From The Pavilion

As we head into Season 55, I'm pleased to pick up the reigns from DK and take over the England Senior Side.

We have a few weeks' prep ahead of the first Tour, so will be experimenting and familiarising myself with the playing squad in upcoming friendlies.

If anyone is interested in joining me as an assistant then please reach out.

Many thanks,
Montyh

Looking forward to helping England hopefully climb the rankings a bit, and obviously the real priority has to be getting out of Nat Div 3. Not sure how we're doing at the moment with the search for other assistants, but would be good to get others interested involved so we can set up a regular dialogue on how to move the national side forward.

Yes - thanks to eagles123 for joining the set up. As he says, space for others to join us - reach out if interested

Pitch selection for the first tour will be confirmed next week and squad deliberations will commence shortly thereafter

Unfortunately our first friendly was a waste of time as Scotland didn't set orders. Hopefully world champs New Zealand give us a better test on Saturday

Many thanks,
Montyh

Home wolfberries
Away Sledgingshire
Ground wolfberries CG
League Youth 2.1
Date 22 Jun 23 10:00
Crowd 9,403
Weather Sunny
Pitch Uneven

Toss: wolfberries won the toss and elected to bat.

M. Rorke (rfs) 8-3-22-3, B. Farrell 11 (17b), R. Jackowiak 6 (5b)
End of over 40 (7 runs) - wolfberries(163-8) RR 4.08

Going to be a struggle to defend this, I decided to sell all the players that weren't going to make the seniors and give all the experience to the future. Of course this has weakened us, we will do well to avoid relegation this season in both youth leagues.

wolfberries Sledgingshire
Batting - Top Order 5,038 6,516
Batting - Middle Order 4,289 4,229
Batting - Tail 3,310 3,442
Bowling - Seam 5,399 (32) 6,080 (24)
Bowling - Spin 3,324 (8) 6,528 (16)
Fielding/Keeping 7,766 8,214
Overall 95,460 109,249

Result: Sledgingshire won by 5 wickets

An expected loss.

erm wolfie...

Well things went our way in the first OD Tour. To start with, we won the pitch selection for hard, flat and uneven pitches - suiting our 5 strong Fast bowlers very well. eagles123 and I selected the following squad:

Batsmen
Biss, R. - Canterbury Villagers
Delves, P. - The Night Watchmen
Furness, C. - Wolfberries Too
Gordon, K. - Egham Town CC
Graf, K. - Dishkyomm!!!
Harman, R. - Spinkings
Schwerdt, A. - Wolfberries Too
Short, J. - Central Coast Dolphins
Tuntrace, T. - Ball Busters

Bowlers
Allit, J. - Sunrise
Frost, D. - Showboating
Hourn, G. - Central Coast Dolphins
Hourn, R. - Royal Wannabees
Kermode, L. - Sledginshire
Lord, J. - Wolfberries
Penman, K. - Fine Legs
Scannell, D. - Exiles
Stoddart, C. - Chesney Champions

The week started off well against Zimbabwe. We limited them to 227 and chased it relatively comfortable with 19 balls to spare.

India then gave us a proper drubbing, posting a decent score of 303 in flat / cloudy. In response we could only muster 223 with none of our bats able to make a big score.

We bounced back well against the Netherlands. Our batting performance to set 279 in windy / hard wasn't the best, however the bowlers kept our nerve to win by 6 runs. The Hourn's taking 6 wickets in the process.

Scannell and Frost shared 9-wickets in the following game against Canada, limiting them to 207 in cloudy / hard which was a wonderful effort. Needing to beat Kenya in the final game, we posted a big 306 runs in Day 5 which was a tall order for the Kenyans. Despite this, they gave it a wonderful effort falling short by 23 runs in what was a nervy last 10-overs or so.

England v Zimbabwe England won by 3 wickets
England v India India won by 80 runs
England v Netherlands England won by 6 runs
England v Canada England won by 79 runs
England v Kenya England won by 23 runs

So all in all, a pleasing week. Good to get out of Div 3 with 4 OD Tours to come for WC qualification. Player ratings as follows:

Batsmen
(WK) 7/10 Biss - average of 43, 4/8 chances taken, 2/2 successful fielding checks
(WK) 4/10 Schwerdt - average of 5, 2/3 chances taken, 3/3 successful fielding checks

A real mixed bag for the keepers. Biss's 99 was a great knock, but was sloppy behind the stumps. Schwerdt had a dreadful week with the bat

4/10 Delves - average of 9, 1/2 chances taken, 7/9 successful fielding checks
4/10 Furness - average of 11, no chances received, 7/8 successful fielding checks
7/10 Gordon - average of 35, 2/2 chances taken, 10/14 successful fielding checks
6/10 Graf - average of 29, 0/1 chances taken, 5/7 successful fielding checks
7/10 Harman - average of 70, 1/3 chances taken, 2/5 successful fielding checks
8/10 Short - average of 64, 1/1 chances taken, 8/9 successful fielding checks
7/10 Tuntrace - average of 32, 2/2 chances taken, 2/5 successful fielding checks

Considering the batter friendly pitches, most of our pure batsmen struggled. Harman and Short had the best of it, but the former let us down in the field

Bowlers
(AR) 9/10 Stoddart - average of 142, 2/3 chances taken, 5/6 successful fielding checks. 138-1 @ 5.1 ER
(AR) 8/10 Allitt - average of 25, no chances received, 6/7 successful fielding checks. 146-5 @ 4.1 ER
(AR) 7/10 Penman - average of 40, 2/2 chances taken, 8/11 successful fielding checks. 156-4 @ 5.2 ER

Stoddart was incredible, two amazing not out innings and whilst not threatening, was tidy with the ball. In fact, all three ARs did well with the bat, punishing weary attacks towards the end of the innings

6/10 Frost - 2/2 chances taken, 8/11 successful fielding checks. 138-5 @ 6.9 ER
7/10 Kermode - no chances received, 5/5 successful fielding checks. 113-4 @ 5.8 ER
7/10 G. Hourn - 2/2 chances taken, 6/8 successful fielding checks. 169-6 @ 5.6 ER
7/10 R. Hourn - 0/1 chances taken, 2/3 successful fielding checks. 151-6 @ 5.0 ER
8/10 Lord - 2/2 chances taken, 7/7 successful fielding checks. 152-5 @ 5.4 ER
9/10 Scannell - no chances received, 5/7 successful fielding checks. 111-9 @ 3.7 ER

Aside from Frost who took some punishment in his first game, the seamers all performed admirably. Have to shout out Scannell who from his 3 matches (uneven, flat, hard), finished with figures of 111-9 @ 3.7 ER from his 30 overs. Incredible player!

Attention turns to T20 tour selection next week. Harman, Delves and Penman will be dropping out of the squad and some fresh faces added. We've made a small bid for the tour, but I expect someone else to take the rights. Let's see what happens!
Montyh

once again the pitch selection hasn't been exactly kind to us for the upcoming OD tour, we've ended up with 3 crumbling pitches, 1 sticky and 1 uneven, not ideal with our spinners being a weak area for the squad. Anyway we'll do our best! Squad Monty and myself have selected is as follows:

Justin Allit - Sunrise
Raymond Bliss - Canterbury Villagers
Darrell Fagg - Staples015
Clem Furness - Wolfberries Too
Adrian Gibaud - The Cricket Club
Bartholemew Harper - TheWizard's X1
Sasha Holland - Wolfberries
Graeme Hourn - Central Coast Dolphins
Ricky Hourn - Royal Wannabees
Lynwood Jinks - The New Originals
Liam Keogh - Sleeperbloke
Joey Maurangi - The Mighty Mighty Ducks
Kaine Penman - Fine Legs
Donnell Scannell - Exiles
Jonathan Short - Central Coast Dolphins
Fergus Staunton - Revolution
Christopher Stoddart - Chesney Champions
Tess Tuntrace - Ball Busters

Congratulations on all managers that have had players selected!

been a tough time for the seniors lately as we totally bottled promotion during the recent OD tour, but we have a T20 tour starting next week so hopefully we can put in a better showing! Congrats to all managers who have had players called up for the tour:

J. Birch - Topmen
R. Biss - Canterbury Villagers
E. Byrom - Canterbury Villagers
W. Fadington - The Raging Speed Horns
D. Fagg - Staples015
D. Frost - Showboating
J. Frost - Doobinator
C. Furness - Wolfberries Too
R. Hourn - Royal Wannabees
L. Keogh - Sleeperbloke
L. Kermode - Sledgingshire
P. Labyrinth - The Raging Speed Horns
J. Lord - Wolfberries
J. Maurangi - The Mighty Mighty Ducks
D. Scannell - Exiles
C. Stoddart - Noodlemeisters
T. Tuntrace - Ball Busters
C. Warden - Canterbury Villagers

Thanks all,

Eagles