Well he new season got underway, and we were playing the defeated Division 1 Grand Finalists to kick us off. Both teams were playing with 7 players, we've lost Percy & Mick for the new season, and currently only got Boy back in the team as a replacement. Footysux is the captain for this comp. They batted first and made 168, with their skins being 31, 63, 51 and 23. Our best bowling was myself with -7 and -1, but they were the only negative overs. Up the other end Boy went for 21, Brad with 20, Buckles 18 and Pup with 17 got hit for a bit. So we were up against it, but then started very brightly. Foty made the hard decision of breaking up Pup & SOC, and Boy went in with Pup and they emerged on 50. Rumbel and Buckles bettered it with 57, before Footy and I, for the first time in ages, let the team down with a 0 skin. Pup batted again with SOC to finish the game with 29, and we lost 136-168. Lucky I bowled well, as my batting wasn't great, but I did get out jackpot ball going for a 7 and getting caught, to lose 10 runs and finish on -8. Footy got 2, and was the catalyst for our poor batting effort. Best bats were umbel with 29 and Buckles with 24 and boy with 21. Worst umpire award went to Greg, who was the shonkiest we've ever seen him. He didn't give one of their batters out run out when he was gone by over a metre, and then gave me runout when I was safe. Upon which I vented my frustration at his lack of eyesight, including an f-word and got further frustrated by a ball which bounced off the pitch not getting called leg side. Greg wins the tool of the week award!
Game 2 and we played a Division 2 side- Always Short. We played well, not perfect, otherwise we would've won, , but well enough to be encouraging. We welcomed Willis back into the fold to make 8 players and sent them into bat. They had three good pairs and got to a total of 166, with skins of 49, 20, 49 & 48. No-one had a really bad over, but no-one had great overs either. We took constant wickets troughout their innings, but they would cancel it out with a big hit, Best overs were Rumbel with 1 and Boy with 2. Worst overs were Brad with 17 and Boy with 16. There were nine overs around 10-14 runs as well, which told the story. Boy and Adam opened the batting and were on 42 with an over to go, before it all came undone and they got -8 off the last over, to finish on 34. Rumbel & Buckles were next and they too were also going well at 24 off two overs, before losing 5 wickets in the last two overs to finish on 21. At least they got the skin! Footy and Willis were next and they too were 33 after two overs, before choking to finish on 26. SOC and I batted last, and we batted very sensibly, and were the only pair to increase our runs from the last few overs! We ended up on 44, not quite getting the skin, but at least making the scoreline respectable. So we lost 166-125. Best bats were myself with 28, Footy with 17 and Boy with 16. SOC with 2 and Willis with 3, need to go back into the nets! As I said, if we had played even 5% better, it might've changed the whole game. About five missed chances from SOC at keeper would've kept them to around 140ish, and we were on track in each pair to get what we needed. In the end only SOC and I did our share of the batting! Oh yeah- we had useless Greg again for umpire and once again he was fairly useless. One point, I stopped a ball from hitting the side net, and he still gave them the extra run, which annoyed both myself and Rumbel, and he didn't give a few clear runouts, but he was a bit better than last game.
Last week, we lost again. El capo to type in match report from last week. So after three games as captain this season, we have lost all three. Again, it came down to our fielding and some suicidal batting which was atrocious at times. We again scored over 100 runs for the 3rd game in a row but lost by around 20-30 to a six man side to boot.
Yeah- so we played the Muppets- who we've beaten in the Grand Final, 3 seasons ago, and in the semi finals for the last two seasons, and they only had six players including Mick- but more on that later- and we still lost 153-128. We had Buckles mate Scott fill in for Rumbel, and he made a solid debut. When we found out Mick was now playing for the Muppets, comments ranged from Brad's "Mick who? He's dead to me!", to 'turn your back to him when he walks on court' to 'just call him $onny Bill'. Then he was continuously sledged during the game, especially when he caught catches, and ran hard while batting- things he never did for us! They batted first and their pairs got 34, 29, 52 & 38. Footy let them choose their own two batters which was gentlemanly, but stupid, as they put two of their better batters on again. The only negative over was Footy's -1, but there were alos 8 single digit overs. The worst overs were Brad with 32, including 7 wides, which being in the last over were re-bowled for a 15 ball over! And Willis chipped in with an over which conceeded 25. Boy & Pup batted first and they started terribly, gettingout 3 times in the first over, then twice the next. They came back a bit, but ended up on only 15, and considering they only had 6 players, was pretty poor. Buckles and Scott were up next and got us back in the game with 46 and the skin. Then Footy & Willis were in and going alright on 28 off three overs, but then Willis got out three time in the final over to finish on 19, leaving Brad & I a hard task of getting 74 to win the game. We ended up with 48 and the skin, to get us close, but still no cigar. SOC was funny when asked why he bats more sensibly with me then with Pup. His response was" I have to bat sensibly- I don't want to get yelled at by Brian for doing something silly!" Best bats were Buckles with 26 and me with 25. Willis with -5 and Pup with -1 were letting the team down! Onwards and upwards to next week is all we can do!
With the mate of Buckles, Scott making a solid debut, we will start having nine players in the squad soon. To make it a fair rotational system, we will drop the player with the worst contribution to the game every week for one game. Form will also be a key factor in picking the side for the semis.
Well, controversy in the result of the lastest game, against the Phoenix for the second time in 4 games! It started off all innocently- and finished with both team being awarded the win! We only had 7, as Buckles mate Scott couldn't make it and we only found out at 6:25 when Footy rang him. We chose to bat first and were doing alright, until the last pair of Willis and myself had a barry in the last over, to finish on a total of 114. We got out on the last three balls of the innings to lose 20 runs off our total. Boy & Pup did well to finish on 57, Rumbel & Footy got 26. Myself and SOC got 23, and then Willis & I got 8. Best bats were Boy with 28 & Pup with 19. Willis and I both ended up on -1, and it was my own stupid fault getting out on the jackpot ball which gave me such crap figures. We then fielded really well and held their pairs to 31, 11, 35 & 41. And they blocked out the last two balls to win 118-114. Or so they thought........ Best bowlers were Rumbel with -3, Footy with 1 and myself with 2. Willis got tonked for 21 at the other end of the scale. After the game I had a look at the scoresheet, and noticed for some reason we had been given -25 for the last three wickets instead of -20, a difference of 5 runs. When I raised this with the centre, they concured and the score sheet now read 119-118- our win! However, as they thought they were past our score and blocked out the win she let them keep their win points and gave us win points as on the scoresheet, we had indeed won! We both won two skins each so both teams got 6 points from the game. 4 win points and 2 skins each!
As the captain of the cattledogs side for the season, it has been a dreadful start with us losing again last night by 3 runs and off the last few balls too. El Capo will provide the match report. The pleasing aspect of the season (if there is any) is our batting in the 5 games we lost. We are 0/5 as the 4th game game win was a techincal win only as they shut up shop as they got past our score on the last 2 balls. We have scored more than 110 runs in each of our 5 games against grade 1/2 sides which is a super effort. Our problem is the lack of consistency in the field and bowling at times but especially our fielding. We probably missed more catches this season in the first 5 games than we did last season. We saw the return of two more players from semi retirment in Boy and Willis. We may see another player in Doc coming back too. However we do lose one of our stalwarts in El capo next week for a period of time due to the impending birth of his second child. Good luck with that el cap. With the occasional absences of Rumbel and Buckles for work, we could possily struggle for next 4-6 weeks for personnel. But the future does look rosy when we may have to drop players from our team due to numbers and form. El Capo, can you publish all the scores ie batting and bowling for each individual so at season's end we pick the best 7 players based on form for the semi while the other spot is team's choice. Thus we go on net contribution.
Two chances with me publishing scores- none & Buckley's...... Round 5, and we played TC's, going down in a tight one, on the last ball 145-142. We batted first and Boy & Sanchez got 45. Buckles & Rumbel got 35. Willis & Footy got 41 and SOC and myself got 21, which wasn't too bad considering SOC got out 3 times in the first 4 balls of our pair! Best bats were Sanchez/Pup with 27 and me with 21. SOC got -8! Their first pair got 58 and we were in trouble, but then held their next two pairs to 16 & 28 to be in with a shot. They were one short, and Eddie, against all our wishes, let them choose their own batter, which not surprisngly came back to bite us on the bum, as the guy who batted again got 24, their second highest individual total, and they passed us on the last ball. As we constantly tell Eddie, they wouldn't let us pick our own- so why let them pick. Its their own fault they are short, if we don't take advantage of it, then we're idiots! Ed had the best over with -12, Rumbel & willis had an over of -1 each. Worst over went to Rumbel with 24 to open the game, but added together they weren't too bad! So a loss- again- but not too bad an effort.
When are you back sunshine? Congrats dude on the birth of your daughter again. Pity, she has to follow the eels though. If she supported the knights, she would have a better chance of seeing a comp win. You have been waiting since 1986 and me since 2001 for our comp wins.
Round 6 was against the Muppets with the turncoat Mick playing for them again. They had 7 but unfortunately for us we only had 5 players plus a late sub Simon. With El Capo (baby duties), Rumble (sick), Doc (work), Boy and Willis (transport) missing we were against it. They batted first and we kept them to 167 which was a good effort with 6 players. We had to forgo the keeper position and we did miss at 4-5 run outs and gave 42 runs in wides. Our best bowlers were Buckles (-2), me 5, Scott and simon with 6 runs apiece in one of theirovers. None of us got really hit in our bowling which was a good sign with the highest over being Adam 20, Brad 19, simon 16 and Adam 14. We lost all 4 skins for the first time in yonks as our batting fell short again. Buckles and Simon scored 32, Brad and Scott 44, Adam and yours truly 21 runs while Buckles and Adam batted last for 30 runs. We scored a total of 127 runs which was another good batting effort but again not enough for the win. highest scores were Brad with 26 and Adam (batting agin) 24. The other end of the batting was led by Buckles (batting again) -4, yours truly with 3 and Scott with 6. Hopefully we can bounce back next week with a full complement of 8 players as we chase our first win of the season.
Although technically we did claim a win a few games ago. We should beat the muppets every game we have 8, as we have done every Grand Final or semi we've played them in the last three years! Although in that GF we won with 7 which made it even sweeter!
A watershed result for our side this with an emphatic win over one of our whipping boys in Shiney's Chokers. We had 7 players and they had 6 but it was our fielding which helped our epic win. After being put to bat, we had to change our batting line up again so Buckles and Rumble opened. They managed 42 runs after scoring only 1 run off the first over. Brad and myself batted second and dropped to 25 runs after I managed to get caught off jackpot ball. Boy and Adam then scored 26 runs. Then it was Willis and Adam (picked again) who helped us to a good score with an emphatic 68 runs. Willis scored 2 6s in his knock of mid 20s while Adam also scored in the 20s but he also ran out Willis a couple of times too. Our final score was a respectable 161. The top batters were Adam (sub) 26, Buckles 23 and Willis 25 while Adam 4, Rumble 3 and myself -6 brought up the rear. We also declined "Sonny" Mick's assistance to be the extra player so we played with 7. Mick to those who did not know left our team to play for another side. The Chokers scored 13 runs off the first from Buckles before yours truly and Rumble brought the first pair into single digits before the final over and they finally scored in the 20s. Their next pair were held to the mid teens before their final over saw them win the skin by a single run. Their 3rd pair collapsed from a good start to low 20s to lose their skin. Willis opened up the bowling to their 4th pair who were their best pair as I gave them the right to choose. Willis got a hatrick in his -17 and could have been more if I did not stuff a stumping. My excuse was that was the fastest ball Willis had ever bowled. So after 13 overs we had them at 49. Our next 3 bowlers Buckles 26, Willis (sub bowler) 25 and Brad (sub bowler) 25 let them off the hook. Instead of just giving the highest and lowest, i decided to do net contribution which is batting (average if batting twice) minus the bowling figures (average of 2 overs if sub bowler) and plus half the wides when theey were batting. Adam: Bat (26 and 4) ave is 15 , bowling 10 and 13, bat wides ave is 11 = 3 Boy: Bat 17, bowling -3 and 9, bat wides 4 = 15 Brad: Bat is 13, Bowling (13,-1 and 25) , two over ave is 24, bat wides 9 = -2 Buckles: Bat 23, bowling 13 and 26, bat wides 8 = -8 Eddie: Bat -6, Bowling 0 and 3, bat wides 9 = 0 Rumble: Bat 3, bowling -5 and 3, bat wides 8 = 13 Willis: Bat 25, bowling (11, -17 and 25), 2 over average is 12, bat wides 7 = 20 So the highest contributors to the team this week were willis (20), Boy (15) and Rumble (13). Adam with 3 and myself with 0 were minimal contributors but held our own. Buckles (-8) and Brad (-2) were the least productive.
The cattledogs played their last ever game on a wednesday last week against the Oaks. We put in one of our worst performances ever in our 157 run loss. They batted first and scored 147 with partnerships of 42,33,55 and 57. Our bowlers predictably got smacked. Best bowlers were boy with -5 and 0, brad 4, willis with a 6. Worst bowlers were adam 24, Buckles with a 24 and 18. Our first pair of boy and adam scored 30, Buckles and Doc (making a return after almst 2 years) -28, Wills and myself scored 5, Brad and Scott scored 23. Best batsmen were Boy 18 and Brad with 15. Worst were Buckles with a team high ever in the history of the cattledogs of -39 and me with -5. I object to my -5 as willis's run out off jackpot ball was credited to me. Why are umpires so cruel? Individual net contribution:Batting score minus the two bowling overs + half of the wides when batting. Adam: Bat 6, bowling 24 and 10, batting wides ave 3= -25 Boy: Bat (18) bowling -5 and 0, batting wides ave 3= 26 Brad: Bat 15, bowling 4 and 10, batting wides ave 1 = 2 Buckles: Bat (-39), bowling 24 and 18, batting wides aves 3= -78 Doc:Bat 5, bowling 15 and 11, batting wides ave 3= -18 Eddie: Bat -5 (robbed), bowling 10 and 14, batting wides ave 2= -27 Scott:Bat 6, bowling 8 and 12, batting wides ave 1= -13 Willis: Bat 6(lucky b*****), bowling 4 and 15, batting wides ave 2= -11 Thus our best contributors were Boy with a season team high of 26 and Brad with 2 while on the other Buckles gets the record for ever net contribution score of -78 which will be hard to beat for years to come. Since we went on the net contribution scoring system Buckles contribution to the team in the last two games is a combined -86. Boy leads with 41. This tuesday will see our first ever game on a tuesday night. My captaincy record for the season is 8 games for 1 win and 7 losses.
The funny part was that he got out 8 times plus jackpot and he also ran out doc twice. If we go on form, he will be close to getting a text for the semis. Brad has improved considerably in his batting since he stopped batting with you. I wonder what grade we will end up playing on tuesday night as the only whipping boys on wed night were shiny's chokers as we keep losing to the muppetts in regular rounds. We are not a grade 1/2 side so we should be grade 3/4 or we may have to switch back. When is el capo back because I need a jackpot over bowler who does not give wides. We gave 16 runs in wides off jackpot overs last week plus the runs they scored off the additional balls..
We made our tuesday debut with 7 players. Before we even started a lady from the centre came up to and said the wednesday comp was easier than tuesday so we are slotting in between grades at 2/3. Thus they put us against a side that plays grade 1/2. They had six players before getting two late subs for 8. They were called the yakuza and most of them wore team shirts so that was intimidating too. We started off bowling and we were up against their best pair who had played against us before. After 3 overs they were 49 before we took them in the 4th to reduce them to 43. The 2nd pair scored 27 while the third pair scored 48 and the last 33. The annoying part was that the last 3 pairs were crap compared to the first and if we had 8 fielders, we could have reduced their score to about 100 instead of 151. Our best bowlers were Adam -6, Willis -3 in his 3rd over, Rumble, Brad and myself with 5 runs in one over. Our batsmen came to the fore with Boy and Adam scoring 59 with 2 balls left before crumbling to 44. Buckles fresh from his -39 last week batted with Rumble and had a team high partnership of 74. Brad and myself batted 3rd and put up our best act of blockers with 42 to go past their team score. They then decided to pick me as the gummy batter even though Brad and myself scored the same runs. Willis and myself scored 18 over off the first 3 overs to put a 27 run gap so I swapped bats after the 3rd over and got caught at the back nets by a brilliant one hander the very next ball, we scored a total partnership of 17. We ended up winning by 26 runs. Best batters were Buckles 36 (75 run trunaround), Adam 31, Rumble 28, Brad and myself 15 each. Lowest scores were Willis 2, Boy 5 and me 5 in my 2nd bat. Net contributions: Adam: Bat 31, Bowling -6 and 12, Batting wides 4 = 29 Boy: Bat 5, Bowling 15 and 13, Batting wides 4 = -19 Brad: Batting 15, Bowling 5 and 16, batting wides 6= 0 Buckles: Batting 36, Bowling 20 and 13, batting wides 5= 8 Eddie: Batting ave 10 (15 and 5), bowling 5 and 10, bat wide ave5.5 (6 and 5) = .5 Rumble: Batting 28, bowling 2 over ave total 24 (14, 5 and 18), bat wides 5 = 9 Willis: Batting 2, Bowling 2 over average 8(7, 7 and -3)batting wides 5= -1 Thus the best net contributor with a season high of 29 is Adam, Rumble 8 and Buckles 7 were the next best contributors. With .5 of a contribution, et moi and Brad 0 held our won. Willis with -1 also managed to stay close to the contribution line while Boy was the worst contributor this game with -19. So after the 9th game of the spring season, I improve to a 2-7 season which was in line in expectation considering the absence of a few players and the grade we were in. The semis are a different story. The best part this season has been the consistency with the bat except for last week's effort. 8/9 games this season has seen us score more than 120 runs. The worst part of our game has been our inconsistent bowling and fielding with most of our opponents scoring around 20-25% of their runs in wides. We also missed a lot of run outs and catches. On the funny side, we will have the Cattledog play or plays of the week. Last week, it was willis getting hit in the reproductive area when fielding. This week, it is Willis again. Willis bowled his usual wily ball and it was hit by the batsman into the side net and straight to Willis. Willis did not even move as it was a lob straight to him if he opened his mouth, he could have caught it with no injury as it was going that slow. Then we saw the fear pass through his eyes before his hands clutched at the ball which agonisingly stayed in before dropping out to the amazement and shock of all his fielders. Then he managed to take 3 wickets off his next 4 balls to make up for it. Willis is the entertainer. Next week, we are going to warm him up by throwing balls at him. The runner up had to be Buckles, a 75 run turn around with bat this week compared to last week. A positive contribution for the first time in 3 week. Now we just have to work on his bowling. The fact that ASDA were waiting in the wings to drug test him does not augur well for us next week especially when we saw Buckles trying to drop some packages in the bin. Next week it is a 8pm game.
Last night's game day was probably the most eventful day of indoor cricket, I have ever been involved with. It started off slowly on Monday when Doc said he could not make it so we went to one of our retirees in Scotty "Smoking" Gibbs to sub for us. But at 4.17pm on game day Adam sent a text saying he can't play because of work, when I rang him he mentioned something about Picton then at 6.27pm his chummy buddy Brad sends a text he is "suck at work till late because the duty manager did not turn up". Suck at work???? Thus we were down to six at 8pm and Adam the useless bugger was not even answering his phone so his teammates had to text him with suggestions to his love life. Then Buckles managed to poach a player Darren so we had 7, then we managed to get in touch with Matt who said he will play and thus we had a team of 8. But the drama was not over as Scott dislocated his left shoulder in warm up and Boy had to drop him off at home so we were back to 6. Thus we had to get another sub Terry to make 7. Scott was taken to the hospital by his girlfriend so we will have to see what happens. Update regarding his condition next week or when we find out but it was the shortest comeback in cricketing history. To the actual game. We fielded first and restricted their side's pairs to 20, 16, 4 and -11. The funniest part was that Rumble and myself were picked to bowl extra overs considering in our first two overs I had 4 and -4 while Rumbel had -2 and 4. In the two sub overs we got an accummulative total of -12.The best bowlers were yours truly with -10,-4, Darren -3 and Rumbel with 2 overs of -2. The worst bowlers were terry with 15 and 6 while Willis had a 6 too. Matt was brilliant at the back with some good catches and runouts while Darren was good at the keeping caper. We also missed a few run outs too by inches so they were lucky not be 0 or less. Chasing a total of 29 to win, Rumbel and Buckles scored 47 in the first pair so the game was effectively over. Terry and Darren scored 24, Matt and myself scored 35 while Wills and yours truly batted again for 8. The key to a good score is not argue with the ump as Willis got run off jackpot ball but I was credited with the -10 again and a -5 when Matt got run out.. Best batters were Rumbel 18, Matt and Buckles with 15 while terry scored 14. Worst bats were Willis and myself (robbed again) with 0 and Darren with a 2. We scored 114 after in total after cruising in the last 3 pairs. Net contribution (regular players only) Buckles: Bat 15, bowling 3 and 3, batting wides 7 = 16 Eddie: Batting ave 2 (4 and 0), 2 over bowling ave -7 (4, -4 and 10), batting wide average 6 (8 and 4) = 15 Matt: Batting 15, bowling 2 and 4, batting wides 8 = 17 Rumbel: Batting 18, 2 over bowling ave 0 (-2,4 and -2) batting wides 7 = 25 Willis: batting 0, bowling 6 and 0, batting wides 4 = -2 Thus the best contributor was Rumbel with 25, while Matt 17, Buckles 16 and yours truly with 15 kicked on well. Wills brought up the rear with a lucky -2 instead of -12 if the ump was not petty. Also special mention has to be given to Rumbel with his bowling of 3 jackpot overs with the absence of Adam, Brian etc. He conceded a total score of 0 in his 3 overs. Next week will be a tough contest as Buckles and Willis with the possibility of Adam missing the game next week due to Melbourne Cup committments. Buckles will be under the weather while the other two are working with the possibility of suffering the Buckles condition after the work is finished. So we have 4 players in Brad, Boy, Rumbel and myself only at this stage. El Capo may be required. Matt has to be asked again too. If we can't get more than 6 we may have to forfeit for the first time in yonks.
The End To The Scotty Drama was that when at the hospital the x-rays showed it was to far out to pop back into spot while awake so he was knocked out and all fixed up.(Maybe)
A week is a long week in sport as we found out. Over the weekend I was informed by Pup (Adam) that him and SOC (Brad) can no longer play indoor on tuesday because of their oztag commitments. So as a result they abandoned their team even though they voiced no objections when we switched days. This abandonment is worse than Sonny Bill's decision to walk out on the dogs. He left for money. So after speaking to the leadership group, they have been suspended indefinitely. We played last night against a team called Sleeping Giants who were leading the grade we were playing in. We only had 5 regulars in Boy, Willis, Rumbel, Doc and myself with Buckes (melb cup hangover), Brian (baby duties) and Scott (finishing off his other sport commitments and showing loyalty to a committment) missing. We managed to get 3 subs including our previous Sonny in Mick, last week's replacement Darren and a young Matt in Russ. They batted first and their first 3 pairs scored 47,47 and 40 respectively before we held the last pair to -2 for a final total of 132. Russ took some great catches including some stunning one handers. In truth it was a dissapointing effort with the ball with Boy and myself being the main culprits conceding 28 and 23 respectively. Best bowlers were Russ with -7, Boy with a -7 and Darren -1. Doc and Rumbel opened and set up a team high partnership of 70 with Doc scoring 34 and Rumbel 30. That score included 2 sixes each. darren and Russ then scored a solid 43 with Russ 24 and Darren 12. Willis and myself batted and after almost 3 overs we were 28 and total over 140 before crumbling to be 18. Mick and Boy struggled initally and at one stage after 2.5 overs were one run ahead of the whole toal before kicking in the last 12 balls to score a partnership of 26. The final score as per sheet was 155. Best batters were Doc, Rumbel and Russ while Willis with -2 and Boy 6 brought up the rear. We ended up winning by around 26 runs according to the ump however he really did not keep a good score as our 2nd pair only scored 38 when you add the scores while the last pair of Mick and Boy only got 23 when you add the scores up too. We would have still won by around 20 even taking into account the ump's scoring. Net contributions Boy: Bat 6, bowling (28 and -7), bat wides ave 2 = -13 Doc: Bat 34, bowling (4 and 8), bat wides ave 3 = 25 Eddie: Bat 10, bowling (23 and 11), bat wides ave 5 = -19 Rumbel: Bat 30, bowling (3 and 9), bat wides ave 3 = 21 Russ: Bat 24, bowling (-7 and 10), bat wides ave 1 = 22 Willis: Bat -2, bowling (12 and 13), bat wides ave 5 = -22 So the best were Doc, Russ and Rumbel with their positive 20s while Boy, myself and Willis negated that with our - contributions. Next week is a bye so we will regroup with Buckles coming back and his mate Scott being available for selection along with a mate of mine plus a mate of Willis. However the real news is that Russ wants to play permanently so he is going to speak to his father as he also plays state cricket in high school. Rumbel and myslef were salivating at the prospect of having Matt and him at the back as they are both freaks. Russ is also a stylish left handed batter too. So we are hoping. Thus the two traitors do not have a side to come back to when their oztag finishes as they forfeited their spots with their Sonny impersonation. We also have El capo (brian) to come back too so we may have reserves even though we are struggling now with numbers. We are hopeful of getting 8 for rest of the season.
I have been lazy so this is last week's game result and scores. We got hammered by a team called What. We scored 34 and they in turn scored 175. It was a dissapointing loss to say the least and on top of that we lost our young gun Russ who did not turn up so fair to say we won't see him again. We batted first, Doc and Boy scored a team high of 19, Buckles and Rumbel 6, Willis and myself a -4 while Russ (from england) and Scott scored 13. Top score was Boy with 12 and Scott with 4. I brought up the rear with -11 including -15 in the last over, Russ with a -7 and Rumbel with a -4. What scored 72 with their first pair, 55 in the 2nd, 44 with the 3rd and 4 with their last. The bowlers got tonked especially in the first 12 overs. Best bowlers were Boy with a -13, Russ and Doc with a 2. The other side of the equation were Rumbel with a 23, Boy and myself with a 22, Willis with a 17 and Scott with a 15. In all honesty the score could have been better by around 50 runs as we missed a lot of run outs while they hit the stumps with regular ease. They were more of a grade 1/2 than a 2/3 or 3/4 side. One of them was so similar to Grant with his looks and ability. Net contributions: Boy: Batting 12, batting wides 3, bowling 22 and -13 = 6 Buckles: Batting 2, batting wides 4, bowling 5 and 13 = -12 Doc: Batting 1, batting wides 3, bowling 8 and 2 = -6 Eddie: batting -11, batting wides 4, bowling 22 and 9 = -38 Rumbel: batting -4, batting wides 4, bowling 22 and 14 = -36 Russ: batting -7, batting wides 8, bowling 14 and 2 = -17 Scott: batting 4, batting wides 8, bowling 15 and 11 = -14 Willis: batting -1, batting wides 4, bowling 17 and 11= -25 Thus the only person who made a positive contribution was Boy with 6 while yours truly and Rumbel led a sea of red with -38 and -36 respectively.
The night before this week's game I received a call from one of our Sonnys in Brad (SOC) who wanted to come back along with his errant partner in Adam (Pup). I asked them to speak to the leadership group on the night of the game. To their credit, they did attend but the leadership group including myself were still raw from their betrayal of the side to play oztag so their services were declined. The other side of the equation is that by abandoning the side, they lost their regular spots. The regulars now are Buckles, Boy, Doc, Rumbel, Scott, Willis and myself. El Capitano will be back next year so whoever plays in his spot won't get a permanent fixture till there is an opening. Two of Willis's mates want to play too and I have another person waiting too. So Pup and SOC now have to wait to play for us or form another side. After last week's debacle against a very good side, we played a team called Yakuza on tuesday night. They are very similar to us in ability with a couple of very good players and a mix of good players. Darren who plays for another side subbed for us because the mate of Willis could not play. I won the toss and put them to bat. Their fiirst 3 pairs scored 22, 25 and 31. The last pair which was the gun pair were on 16 with 1.5 overs to go before scoring 39 off the last 12 balls including a jackpot 6. Thus we had a score of 132 to chase down. Rumbel lead the way in the field with something 4 or 5 runouts. The best bowlers were Buckles -5, Darren -3, Scott -2 and 1 while Doc had a 2. The worst bowlers were Doc with a 24, Willis 18, Boy 18, your truly with 15 and Willis with a 14. Our batsmen started well with Doc and Boy with 41 while Bucks and Rumbel with 42. Willis and myself scored 25 after Willis got bowled off jackpot ball. So after 3 pairs we were on 108 with the last pair of Darren and Scott having to score 25+ to win. The last pair fluctuated heavily to be at one stage 3 runs behind with 2 overs left and then crashing to be 12 runs behind with an over left. After a 1st ball wide in the last over, they managed to get out so it was 15 runs to score against a bowler who only gave 5 runs in his hackpot over to our first pair. With 2 balls to go we were down by 8 runs. Scott opened up the game with a magnificent 6 to the joy of the spectators. One ball left and Darren needing a single off jackpot ball to win unfortunately deflected the ball for a catch off the net to a fielder. Luckily for us, he dropped the ball and the dogs won by 3 runs. Best batsmen were Rumbel with 27, boy with 17 and Doc with 14. Worst batsmen were Scott 4, Darren 5 and Willis 6. We got 42 runs in wides after conceding 34 runs when we were bowling. Net contributions (regs only): Boy: Batting 17, bat wides 5, bowling 18 and 7 = -3 Buckles: Batting 11, bat wides 2 bowling -5 and 5 = 13 Doc: Batting 14, bat wides 5, bowling 2 and 26 = -9 Eddie: Batting 9, bat wides 5, bowling 8 and 15 = -9 Rumbel: Batting 27, bat wides 2, bowling 8 and 12 = 9 Scott: Batting 4, bat wides 9, bowling 1 and -2 =14 Willis: Batting 6, batting wides 5, bowling 18 and 14 = -21 Thus the best contribution were Scott,Bucks and Rumbel with 14,13 and 9 respectively. The negatives were Willis -21, Doc and myself with -9 each plus Boy with a -3. I am trying to work to out a formula for jackpot over adjustments when bowling. The net contributions are fascinating as it takes a different approach to the game. Next week's game is at 8pm.
Last night we had a new debutant in Shane. We played against a side called True Blue who scored 29 runs against us the first time we played them last season. Rumbel lead the way with a comment that came back to bite us regarding a easy night ahead of us. I lost the toss and they decided to bat. After the first 3 overs, it was all going to plan as they were on 18. They managed to get 18 off the last while their next 3 pairs scored 50,50 and 23 respectively. They were one short so I even let them nominate their own player too. Our fielding was abysmal. We made more fumbles and missed run outs than we had done for quite a while. I think we gave something 60-80 runs due to errors. Greg's refreeing also did not help with a couple of questionable benefit of the doubts to the opposing side. Our best bowler was Wills with -7 as we managed to get 2 catches off his bowling plus a run out. Scott with 2 and Willis with another over of 5 were the better overs. Worst overs were Rumbel with an unlucky 18, yours truly with 16, Doc with 2 overs of 15 and Shane with a 15. Rumbel and Bucks opened up with 80, then Boy and Doc replied with a 68. Thus after 8 overs we were 148 thanks to our deadly duos with only 12 to win. Willis and myself then scored 50 to tie our skin. This left the last pair of Shane and Scott to score 23 for a double skin win. They rose to the challenge with a 64 including a magnificent jackpot 6 by Scott. We scored close to our highest ever score with 262. The senior players in our side think one of the scores in the early years when we had Grant, Doc, Brian, Bucks etc would have been higher. The top scorers for us were Scott with 42, Rumbel 38, Doc 33, Bucks 32 and Boy 31. Shane with 12, yours truly with 17 and Willis with 19 brought up the rear. Net contributions: Boy: Batting 31, batting wides 2, bowling 12 and 15 =6 Buckles: Batting 32, batting wides 5, bowling 7 and 8 =22 Doc: Batting 33, batting wides 2, bowling 15 and 15 = 5 Eddie: batting 17, bat wides 7, bowling 16 and 9 = -1 Rumbel: Batting 38, bat wides 5, bowling 18 and 7 = 18 Scott: Batting 42, bat wides 5, bowling 2 and 11 = 34 Shane: Batting 12, bat wides 5, bowling 11 and 15 = -9 Willis: Batting 19, bat wides 7, bowling 5 and -7 = 28 Thus the best contributions were Scott with 34, Willis with 28 and Buckles with a 22. The worst were Shane with -9 and myself with -1. In summary, we got lucky playing a 7 man side but we still had to hit the ball after our deplorable fielding. They only managed to hit one six off us in the 16 overs which illustrates our woeful fielding. But a win is a win. This is the first time also in yonks where we have a reg team with no subs. 8pm game next week.
It has been a while since I last posted the scores from the dog due to work constraints but after repeated nagging and threats from my team mates, I will give a quick summary of the 4 games played since last report before compiling a full report on the grand final. Yep, 4 as we had 2 byes and a forfeit in the 7 rounds since. The first 3 of the 4 games saw us playing a side called Sleeping giants. We won 2 and lost 1 when we had 7 players. All the games were close with the biggest winning margin 8 runs. They are a very good and even side but we held our own with Rumbel having a massive 11 run outs in one game. The 4th game we played was against grade 1 leagers Rigid. We scored 99 and they scored 149 so it was a competitive effort on our part. They had a girl who played in their side who plays NSW reps but she was well held by our side even though she was quite good. Annoying part was that she was just annoying!!!! She complained to the ump every time a decision did not go her team's way and held up the game too. Unfortunately we could not complain too much because she worked behind the centre counter and was related to someone there. When we started the season, we struggled constantly to get 7 players let alone 8. then we had the Pup and SOC saga when they abandoned us to play Oztag when we switched nights plus Brian (el Cap) who was ruled out with caring responsibilities. So the core group was centred around Rumbel, Bucks, Boy, Willis and myself before Doc came a regular (thank god) again. The Scott become a fixture when his touch commitments finished plus we had Shane becoming a regular in the 2nd half of the season. So we were back to a team of 8 with Pup coming back as a reserve. We also switched from Wed night to Tuesday night after losing 6 of our first 7 games even after we were repeatedly told that Tuesdays were harder than wednesdays. Our regular Tues season record stood before the grand final stood at 8-3.
