England League and Cup Discussion

[eagles123]

On a slightly related note, and of course, not being one to miss the opportunity to toot my own horn, my mob just won the English League Cup Season 2. I mention this for three reasons -

1. To thank eagles123 for running the comp - you're a gentleman of the first order, sir.
2. We didn't have a seperate thread this season, and it would have been sacriligeous to let it pass without mention (which is really reason 1b, but that would start to get confusing).
3. I got to play against a couple of tier 1 sides, so that was useful in allaying any concerns I might have harbored over being up there next season.

Anyway, I faced this seasons tier 1 champions in the final, and -

The Raging Speed Horns vs Egham Town CC
Cup English League Cup Season 2

Weather Windy
Pitch Dry

The Raging Speed Horns won by 93 runs

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns Egham Town CC
Batting - Top Order 15,125 14,602
Batting - Middle Order 11,169 13,723
Batting - Tail 4,729 6,612
Bowling - Seam 15,316 (30) 15,341 (20)
Bowling - Spin 15,655 (20) 14,143 (30)
Fielding/Keeping 19,179 18,214
Overall 254,163 260,895

Here endeth the toot

Congrats - awesome team you have. I'll pay out prizes over the weekend, sorry been really busy the last week or so!

Gonna be an interesting Div 1 for sure!

[spark]

Home Ruff Royals
Away South Hill Slammers
Ground Ruff Royals CG
League Youth Twenty20 1.1
Date 22 Apr 24 10:00
Crowd 7,651
Weather Overcast
Pitch Uneven

It's a new season and I'm expecting it to be a tough one. I think our squad might be a bit young especially in the bowling department so we're going to have to fight hard for every point if we are going to stay up.

[spark]

G. Pithey (lf) 3-0-19-1, B. Isherwood 3 (8b), S. Baglin 12 (13b)
End of over 9 (7 runs) - South Hill Slammers(42-3) RR 4.67

A decent start so far.

[spark]

R. Reynolds (rfm) 4-0-12-2, H. Caprioli 1 (1b), M. De Lorenzo 25 (20b)
End of over 20 (4 runs) - South Hill Slammers(111-6) RR 5.55

It's tough conditions to bat in so we might struggle. I still think it's a decent effort but a couple of dropped chances in the middle overs might end up costing us. No brilliant performances with the ball but Reynolds' 2-12 was good.

[spark]

S. Gopalan (rfm) 3-0-30-1, K. Galindo 25 (24b), L. Foot 5 (6b)
End of over 13 (12 runs) - Ruff Royals(70-3). 42 runs required from 7 overs. RR 5.38 RRR 6.00

We've been going quite slowly so this last over helped but we've not got much breathing space in terms of wickets.

[spark]

S. Gopalan (rfm) 4-0-32-2, R. Reynolds 0 (0b), K. Fuls 1 (4b)
End of over 15 (2 runs) - Ruff Royals(73-5). 39 runs required from 5 overs. RR 4.87 RRR 7.80

It went from okay to bad quite quickly. I can't see us winning from here. We're really struggling to score and Reynolds is a bowler with dreadful power.

[spark]

South Hill Slammers won by 5 runs

Ruff Royals South Hill Slammers
Batting - Top Order 8,060 6,871
Batting - Middle Order 4,717 5,459
Batting - Tail 3,666 4,633
Bowling - Seam 6,145 (16) 6,940 (20)
Bowling - Spin 6,087 (4) 0 (0)
Fielding/Keeping 9,308 9,513
Overall 120,705 126,463

Not a great start to the season. The dropped catches didn't help. Also we didn't pick up enough wickets after a decent start, and then we batted too slowly and lost too many wickets.

First game ratings:

Egham Town CC : 134,819
Ffoh : 134,043
Relegation reprobates : 132,135
South Hill Slammers : 126,463
Ruff Royals : 120,705
Snakey's Kent Stars : 118,314
Staindrop Lordies : 117,714
Camberwell Carrots : 108,073

Those ratings don't look too good. We'll do well to avoid a relegation battle. The main positive is that we only lose a couple of players to the senior squad and those aren't until halfway through the season.

[wolfberries]

Knight Watchmen wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 6,106 7,704
Batting - Middle Order 5,217 5,181
Batting - Tail 4,255 3,742
Bowling - Seam 6,896 (16) 5,668 (12)
Bowling - Spin 5,739 (4) 6,907 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 7,270 9,848
Overall 113,194 123,135

Result: Knight Watchmen won by 3 runs

Not a great start to the season, we really need to be promoting this season.

Overcast and sticky conditions, we had our opponents 66 for 6 from 14 overs and they ended up 122 for 6!

[spark]

R. Emmins (lf) 4-0-32-0, W. Mills 40 (34b), M. Schmidt 9 (10b)
End of over 12 (10 runs) - Ruff Royals(85-2) RR 7.08

Slow pitch so we're doing okay but we could do with accelerating in the last few overs.

[spark]

R. Junor (rws) 4-0-25-2, I. Dennehy 10 (6b), R. Schneider 1 (1b)
End of over 20 (4 runs) - Ruff Royals(164-5) RR 8.20

A decent effort in the conditions but we're still going to have to bowl well. Mills was great with 90 from 59 balls.

D. Combs (lf) 2-0-17-0, S. Lucas 13 (11b), J. Oosterhout 14 (13b)
End of over 4 (11 runs) - Bathaloner(27-0). 138 runs required from 16 overs. RR 6.75 RRR 8.62

We could do with some wickets. Perhaps we'll get some when the spinners come on.

[spark]

Ruff Royals won by 30 runs

Ruff Royals Bathaloner
Batting - Top Order 14,623 13,551
Batting - Middle Order 12,077 11,415
Batting - Tail 5,080 8,159
Bowling - Seam 14,847 (12) 11,341 (12)
Bowling - Spin 13,634 (8) 13,314 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 17,667 15,408
Overall 246,847 231,216

Not an amazing bowling performance in that we didn't pick up that many wickets but the batters did enough to set a challenging total. Patterson's 2-25 was the best effort.

First game ratings:

Ruff Royals : 246,847
wolfberries : 240,375
Relegation reprobates : 239,658
South Yorkshire CC: 238,859
Bathaloner: 231,216
Crestfallen Sidekicks : 231,086
YorkshireTykes : 231,036
The Spitfires : 226,187

Promising ratings for me but those top 4 ratings are reasonably close so it's not going to be easy.

[casperj]

YorkshireTykes Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 13,770 13,119
Batting - Middle Order 11,225 11,238
Batting - Tail 5,952 5,682
Bowling - Seam 13,252 (12) 13,091 (12)
Bowling - Spin 13,012 (8) 14,073 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 15,805 16,395
Overall 231,036 231,086

End of over 20 (7 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(110-7). 5 runs required from 0 overs. RR 5.50 RRR 0.00
A. Aboobucker 0 (0b), C. Zulch 36 (38b), T. Farnsworth (rm) 4-0-16-1
YorkshireTykes won by 4 runs

Failed to chase 114 on a Windy Slow. Lost despite having them 6-3 at one point! Given the quality of the other teams in the division, this was a crucial match that we needed to win. Might have to look at another overhaul of the squad already, as already looking unlikely this current squad can stay up.

[wolfberries]

wolfberries Relegation reprobates
Batting - Top Order 13,490 14,513
Batting - Middle Order 12,353 12,383
Batting - Tail 5,426 5,028
Bowling - Seam 14,062 (8) 12,314 (8)
Bowling - Spin 13,465 (12) 14,085 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 17,400 16,700
Overall 240,375 239,658

Result: wolfberries won by 29 runs

First win of the season for us, it's going to be a tough senior season methinks!

[spark]

E. Casperson (rfm) 8-1-29-0, L. Foot 28 (26b), R. Reynolds 14 (20b)
End of over 40 (7 runs) - Ruff Royals(164-5) RR 4.10

Uneven pitch and it was tough batting conditions but I think we've just scored too slowly. Fuls top scored with 54 but that was from 101 balls and he accelerated towards the end so that's slow going.

G. Pithey (lf) 1-0-1-1, S. Dries 1 (4b), L. Woolcock 0 (1b)
End of over 1 (1 run) - Snakey's Kent Stars(1-1). 164 runs required from 39 overs. RR 1.00 RRR 4.21

Pithey took a wicket first ball. The last time he did that it was for Zimbabwe U20s and he didn't do great for the rest of the innings.

[wolfberries]

Home wolfberries
Away Knights Watchmen
Ground wolfberries CG
League Youth 3.1
Date 25 Apr 24 10:00
Crowd 7,625
Weather Cloudy
Pitch Dry

Toss: wolfberries won the toss and elected to bowl.

L. Bloomfield (rm) 8-0-55-1, J. Coulson 4 (2b), K. Skau 32 (21b)
End of over 40 (8 runs) - Knights Watchmen(242-7) RR 6.05

This is a big total to chase, I know the RR's have been slightly increased at the end of the last season so maybe I still haven't quite caught up.