Merrion’s Senior Career Records

The Leinster Senior Career records have been maintained since competitions started in 1919. They include all matches played over 102 seasons. The relevant competition are the Leinster Senior League, the Leinster Senior Cup [no longer competed for] and the various ’50 Over’ League/Cups.

Batting

The qualification for appearing in the Leinster Career Batting averages is scoring a minimum of 5,000. Over the 100 plus years only 95 players have reached the qualifying threshold. No Merrion player has ever scored more than 10,000 runs [only 13 players across Leinster have].

Top of the Merrion players is Simon Curley whose senior career lasted over 30 years from 1934-1966. He scored 9,510 runs.

The next two on the list are current players, John Anderson [27^th with 8,438 runs] and Dom Joyce [29^th with 8,201 runs]. The remaining names in order are Stan Parkinson [35^th], Eddie Lewis [43^rd],  Kevin Dempsey [52^nd] and Brendan Curley [80^th]. Of the above only three, the two Curley and Lewis, played all their senior cricket in Merrion.

John Anderson has played by far the fewest matches and has the highest batting average. Indeed of those qualifying with over 5000 runs he is currently the second most successful club cricketer in the history of Leinster senior cricket with an average of 53.07. Only Jeremy Bray [with an average of 60.84] is ahead of him. Two other players, Alf Masood [51.22] and Andre Botha [50.63] have also maintained a career average over 50. The next major target in terms of the batting records must be to become the 14^th player to reach 10,000 runs.

Bowling

Because of the way in which the advent of overs matches and bowling restrictions has changed the game it has been necessary to create two tables. The first is the Leinster Senior Bowling table for those who have taken more than 500 wickets in their career. Four Merrion players have made it on to this list – Rollie Shortt [18^th with 719 wickets], Chris Mara [19^th with 699], Rodney Bernstein [30^th with 547] and Cecil Little [32^nd with 516]. Mara and Little played all their senior cricket in Merrion. Only 33 players qualify for the Bowling Averages.

Of perhaps greater current relevance is the second table for players who have taken 250 wickets since 1996 [when all senior matches restricted the number of overs that a player could bowl in a match]. Only two Merrion player figure in this list – Damian Poder who took 310 wickets, all for Merrion, and Max Sorensen who has 268 wickets. The total number qualifying currently stands at 22.

All Rounders.

The qualification for career all-rounders is the amassing of 10,000 points from batting and bowling / wicket keeping. Each run score is a point and each wicket / dismissal is worth 20. There is a requirement as an all rounder that you must have a minimum of 3,333 per discipline. There are 65 players across Leinster who have qualified for this table – of whom six are from Merrion. Top of the list again is Simon Curley [16,630], followed by Cecil Little [14,741] and then John Anderson [13,258].

Wicket Keepers

No Merrion player qualified for Career Dismissals by a wicket keeper which stands at 250. The closest was Kade Beasley on 241.