England League and Cup Discussion

[casperj]

R. Kapur (rm) 10-0-51-2, G. Townley 63 (67b), A. Patterson 1 (5b)
End of over 50 (3 runs) - Snakey's Kent Stars(205-9) RR 4.10

Looked like we would be winning easily at 113-7, but their bowlers put on 92 at 5.5 an over and now we have a decent total to chase! Still favourites I think, but not sure how a Windy/Uneven will react.

[spark]

C. Outridge (lfs) 10-0-42-3, M. Patterson 21 (29b), T. Zondeki 0 (1b)
End of over 50 (3 runs) - Ruff Royals(213-9) RR 4.26

We had a good partnership between Dennehy and Laurence. Then there was some battling runs by the lower order and tailenders. So we've got an okay score for a crumbling pitch but I'm not sure it's as difficult to bat on as we've made it look.

[casperj]

C. Outridge (lfs) 10-0-42-3, M. Patterson 21 (29b), T. Zondeki 0 (1b)
End of over 50 (3 runs) - Ruff Royals(213-9) RR 4.26

We had a good partnership between Dennehy and Laurence. Then there was some battling runs by the lower order and tailenders. So we've got an okay score for a crumbling pitch but I'm not sure it's as difficult to bat on as we've made it look.

You're definitely in the game with that on a Windy/Crumbling! Let's hope your spinners perform.

[Atko]

Result: Inchigeela Angels won by 80 runs



Another inexplicably bad performance by my mob - no runs pressure, reasonably solid start, then pfft. Oh well, the new guys didn't suck, but they didn't really bring much to the mix either. No one stuck around to make a big score, and we just sort of crumbled away. Kind of sums up our season. Our ratings weren't that bad considering the personnel changes -

Match Ratings
Inchigeela Angels The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 14,815 14,698
Batting - Middle Order 10,141 10,543
Batting - Tail 5,850 4,579
Bowling - Seam 14,268 (20) 14,861 (40)
Bowling - Spin 15,049 (30) 14,554 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 18,062 17,866
Overall 245,242 242,303

Bit of a head-scratcher; I guess their spinners made the difference - two in particular, who took 5 wickets between them and with a good economy rate. But getting bowled out for 202 on a flat?

I think it might be time for a rebuild. Will sleep on it...

[wolfberries]

Daniel's XI wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 13,162 14,259
Batting - Middle Order 12,361 12,812
Batting - Tail 6,286 5,017
Bowling - Seam 12,863 (40) 13,288 (30)
Bowling - Spin 12,626 (10) 13,368 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 14,812 17,505
Overall 229,466 242,452

wolfberries won by 3 wickets

We certainly made hard work of that, but a win is a win!

Although it appears to have made no difference to the league table and we will most likely finish up in third place.

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Snakey's Kent Stars
Batting - Top Order 13,805 14,701
Batting - Middle Order 12,757 13,317
Batting - Tail 5,870 6,307
Bowling - Seam 13,729 (40) 13,269 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,811 (10) 14,604 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 16,980 17,227
Overall 244,535 251,694

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 1 wicket

Squeaked home. A match for the tailenders; their nbr 9 top scored with 63, our 10 and 11 scored 16 off 7 balls to get us home when we looked beaten

[spark]

C. Outridge (lfs) 10-0-42-3, M. Patterson 21 (29b), T. Zondeki 0 (1b)
End of over 50 (3 runs) - Ruff Royals(213-9) RR 4.26

We had a good partnership between Dennehy and Laurence. Then there was some battling runs by the lower order and tailenders. So we've got an okay score for a crumbling pitch but I'm not sure it's as difficult to bat on as we've made it look.

You're definitely in the game with that on a Windy/Crumbling! Let's hope your spinners perform.

They didn't! The spinners weren't terrible economy-wise but they only took 1 wicket between the 3 of them.

Goondiwindi Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 12,760 15,139
Batting - Middle Order 13,464 12,453
Batting - Tail 5,853 5,032
Bowling - Seam 15,217 (20) 14,139 (20)
Bowling - Spin 13,836 (30) 13,935 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 17,201 18,466
Overall 246,011 250,949

Goondiwindi won by 4 wickets

We were looking quite good when we had them at 125-5 and 141-6 but they had an unbeaten 73 run stand and won with more than 4 overs left.

That means we will remain in division 2 next season. Whilst I was trying to get promoted, I'm not so sure that staying down is the worst thing in the world. We're going to make a profit this season with prizemoney and the deterioration in finances was a big problem in the last couple of seasons so I'd still regard it as a successful season.

Congratulations to Goondiwindi on their promotion.

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs Fiery's XI
League Youth Twenty20 2.2

Weather Windy
Pitch Crumbling

So begins the final round of matches for the season, and our youthies are at home in their favourite conditions. Not sure the result will do anything to change our league position -

1 YorkshireTykes         40  +1.3410
2 Vivi               36  +0.6392
3 Fiery's XI            36  +0.2548
4 The Raging Speed Horns      28  +0.1363
5 Sledgingshire          24  +0.0044
6 St. Marks Hill Strollers      20  +0.4494
7 Zippys Rainbow Destroyers    16  -1.4278
8 Bathaloner            8  -1.3961

We appear to be welded firmly to 4th spot!

Anyway, Fiery's XI won the toss and invited us to bat. That man, Lamont Loveless, continues to have the season of his life, contributing 64 to our total of 151-5. With these conditions, and a couple of England Squad wristies (L and R), throw in a smattering of finger spinners, and I'm tempted to say we should bag this one .

[spark]

It's not going to be the most interesting week as it'll just be about prizemoney and giving players experience; I'll be more concerned with the latter.

Ffoh Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 7,850 7,067
Batting - Middle Order 6,308 5,372
Batting - Tail 2,998 3,802
Bowling - Seam 6,583 (16) 6,166 (14)
Bowling - Spin 7,117 (4) 8,201 (6)
Fielding/Keeping 8,357 8,823
Overall 124,146 121,521

Ffoh won by 7 wickets

I was disappointed with the batting as we combined going incredibly slowly with losing wickets. At times it almost felt like Fuls was trying to farm the strike away from T20 debutant Kutty despite the fact I was using Kutty as an opener. Fuls did top score for us with 52 whilst Kutty scored a very respectable 38 not out but it was all too slow.

Ffoh chased the meagre 109 that we set with almost 7 overs to spare.

The positive is that despite picking a relatively young and inexperienced batter and using 6 bowler we still rated quite decently. That said, Ffoh also had a team that only had a couple of 20-year-olds so they should be strong next season.

[Atko]

Yep -

End of over 20 (12 runs) - Fiery's XI(100-7). 52 runs required from 0 overs. RR 5.00 RRR 0.00
G. de Vlie 13 (9b), R. Colegrave 24 (22b), L. Delameter (lfm) 4-0-32-1

The Raging Speed Horns won by 51 runs

The wristies did the heavy lifting, ripping out 5 wickets quite cheaply. MoM went to Maxtible Straphmurta with the quite insane figures of -

M. Straphmurta (rws) 4-1-4-3

- that would be terrific in OD, but in T20, it's a new level of mental

As I suspected, it didn't change anything, and we finish in 4th. In fact the only movement was 5th and 6th swapping places. Other than that the table remains as above. So congrats to Yorkshire Tykes, who take the title after a solid show all season.

Just the numbers -

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns Fiery's XI
Batting - Top Order 6,478 6,389
Batting - Middle Order 6,507 5,590
Batting - Tail 4,221 4,218
Bowling - Seam 6,745 (6) 7,680 (12)
Bowling - Spin 7,895 (14) 7,277 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 9,386 6,889
Overall 130,516 118,835

- good stuff; we'll lose Loveless and Straphmurta middle/latter half of next season, but we should be pretty stable most of the way through - next "year" could see us peak

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs Vivi
League Twenty20 3.3

Weather Cloudy
Pitch Sticky

Dead rubber today between ourselves (6th) and Vivi (7th) - we're bolted into those positions regardless of result - and Vivi have taken the opportunity to give their youngsters a run out (in fact, seven of the team are 16yos!). Thus -

Result: The Raging Speed Horns won by 164 runs

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns Vivi
Batting - Top Order 9,932 4,599
Batting - Middle Order 10,052 4,244
Batting - Tail 6,127 3,892
Bowling - Seam 11,556 (16) 3,997 (20)
Bowling - Spin 11,314 (4) 0 (0)
Fielding/Keeping 15,520 5,117
Overall 202,422 82,388

An impressive Goondiwindi take the title by 12 points from nearest rivals South Hill Slammers so kudos to them. We spent the season bobbing around the bottom half of the table as we let our 2nd XI handle the T20 chores. No prize money for us but the xp is much needed.

[spark]

Trevor Francis Tracksuit Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 14,917 14,893
Batting - Middle Order 10,273 10,519
Batting - Tail 4,518 6,539
Bowling - Seam 13,489 (16) 12,181 (12)
Bowling - Spin 14,697 (4) 14,477 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 16,309 16,683
Overall 231,900 236,816

Trevor Francis Tracksuit won by 42 runs

I picked 3 players for experience but it was still a bit of a disappointing performance. We didn't bowl very well with Patterson getting hit for 24 in 1 over and he wasn't a player who was in it for the experience. Mwai did okay with 2-21 but the batters had too much to do and couldn't stay in long enough to do any serious damage to the total.

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Sledgingshire
Batting - Top Order 12,130 10,729
Batting - Middle Order 10,078 10,762
Batting - Tail 4,852 6,194
Bowling - Seam 12,132 (16) 11,703 (16)
Bowling - Spin 13,800 (4) 11,431 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 14,497 14,297
Overall 209,213 205,686

Sledgingshire won by 4 wickets

Battle of the 2nd 11's in a meaningless end of season fixture. We rated slightly higher but lost due to basically one of their batsmen, who made 97* off 67 balls (chasing 155). He's apparently in 'average' form. . Anyway, handy to know the 2nd 11 rate around 210, might come in handy next season for deciding on squads for the cup.

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs Camberwell Carrots
League Youth 2.1

Weather Sunny
Pitch Crumbling

Final match of the season sees us attempting to hold onto 3rd spot. A win against the Carrots today will guarantee that outcome. We won the toss and put the oppo in to bat, and after a rather turgid session, they made 158-6. I'm guessing by the very slow early scoring rate that they battened down the hatches and adopted the Gandalf approach (you shall not pass). I think we should knock off those runs relatively quickly ...

[Atko]

End of over 34 (3 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(159-4) RR 4.68

The Raging Speed Horns won by 6 wickets

Job done. No real scares, and as hoped we finish the season 3rd, currently our best performance across the leagues.

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns Camberwell Carrots
Batting - Top Order 6,640 6,763
Batting - Middle Order 6,676 5,887
Batting - Tail 4,293 4,639
Bowling - Seam 6,793 (12) 6,690 (24)
Bowling - Spin 7,949 (28) 7,222 (16)
Fielding/Keeping 9,478 8,907
Overall 132,595 125,761

Final SOD match tomorrow for a lot of my guys, as I'll be selling off the 1st XI (well, ten of 'em anyway!); details here if anyone's interested -

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