England League and Cup Discussion

[spark]

Fiery's XI Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 5,910 6,998
Batting - Middle Order 4,938 6,251
Batting - Tail 3,973 4,027
Bowling - Seam 7,038 (24) 6,639 (32)
Bowling - Spin 6,849 (16) 8,857 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 6,289 8,723
Overall 108,989 126,665

Ruff Royals won by 8 runs

I'm a bit disappointed at how close it was but a win is a win. We batted first and did well until the end when we couldn't accelerate that litte bit further on a slow pitch with wickets in hand. We ended up losing those wickets in hand and scoring at much the same rate as we had throughout. Vinson was the star to continue his recent good run and hit his best of 91 from 94 balls. Macrow and Foot also contributed nicely with 39 and 44 respectively.

The bowling was a mixed bag where we got ourselves into good postitions at times and then let them get away with it. Reynolds was easily the best with the ball (3-31) although it was Buck and Niazi who picked up the crucial wickets of their top scorers.

Another couple of wins will see us to a successful season in this division with the avoidance of relegation. We're 8 points behind top spot so I don't see us catching up there.

[wolfberries]

Gold Prospectors X1 wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 6,281 7,410
Batting - Middle Order 5,611 5,787
Batting - Tail 3,013 3,090
Bowling - Seam 4,234 (32) 7,282 (12)
Bowling - Spin 7,349 (8) 7,222 (28)
Fielding/Keeping 8,603 8,991
Overall 106,704 125,234

Result: wolfberries won by 8 wickets

Even though we were playing bottom who are without a win, a win is a win and keeps us top of the table.

Whether we want to promote is another thing!

[spark]

A tough game against Casper's side. I thought we were doing nicely when we got them to 43-3 but they battled it out and worked there way to a very difficult to chase 222 on a crumbling pitch.

We've started off okay but have just lost our captain Bullock and with our weakened batting line-up I can't see us getting the win.

C. Mansfield (rfm) 5-0-22-1, N. Laurence 1 (1b), C. Dickerson 18 (18b)
End of over 9 (5 runs) - Ruff Royals(48-2). 175 runs required from 41 overs. RR 5.33 RRR 4.27

[spark]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 14,175 13,451
Batting - Middle Order 12,440 10,626
Batting - Tail 7,023 4,855
Bowling - Seam 12,988 (20) 13,501 (20)
Bowling - Spin 14,050 (30) 13,615 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 16,452 16,406
Overall 245,012 227,941

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 54 runs

I think we needed to bat first and put on a good total but, sadly, we didn't get the chance. We struggled to take wickets in the middle order with the spinners not doing much until the end.

Then, with the bat, we just couldn't get anyone to stay in for long enough and once we were 2 or 3 down we were always going to struggle with 3 highly skilled players in our batting-line up missing.

Well done to Casper and Crestfallen Sidekicks on the win.

Goondwindi's impressive season continues as they're 8 points clear at the top and looking like near certainties to promote now.

[Atko]

Out and about today, so I was only able to catch a couple of views of the game -

St. Marks Hill Strollers vs The Raging Speed Horns
League One Day 1.1

Weather Sunny
Pitch Green

- and that was probably for the best, as we crashed to a 56-run defeat.

Not sure what went wrong - we had two guys away on Nat duty, but to be fair, their replacements weren't too shoddy. Saxon (RF) continues to cement his spot, with an economical 2-41, but it was one of those days - we didn't bowl them out or restrict them enough, and our batsmen just seemed to get knocked over with metronomic regularity.

The numbers -

Match Ratings
St. Marks Hill Strollers The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 13,066 14,480
Batting - Middle Order 12,930 11,022
Batting - Tail 7,328 4,656
Bowling - Seam 13,153 (36) 14,006 (40)
Bowling - Spin 13,221 (14) 14,942 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 16,371 18,204
Overall 240,943 241,557

Four defeats in all formats ends a weekus horriblus for us

Fortunately for us, nearest rivals, Egham Town, also succumbed, losing by 7 runs. We're still holding on to first spot, but it's getting tight -

              Pts  NRR
1 The Raging Speed Horns   24  +0.4890
2 Relegation reprobates    22  +0.1313
3 Egham Town CC       20  +0.6008

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 14,175 13,451
Batting - Middle Order 12,440 10,626
Batting - Tail 7,023 4,855
Bowling - Seam 12,988 (20) 13,501 (20)
Bowling - Spin 14,050 (30) 13,615 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 16,452 16,406
Overall 245,012 227,941

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 54 runs

I think we needed to bat first and put on a good total but, sadly, we didn't get the chance. We struggled to take wickets in the middle order with the spinners not doing much until the end.

Then, with the bat, we just couldn't get anyone to stay in for long enough and once we were 2 or 3 down we were always going to struggle with 3 highly skilled players in our batting-line up missing.

Well done to Casper and Crestfallen Sidekicks on the win.

Goondwindi's impressive season continues as they're 8 points clear at the top and looking like near certainties to promote now.

Thanks. Think I got lucky drawing you on a NAT week. I've got Bathaloner next week, who seem to be strengthening. We'd meed to beat them and Gooniiwindi a couple of weeks later to have a chance of the title. A long shot, but we'll see what happens.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries Gold Prospectors X1
Batting - Top Order 7,673 6,156
Batting - Middle Order 5,221 3,962
Batting - Tail 3,052 3,170
Bowling - Seam 6,697 (8) 4,726 (12)
Bowling - Spin 6,116 (12) 5,261 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,989 5,340
Overall 119,440 90,703

wolfberries won by 7 wickets

Eased to victory against bottom place in sunny and dry conditions, thankfully we didn't suffer with our best spinner being away on international duty.

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs Zippys Rainbow Destroyers
League Youth Twenty20 2.2

Weather Sunny
Pitch Crumbling

On home turf against a severely weakened Zippy's Rainbow Destroyers (2 Nats on tour plus 20-ish k ratings shortfall on a good day), the result went much as expected, with a 10-wicket victory. Zippy limped to 70-9 off their twenty; it took 8.5 overs for our openers to chase that down. On a side note, this is much needed as our 1 and 2 are both sitting on average form, and the little boost might pop them back up.

Number time -

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns Zippys Rainbow Destroyers
Batting - Top Order 5,940 4,459
Batting - Middle Order 6,249 3,968
Batting - Tail 3,996 3,368
Bowling - Seam 6,276 (6) 6,426 (12)
Bowling - Spin 7,417 (14) 4,401 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,633 6,583
Overall 122,020 91,644

The win lifts us to 4th spot; whether we can improve from there, I have no idea

[spark]

Ruff Royals Egham Town CC
Batting - Top Order 7,643 6,194
Batting - Middle Order 5,053 5,935
Batting - Tail 3,677 4,389
Bowling - Seam 6,511 (16) 5,445 (12)
Bowling - Spin 8,857 (4) 7,535 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,751 7,680
Overall 122,974 116,132

Ruff Royals won by 104 runs

A rare occasion when we've got no players away during a tour week. They had a batter away so that gave us an advantage.

We were put in to bat first and that turned out to be a blessing as we compiled a very healthy 206 on an uneven pitch. Howe finished with 98 not out and Foot 79 not out.

The bowlers did well as we bowled them out for 102. Buck had the best figures with a miserly 2 wickets for 6 runs from 3.2 overs.

We go to the top of the table with a 4 point lead.

[wolfberries]

Daniel's XI wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 13,385 13,387
Batting - Middle Order 10,587 10,077
Batting - Tail 5,281 4,735
Bowling - Seam 13,656 (8) 13,038 (12)
Bowling - Spin 13,171 (12) 13,290 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 15,717 15,509
Overall 225,707 220,285

Toss: Daniel's XI won the toss and elected to bat.

Got over the line with a ball to spare, sunny and dry conditions and our two spinners took not one of the five wickets to fall, but a win is a win.

[Atko]

The Middle Stump Lubricators vs The Raging Speed Horns
League Twenty20 3.3

Weather Sunny
Pitch Slow

Result: The Middle Stump Lubricators won by 8 wickets

Oppo wins toss, puts us in to bat, we lose our best two bats for peanuts, the rest of the team saunter along to 124-6, oppo strolls to victory with overs and wickets to spare. And the beat goes on ...

Normally at this stage I'd be bringing in some of the 1st XI to ensure we don't relegate. But to hell with 'em, after that performance they can pull their bloomin' sleeves up and dig themeselves out of the poop. Actually, a drop to tier 4 might mean they actually earn some prize money next season

I suppose there is a positive in that we finally hit 200k -

Match Ratings
The Middle Stump Lubricators The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 13,167 11,495
Batting - Middle Order 9,413 8,271
Batting - Tail 5,420 5,975
Bowling - Seam 10,269 (16) 11,359 (16)
Bowling - Spin 13,148 (4) 11,382 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 13,825 15,450
Overall 202,281 200,162

[spark]

Ruff Royals Danger Hotspurs
Batting - Top Order 15,023 13,507
Batting - Middle Order 12,916 10,798
Batting - Tail 5,624 5,351
Bowling - Seam 13,636 (12) 14,111 (8)
Bowling - Spin 13,006 (8) 14,771 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 17,939 16,830
Overall 249,366 236,299

Ruff Royals won by 24 runs

With the conditions being even/sunny I was expecting a high scoring game. For once, I was right!

We were put in to bat and we managed a hefty 216 with Laurence smashing 91 from 53 and House scoring faster still with 82 not out from 42 balls.

We only took the 1 wicket when we bowled but they struggled to meet the run rate as they 'only' made 192.

We're still in 2nd place and 4 points behind with a massively inferior net run rate.

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks South Yorkshire CC
Batting - Top Order 13,050 10,295
Batting - Middle Order 9,776 7,461
Batting - Tail 5,235 4,773
Bowling - Seam 12,122 (12) 8,864 (16)
Bowling - Spin 13,986 (8) 9,216 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 14,702 12,188
Overall 215,460 166,581

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 133 runs

Bit of a non-event. Stuck a largely reserve side out against the bottom team, who seem to be going through a rebuild and therefore aren't really competitive this season.

[spark]

Home Ruff Royals
Away Zippys Rainbow Destroyers
Ground Ruff Royals CG
League Youth 1.1
Date 03 Oct 24 10:00
Crowd 10,118
Weather Sunny
Pitch Uneven

We decided to bat first and I was a bit worried when the team with 0 points so far had us down to 69-5. Thankfully for me, batter Foot and bowler Reynolds put on an 172 partnership. Foot was eventually out for 96 whilst Reynolds smashed his previous best of 23 by being 80 not out. We got a very respectable 244.

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs Sledgingshire
League Youth 2.1

Weather Sunny
Pitch Crumbling

On home turf this week, we have the task of facing league leaders, Sledgingshire. Although we are nestled down in 5th place, there are just 4 points seperating 3rd and 8th spots. At this stage of the season, the relegation battle is still wide open; only the oppo and Leyland Lions are relatively comfy, sitting on 28 and 24 points, respectively.

Today we won the toss and popped Sledgingshire in to bat. For a while it looked like they were going to compile a moster total, reaching 102-0 by the 23rd over. Then, almost inexplicably, a slow collapse began, with a couple of quick wickets to see them at 103-2, then four more around the 130-150 mark, with a final disintegration around 170 with four wickets falling in short order. The oppo could probably feel hard done by in only getting to 179 all out after that start.

In reply, our two sacrificial lamb openers (one is ordinary summary ) managed to see off the new ball before succumbing, and since then, our 3 and 4 have kept the ship steady -

Oh blast - as soon as I do a write up a bloody wicket falls!

as I was saying -

B. McIlwraith (rfs) 8-1-30-2, T. Astley 1 (2b), L. Loveless 36 (52b)
End of over 31 (4 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(123-3). 57 runs required from 9 overs. RR 3.97 RRR 6.33

It's looking steady-ish, but if we throw away another game through letting the RRR creep away from us, I'm going to be rather grumpy.