England League and Cup Discussion

[spark]

Home Gully Boys CC
Away Ruff Royals
Ground Maidaan
League One Day 2.1
Date 17 May 24 10:00
Crowd 17,898
Weather Cloudy
Pitch Even

We won the toss and decided to bowl. We got off to a good start as Combs took a wicket first ball of their innings. Spinner Patterson started to be a bit expensive once we got them 3 down but after the break he made up for it and ended up with 5-39 as we restricted them to 146.

At this point, I thought to myself "this is pretty much a certain win for us."

My thoughts were somewhat different here:

End of over 5 (9 runs) - Ruff Royals(27-5). 120 runs required from 45 overs. RR 5.40 RRR 2.67
R. Schneider 0 (1b), I. Dennehy 2 (3b), A. Alam (rf) 3-0-14-3

Thankfully, my keeper Dennehy was delightful with the bat for his 50 not out and allrounder Schneider was even more splendiferous for his 62 not out.

Ruff Royals won by 5 wickets and with about 22 overs to spare.

Gully Boys CC Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 12,887 14,050
Batting - Middle Order 11,491 12,336
Batting - Tail 5,039 4,872
Bowling - Seam 12,861 (40) 14,595 (30)
Bowling - Spin 13,460 (10) 13,220 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 16,260 17,388
Overall 226,317 242,553

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks gRhyllidae
Batting - Top Order 11,146 13,893
Batting - Middle Order 12,265 11,234
Batting - Tail 6,299 6,231
Bowling - Seam 12,358 (40) 10,753 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,249 (10) 13,387 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 15,462 16,171
Overall 222,610 226,748

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 1 wicket

Won a nail-biter in the last over. Victory keeps our promotion hopes alive. Going to have to patch up my increasingly fatigued squad and see who can make it for the 4th round cup tie on Sunday!

[eagles123]

Wrapped it up with 9 overs to spare -

The Raging Speed Horns won by 47 runs

Match Ratings
The Raging Speed Horns Pedagogs
Batting - Top Order 14,861 14,445
Batting - Middle Order 11,174 12,579
Batting - Tail 4,481 6,124
Bowling - Seam 14,616 (30) 13,433 (30)
Bowling - Spin 15,235 (20) 12,905 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 18,651 17,021
Overall 247,853 243,645

Finally we perform. It would be nice to get some momentum going this season

Great to see Labyrinth with a big score ahead of the Nat tour ... fingers crossed for a form boost ...

[Atko]

...

Great to see Labyrinth with a big score ahead of the Nat tour ... fingers crossed for a form boost ...

Yep - trying to get my fellas above reasonable is a stiffer challenge playing amongst the big boys! He didn't do much with the bat in today's MKMC, scoring just 9 runs, but a couple of catches gave him a little boost in points. Speaking of which -

Damaster vs The Raging Speed Horns
Cup Matt Krevs Memorial Cup

Weather Overcast
Pitch Uneven

Result: The Raging Speed Horns won by 6 wickets

Match Ratings
Damaster The Raging Speed Horns
Batting - Top Order 14,265 14,331
Batting - Middle Order 11,885 10,834
Batting - Tail 5,638 4,257
Bowling - Seam 13,943 (40) 13,885 (30)
Bowling - Spin 14,466 (10) 14,473 (20)
Fielding/Keeping 16,961 17,870
Overall 242,635 237,645

This was a 5am match, so I missed all the fun. Concisely, we put them in to bat, restricted them to 171 all out, then knocked off the runs with 12 overs to spare. Standouts were our finger spinner Baldwin with 4-49, and Harvey Charlton, the youngster of the batting lineup, who anchored the innings with a dour but priceless 65no off 101 balls.

That ends a good week for us in YOD, SOD and Cup (T20 doesn't count 'cos it's {insert expletive of choice here}). With a bit of luck, it'll nudge those jovial fans up to enthusiastic

Anyhoo, enough waffle from me - seeya next week for YOD

[spark]

rob's robots Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 12,020 9,189
Batting - Middle Order 10,662 11,443
Batting - Tail 6,909 5,450
Bowling - Seam 11,545 (50) 11,820 (40)
Bowling - Spin 0 (0) 11,278 (10)
Fielding/Keeping 13,825 14,711
Overall 210,660 201,567

rob's robots won by 9 wickets

I don't mind losing this one but I'm a bit unhappy with our performance. The people who I regarded as my key batsmen just didn't do it and they all got out to medium pacers in uneven/cloudy conditions. Then my bowlers only took 1 wicket although, to be fair, there were at least a couple of drops. Still, a very underwhelming game for us.

[wolfberries]

Home Francis House
Away wolfberries
Ground Francis House CG
League Youth Twenty20 3.2
Date 20 May 24 10:00
Crowd 7,826
Weather Cloudy
Pitch Even

Toss: Francis House won the toss and elected to bowl.

Would have preferred to have bowled first but you can't always have it your own way. Played both our young all rounder prospects so have weakened our bowling somewhat, time will tell if it costs us today.

[wolfberries]

Francis House wolfberries
Batting - Top Order 6,868 8,072
Batting - Middle Order 5,059 5,333
Batting - Tail 2,957 3,846
Bowling - Seam 5,790 (16) 5,833 (12)
Bowling - Spin 7,407 (4) 7,167 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 7,745 10,180
Overall 110,381 127,533

Result: wolfberries won by 54 runs

Eased to victory in the end.

[spark]

Snakey's Kent Stars Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 6,804 8,407
Batting - Middle Order 4,926 4,955
Batting - Tail 3,440 3,647
Bowling - Seam 6,961 (20) 6,380 (16)
Bowling - Spin 0 (0) 6,554 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 8,582 9,732
Overall 117,791 125,666

Ruff Royals won by 39 runs

Uneven pitch and we were put in to bat which is not what I would have wanted but it turned out great. Marwat was excellent with 83 not out from 52 balls and Foot chimed in with a rapid 41 not out from just 19 balls as we set an imposing total of 174.

That was too much for them to chase and we gradually started taking wickets which slowed them right down and though they batted for the whole 20 overs were nowhere near our total.

We're up to 4th place but 3rd to 7th place all have 8 points.

[casperj]

Stretch Sloggers Crestfallen Sidekicks
Batting - Top Order 3,628 4,903
Batting - Middle Order 2,585 4,064
Batting - Tail 2,168 2,238
Bowling - Seam 3,296 (12) 5,044 (16)
Bowling - Spin 4,843 (8) 6,774 (4)
Fielding/Keeping 2,980 6,008
Overall 59,878 87,562

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 9 wickets

Not exactly a high-quality match from a rating perspective. Two teams trying to start from scratch in terms of youths, but it allows us to pick up our first Youth T20 win.

[wolfberries]

We're still going to be 4 points clear. Next week could be tough as it's international week and we'll be missing a couple of players whilst wolfberries won't be missing anyone.

Home wolfberries
Away Ruff Royals
Ground wolfberries CG
League Twenty20 2.2
Date 21 May 24 10:00
Crowd 18,496
Weather Sunny
Pitch Dry

We've put out pretty much our full side today, but we have slight fatigue issues because of the cup.
So it's very much 50/50 today methinks.

[wolfberries]

We finished up on 143 for 7, not sure with the new RR adjustment and the sunny weather that's going to be enough.

My money is in Spark's boy's to chase this down.

[spark]

wolfberries Ruff Royals
Batting - Top Order 13,507 14,505
Batting - Middle Order 11,285 11,227
Batting - Tail 5,062 4,680
Bowling - Seam 13,352 (8) 12,326 (8)
Bowling - Spin 12,864 (12) 12,524 (12)
Fielding/Keeping 16,570 17,036
Overall 229,363 230,304

Ruff Royals won by 6 wickets

I thought 143 was a decent total but I would have made myself slight favourite.

Zondeki outperformed my more experienced fast bowler which was a little surprising and he even outperformed the spinners. It was by no means an easy chase and we only got the win with 6 balls to spare. Mills was the star with the bat with 70 from 48 balls. Mills is having a nice T20 season so far and he's averaging 69.

That puts us 8 points clear at the top.

[casperj]

Crestfallen Sidekicks Bathaloner
Batting - Top Order 12,184 12,510
Batting - Middle Order 12,006 10,046
Batting - Tail 5,606 7,648
Bowling - Seam 12,408 (16) 9,021 (12)
Bowling - Spin 14,249 (4) 13,302 (8)
Fielding/Keeping 15,461 14,730
Overall 223,848 211,029

Crestfallen Sidekicks won by 6 wickets

Possibly benefiting from opponents taking a fatigue hit during the MKMC. Our Fast Medium bowlers doing the damage on an Uneven wicket.

[Atko]

SLBenfica vs The Raging Speed Horns
League Youth 2.1

Weather Sunny
Pitch Slow

Huge loss to our youth side this week has been the promotion of Don Cypher to seniors. This guy was our exp/exp goto RFM, who opened the bowling and kept our attack at least moderately respectable. We're now reduced to two 16yos and three 18yos, the latter of whom are just shy of being a threat. I think this may trigger our toppling from the top of the league over the next few weeks, but if we can just tread water for a while and maintain a tier 2 place by the end of the season, then I'll be happy.

Anyway, we're facing SLBenfica, who thusfar have been pulling ratings similar to ours. We opted to bat first on a slow track, and I think we've done okay. We bat fairly deep (the advantage of 'general' pulls ), so needed to utilize that to the maximum - considering the paucity of our bowling. At the halfway stage it's -

End of over 40 (7 runs) - The Raging Speed Horns(222-5) RR 5.55

- in previous weeks I'd be pleased with that score, but whether our young bowlers can defend it is another matter.

[casperj]

Had my spinner open the batting as a pinch hitter/sacrifice for opponents fast bowlers on an uneven wicket. He ended up carrying his bat!! Probably cost me any chance of winning as it prevented some of the better batsmen getting in, has fatigued one of my bowlers aand meant we scored too slowly.

T. Wightman (rfm) 8-0-41-1, S. Sikander 100 (134b), S. Reese 34 (27b)
End of over 40 (9 runs) - Crestfallen Sidekicks(193-3) RR 4.83