England League and Cup Discussion

[spark]

Ruff Royals Fiery's XI
Batting - Top Order 6,614 6,563
Batting - Middle Order 5,425 5,191
Batting - Tail 3,803 4,392
Bowling - Seam 7,343 (32) 7,576 (32)
Bowling - Spin 8,090 (8) 8,007 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 8,446 7,873
Overall 122,365 122,125

Fiery's XI won by 3 wickets

We weren't as far off a decent total as I had thought but the three wicket win is slightly flattering as Buck grabbed a couple of wickets right at the end when it wasn't going to make any difference.

I picked six bowlers including an allrounder. I think a slight tweak in that tactic might be called for as the allrounder didn't bowl that well and I'm not against playing him as a pure batter (whilst still training as an allrounder).


1 142,880 Relegation reprobates
2 128,001 Snakey's Kent Stars
3 125,396 Ffoh
4 122,365 Ruff Royals
5 122,125 Fiery's XI
6 121,563 Egham Town CC
7 117,720 SLBenfica
8 111,307 Zippys Rainbow Destroyers

One stand-out team in the division (who lost) and then the rest are fairly similar in ratings. It should be an interesting battle for survival.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries Gold Prospectors X1
Batting - Top Order 7,501 5,789
Batting - Middle Order 4,786 5,254
Batting - Tail 3,015 2,973
Bowling - Seam 7,364 (16) 4,232 (24)
Bowling - Spin 6,392 (24) 4,978 (16)
Fielding/Keeping 8,633 8,027
Overall 118,001 99,824

Result: wolfberries won by 77 runs

Happy with todays win, although there will certainly be tougher games in this format as the season goes on.

[spark]

T. Zondeki (rf) 5-0-19-1, D. Snider 0 (0b), J. Wambua 13 (30b)
End of over 10 (1 run) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(44-1) RR 4.40

A dry pitch and a tough game against casper. A fairly early wicket is nice before the spinners come on. So far my older fast bowler has been worse than my younger fast bowler.

I'm not entirely sure what pitch I'm going to go with this season. I think crumbling might suit us best but I'm nervous about the batting line-up and playing two allrounders would weaken the bowlers too much. Casper seemed to have better allrounders so I figured dry was better than crumbling this time.

[wolfberries]

South Yorkshire CC
Away wolfberries
Ground South Yorkshire CC CG
League One Day 2.1
Date 09 Aug 24 10:00
Crowd 14,190
Weather Sunny
Pitch Hard

Toss: South Yorkshire CC won the toss and elected to bat.

G. Lampe (rfm) 9-0-41-3, O. Tetley 89 (106b), I. Mullet 0 (0b)
End of over 37 (5 runs) - South Yorkshire CC(180-4) RR 4.86

Two wickets in Lampe's last over has certainly put us back in the game.

[spark]

T. Zondeki (rf) 9-0-55-1, L. Royes 56 (52b), R. Bunworth 12 (13b)
End of over 39 (6 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(207-3) RR 5.31

My keeper just dropped a chance which is disappointing especially as we're in a bit of trouble here; we're not keeping it tight and we're not picking up wickets. Perhaps I should have stuck with a crumbling pitch anyway as dry seems to have really hurt my pace bowlers.

[casperj]

T. Zondeki (rf) 9-0-55-1, L. Royes 56 (52b), R. Bunworth 12 (13b)
End of over 39 (6 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(207-3) RR 5.31

My keeper just dropped a chance which is disappointing especially as we're in a bit of trouble here; we're not keeping it tight and we're not picking up wickets. Perhaps I should have stuck with a crumbling pitch anyway as dry seems to have really hurt my pace bowlers.

J. Westerveld (rfs) 10-0-52-3, K. Carson 9 (5b), S. Waters 6 (5b)
End of over 50 (9 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(274-8) RR 5.48

Sunny/Dry is pretty batsmen friendly, so don't think this'll be enough unless my luck with spinners on dry wickets changes.

[spark]

T. Zondeki (rf) 9-0-55-1, L. Royes 56 (52b), R. Bunworth 12 (13b)
End of over 39 (6 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(207-3) RR 5.31

My keeper just dropped a chance which is disappointing especially as we're in a bit of trouble here; we're not keeping it tight and we're not picking up wickets. Perhaps I should have stuck with a crumbling pitch anyway as dry seems to have really hurt my pace bowlers.

J. Westerveld (rfs) 10-0-52-3, K. Carson 9 (5b), S. Waters 6 (5b)
End of over 50 (9 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(274-8) RR 5.48

Sunny/Dry is pretty batsmen friendly, so don't think this'll be enough unless my luck with spinners on dry wickets changes.

My batsmen don't tend to perform as well as they should so I'm not confident.

It's often pointed out when the spin specialist fails so I'll highlight Royes who seemed to have used his talent to great effect for his 86 before finally getting out to a pace bowler. I think his might be the match winning innings.

[wolfberries]

South Yorkshire CC wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 10,609 13,570
Batting - Middle Order 8,160 10,240
Batting - Tail 4,958 5,163
Bowling - Seam 9,091 (40) 11,326 (40)
Bowling - Spin 10,569 (10) 13,488 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 12,602 16,602
Overall 174,695 219,334

wolfberries won by 7 wickets

Nice start to the season, after some scouting of our opponent I realised that we could play a few prospects which is much needed.

[casperj]

Pretty standard performance from my spinners on a dry track, getting pumped for 6 an over and not taking wickets. Couple of late wickets made it seem closer than it was. Well done to Spark. Might have to look at a few purchases to avoid relegation back to Div 3 given how the first week has gone in both our senior leagues!

Ruff Royals Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 14,635 13,775
Batting - Middle Order 11,817 11,663
Batting - Tail 4,826 6,236
Bowling - Seam 13,108 (20) 13,317 (20)
Bowling - Spin 13,305 (30) 13,875 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 17,549 16,537
Overall 239,068 238,334

Ruff Royals won by 6 wickets

[spark]

Pretty standard performance from my spinners on a dry track, getting pumped for 6 an over and not taking wickets. Couple of late wickets made it seem closer than it was. Well done to Spark. Might have to look at a few purchases to avoid relegation back to Div 3 given how the first week has gone in both our senior leagues!

Ruff Royals Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 14,635 13,775
Batting - Middle Order 11,817 11,663
Batting - Tail 4,826 6,236
Bowling - Seam 13,108 (20) 13,317 (20)
Bowling - Spin 13,305 (30) 13,875 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 17,549 16,537
Overall 239,068 238,334

Ruff Royals won by 6 wickets

I think you'll be fine in terms of relegation; there wasn't much difference between us. My spinners were only slightly better on economy and wickets. A bit more luck with a couple of early wickets and we'd have been in trouble chasing that total.

I'm very happy with my decision to move Schmidt up to open. I've struggled to find his correct spot in the batting order and now that one of my seam specialists has been retired Schmidt seems to have grabbed his opportunity. 121 for him and a 90 not out for House.

[Atko]

Late to the table due to another road trip. -

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

Weather Sunny
Pitch Sticky

We lost yet another toss (haven't won one yet this season), and St. Marks Hill Strollers popped us in to bat. I managed to keep tabs on our innings and was more than happy with a score of 218-9. Particularly pleasing was the wagging of the tail, where our three bunnies managed 28 runs between them. Having posted that total, I was fairly confident of victory, and so it came to pass. Kudos to the Strollers though, they only fell 26 runs short. Key bowler turned out to be Murray Calver, a Left Arm Medium Pacer, who cemented his spot in the team as the youngest of the attack, primarily there to add variation and play a holding roll. Today his figures of 5-31 got him MoM, and at 29, he'll be around for some time to come

The numbers -

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns St. Marks Hill Strollers
Batting - Top Order 14,998 12,864
Batting - Middle Order 11,197 12,997
Batting - Tail 4,509 7,558
Bowling - Seam 14,935 (30) 13,394 (25)
Bowling - Spin 15,393 (20) 13,186 (25)
Fielding/Keeping 18,659 16,050
Overall 249,879 240,719

Also, the rest of the competition looks fairly evenly matched -

Inchigeela Angels            245,001
Trevor Francis Tracksuit         237,900
The Raging Speed Horns         249,879
St. Marks Hill Strollers          240,719
Pedagogs                243,228
Egham Town CC             244,104
Relegation reprobates          251,661
Ffoh                  260,872

This should be a cracking season

[Atko]

MKMC today and a fairly straightforward bot bash. I fielded the B team for xp and hopefully a boost to form - with the latter in mind I opted to bat first on winning the toss (finally!!). We posted a good total and all the batsmen should get a little pep form-wise. All the bowlers bagged wickets and did themselves plenty of favours, skittling the oppo for 53 runs to garner us a 318 run victory.

Of interest to me are the ratings -

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns Flying Bartlebys
Batting - Top Order 11,225 5,046
Batting - Middle Order 8,314 5,089
Batting - Tail 5,994 5,174
Bowling - Seam 10,820 (40) 4,614 (40)
Bowling - Spin 10,842 (10) 5,482 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 14,890 5,015
Overall 194,933 95,050

The 2nd XI are finally getting close to that 200k milestone

Looks like I'll probably be playing NY Demons in the next round - they rate circa 150-160k, so the youngsters will likely get another outing.

[Atko]

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

Weather Sunny
Pitch Uneven

Today my motley crew are taking on Zippy's Rainbow Destroyers in their backyard.

We won the toss and put 'em in. They smashed a very respectable 171-4 off their twenty.

In reply, we are -

D. Bezemer (lws) 1-0-4-0, U. Dryad 21 (15b), C. Kentish 14 (14b)
End of over 6 (4 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(41-1). 131 runs required from 14 overs. RR 6.83 RRR 9.36

Although the run rate is creeping up, we are ahead on the comparison for this point in proceedings - let's hope the ME doesn't induce a needless panic collapse!

[Atko]

No scares as we bring it home with a ball to spare -

The Raging Speed Horns won by 5 wickets

Match Ratings
Zippys Rainbow Destroyers The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 5,647 5,648
Batting - Middle Order 3,812 5,694
Batting - Tail 3,817 3,890
Bowling - Seam 5,737 (12) 5,957 (6)
Bowling - Spin 8,457 (8) 6,749 (14)
Fielding/Keeping 6,829 7,836
Overall 103,903 113,108

That will probably be our easiest match ratings-wise this half of the season, and bags us our first points

[spark]

Egham Town CC Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 6,360 6,894
Batting - Middle Order 5,955 4,884
Batting - Tail 4,241 3,725
Bowling - Seam 7,753 (8) 8,232 (12)
Bowling - Spin 6,520 (12) 6,829 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 7,698 8,407
Overall 120,146 121,867

Ruff Royals won by 6 wickets

A good win. Pithey did a lot of the damage with 3-27. Macrow did well with the bat again with 60 and Foot was just shy of his half-century with 49. My first win for my youths this season.