All Ireland Club Rankings

2002 - For the first time since the beginning of these rankings (April 2000), there is a new top dog in town. Donemana - winners of the Faughan Valley, losing semi finalists in the Senior Cup, Ulster Cup and Irish Senior Cup and runners up in the Senior League. Perhaps not the best season in their illustrious history, but consistent from start to finish, and a worthy best team in the land.

They didn't have it their own way all year though. They took over the top spot from Limavady on June 27th, but lost it again when Limavady beat them on July 13th. However, Limavady's loss to Eglinton on July 19th saw Donemana regain top spot, a position they kept until the end of the season. The all round strength of cricket in the North West in 2002 can be seen from the fact that when North Down lost to Lurgan on August 9th, the top 3 clubs in the country were Donemana, Limavady and Brigade

Elsewhere, the top five clubs remained the same all year - North Down and Waringstown completing the quintet. The NCU remained the strongest province, with four teams in the top 10, and nine teams in the top 20 (compared to the NW with five and the LCU with six (including Munster Reds)

In the LCU, the rise of North County continued, taking the top spot in the LCU from Merrion on June 3rd for the first time (although Merrion won it back from July 5th onwards after North County lost to Donemana). Proving that Donemana tend to be at the centre of everything, Malahide entered the Top 20 for the first time after beating them in the Irish Senior Cup semi-final on August 10th, before beating Rush in the final on August 23rd. Interestingly, after the two previous ISC finals being between top 10 clubs, the 2002 event saw 20th (Malahide) play 47th

Those clubs that saw the biggest rise on their positions between 2001 and 2002 were Railway Union (up 18 places) and Ardmore (up 15 places). Railways' improvement was nearly entirely down to the coming of age of three future Ireland internationals - Niall and Kevin O'Brien and Roger Whelan, who all featured heavily. Ardmore's march to the Senior Two title was based on the back of the not inconsiderable talents of Iftikhar Hussein, Mark Gillespie and Charlie Elder, a pretty decent triumvirate in Senior 2.

It wasn't such a good year for a giant of the Leinster season, with Clontarf suffering a rare relegation with Thinus Fouries unable to fill the substantial boots of Andre Botha. They dropped 14 places to 22nd on the country. Similarly, Drummond - who were saved from relegation in 2001, found life much harder in 2002, getting relegated (and being on the wrong end of a 10 wicket defeat to Donemana, including 8-20 from Thompson along the way). They dropped 13 places during the season to 32nd in the country. And finally from a Leinster CC point of view, 2002 was no better than 2001, staying at a pretty disgraceful 41st in the country, with only Rush, Trinity and Old Belvedere behind us in the LCU pile.

2003 will be available for viewing soon. If you have any comments, either mail Paul Reynolds here or make a comment on the CricketEurope forum

#	Change	Team	Played	Pts	Average
1	+2	Donemana	59	5199	88
2	-1	Limavady	47	4128	87
3	+1	Brigade	53	4640	87
4	-2	North Down	52	4420	86
5	-	Waringstown	42	3248	77
6	-	Merrion	44	3213	73
7	+3	North County	46	3123	68
8	+4	Bangor	39	2613	68
9	+8	Pembroke	42	2796	67
10	+1	Downpatrick	48	3108	65
11	-4	Cliftonville	45	2904	64
12	+10	Malahide	41	2325	57
13	-	Phoenix	35	2000	57
14	+4	Eglinton	44	2490	57
15	-	Bready	43	2450	57
16	+4	Armagh	37	2070	56
17	+4	Instonians	45	2531	56
18	-4	Muckamore	44	2388	55
19	+4	Carrickfergus	33	1811	54
20	+9	Munster Reds	21	1129	53
21	+18	Railway Union	42	2201	52
22	-14	Clontarf	35	1779	51
23	+13	Burndennett	37	1908	51
24	+8	Lurgan	42	2153	51
25	+12	The Hills	37	1860	50
26	-10	Strabane	42	2094	50
27	+15	Ardmore	38	1903	50
28	+3	Creevedonnell	37	1742	48
29	NE	Belfast Harlequins	18	853	47
30	-4	Woodvale	42	1963	47
31	NE	Dunmurry	17	800	47
32	-13	Drummond	38	1754	46
33	-6	Derriaghy	37	1656	45
34	-10	Lisburn	44	1955	44
35	-5	CYM	42	1833	44
36	-11	YMCA	40	1774	44
37	-9	Glendermott	41	1787	44
38	-3	Fox Lodge	40	1667	42
39	+1	Ballymena	39	1594	41
40	-2	Cooke Collegians	38	1361	36
41	-	Leinster	38	1291	34
42	+7	Rush	39	1288	33
43	NE	Bonds Glen	23	766	33
44	+2	North Fermanagh	35	1125	32
45	+2	Coleraine	29	898	31
46	-13	Sion Mills	37	1113	30
47	-13	Dublin University	13	357	28
48	-5	Holywood	38	973	26
49	-4	Millpark	28	685	24
50	-6	Old Belvedere	35	833	24
51	-	Crindle	24	546	22
52	NE	Killymallaght	22	473	22
53	-5	Laurelvale	37	787	21
54	-4	St Johnston	30	580	20
55	NE	Ballyspallen	20	258	13
56	-3	Saintfield	14	109	8

NICC, Academy and Queen's University dropped out from the 2001 rankings