a meaningless phrase? Well, we've looked at all the sides who have been ranked as number one in the island since 2000. There will be much more analysis of this in future weeks, but for now we can say that there are twelve teams that have been at number one for at least one day. The sixth placed team on the list is YMCA, who have been number one for 117 days. All the other teams above YMCA have been number one for at least 300 days - and that is our dividing line between very good and great.

North County were at the peak of their powers between August 2005 and July 2009, winning the league in 2005 and 2006, the league cup in 2009, and the icing on the cake - the 2005, 2007 and 2008 Irish Senior Cups. There were gaps in that period (no Alan Murray T20 Cup, no Leinster Senior Cups), but they were the team that changed the perception of Leinster teams being the poor relations.

There is a detailed look at the make up of that team below, but before we look at the best, we need to find out where North County came from.

North County's low - rating 65.450 - ranking - 31st - date April 29 2001 - after 22 run loss to YMCA

All things are relative. North County's lowest rating came on the back of a promotion from the second tier of Leinster league cricket. The then lost the first match of the season in the 2001 League Cup. At that stage, it would have been understandable for opponents to think that North County were going to struggle in the league, and would be relegation material.

The team that lost to YMCA at the begining of the 2001 season, wasn't too far from the team that dominated for much of the next decade. Andre Botha had arrived from Clontarf, but apart from that, the other ten were all men of Fingal, with Dara and Conor Armstrong, Paul and John Mooney, Joe Murphy, Paddy Martin and John Andrews perhaps the best known.

This match (the scorecard here on Cricket Europe)that saw North County's low point saw Alan Lewis top score for YMCA with 54 as YM made 194-7 with Paul Mooney doing the most damage for County with 3-31. Mooney completed a brilliant all round match with 54 himself, but Stu Taylor took 3-33 as the visitors finished 22 runs short.

This being a low point in County's history is in itself a bit of a misnomer. They won their next four group matches, before beating Phoenix in the semi final and Merrion in the final. It was the first major title for North County.

North County's high - rating 122.751 - ranking - 1st - date April 28 2009 - after 6 wicket win over Merrion (at end of 2008 season)

After eleven major trophies (a twelfth came with the 2010 league) North County reached their peak. They first became the number one on the island in August 2005, and had a prolonged tussle with North Down over the next four years to see who the top dog was. The two only met once in the Irish Senior Cup in this period - in July 2005 with Eoin Morgan scored 142* to help County to a big win.

North County's last Irish Senior Cup win was on 6th September 2008, when they beat Donemana by 53 runs. County lost to The Hills a week later, but they finished the season with wins over Leinster and Merrion to finish the season with their highest ever rating.

That final match saw County chase down Merrion's 218 from 50 overs with 15 overs to spare for the loss of only four wickets (scorecard here on Cricket Europe). From that low point seven years before, there were a number of major changes. Reinhardt Strydom came into the team, as well as Richard Lawrence and a handful of locally produced players - Eddie Richardson. Ciaran Garry, Tomas Shiel and Duane Harper.

That match was pretty much the end of an era, although nearly a decade later, many of those players still make North County a major player on the Leinster scene.