14 December 2011

As I'm sure you've all heard, Eimear Richardson collapsed in the middle of a match whilst playing for Central Disticts Hinds in New Zealand. News has reached us that she has had a thorough check out in the hospital, and no problems have been found.

All at Leinster wish Eimear a speedy recovery!

In the first round of the Irish Senior Cup, the 1sts have been drawn away to Lisburn, in a repeat of the 2009 quarter final, which we won by 3 wickets. The top scorers in that match have since gone on to greater things, with Craig Ervine of Lisburn now playing test cricket for Zimbabwe, and a certain Carlos Brathwaite plying his trade for the West Indies whilst George Dockrell also took 2-22. Which future international cricketers will be playing in this year's match?

Lisburn had a fairly solid mid-table season in the NCU Premier League in 2011, so it makes for a pretty even match-up

The tie is to be held on Saturday 12th May

On paper, the 1st team's season was pretty successful. In the trophy cabinet it was less so, and in the cold, hard bitten world we call reality, the jury is still out.

Firstly the trophy cabinet, the easiest part of the season to quantify. Nada. There will be room for the Minor Cup, and the Division 3 trophy, as well as assorted bowls, tennis, squash and table tennis trophies. There were a few close ones though. Runners up in Division 2, runners up in the Alan Murray 20/20, quarter finalists in the Irish Senior Cup (and defeated by the eventual winners Waringstown), and somehow defeated to the eventual winners Merrion in the Leinster Senior Cup. So not to be sniffed at, but disappointing anyway.

When looked at in detail, the season throws up more questions than it answers. That last match loss to Terenure was galling, less in the result, than in the fact that so little fight was put up. It appeared not to matter. Individually there were plenty of good performances, tempered somewhat by the fact that Division 2 is not Division 1 (in fact it's hardly Division 2).

In all cricket, six batsmen scored over 250 runs, all at an average of over 30. The sextet were Mark Jones (712 at 30.96), Anton Scholtz (605 at 33.61), Craig Mallon (541 at 36.07), JP O'Dwyer (426 at 30.43), Zac Curtis (329 at 32.9) and Joey Carroll (285 at 31.67). Corey Edwards was the other heavy scorer, 349 at 24.93. Decent performances, and with a couple more big knocks, it's possible that the season would have been a glorious success. There were no hundreds scored, but one in the last match against Terenure, the Alan Murray final, and maybe one against Waringstown, and the trophy cabinet would have been groaning. If, if, if.

The bowling told a similar tale to the batting, with five players taking most of the wickets, all at decent averages. Corey Edwards came top with 43 wickets at 16.28, but Peter Byrne grabbed the headlines with 14.26. Anton Scholtz, Joey Carroll and Will Lennon were the other three. 

So what's not to praise? The squad was small, and the feeling is that without players in depth, Division 1 could be a struggle. Hugh McDonnell, Gareth Delany and Sunny Faizan aside, youth isn't exactly on the team's side (the youth quotient was 2.9% the lowest of the seven sides). But hey, we're back in Division 1, and it seems that the quality in the top Division is lower than it was in 2010. A few judicious signings and anything is possible.

In the all time Senior stats, Mark Jones moved up to 3rd with 7143 runs., overtaking Joe Byrne in the process. JP O'Dwyer moved up three places to 18th with 3272 runs (overtaking Mssrs Caprani, Marchant and Ganly in the process). Anton Scholtx moved up to 26th with 2505 senior runs, Will Lennon to 33rd with 1737, Craig Mallon to 36th with 1622 and David Lucas moved from 41st to 40th, overtaking Joe Byrne snr in the process.

Looking at the bowlers, Peter Byrne passed Paddy Boland, to move from 14th to 13th with 230 wickets at 21.23 and Will Lennon moved from 19th to 17th, and now has 192 wickets.

Top batsmen - Mark Jones Top bowler - Corey Edwards Youth quotient (%age of matches played that were youth players) - 2.9%, If the 1sts were a team at the RWC 2011, they'd be - Ireland. Did OK apart from a bad result at the end. But what now for the Golden Generation? Is there anything left in the tank?

Paul Delany led the 3rds on 2011 with a mission to get more youth players playing, and compared to the other teams so far covered, the team was a roaring success. A third of all matches played for the team were youth players, ie 3-4 players on every team that took the field had were wither taking their Leaving Cert this year, or were younger. Whether that is good enough is for others to judge.

With this youth remit, success in the results column is relative. The bottom of Division 5 was a bit of a dog fight, and a crucial win at the end of the season against Clontarf was enough for the 3rds to get 4th place.

The cups were less successful - first rouond losses to Merrion in the Middle Cup, and Pembroke in the YM Salver, which in fairness were tough draws in each.

The batting was a little difficult to fathom. Eleven players passed 100 runs (including the ever improving batsman Rob O'Connor), but only three od those went on to pass 150. Those three were Will Rolfe (225 at 18.75), Paul Delany (228 at 17.54) and the one player who probably stopped the thirds from being relegated - the returning Kevin O'Herlihy, who came back "home" and scored a massively important 236 runs at 47.2.

The bowling was much more successful, and was full of nous. Rob O'Connor, Paul Delany and David Lappin all passed 15 wickets, along with Stephen Pulbrooke, who had the best average of these four, with 16 wickets at 16.

So not the worst of seasons, and it showed that LCC can play more than a token youth player on some sides. More needed!

Top batsmen - Kevin O'Herlihy Top bowler - Rob O'Connor Youth quotient (%age of matches played that were youth players) - 30.1%, If the 3rds were a team at the RWC 2011, they'd be - Japan. Not the best results on the pitch, but a glimpse of what could be seen in the future

Another distinctly odd season. Division 8 had both Ireland Women and Trinity 2nds in it, meaning that even with a full league season, the 5ths would only have played 12 league matches. Rain then did for another three, so the entire season of league cricket consisted of only 9 games. Eight of these were won, but crucially the one that was lost was against eventual champions Pembroke 4.

In that match, Pembroke scraped home by three wickets after the final ball went for six with the scores level. A slight miscue off that last ball, a catch on the boundary, and Leinster would have won the league. On such small margins is sporting success lost.

The Middle 2 Cup saw the 5ths lose in the second round to Clontarf, whom they beat twice in the league. It was a tough cup though, with Pembroke 4 (Division 8 champions) losing to Merrion 5 (Division 7 champions) in the final.

Six players passed the 100 run mark, with three going much better (and one much better again). The three were Shukeel Kumar with 203 at 29, Ed Wyeth with 228 at 32.57 and skipper Bard Ovenden who scored 396 runs at 36.

With the ball, Kumar again was a mainstay, with an astonishing 25 wickets at 12.68. Rakesh Dixit (a comparatively quiet summer for a change) with 14 at 16.71 and Michael Scully (10 at 16) were the other bowlers with 10 wickets.

Another case of what might have been. Whilst promotion is unlikely, at least the 5ths managed to stop the 4ths from being relegated. On the youth front, only four youth players played all year, Colm Byrne, Shair Chaudhary, Hamza Khan and Ross MacMahon, but this led to a better youth turn out than the 6ths or 7ths, and meant that unlike the 6ths and 7ths, on average the 5ths played one youth player per match, as opposed to one every two matches for the lower two teams

Top batsmen - Bard Ovendenr, Top bowler - Shukeel Kumar, Youth quotient (%age of matches played that were youth players) - 12.4%, If the 5ths were a team at the RWC 2011, they'd be - Wales. If it wasn't for a nail biting loss at the end, who knows what they might have achieved?