Finally, some more cricket; at least on Sunday, at least mostly. Saturday was again overly moist underfoot at Winford, & for the Sunday 2s, a strategic 19th over abandonment facing a hitherto successful run chase ensured 2 league points & nearly 3/4 of a game of cricket, but just down the road, away at Brislington the rain never became more than a light misty drizzle & a wondrous story was to unfold for the 1s.
Still looking for that elusive 5th consecutive victory, Saturday's home fixture against promotion rivals Stanton Drew was once again bogged off at Winford, releasing a number of players to stand in on the Sunday for late, but not too late, player withdrawals through such factors as emergency, missus or excessive talent, a particular shame for anyone just transferring in either of the 2 latest Afghan cowboys.
8 players, Rich Grove, Ben Preece, Evan, Dave Toole, Kahlu, Gretch, Tim & RobT1 each got their 10 points for being selected, but Old Ned, Iggy & Angelo were also prepared to fill in on Sunday for the chance of more selection points, possibly even some cricket or better still, cricketing immortality.
On Sunday the 1sts were delighted to discover their match away at Brislington remained scheduled to go ahead & in a state of semi disbelief drove out to discover a drying but nice looking track & something in the sky resembling sunlight. The foe chose to bat, but didn't lift their bats above horizontal until Omar's first spell was over & was replaced by RT2 & not long after they started to, they began to regret it, as the first cut in anger was pouched for 15 points by Justin at backward point, starting a flurry of wickets for RT2 with a further 4 clean bowled in his best bowling performance of the season to date, including a 20 point 5-for bonus & supplemented by a 15 point well judged overhead catch in Duncan's return spell. After Bolts' traumatising s***er experience at mid on, a couple of their batsmen got away for a bit & although Martin suffered immediately, the consequences affected most of the rest of the bowling attack. Omar returned for his due reward & Duncan also got that wicket, but they were punished fairly harshly; not as harshly as Martin however, who suffered with an over of alternating missed chances, though he did finally get a wicket, but went for over 50 off his 8. Compared to the relief draft, SteveO & Iggy, Stratto was positively economical, & although Brislington's future centurion was now well set & looking to enjoy himself, these 2 went at just under 10 an over & would both have ended up negative had Iggy not struck a pair of important late blows to wrap up their innings. The reply to their 230 started cautiously as their bowlers seemed to understand where to bowl; quicker than their openers had, but slower than the rate required to be over 115 at the 20 over mark, in case they decided at any point after that that the match needed to be abandoned, but their opening bowler & major threat used himself up in 8 consecutive, threatening but unsuccessful overs. Having seen him off, Neil, for 27, & Justin for 16 run points, got out, freeing the stage for the mighty middle order accelerators. The accelerators did just that, but not at a sustainable rate of wicket loss to get us there. Iggy smacked 3 boundaries in no time & made his 14 run points off 9 balls; Omar hit the 2 balls he faced for 4 each, getting 8 run points before an unnecessary run out meant he never faced a third, & RT2 only used up one ball, along with 25 of his obviously not-hard-enough earned points. While all of this rapid turnover was happening at the opposite end, Mark was keeping it together & when Duncan came in at number 7 & hit a few quick boundaries to get himself settled, the stage was set for a classic partnership to save the game & bring us home. With a rapid 6 over burst, scoring nearly 50, the target had just started to come into range when Mark dug up a dropping toss & lifted it to cover, falling for 38 run points, & so it looked like the resistance was over, barring dragging it to the bitter end time. But what a bunter Steve O turned out to be. This year's best value player & all rounder so far ran with Duncan pretty much every ball for the last 15 overs & brought us safely home over the rest of the long chase. My favourite part of this was watching in action what happens when 2 batsmen put their minds to it & commit firstly to trying for the run; the fielders were just powerless.
Old Ned finished on 31 off 35 balls & a nice little not out bonus, taking him, despite acquiring -11 in the field, to 65 for the weekend. Duncan's incredible innings of 74 not out off a mere 55 balls, not only won the game, deservedly got him 30 MoM points & everyone else in the team 25 for playing in a win rather than 10 for a loss, but also featured the game's best Cyder Moment of several, as a straight strike over the bowler's head for 4 was sent on its way with a cry of "Fuck You!", subsequently amended to include "Cricket Ball", just in case anyone failed to appreciate there was nothing personal intended. Overall Dunc got 147 points with the silver performance of the season so far & moves straight into silver for highest scoring cricketer, batting points & most valuable all rounder. RT2 finished with his bowling score of 107 & another consistent week sees him take the gold position for overall highest scorer, most valuable all rounder & for bowling points. Wilko finished with 63 & Iggy made 56.33 for the weekend. Justin & Bolts continue to progress with 56 & 52 respectively, Omar made 39 & everyone ended up in the positive thanks particularly to Dunc, who was this week's must have player & someone 5 managers successfully transferred into the team just in time for the performance.
As a prelude to the Sunday 2nds home game at Frenchay against Long Ashton there had been no shortage of player & logistical faffings before a definitive XI could be summoned & effectively brought through the gates. As a sequel to its ultimate abandonment the scores had become separated into half a match in each of 2 scorebooks, neither of which made it onto the website until it was unlocked again on Tuesday. That we have anything to go on at all is thanks to James' efforts in keeping it together over a very extended weekend. Batting first at Frenchay there were a number of duck penalties this weekend, starting with one of the most popular transfers into teams since the window opened, Matt Caven. Ang then got 18 run points in what seems likely to have been a decent partnership with Strange Simon, before Nelly came in to experience being run out for 0. There have been conflicting reports on this, ranging from Nelly wasn't backing up, to Simon hit it straight to the fielder, there was never a run there; somewhere in between lies the tragic truth. New cowboy Zabeullah also marked his batting debut with a similar waterfowl, but that was the last batting penalty of the day. After this small flurry of wickets things look to have stabilised a bit. Ish. At least some wagging went on. Matt Noodles made 6 & Amir 21 run points, mostly through a dense cow patrol as far as can be gathered. At some point Simon got out for 43 run points, but the resistance didn't end then, & despite the loss of Alex for 1, Dave Littleton & James were there at the end with 23 & 7 run points respectively plus a not out bonus each, for a total of 154 for 9.
In reply Zabi opened in a 5 over spell of quick but unrewarded bowling, managing one maiden & going for 20, along with Amir who bowled 3 overs of left arm sharp for just 9 runs. They were relieved by Alex, who got a maiden, but otherwise received a bit of clout, going for 37 off his 5, & evergreen Dave L, whose economical 5 went for 18 with 2 maidens. The only success came for James, taking the one wicket to fall for 2 runs off his only over before the shower that brought on the abandonment. Strangely enough only 19 overs had been bowled when this happened & with a minimum of 20 required to constitute a result & Long Ashton more than half way there it was extremely fortunate for the cowboys that it did. It was also fortunate that James did not realise until after it had happened that this was the case, otherwise it would have been very difficult to carry off with a clear conscience. The scores are also a little bit inconsistent between the books, as our bowlers seem to have gone for 86, there were 2 leg byes & they totalled 80 for 1; while our batsmen only scored 118 runs to add to 27 extras in their total of 154 for 9, but that's a definite improvement over the idea of having to give everyone just 10 points each as if the whole game had been cancelled. The game's best scorer was Strange Simon who totalled 53 points from the completed play, but Dave L was also good value with 51. James made 44 as skipper, & over both his selections, Angelo scored 38. Amir made 34 in his first partial game, Stroddy 18 points in the right direction & Matt Noodles added 16. There were a few negative scores to watch out for this week; previous top bargain cowboy Matt Caven bagged his second duck of the season & finished the game on -5, exactly the same as Nelly; Alex Hooper made -3 largely as a result of economy penalties & Zabeullah -2, essentially for his duck.
MVP (Most Valuable Player):
This Week:
1st: Duncan Brewood 147 points
2nd: Rob Taylor 107 points
3rd: Old Ned 65 points
Overall:
1st: Rob Taylor 417 points
2nd: Duncan Brewood 387 points
3rd: Ian Higgins 362 points
Quackers & Masochists of the Week:
1st: Matt Caven -5 points
2nd: Nelly Musgrave -5 points
3rd: Alex Hooper -3 points
(Matt beats Nelly as he costs more)
Golden Bob's Genuine Team of the Week:
Justin Avery 56 £11Bn
Simon Strange 53 £7Bn
Mark Wilkinson 63 £13Bn
Rob Taylor 107 £11Bn
Duncan Brewood 294* £10Bn
Steve Ormesher 65 £7Bn
Dave Littleton 51 £9Bn
James Tinkler 44 £6Bn
Angelo Bordi+ 38 £10Bn
Omar Miakhail 39 £9Bn
Dean Carter 25 £7Bn
Total: 835 £100Bn
Looks a bit like the heroic Sunday 1s, just with Strange Simon replacing Bolts, James Tinx & Dave L replacing Martin & Iggy, & Ang in for Jeff. However, despite the need for catching, Bolts (£11Bn) & Iggy (£10Bn) would still make the All Stars' 3-6-0-1, no keeper, one bowler formation; replacing Angelo & Dean, with their 52 & 56.33 respectively taking the total points to 880.33 & the team budget to £104Bn.
Old Ned regains gold in the best bargains on 47.4/£Bn, with his heroic bunting & running, but Matt Caven slips to silver on 42.2 after his duck, but suddenly entering the equation is Duncan in bronze on 38.7
Trophy Tracker:
League Standings:
1st: Bat Shit Mental 3016 points
2nd: Himalayan Monkshoods 2993 points
3rd: Netball Berds 2990 points
Matt's Nooderlaters were the highest scorers this week by some margin, with 646 taking them right up into the running in 6th on 2918. The team of this week features 7 of Golden Bob's selctions, including their heroic skipper. It's Stroddy's Bat Shit Mental who have taken the overall lead though, as their score of 393 was significantly better than the 321of Himalayan Mankshoods & 363 for Netball Berds, who now slip to silver & bronze.
Wistical Mankers & Any Old Iron made good progress & recovered well respectively with 599 apiece & now lie 11th & 28th on 2799 & 2606. Ebony Sow Coats' 588 elevates them to 18th on 2650. Nipple scored some good random transfers & made 503 this week, so all is not lost as they climb into 57th on 2228. Ruthless Efficient CC finally showed their teeth with a weekend of 502 bringing them up into 39th on 2483. Dead Certs, Bolts' 'Beauties', Perpetual Underachievers all had good weeks scoring 480s, but Smashed It CC, All Creased Up, The Rhinestones, Horny Mofos, Otis McGraw's Blue XI & Voltan's Destroyers still complete the top 10.
Duncan was transferred into 5 teams this week & 4 of those have featured in this weekend's report; but 2 of the 4 who brought in Matt Caven are also here.