Review of Sunday season 2013
Before I forget the season, which finished almost three weeks ago, I thought I would take advantage of Charlie's site to pen my thoughts of the Sunday season. No great surprise that the weekends have been a lot warmer and sunnier since we finished!
The bare facts of the season were - Played 17 won 7 lost 8 tie 1 abandoned 1(last game of season). Only one game was cancelled this season, which made a change. Above stats include the Spring Bank Holiday and midweek game against Nomads. James Bowler captained one Sunday game.
Rather disappointing that we managed to lose more than we won but the above results generally reflect upon the poorest season for availability I can recall in my time as captain(which is a long time !). To be honest the season can be summed up by the first game of the season when I struggled to get a team out and only in the end got 11 courtesy of a colt and his father playing! This shouldn't happen on the first weekend of a season especially when only one game was played on the Saturday. The availability was affected by the retirement of loyal glove man "Sidders", injury to seasoned Sunday performer Nick Clements, work commitments for useless Yusuf and Big Tom. Ageless Chris Lowe decided to mainly play Bucks over 65 cricket, albeit he did play twice and starred with combined bowling figures of 16/6/37/3 average 12.33. As always prior to June school exams and university affected availability. That said we were pleased to welcome back Raoul Cheema(more later),Mace the Ace and the doctor of swing, Andy"stumpcam" Aranaz played a couple of games for the first time for a number of years. Although they play their league cricket elsewhere, Cameron Jacobsen and Jamie Odell, played when they could. We welcomed a couple of new players this year, Ambar Moorthy and Tom Noakes. In respect of games played the main players were -
Me - played all 17
Chris Butler 15(not selected for Bowler's game)
Atif Amin 14 (not selected for Bowler's game)
Raoul Cheema 10
Joesph"Beamer"Blackett 10.
Owing to the retirement of Sidders it was always difficult making sure we had a keeper! Thanks to the following who donned the gloves on Sunday - Bally, Edward Sears, Jamie Kiddell, John Hewitt, Ben Ward, Thomas Wilding, Charlie Rodger, Marcus Shankland & William Cunliffe.
Awards and stats for the season
Batting
Highest score - 309 v Gravely Will B 140no, George Parsons 110no unbroken 2nd wicket partnership of 242. Against - 255 A Few Good Men also Wilkinson Way
Lowest score 135 v Fleet Street Strollers Against 79 The Exiles
Highest innings - Raoul Cheema 169no v A Few Good Men
Batting Stats
Raoul Cheema 10 innings 2 no 626 runs highest 169no average 78.25
George Parsons 6 innings 1no 250 runs highest 110no average 50
Cameron Jacobsen 7 innings 1 no 260 runs highest 64 average 43.33
Thomas Noakes 6 innings 2no 158 runs highest 43 average 39.5
Batsman of the Year & Player of the Year
RAOUL CHEEMA
Above figures speak for themselves, hopefully for the club's point of view he can translate these figures into top scores for the 1's in Div 2 next season. Sounded me out when he re-joined the club and advised he was available for most Sundays, which is always good! After beginning with two single figure scores Raoul never then scored less than 33. Highlight being two successive Sundays scoring a brilliant 169no to virtually single handedly win us the game, followed by 131 the following week, albeit in a losing cause. Both times batting the full 40 overs.
George Parsons
Another season of progression, good to see. Have played with George in the 3's and on Sundays for last 4 / 5 years it was only a matter of time before he became a first team regular. Obviously being coached at Harrow helps!
Cameron Jacobsen
Quality player now plying his trade at Henley. Maybe furthering his education in the Yorkshire leagues now he's at Sheffield University. Will have to see whether he returns as the Michelin man after tasting Tetleys and the other northern brews! Good spinner too, although not good enough to displace Butler as the senior Sunday filth purveyor !
Thomas Noakes
Made a good start after returning to regular cricket, scoring runs for both 3's as well as on Sundays also handy purveyor of flighted filth.
Bowling stats
Best analysis -
Me - 4.4 overs 1 maiden 15 runs 4 wickets - ironically first bowl of season, went downhill from there!
Thomas Allen(GT) - 23 overs 1 maiden 99 runs 7 wickets average 14.14
Ambar Moorty - 29 overs 3 maidens 119 runs 7 wickets average 17
Atif Amin - 31.3 overs 4 maidens 145 runs 7 wickets average 20.14
Me - 92.2 overs 5 maidens 456 runs 17 wickets average 26.82
Arul Appavoo - 49 overs 2 maidens 236 runs 7 wickets average 33.71
Chris Butler - 98.5 overs 7 maidens 481 runs 14 wickets average 34.35
Ambar Moorty
Good line and length bowler with nibble(according to Wild Thing)
Atif Amin
still reliable bowler when his body permits !
Me
Same as it ever was!
Arul Appavoo
Probably bowled best spell on a Sunday taking 4 for 27 v Gravely castling 4 of the top order with the left arm round angle.
Chris Butler
Developing the delay ball and doosra at 53 !
Most improved player of the year
Thomas Allen - GT - Cecil sucker
Although only playing four times, due to work commitments, 7 wickets at 14 and three innings 2 no runs 76 highest 52no average 76, are impressive. Just needs to improve his catching over the off season and try and play more on Sunday next season !
Sunday highlights
Tied game v David Smarts X1 - 247 each, what Sunday cricket is all about.
Last wicket partnership of 37 between me and Andy"stumpcam" Aranaz v Incogniti. Andy batting one handed due to a bad back scoring 18no!
8th wicket partnership of 74 between Thomas Allan and Arul Appavoo, GT's maiden 50.
Sunday lowlights
Capitulation v Incogniti, went from 144 for 2 in 21 overs to 163 for 9 in 28 overs.
Managed to be 162 for 7 v Braywood, who only had 9 players!
Verbal abuse of Caswell Butt by me from boundary in game v A Few Good Men. " Three strikes and you are out" is not called for on a Sunday! Lesson learned.
Player apologising for not turning up for a game and not telling me. Apology based upon me slagging him off in my Sunday report. I give you useless, and biggest waster of talent, the one and only Yusuf Quershi !
My concluding thoughts
Some of the senior players in the 1's and 2's, if you could play just one game on a Sunday in the season(or one more if you played v Gravely or David Smart's X1) that would help availability. Very disappointing seeing players I ask to play on Sundays and don't, freely turning up in the Bowler game! Obviously this doesn't apply to the few senior players who do play for me when they can - Bally, Wild Thing, John Hewitt, Ambar, Deano(apologies if I missed anyone).
Please if you don't, try and stay round for a drink or two after the game. Charlie made a comment about Sundays a number of years ago, along the lines of people have to go to work or ready for school. This is true but seeing as the majority of teams we play are nomads teams I often seem to be the only home player left in the bar with around 6 or 7 of the opposition. Indeed by the time I have showered and changed and returned to the bar more than half my team have regularly gone(and no I don't take that long) ! To be fair this has been the case for the best part of a decade, gone are the halcyon days of the late 90's when we regularly departed the club around 10-11in the days of a younger Mike P, Gilesy, Andy Az, James Crawley, Badger, Martin Goddard & others.
My final point on the playing side, which I have noticed a lot on Sundays this year, and funnily enough was raised by The Jesters, who beat us easily in the penultimate game of the season. Running! Between the wickets that is i.e. rotating strike and the taking of quick singles. On a number of occasions this year the opposition have run us into the ground, which really infuriates the bowlers. I'm 47 and still consider myself one of the better runners between the wickets in the team(on the few occasions I stay there long enough) . Our batters just seem to just defend with no intention of sneaking a quick single, which rotates the strike. If you call correctly and your partner responds 9 times out of 10 you will get home. The Jesters said our batters just seemed to be looking for the big shots and avoided rotating the strike !
Anyway that's all for me folks ! As always many thanks to the players who supported me throughout the season on Sunday. I hope you all enjoyed playing as I have always tried to get everyone involved.
Winter well and see you all in the pre-season nets if I don't see you before, unless I bump into you at committee meetings or at the club bar during the off season
regards
Matt Armstrong
The Grim Reaper
The Guru of Gloom.
