Bat dominated ball in the NCU in the Premier League in 2026 and with three batters in the top six run scorers and five in the top 20, Waringstown romped to their 33rd League title.

Add on the Cup competitions, and while Graham Hume and Adam Dennison drop out, Steve Stolk, Morgan Topping (907 runs) and James McCollum (844) hold on to their prominent positions after reaching the final of the T20 Cup and semi-final of the Challenge Cup. Waringstown were beaten by new Irish Cup holders Pembroke in the first round.

Stolk made an instant impression in his first season at The Lawn, the South African one of three batters to top 1,000 runs for the season in all competitions and his strike rate of 181, across 20 innings, was bettered only by Instonians’ Sully Gould in one inning more.

Out on his own at the top, albeit having had 23 innings, was Instonians’ professional Shane Dadswell with 1,171 runs, which included a remarkable 102 sixes – Stolk hit only 88 but no-one hit more boundaries

Muckamore professional Neil Brand completed the top three run scorers, with 1,007 from only 18 innings at an average of 67, bettered only by Topping of those batters who had more than 10 innings – Ben Calitz was dismissed only six times at Lisburn and finished with an average of 106!

The only local player to score more runs than Topping and McCollum was the ever-consistent Chris Dougherty, still churning out the runs at the age of 38; he finished with 930 at an average of 58.

When counting only Premier League matches, Cliftonville Academy professional CJ Klijnhans was the top run scorer with 813 and the only batter to hit four centuries. Dadswell was second, with Topping in third and McCollum fourth.

Civil Service North, the Challenge Cup winners and Irish Cup finalists – and Premier  League runners  up – had only two batters in the top 20 and that was entirely due to Ashwin Hebbar and Marc Ellison’s record partnership of 391 in the Irish Cup first round against Strabane ,but they had the season’s top two wicket-takers, Adam Leckey and James West both finishing with 46.

Only Cian Robertson bowled more overs than West but he had to be content with 37 wickets, back in sixth place. Also ahead of him was CI’s Jacob Mulder whose 41 wickets came at the best average (12.15) and best economy (3.23), and Waringstown captain Greg Thompson and Lisburn skipper Neil Whitworth, both with 40. Thompson’s wicket of Neil Gill, in his last innings for Muckamore, saw him finish as leading wicket-taker in the Premier League with 32, one ahead of West.

Brand can lay claim to the best all-rounder of the season with his 36 wickets, when added to his 1,000+ runs, and an honourable mention for North Down’s seam bowler Harry Zimmermann who made the top 10 wicket-takers despite bowling only 118 overs, alongside the venerable Andrew White; both finished with 35.

NCU TOP 20 BATTING

Top Run Aggregates
 
# Name Club Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 4s 6s
1 S Dadswell Inst 24 23 2 1171 183 55.76 724 161.74 2 9 56 102
2 S Stolk W'Town 20 20 3 1042 155 61.29 574 181.53 4 4 80 88
3 N Brand Muckamo 18 18 3 1007 139 67.13 755 133.38 4 4 103 40
4 CP Klijnhans CLAcad 17 17 - 988 165 58.12 670 147.46 4 3 89 67
5 C Dougherty CI 22 22 6 930 125 58.12 1007 92.35 1 8 80 37
6 M Topping W'Town 22 17 4 907 128* 69.77 907 100.00 3 4 121 40
7 J McCollum W'Town 22 19 5 844 118 60.29 789 106.97 3 4 85 19
8 R Pretorius Woodval 20 19 3 834 126* 52.12 989 84.33 3 5 75 26
9 M Erlank N Down 17 17 4 832 178 64.00 813 102.34 3 3 88 19
10 S Gould Inst 21 20 1 817 182 43.00 445 183.60 2 5 83 54
11 N Whitworth Lisburn 25 24 5 807 109* 42.47 952 84.77 1 4 63 35
12 A Hebbar CSN 21 20 5 795 207* 53.00 636 125.00 2 5 63 44
13 C Carmichael Inst 16 16 1 715 159* 47.67 692 103.32 2 4 78 16
14 L Kaestner Woodval 17 16 3 648 125* 49.85 665 97.44 1 4 57 34
15 A White Inst 21 19 2 643 103 37.82 700 91.86 1 6 76 5
16 B Calitz Lisburn 10 10 4 638 133* 106.33 364 175.27 3 2 36 58
17 MP Ellison CSN 19 19 1 633 173 35.17 805 78.63 1 4 69 13
18 Mohamed Aahill N Down 19 17 1 606 135 37.88 693 87.45 2 3 68 12
19 C Swart CI 21 20 - 600 81 30.00 704 85.23 - 4 58 26
20 J van der Merwe Muckamo 20 18 4 593 90 42.36 646 91.80 - 4 47 26

NCU TOP 20 BOWLING

Top Wicket Takers
 
# Name Club Mat Overs Mdns Runs Wkts BBI Ave Econ SR 5WI wds nbs
1 Adam Leckey CSN 24 161.3 9 822 46 5-37 17.87 5.09 21.07 3 78 10
2 J West CSN 25 176.2 5 951 46 5-35 20.67 5.39 23.00 1 31 2
3 J Mulder CI 22 154.1 13 498 41 5-16 12.15 3.23 22.56 1 9 -
4 G Thompson W'Town 22 145.2 7 701 40 6-18 17.52 4.82 21.80 2 12 -
5 N Whitworth Lisburn 25 172.2 9 995 40 4-75 24.88 5.77 25.85 - 16 -
6 Cian Robertson Inst 23 184.1 15 724 37 5-8 19.57 3.93 29.86 1 10 -
7 N Brand Muckamo 18 142.5 20 485 36 4-13 13.47 3.40 23.81 - 14 1
8 J Hinrichsen Lisburn 22 153 8 828 36 6-34 23.00 5.41 25.50 1 38 3
9 A White Inst 21 135.4 8 652 35 4-13 18.63 4.81 23.26 - 15 -
10 H Zimmermann N Down 19 118 5 744 35 5-28 21.26 6.31 20.23 2 25 4
11 B Walsh Lisburn 24 166 4 1033 33 4-25 31.30 6.22 30.18 - 24 2
12 S Dadswell Inst 24 135.3 8 766 32 3-11 23.94 5.65 25.41 - 39 1
13 T Mayes W'Town 18 118.2 10 644 31 6-31 20.77 5.44 22.90 1 24 1
14 Harry Dyer CSN 26 168.2 7 868 31 3-11 28.00 5.16 32.58 - 10 1
15 R Pretorius Woodval 20 122.1 14 493 29 6-23 17.00 4.04 25.28 1 14 2
16 J van der Merwe Muckamo 20 144.1 14 566 29 5-29 19.52 3.93 29.83 1 10 1
17 E Wilson Lisburn 19 80.4 1 652 28 4-38 23.29 8.08 17.29 - 36 6
18 B Khan Laurelv 20 122.3 9 734 28 4-74 26.21 5.99 26.25 - 23 2
19 J Collingwood CSN 26 116.5 2 766 28 3-33 27.36 6.56 25.04 - 68 1
20 E Carlisle Woodval 18 125.4 6 779 28 5-33 27.82 6.20 26.93 1 48 4