England League and Cup Discussion

[Atko]

Very late report on -

The Raging Speed Horns vs Camberwell Carrots
League Youth 2.1

Weather Hot
Pitch Dry

I'm still travelling, so attempting to type up my usual nonsense is a spotty effort at best.

Oh well, this was a heartbreaker of a game. We lost the toss and the oppo got to bat first, damn them! They then proceeded to smack our bowlers around for a leisurely 240-6, twice-damn them!! After that, I felt it would be a tough challenge for my rather weedy team, although we made a mighty fist of it, and with 26 runs needed off the last three overs, it looked like there was a fighting chance. Alas, with 8 wickets down and all the recognised batsmen back in the shed, we fell ten runs short in the 39th over. But the great thing was, we went down fighting, slogging runs and finally succumbing to a runout - makes ye proud to be British.

Special mention for Tommy Topster, who scored 70 runs and anchored most of the innings, plus the rest of the recognised bats did their part, all getting into double figures. Our problem, as usual, was a still young, largely ineffectual bowling attack, who struggle to either contain runs or take wickets.

Anyway -

Result: Camberwell Carrots won by 9 runs

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns Camberwell Carrots
Batting - Top Order 6,575 7,492
Batting - Middle Order 5,217 4,960
Batting - Tail 3,446 3,641
Bowling - Seam 4,779 (16) 6,994 (16)
Bowling - Spin 6,420 (24) 6,912 (24)
Fielding/Keeping 7,613 8,257
Overall 109,171 120,231

The ratings tell the tale, but believe it or not we're still top of the table! We're tied on 24 points with two other teams, but have a much superior NRR. Truth be told - we are now officially the weakest team in the the league - and next week we're up against 132k rated Dunbrody Academy London - so I guess the slow descent will begin

[Ffoh]

I see what they did there

8.2.Willoughby to Hopper : Oooh... Willoughby had Hopper jumping around a bit there, nice and nippy off the wicket causing the ball to fly into Hopper's ribs, only a desperate flick of the bat preventing the sound of ball on bone.

[spark]

M. Patterson (rfs) 5-0-18-2, F. Boyle 0 (0b), R. Howell 23 (46b)
End of over 28 (3 runs) - Topmen(98-4) RR 3.50

It's a sticky pitch and, before we picked up a wicket in the last over, I was about to say we're struggling to take wickets. We could still do with some more quick wickets as I don't want to be chasing 150+. I don't really want to be chasing more than 120 but that looks extremely unlikely.

[spark]

J. Westerveld (rfs) 7.2-0-26-3, M. Richards 4 (11b)
End of over 46 (maiden) - Topmen(166-10) RR 3.61

This is going to be a tough chase. Westerveld finishes with a hattrick (a wicket last ball of previous over, then 2 in his next over). He ends with the best figures for us but I'm not so sure he was our best bowler today.

[spark]

Ruff Royals Topmen
Batting - Top Order 14,943 14,562
Batting - Middle Order 12,545 11,499
Batting - Tail 5,036 4,893
Bowling - Seam 14,859 (30) 13,711 (40)
Bowling - Spin 14,139 (20) 12,717 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 18,076 16,354
Overall 252,147 235,547

Topmen won by 21 runs.

Well, I've no idea what to do now. Sticky doesn't seem to be my kind of pitch (admittedly, I've come to that conclusion after a small sample size of 2 matches).

[wolfberries]

Egham Town CC wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 14,813 12,012
Batting - Middle Order 12,599 10,582
Batting - Tail 5,437 4,488
Bowling - Seam 15,247 (20) 12,137 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,088 (30) 12,570 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,816 16,266
Overall 252,168 214,192

Result: Egham Town CC won by 131 runs

Another expected hammering today, but some much needed experience for our lads.

[eagles123]

South London's Number One CC v Pedagogs >> Match Ratings
Match Ratings
South London's Number One CC Pedagogs
Batting - Top Order 13,665 14,185
Batting - Middle Order 12,313 12,104
Batting - Tail 6,370 6,095
Bowling - Seam 14,061 (40) 13,181 (40)
Bowling - Spin 13,991 (10) 13,822 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 17,553 17,088
Overall 245,919 241,255

Very important win today on uneven/sunny. Won the toss and had a bowl, and got the opps all out for 177. Looked a little dicey at 127/4 in reply, but the middle order did their job and we ended with a five wicket win. Safe to say who the man of the match was, our leftie quick Ozoh with incredible figures of 8.3-1-24-7

Was almost a must win today, keeps us in with the pack on 4 wins 5 losses so far. Tough game against Ffoh next week, hopefully Ozoh can come up with another mad performance

[Atko]

Inchigeela Angels vs The Raging Speed Horns
League One Day 1.1

Weather Sunny
Pitch Crumbling

After several experiments with aggressive/expansive/tight&careful orders which have resulted in loss after loss, I thought, "Darn it", and left everything on default.

Result: The Raging Speed Horns won by 5 wickets

Fair enough - as I've always suspected, let the RNG sort it out.

The numbers -

Inchigeela Angels The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 14,535 15,020
Batting - Middle Order 12,048 11,182
Batting - Tail 6,443 4,518
Bowling - Seam 15,253 (20) 14,831 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,825 (30) 15,283 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 17,323 18,689
Overall 252,613 249,496

To summarise the actual match, we put 'em in - bowled 'em out for 241 (a scary score (to me) on crumbling) - then chased it down with (relative) ease. The match engine tried to throw in a scare with a few quick wickets at the end of the chase, but my guys said, "aw, stop it FFS", thumbed their noses at the ME and carried us home. To be fair, "everything on default" means a bit more than just normal across the board, but, well, it's just good to get a win

This keeps us in 3rd but we're a long way off the pace, and I can't help but regret a few gung ho decisions earlier in the season. To be fair, we walked into Div 1 like John Wayne in every film he's been in, expecting to mop up the joint, then got our clocks cleaned on a regular basis. Ah well, live and learn...

[wolfberries]

Home wolfberries
Away Bedfordshire Jats
Ground wolfberries CG
League Youth Twenty20 3.2
Date 24 Jun 24 10:00
Crowd 7,456
Weather Sunny
Pitch Dry

Toss: Bedfordshire Jats won the toss and elected to bowl.

We are ten points ahead of 2nd place and ten points ahead of 6th, so it's very crowded behind us and as we are playing 3rd today we need another win.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries Bedfordshire Jats
Batting - Top Order 7,343 7,413
Batting - Middle Order 5,618 6,114
Batting - Tail 3,277 3,644
Bowling - Seam 6,991 (8) 5,990 (12)
Bowling - Spin 6,653 (12) 5,681 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,583 8,098
Overall 121,368 118,671

Result: wolfberries won by 4 runs

We lost another gun youth to the seniors today so our ratings were down, but a win is a win and we are still ten points ahead of 2nd spot. Now it's only 3rd place that's also just ten points behind as well.

[spark]

Ruff Royals Staindrop Lordies
Batting - Top Order 7,877 7,711
Batting - Middle Order 5,387 4,847
Batting - Tail 3,656 3,503
Bowling - Seam 6,861 (16) 6,746 (16)
Bowling - Spin 7,138 (4) 8,857 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 8,592 9,359
Overall 124,384 124,661

Staindrop Lordies won by 6 wickets

Mitchell put in a real performance in his last week in the youth team but, despite his 95 not out from 57 balls, he still ended on the losing side. I was happy with our total of 175 on an uneven pitch but I can't help but think we would have done better if we bowled first. We struggled to pick up wickets but we did make them wait for the final possible ball to wrap up the win (with a 6).

[spark]

Home The Spitfires
Away Ruff Royals
Ground The Spitfires CG
League Twenty20 2.2
Date 25 Jun 24 10:00
Crowd 12,000
Weather Humid
Pitch Slow

I'm expecting a tough game as they beat Relegation reprobates last week who were my closest rivals. We lost the toss but were made to bowl first which I would have done anyway.

C. Rush (lm) 1-0-1-1, C. Kimber 1 (1b), S. Baha 0 (0b)
End of over 1 (1 run) - The Spitfires(1-1) RR 1.00

I can't complain about the first over.

[spark]

R. Schneider (rm) 4-0-26-0, R. Baxter 22 (13b), C. Hyles 30 (25b)
End of over 20 (12 runs) - The Spitfires(145-4) RR 7.25

We started off well when we had them at 31-2 after 8 overs but they recovered and we're going to be chasing more than I would have liked.

[casperj]

Looked like we might be on for a good total at 124-2 from 16overs, but a collapse means that we are probably a bit short for a humid/green against a good batting team.

E. Fagg (lf) 4-0-25-2, R. Kapur 1 (1b), C. Mansfield 3 (4b)
End of over 20 (5 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(144-6) RR 7.20

[spark]

Ruff Royals won by 8 wickets

The Spitfires Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 13,186 14,942
Batting - Middle Order 12,276 13,061
Batting - Tail 5,096 5,761
Bowling - Seam 12,556 (16) 14,284 (16)
Bowling - Spin 12,772 (4) 13,919 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 14,589 17,887
Overall 223,901 254,016

Pretty comfortable in the end with good batting from House 58 from 43 balls. The star of the batting was Bullock 86 not out from 55 balls and he saw us to the win with 3 overs to spare.

We're almost certainly going to be 8 points clear still unless there's a tie between the teams in 2nd and 3rd place.