England League and Cup Discussion

[spark]

J. Westerveld (rfs) 9.2-0-44-2, J. Donfeld 2 (3b)
End of over 50 (1 run) - Sledgingshire(201-10) RR 4.02

I feel like we might have let them get more than they should have when they were 95-5. Combs took the most wickets with 4-44.

[spark]

R. Sieler (rf) 1-0-9-0, F. Bullock 51 (47b), M. Schmidt 43 (50b)
End of over 16 (9 runs) - Ruff Royals(101-0). 101 runs required from 34 overs. RR 6.31 RRR 2.97

A surprisingly good start with the bat.

[Atko]

Got there eventually -

N. van Riebeeck (rm) 5.2-0-30-2, R. Baldwin 1 (1b), C. Gatehouse 21 (22b)
End of over 36 (1 run) - The Raging Speed Horns(171-5) RR 4.75

The Raging Speed Horns won by 5 wickets

We cruised to 91-1, then had a slight case of the collywobbles as three wickets fell for 25 runs. The two old journeymen, Cruse and Gatehouse, stabilized proceedings with a 50 run partnership to bring us in - Cruse slightly blotted his copy book by getting stumped one run from victory, but when all's said and done, 4 points is 4 points.

El numeros -

Match Ratings
Trevor Francis Tracksuit The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 14,291 14,592
Batting - Middle Order 11,543 10,458
Batting - Tail 5,285 4,285
Bowling - Seam 13,286 (40) 13,815 (40)
Bowling - Spin 14,935 (10) 15,352 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 15,949 17,805
Overall 235,116 237,090

Very happy with the performance, although Labyrinth continues to perplex with a string of awful batting displays - probably our best bat, he can't seem to get a double digit score. May have to shuffle/change orders for him.

Anyway, that'll keep us top of the league, and if Inchigeela Angels can do us a favour and beat Egham Town (which is 50-50 at the moment), then we'll open an 8 point gap - fingers crossed...

[spark]

Sledgingshire Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 13,161 14,944
Batting - Middle Order 11,666 12,455
Batting - Tail 5,430 4,851
Bowling - Seam 12,951 (30) 13,446 (30)
Bowling - Spin 13,719 (20) 14,232 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 16,105 17,925
Overall 230,205 246,729

Ruff Royals won by 10 wickets

Bullock hit 121 not out and Schmidt 71 not out as we won with 18 overs to spare!

Goondwindi 4 points in the lead at the halfway stage.

[wolfberries]

Topmen wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 13,894 14,060
Batting - Middle Order 9,849 12,561
Batting - Tail 5,875 5,260
Bowling - Seam 13,934 (40) 12,699 (30)
Bowling - Spin 13,409 (10) 13,397 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 16,538 17,355
Overall 231,359 239,221

Result: wolfberries won by 3 wickets

Needed 235 to win and got there, wasn't expecting that!

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Bedfordshire Jats
Batting - Top Order 13,609 11,499
Batting - Middle Order 12,287 10,474
Batting - Tail 6,980 4,705
Bowling - Seam 12,984 (20) 12,707 (30)
Bowling - Spin 13,991 (30) 11,237 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 16,063 14,931
Overall 240,657 207,399

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 93 runs

Fourth one-day win on the bounce, and broke 240k rating for the first time this season. Seem to have taken a big fatigue hit on some players, despite only having to bowl 36 of our 50 overs - never quite sure the fatigue calculations make sense!

[spark]

Relegation reprobates Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 7,331 7,590
Batting - Middle Order 5,941 5,065
Batting - Tail 3,631 3,822
Bowling - Seam 8,175 (8) 7,968 (8)
Bowling - Spin 7,876 (12) 6,526 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 7,596 8,671
Overall 126,754 123,615

Ruff Royals won by 16 runs

A very pleasing win. A good batting score of 166 on a dry pitch put us in a decent position. The scores were shared out with Vinson, Howe, Foot, and Fuls all hitting 30+ runs. Fuls' was an impressive 34 off just 14 balls.

The bowling was a bit more of a struggle and I was worried when my wrist spinner Niazi went for 20 off 2 overs. Thankfully he started his next spell with a wicket maiden and ended with figures of 2-27. That really restricted the run rate and was probably a big part of why Buck managed to get 3 wickets in the last over to give him figures of 3-26.

[Atko]

Vivi vs The Raging Speed Horns
League Youth Twenty20 2.2

Weather Sunny
Pitch Uneven

Result: Vivi won by 15 runs

Match Ratings
Vivi The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 6,477 5,961
Batting - Middle Order 4,810 6,196
Batting - Tail 3,811 3,990
Bowling - Seam 7,155 (16) 6,260 (6)
Bowling - Spin 6,037 (4) 7,268 (14)
Fielding/Keeping 7,554 8,532
Overall 113,903 121,025

Bizarre game - they scored 153-10, we rocketed along to 83-2 by the 10th over (four RF's in their attack), then lost all our wickets to expire at 138-10 in the 20th. Their wristie caused the carnage with 5-19. It's T20, so what can ya do?

[wolfberries]

Pedagogs wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 6,207 7,484
Batting - Middle Order 5,920 5,339
Batting - Tail 3,888 3,009
Bowling - Seam 6,042 (16) 7,112 (6)
Bowling - Spin 7,097 (4) 7,101 (14)
Fielding/Keeping 7,667 8,829
Overall 114,442 122,328

Result: wolfberries won by 10 wickets

Wasn't expecting such an easy win, but I'll take it.

[spark]

Ruff Royals Egham Town CC
Batting - Top Order 13,674 13,884
Batting - Middle Order 10,451 10,850
Batting - Tail 4,896 5,248
Bowling - Seam 13,356 (12) 13,959 (12)
Bowling - Spin 14,090 (8) 14,728 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 16,413 17,923
Overall 228,679 239,787

Egham Town CC won by 25 runs

With our 3 international players away, we were always going to be up against it against top of the league. Dropping Truman, who went on to make 70, when he had 31 proved to be crucial and struggling to take early wickets didn't help either. Once we picked up the 3rd wicket we picked up the next 4 in short order but it was too late to make enough of a difference as we needed 185 to win on an even pitch.

We started off at a glacial pace whilst also losing wickets. It wasn't until the 9th over until it seemed like we were even trying to score quickly. Laurence did hit a valiant 49 from 35 balls and we seemed to find scoring much easier towards the end but again it was all too late in the day.

[Atko]

The Raging Speed Horns vs South Hill Slammers
League Twenty20 3.3

Weather Cloudy
Pitch Sticky

More T20 shenanigans with the 2nd XI facing the Slammers today. The usual nonsense -

Oppo makes gettable total, we zip along at asking rate for the first ten overs, we slow down and lose wickets, just fall short of target -

Result: South Hill Slammers won by 10 runs

To be fair, they are better than us, but I just wish the ME would change the script now and again. Or is that how it works in reality? embarrassing admission : I've never watched a T20 match in my life

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns South Hill Slammers
Batting - Top Order 11,510 13,483
Batting - Middle Order 8,182 9,723
Batting - Tail 5,892 5,327
Bowling - Seam 11,218 (16) 11,954 (12)
Bowling - Spin 10,927 (4) 12,161 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 15,368 14,044
Overall 198,351 211,125

[casperj]

Bathaloner Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 14,054 13,920
Batting - Middle Order 11,941 9,875
Batting - Tail 6,635 5,803
Bowling - Seam 12,804 (12) 13,380 (12)
Bowling - Spin 13,729 (8) 13,980 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 16,601 15,206
Overall 239,561 226,314

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 13 runs

Well, well. Had to rest a few players because of fatigue, however although it hurt our ratings, it didn't particular effect our batting due to a 107 opening partnership. RFM Zorker too 5/20 and we got just about managed to contain their batting.

Just two points from top place at the moment, so still in the promotion race.

[Atko]

South Hill Slammers vs The Raging Speed Horns
League Youth 2.1

Weather Sunny
Pitch Green

Away to South Hill Slammers this week. The Slammers are languishing in 7th spot, while we are a couple of places higher in 5th. There's only about 8k ratings between us; in fact the whole league seems to be normalizing towards 120-125k. There could be a lot of yo-yo-ing for position over the coming weeks.

I'm trying out some experimental orders this week - I usually tinker, but I noticed lately that I'd slowly drifted towards a super-complex approach - my orders page looked like a psychedelic Dulux colour swatch This week we're going with something a little more conservative

Well, we won the toss and decided to bat - we didn't get off to the best of starts, and were 5-2 in the fourth over, with both openers being removed in short order. Kentish and Loveless then stabilized proceedings with an unbroken partnership of 77. At drinks we are -

S. Gopalan (rfm) 6-0-22-1, L. Loveless 40 (40b), C. Kentish 36 (65b)
End of over 20 (2 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(82-2) RR 4.10

Needless to say, the pace needs to be picked up. I'm packing a spin-heavy/seam-light attack and we'll have our work cut out to defend any score on this greentop.

[Atko]

End of over 40 (8 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(196-6) RR 4.90

Nowhere near a challenging total. My guys just never got out of 3rd gear. Barring a spectacular performance from my wristies, this one's gone

[Atko]

Result : South Hill Slammers won by 5 wickets

As I feared. I can't complain, having just the one full time seamer, this was always going to be an uphill struggle - plus, I really should have bowled first; I suspect we'd be better at chasing than defending with the current team structure. Oh well, three losses from three games this week

Match Ratings
South Hill Slammers The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 6,952 6,113
Batting - Middle Order 5,451 6,321
Batting - Tail 3,433 4,052
Bowling - Seam 5,664 (32) 6,308 (12)
Bowling - Spin 6,933 (8) 7,330 (28)
Fielding/Keeping 8,667 8,645
Overall 115,506 122,945