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Post by coffers on Mar 9, 2007 10:43:29 GMT
Good luck Boo!
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Post by Narcizo on Mar 9, 2007 13:20:15 GMT
Daventry Panters?
I'm sorry. It just beared repeating.
Good luck Boo. Not that you'll need it thanks to your 1337 transferring skillz.
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Post by Narcizo on Mar 9, 2007 13:21:15 GMT
And I'm not talking about your ability to rub little stickers of Spitfires, Hurricanes and Messchersmitts on a Battle of Britain panorama.
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Post by Narcizo on Mar 9, 2007 13:21:55 GMT
Although, clearly, that's what many people might otherwise have thought.
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Post by Boony on Mar 9, 2007 14:49:43 GMT
Nice triple post, Narkle.
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Post by Boony on Mar 9, 2007 16:55:13 GMT
Lofted Cover Drive's inningsWe made a steady start, their opening bowlers Johnson (left arm spinner) and Sinenhlanhla (right arm fast) bowling tidily without looking threatening. We soon started to pick the rate up, though, as Allan hit a noball for 6 in the third over, and the 6th over went for 13 as Warrington hit consecutive fours. This took run rate to over 6 per over, and it slowly built from there. After 10 overs, we reach 67-0 with Warrington 44 (42b) and Allan 22 not out (19b). At this point, we should take a stat break, to look at our opening partnerships in league games so far: 6, 52, 77, 56, 6, 0, all between Bolland and Brinkhuys. That 77 was firmly in sight at this stage... Warrington reached his 50 with a 6 off the first ball of the 12th over, getting to 52 in just 45 balls. It was a fluky shot, hitting the top edge rather than coming from the full face of the bat, but it didn't matter as he made 50 in his first game for the club. Then in the same over the pair reached 78, breaking the club record for opening partnerships. Woohoo! Time for another stat break, as I look at our highest partnerships for any wicket so far this season (just those over 100): 200 - Bolland and Mercer, 2nd wicket, 9 Feb 07 112* - Gallacher and Horrigan, 5th wicket, 16 Feb 07 The 15th over started at 95-0, and Warrington hit a 4 then a 6 in consecutive balls to bring up the 100 partnership - our third of the season, and the first for an opening pair. We move on to 108-0 by the end of the 15th over, the rate creeping above 7 an over for the first time. The opening bowlers seem to be bowling through, with no changes yet as we move into the 16th over. One more stat break, as I look at the highest individual scores this season (just those over 50): 184 - Bolland, 9 Feb 2007 78* - Gallacher, 16 Feb 2007 71* - Ryan, 2 Feb 1007 70 - Mercer, 9 Feb 2007 67 - Brinkhuys, 2 Feb 2007 61 - Mercer, 2 Mar 2007 50* - Horrigan, 16 Feb 2007 50 - Ryan, 16 Feb 2007 50 - Gallacher, 2 Mar 2007 Warrington moved swiftly into 2nd place on this list, with 85 not out after 18 overs. Allan then shifted gears, hitting Johnson for 6 as he moved on to 45 in the 19th over, and then completed his 50 on debut in the 20th, crunching a cover drive off Sinenhlanhla for four. At the 20 over mark, we were 147-0. Warrington 88 off 73 balls, and Allan 54 off 48 balls. Johnson went for 67 in his 10, while Sinenhlanhla got carted for 76 in his 10 overs. On came the change bowlers, Gooding (left arm fast) and Wikus (left arm spin). These two succeeded in slowing down the scoring rate, and kept us to just 44 runs in the next ten overs. Warrington in particular slowed down, as he went through the nervous 90s in jittery fashion. On 99, "Warrington takes such a big heave-ho that he loses his balance and falls over. Wikus is now really defining the phrase 'rolling on the floor laughing'." The very next ball, though, he hit a four through square leg to take him into those magical three figures. So, at the 30 over mark, we were 191-0, with Warrington 105 not out from 100 balls, and Allan 76 not out, in 81 balls. I'm still hopeful of a score around 350, but we'll need to really push it in the last 10-15. The good news is that we have plenty of wickets in hand. The bowling was still tight, with Wikus in particular bowling very economically. Allan found himself hogging most of the strike at this stage, and couldn't do much with it. He eventually reached his hundred in the 38th over, with a lofted shot to long on. He reached the milestone from 109 balls. A fantastic achievement, really, from the brand new opening pair, to both reach their centuries on debut. I reckon we'll get 100 in the last 10 overs, as this is when things seem to go a little crazy, so I could do with reaching 250 by the 40th over. And, indeed, we reached 253-0 by the 40th over. Time to batten down the hatches and really make a go of it. Warrington fell for 134, which introduced skipper Bolland into the fray. He and Allan put on 89 in very little time, before Allan was finally out for 147 in the last over. Gallacher and Brinkhuys both fell first ball, and so we finished on 354-4, with Bolland spanking 52 not out from 27 balls. Overall, a sparkling display with the bat, and I was so pleased for the two new guys to both get hundreds. Forest Ripper's inningsI knew the top three for the Rippers were quite weak, so I wasn't surprised when they fell to 5-3 in the third over. Donovan took two, with Collins taking the other. Realeboha and Fernandes then came together, and batted like I knew they would, scoring quick runs without looking in real danger. They saw off the remainder of my opening bowlers' spells, as Donovan rested with 2-45 from his seven overs, while Collins had taken 1-34 from his seven. Spillane and Pienaar came on, and couldn't really make any inroads. In fact, the 4th wicket partnership had put on 124 before Spillane made the vital breakthrough, grabbing Realehoba caught behind for 74. Pearce, though, was always going to be a dangerous proposition at number 5 - he's scored some decent runs already this season. So I was ecstatic when Spillane had him caught by Brinkhuys for just 5. 137-5, and the ball was well and truly in my court. The rest of the Rippers batting lineup wasn't much to shout home about, and my second spinner, Lee Mead, ripped them out for just 26 runs. He grabbed four of the remaining five wickets, the other being a run out off his bowling. Not the most exciting of games, but a convincing victory, as we won by 191 runs. ScorecardsAround the LeagueIn other news, Daventry Panthers beat Boro Does Cricket by 49 runs, to take the leader's spot in the league. Fosters beat Evanec comfortably by 8 wickets, while Stables beat SpaceHoppers even more comfortably, chasing 183 without losing a wicket. All this means I think we move up to 3rd, as one of four teams on 20 points at the top of the league. The updated league table hasn't been published yet...
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Post by Boony on Mar 9, 2007 17:02:06 GMT
Ooh, next week, I'm playing the Daventry Panthers! Bring it on...
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Post by coffers on Mar 9, 2007 17:05:08 GMT
Cracking performance Boo, all that and lurking nicely.
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Post by Boony on Mar 10, 2007 14:38:07 GMT
League Tableafter 8 games
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Mar 11, 2007 9:38:20 GMT
Ah, so they're actually not called the Panters. That's a shame.
One thing about City of Heroes/Villains is that your name has to be unique and once you run out into the world you can't change your name, so there are a fair few people flying about in spandex with amusingly misspelled names.
My favourites are probably "The Grey Flacon!" (with exclamation mark) and Kinght and the deliberately misspelled "Sperman" whose costume still has the "S" on the chest, but the rest of the costume is all white.
Anyway, there's a stalker on Union server who has gone down the look-like-a-cat route, (which I won't knock too much as my stalker is intended to look like an alien from, err, Alien), but the uber-tough name he's come up with is "Shadow Panter" a name that immediately removes any scariness he may have, making him sound like someone who uses his invisibility to hang about in Hero's shower rooms.
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Post by elth on Mar 12, 2007 2:41:34 GMT
Nice work Boony, I think Boro Does Cricket are the true lurkers though, their NRR indicates a bit of underperformance.
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Post by Moo on Mar 12, 2007 8:58:40 GMT
Actually more exciting than I thought it would e. No, seriously.
Nice write-up too. :thumb:
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Post by Boony on Mar 12, 2007 9:56:31 GMT
Cheers, guys. elth - yeah, I reckon BDC are better than their current 5th place, they should be higher than that as the season pans out.
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Post by Boony on Mar 12, 2007 10:14:02 GMT
FriendlyWindsor Cricket Club v Lofted Cover Drive11 March 2007 After losing a few friendly games in a row, to opposition from the division above ours, we eventually managed to grab a game against someone from level six. Windsor Cricket Club are top of their league, having lost just one of eight league games so far. We brought a reserve lineup to Windsor, trying to give game time to the likes of Eatwell, Ryan, Fuzeena and Garner, while also trying out an experiment with Bolland bowling some of his spinners in the 5th bowling slot, to see if they're any good. I won't go into much detail, as it was only a friendly, so here are the scores: We won by 32 runs! Brinkhuys finally showed some form with the bat, while Mead mopped up their tail with his little spinners. The Bolland experiment wasn't a total success, as he leaked 7.50 runs per over, but this did allow us to play a 7th batsmen, Mercer, who's cameo towards the end of our innings may have pushed us over the winning post.
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Post by Narcizo on Mar 12, 2007 11:01:02 GMT
Nice little 5th wicket stand there Mr Ny. Things looked a bit grim before that, I'd say. Looks like your opposition ponced around a bit too much like a bunch of dandy fancy-dans instead of getting stuck in.
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Post by Boony on Mar 12, 2007 11:06:43 GMT
Yeah, Brinkhuys and Ryan really got me out of a tight situation. I was surprised, actually, that my openers didn't get that many runs, considering their form in the league game on Friday. And, yes, the opposition started off slowly, but I think Spillane's bowling made a big difference - he certainly looks like a class act.
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Post by Boony on Mar 15, 2007 11:37:40 GMT
League Game 9Lofted Cover Drive v Daventry panthers16 March 2007 PreviewIt's been a fairly quiet week in the LCD camp, compared with last week's transfer blowout. A distinct lack of money in the coffers has somewhat dictated this - we're £31k in the red after the arrival of all my new signings. Hopefully, though, I should claw all that back after this week's home game against the Daventry panthers. Training was productive this week. With Horrigan and Hutchison taking a bit of a break to rest their weary limbs (it turns out 4 net sessions and a game a week is too much for my players), I opened nets to a host of other players who hadn't had much of a look-in before, in practice. Only one player took enough advantage to boost a skill level - step up new opening batsman Tim Warrington, who capped off a fine week scoring a century in his debut match by popping his batting skill to competent. If we ignore the vagaries of form and fitness, Warrington is now classed as our best batsman. The lack of fitness to our two allrounders means we should go into tomorrow's game with an unchanged team from our victory last week. There is definintely a battle on now for spots in the team, and team selection is going to be very interesting in the weeks to come. For this week, though, it's a simple task of putting down the same XI who played last week. But enough about us - let's take a look at tomorrow's opposition. The panthers have been around since 16 Feb, and so this will be their 5th week in the league. The panthers lost their first 3 games after taking over from runaway league leaders Down Is The New Up, but came back well last week to win the top-of-the-table clash against Boro Does Cricket. On a cracked pitch good for bowlers, it was a low scoring affair, but batsmen Waddell (70), Westcarr (57) and Thomas (41*) didn't seem to mind, and we'll have to watch out for them. Having made 239, they then proceeded to bowl out Boro Does Cricket for 190, wiht every bowler chipping in with wickets and a low economy rate. Best of the bunch was Hook, who opened the bowling and took 3-36 in his 10 overs. Again, we'll have to look out for this lad on our green pitch suited for seam bowlers. Please tune in tomorrow for more exciting action in the Battrick league division VI.188!
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Post by coffers on Mar 15, 2007 11:56:10 GMT
Will do, can't wait.
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Post by Boony on Mar 16, 2007 11:41:20 GMT
League Game 9
Lofted Cover Drive v Daventry panthers
16 March 2007
Toss and Team News
The Daventry panthers won the toss, and elected to bat first on our green pitch. It's a cloudy day, so the seamers should really have plenty of assistance.
Lofted Cover Drive Warrington (134r@134.00) Allan (147r@147.00) Bolland (332r@55.33) Gallacher (233r@38.83) Brinkhuys (134r@19.14) Mercer (188r@31.11) Donovan (29r@7.25, 14w@22.07:4.75rpo) Collins (10r@10.00, 6w@51.83:5.76rpo) Pienaar (0r@-, 14w@8.71:3.87rpo) Mead (11r@5.50, 11w@20.73:4.87rpo) Spillane (-, 2w@21.50:4.78rpo)
Daventry panthers Waddell (236r@78.67) Barlow (264r@88.00) Stock (80r@20.00) Westcarr (170r@42.50) Ross (73r@24.33) Labont (23r@11.50) Thomas (59r@-, 4w@42.25:5.63rpo) Angelo (20r@6.67, 1w@159.00:5.30rpo) Quailey (3r@3.00, 0w:7.25rpo) Mao (26r@26.00, 7w@24.57:7.48rpo Duce (4r@2.00, 6w@29.67:5.74rpo)
The panthers' opening batsmen seem to be the only real dangers to our bowling attack, while their bowlers seem to be quite expensive. Mao and Duce are the wicket takers, so if we can survive their overs, we should be able to chase down a reasonable target.
Other games in the league
Fosters (4) v Forest Rippers (8) Stables XI (1) v Evanec's Team (6) Boro Does Cricket (5) v SpaceHoppers (7)
We should see home wins in all of these games, meaning the winner of our game will be involved in a three-way tie on 24 points. Who that will be, I'm not sure - it's very tough to call our game today. And thus, the excitement begins...
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Post by Boony on Mar 16, 2007 16:55:53 GMT
Daventry panthers' InningsThe panthers started breezily, scoring 27 in the first three overs. It couldn't last, though, and Collins got the early breakthrough in the fourth over, persuading Barlow to knock one up in the air towards Brinkhuys, who took a good catch as the ball swirled in the breeze. Things then slowed a little, as the opening bowlers gained a bit of control, and at the end of their first spells, the score was 86-1 from 14 overs. Our change bowlers, Spillane and Pienaar, then came on. Pienaar's first over was tonked for 13, but then Spillane trapped Waddell lbw for 50. Pienaar followed this up in his second over by bowling Westcarr for just one. The bowlers showed tidy lines, and the runrate dropped - Pienaar actually bowled the first maiden of the innings in the 22nd over, and finished his spell with 5-1-21-1 - not bad considering his first over went for 13. Batsmen Stock and Ross had been playing steadily, when, all of a sudden, Spillane's 7th over was carted for 15. Stock reached his 50 with a huge 6 into the car park (missing the Ferrari this time!) Mead kept things tight at the other end, though - his first 3 overs went for just 4 runs, two of which were no balls. At the 30 overs mark, the score was 155-3, with the runrate down to 5.17. In the next over, Spillane bowled Stock all ends up, the batsmen going for a big drive trying to up the tempo. That was the wicket we needed - he was out for 58, and their tail was looking pretty long. Spillane finished his spell with figures of 10-0-48-2 - similar figures to last week, not bad at all for a guy bowling mainly at the top order. Mead's first spell ended with 5-0-12-0, and as the opening bowlers came on to finish their overs, the score sat at 171-4 from 34 overs at 5.03 runs per over. Collins and Donovan returned and kept things tight, but couldn't take a wicket until Donovan's last over - he trapped Ross lbw for 32. Anotehr reasonable spell from my first signing, he finished with figures of 10-0-49-1. Collins' last over went for 5, so he ended up with slightly expensive figures of 10-0-61-1, with the score 196-5 as we entered the last 10 overs - time for Mead and Pienaar to mop up the tail, as they have done so effectively in the past? It started well, as the last ball of the 41st over, bowled by Pienaar, nicked the edge of Labont's bat. Allan took the simple catch behind the stumps. We start to drift a little - seven off Mead's first over back, five from Pienaar's next over, and then Allan lets four byes go through before Mead finally got Angelo out - caught in the deep by Pienaar. They were definitely going for the slog by now, and Pienaar took his third by getting Quailey to hit it straight to Brinkhuys in the deep. 218-8, and it's nearly all over for the innings. Especially so when Pienaar gets Mao caught behind next ball for a golden duck. This was a bizarre dismissal, the ball coming up off Mao's boot, and then Allan decided to kick it himself a couple of times before catching it. Strange... Duce survived the hattrick ball, and the next, but falls to the last ball of the 45th over, bowled by Pienaar. So that's 218 all out, with Pienaar finishing up with 5-29, and Mead 1-22. Thomas was left stranded on 11 not out, and still hasn't been out yet this year. We needed 219 to win, at 4.38 runs per over. In other news around the league, the three favourites have all batted first, and are all smashing plenty of runs. Fosters scored 306-3, Stables XI managed 276-4, and Boro Does Cricket ended up with 288-3. Lofted Cover Drive's InningsBoth our openers made a solid start, each getting off the mark first ball, as we took 8 from the first over. Next over, Quailey bowling to Allan, and this happens : That's caught a divot and turned into a proper primary school daisycutter. Allan plays an air shot and it misses the stumps by millimetres. Westcarr is killing himself laughing!Moo lying on the pitch again? A steady start, drifting along a 4 runs per over, turns to disaster as Allan gifted a catch, to leave us 25-1 from 7. Despite this, things remained steady when Bolland joined Warrington at the crease. Mao finished his first spell with figures of 1-17 from 5 overs, and Angelo came on to replace him - Quailey stayed on at the other end. Angelo's introduction released a little pressure - from 35-1 off 10 we moved onto 93-1 from 20 overs, with Angelo conceding 28 in his first 5 overs, while Qualiey finished his 10 straight off the reel, conceding 45 without taking a wicket. Their batsman Ross looks like my kind of player - in the 21st over: Ross is always a liability when he's fielding on the boundary. He's just got himself another pint of bitter from the crowd.Warrington reached his 50 in the 22nd over - after 134 on his debut last week, he's really settling into the team well. Two maidens in a row followed, but Bolland sneaked a four down to third man to keep the score ticking over - 108-1 at the halfway point, and we're looking on target. Thomas looked like a decent bowler, though, and only conceded 5 runs in his first 3 overs. We're still not breaking the shackles, and eventually Duce caught Bolland off his own bowling, for 46 - that's 124-2 from 29 overs. Warrington and Gallacher seem to be playing fairly comfortably, and the runrate is hovering at around 4.25, with the required rate creeping up towards 5. I'm fairly happy with this - we should be able to score 60-70 in the last 10 overs, if we have wickets in hand. With 17 overs left, we needed 78 runs, with eight wickets in hand. The boundaries recently have been a bit streaky - outside edges through the slips, inside edges past the stumps, but then, after playing out a maiden from Mao, Warrington drove one nicely through midoff for four off Angelo to relieve some pressure. He then clubbed a short wide ball for four in the same over, and we get down to 60 to win in 13 overs. 3 from Mao's penultimate over, and then 5 from Angelo's last (10-0-56-0), but we don't quite escape Mao's second spell unharmed, as he had opener Warrington caught at slip for a fine 86. In came Brinkhuys, fresh from a century in Sunday's friendly. A couple of singles finish off the over, and Mao finished with very impressive figures of 10-1-28-2. The score is 170-3, and so we needed 49 from the last 10 overs, with 7 wickets left. This should be pretty do-able. Brinkhuys cut Duce for four early in the 41st over, and the rest of it was milked for a further four singles - 41 to win in 9 overs. Thomas then comes in to bowl, and received the Brinkhuys treatment! Two fours, one of which hit a bird on the way to the boundary. The commentator reckons Brinkhuys can eat that for tea. Then the last ball gets tanked for 6 - 18 from the over, and now it's just 23 to win from 8 overs. Duce's next over was milked for 7 - a two and 5 singles. 16 to win from 7 overs, and this should be a canter now. Thomas was then milked for 8 in the next over - 2 twos and 4 singles. Just 8 to win now, in 6 overs. Of course, we finished it off in the next over - five singles from five balls, and then Gallacher won the game with a boundary off the last ball of the over. A very well paced run chase, and another deserving victory for Lofted Cover Drive! ScorecardsAround the LeagueBoro Does Cricket beat SpaceHoppers by 255 runs, bowling them out for just 33. Fosters beat Forest Rippers by 118 runs, bowling them out for 188, and Stables bowled Evanec's Team out for 203 to win by 74 runs. All these games finished as predicted, so we tie at the top of the table with Stables and Fosters on 24 points.
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Post by Moo on Mar 16, 2007 21:54:14 GMT
Ooh, they were humped! KUTGW! :thumb:
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Post by Boony on Mar 17, 2007 0:53:47 GMT
They were humped, Moo. I'm pretty satisfied with that, to be honest. I reckon we've got a good chance of going up this season. League TableSitting in the promotion zone due to the run rate decider. Next week, the fixtures are: Forest Rippers (8) v Boro Does Cricket (4) Evanec's Team (6) v Lofted Cover Drive (2) SpaceHoppers (7) v Fosters (3) Daventry panthers (5) v Stables XI (1) So it's the top four all away against the bottom four. We're away against Evanec's Team, who lost to top club Stables XI yesterday. As elth says, Boro Does Cricket are dangerous lurkers, and will keep the pressure on as they play bottom club Forest Rippers, who lost again yesterday. League AveragesThe game itself doesn't have great easy-to-use statistics pages, which is a shame - there's no way to sort my players by batting average - their records only appear on their individual player pages. Hence my rustic efforts in Excel, pasted here as a screenshot. One thing they do have, though, is the top players throughout my league. Here's the picture after today's games: On the batting front, we have Ryan (who's not even a first choice at the moment), Bolland and Gallacher, sitting in 10th, 12th and 14th. Warrington and Allan would both be on there, but they haven't played enough games for me yet. Our real star, though, is at the top of the bowling list. South African spinner Christopher Pienaar heads the league with 19 wickets at a miserly average of 7.95 runs per wicket. Other bowlers have taken more wickets (again Pienaar has only played 5 games of nine this year) but none so cheaply. It's really worked having him bowling in the death overs at the end of an innings, as he just rips through the tail, as three five wicket hauls indicate. Creeping into the top ten bowlers we also have Mead (our second spinner, in 9th place) and Donovan (10th), both of whom have bowled consistenly throughout the season thus far. Taking a closer look at these averages, we see that yesterday's opposition, the Daventry panthers, only had two players (both batsmen) in these lists - opener Barlow (in 5th) who we dismissed cheaply for 16, and Westcarr, who was bowled by Pienaar for just 1. This gives an indication of where we won today's game - in having a strong bowling attack capable of dismissing a team in the alloted overs.
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Post by Boony on Mar 19, 2007 11:23:12 GMT
Week 9 FriendlyAnother friendly, and another humping inflicted upon us. Allan, Brinkhuys and Ryan did reasonable jobs with the bat (I'm very pleased by Brinkhuys' resurgence in form since we took him down the order), and Spillane looked classy with the ball, but overall we weren't good enough. I don't mind, though, as I'm really just using these friendlies as a training exercise, and to try and see some improvements in players' form. Training UpdateThree pieces of good news came out of this week's training sessions. Firstly, Sol Donovan moved up a level in his bowling skills, thus cementing his place in our first choice bowling attack. Secondly, Richard Ryan improved his stamina rating, meaning he might get more of a chance to play first team cricket. Thirdly, young Vic Horrigan has recovered from a lack of fitness, and is ready to start his first game for about three weeks. Early indications for this week's league game against Evanec's XI are that Lofted Cover Drive will put out the following team:
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Post by Narcizo on Mar 19, 2007 11:26:14 GMT
Doesn't getting humped in these friendlies screw up your players' form as well?
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Post by Boony on Mar 19, 2007 11:31:15 GMT
I think, as long as you play in a game, your form is more likely to improve. I don't think it matters how well you perform in the game, as such.
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