England League and Cup Discussion

[spark]

Doing pretty well here on a slow pitch.

S. Burger (rfs) 3-1-16-0, H. Mitchell 40 (47b), L. Durham 37 (55b)
End of over 17 (9 runs) - Ruff Royals(79-0) RR 4.65

Less well here.

S. Burger (rfs) 4-1-17-2, A. Bennett 1 (1b), T. Ames 0 (1b)
End of over 20 (1 run) - Ruff Royals(83-4) RR 4.15

[spark]

W. Malik (lm) 8-0-52-1, A. Bennett 80 (67b), K. Galindo 2 (1b)
End of over 40 (9 runs) - Ruff Royals(222-5) RR 5.55

This seems okay and a good recovery from the collapse.

Ames scored 53 to go with Bennett's 80 not out (a new high score for him).

G. Pithey (lf) 2-0-14-0, H. Saleh 13 (13b), Z. Wahid 4 (5b)
End of over 3 (3 runs) - St. Marks Hill Strollers(17-0). 206 runs required from 37 overs. RR 5.67 RRR 5.57

Not a brilliant start with the ball.

[spark]

T. Ames (rm) 4-0-12-3, A. Patankar 4 (10b), K. Hutton 2 (2b)
End of over 19 (3 runs) - St. Marks Hill Strollers(71-7). 152 runs required from 21 overs. RR 3.74 RRR 7.24

It's going very well now. Ames will be disappointed that Pithey droped a catch that would have given him a hattrick.

[spark]

Ruff Royals won by 121 runs

Ruff Royals St. Marks Hill Strollers
Batting - Top Order 7,158 6,966
Batting - Middle Order 6,909 5,139
Batting - Tail 4,576 3,396
Bowling - Seam 6,896 (32) 6,025 (24)
Bowling - Spin 7,547 (8) 7,426 (16)
Fielding/Keeping 8,507 7,204
Overall 130,648 113,155

Bennett and Ames were the stars of the match especially with the bat.

One more win will see us promote.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries Leyland Lions
Batting - Top Order 4,352 8,176
Batting - Middle Order 4,703 4,986
Batting - Tail 2,994 3,765
Bowling - Seam 5,029 (24) 6,798 (32)
Bowling - Spin 3,543 (16) 6,035 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 7,757 7,120
Overall 90,647 118,536

Result: Leyland Lions won by 7 wickets

Another expected loss...

[spark]

Home Ruff Royals
Away Snakey's Kent Stars
Ground Ruff Royals CG
League One Day 1.1
Date 01 Sep 23 10:00
Crowd 21,588
Weather Sunny
Pitch Slow

A win today would effectively (and possibly mathematically) ensure our survival in the top league for another season. We won the toss and put them in to bat.

R. Schneider (rm) 4-1-12-0, M. Haddrick 1 (7b), E. Lampe 22 (38b)
End of over 12 (4 runs) - Snakey's Kent Stars(43-3) RR 3.58

An okay start. As it seems traditional now, I'll mention that Rush was quick to get Hiscock out; this time Hiscock was out for a duck.

[spark]

P. Massey (lfs) 3-0-5-0, M. Haddrick 14 (32b), E. Lampe 39 (61b)
End of over 20 (3 runs) - Snakey's Kent Stars(74-3) RR 3.70

We could do with a couple of wickets before the break.

[spark]

C. Rush (lm) 6-0-24-4, E. Lampe 50 (77b), I. Corcoran 0 (0b)
End of over 25 (6 runs) - Snakey's Kent Stars(93-5) RR 3.72

We did get two wickets before the break. We really need to get Lampe out now as they could be really damaging by farming the strike. Rush with 4 wickets from his 6 overs so far.

[spark]

P. Massey (lfs) 9-0-24-1, E. Lampe 74 (108b), I. Corcoran 21 (42b)
End of over 37 (6 runs) - Snakey's Kent Stars(145-5) RR 3.92

This is looking like a challenging total and we need them to collapse to have a good chance of winning.

[spark]

J. Westerveld (rfs) 10-0-65-0, J. Macdonald 1 (2b), B. Williams 30 (28b)
End of over 50 (8 runs) - Snakey's Kent Stars(214-9) RR 4.28

That's more than I wanted to chase especially when they were 90-5 at one point. It's not going to be easy especially with my batters being, to put it nicely, inconsistent.

[spark]

Ruff Royals Snakey's Kent Stars
Batting - Top Order 13,930 13,951
Batting - Middle Order 12,386 11,998
Batting - Tail 4,264 7,571
Bowling - Seam 14,801 (30) 14,313 (20)
Bowling - Spin 13,751 (20) 13,215 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 17,857 16,113
Overall 243,532 243,122

Ruff Royals won by 7 wickets

That win secures our place in the league for next season.

4-43 for Rush was key when we were bowling. Whitehead (71) and McCall (72) got us off to a good start with the bat and we won with more than 10 overs to spare. Schmidt also got a nice 44 not out.

The sad news is that this game is likely to have been the last game for our 3 oldest players: Roberson, McCall, and Massey. They all still have world class summaries but by the time we get to the first game of next season that might not be the case and they'll be almost 32. More importantly there are at least some young players who really need the experience (Williams and Combs especially so) and many would argue that it's already too late for them.

[spark]

Staindrop Lordies Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 6,882 7,159
Batting - Middle Order 5,234 7,406
Batting - Tail 4,013 5,156
Bowling - Seam 6,886 (8) 7,080 (12)
Bowling - Spin 8,165 (12) 9,087 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 9,284 9,074
Overall 126,631 140,372

Ruff Royals won by 20 runs

40 runs for Ames and 34 for Mitchell saw us to the acceptable total of 128. I thought it might have been a little light but we bowled well with Bennett taking 3-16.

We're still level on points at the top but with a NRR deficit. We need Danger Hotspurs to do us (and themselves) a favour by picking up a win against Oxhey Players. It seems a bit unlikely but you never know.

[spark]

Home Ruff Royals
Away Danger Hotspurs
Ground Ruff Royals CG
League Twenty20 1.1
Date 05 Sep 23 10:00
Crowd 21,780
Weather Sunny
Pitch Slow

The first senior game after the retirements of Roberson, McCall and Massey.

Ruff Royals Danger Hotspurs
Batting - Top Order 14,324 14,524
Batting - Middle Order 11,824 11,338
Batting - Tail 4,474 4,583
Bowling - Seam 13,728 (12) 14,084 (8)
Bowling - Spin 12,475 (8) 15,133 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 17,373 17,812
Overall 236,274 244,202

Ruff Royals won by 5 wickets

It was a bit of a struggle and the ratings aren't brilliant considering this is about how much we'll rate next season.

I thought we let them get too much (149); Combs was a bit of a disaster with the ball (12.75 economy). We did well with the bat with Mills (42), Clarke (31), and especially with Whitehead who really gave the innings some real impetus as his 47 not out from 26 balls got us the win.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries Snakey's Kent Stars
Batting - Top Order 14,435 13,802
Batting - Middle Order 10,713 11,463
Batting - Tail 5,522 7,126
Bowling - Seam 14,430 (12) 12,994 (8)
Bowling - Spin 13,533 (8) 12,904 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 17,459 16,014
Overall 239,894 235,183

Result: wolfberries won by 53 runs

Well, that ensured promotion to division one!

Not sure that is a good thing with our squad!

[spark]

Leyland Lions Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 9,331 7,157
Batting - Middle Order 5,680 7,789
Batting - Tail 4,212 4,958
Bowling - Seam 6,789 (40) 7,275 (24)
Bowling - Spin 0 (0) 9,189 (16)
Fielding/Keeping 9,218 9,035
Overall 134,283 141,972

Ruff Royals won by 3 runs

That was a bit closer than I would have liked although with other results it turned out that it didn't matter anyway.

I picked one player for experience who would normally be a bowler but I didn't give him any. He was down at number 11 so his only job was to field and he managed to drop two catches towards the end which could well have cost us the match.

We were put in to bat and it didn't start amazingly well. Obuya then came in for a 59 and Delap got 41 not out. The star of the show was Harrison who scored a personal best 106 not out from 98 balls as we set them a total 234. We struggled to take wickets but were just about economical enough.

All that means that we have secured promotion to division 1!