Badgers Cricket Club – What’s New Archive 2004

The end of season house-keeping was finished three weeks ago, with Darrell very kindly helping me to check every scorecard element to make sure that the statistics are one hundred percent accurate. Since then life has been so hectic – including Jacqueline’s Secondary Transfer and numerous early mornings to travel to work in Nottingham – that I’ve not found the time to post the updates to the live site. Sadly I’ve also not had a chance to do a match report for Ottershaw, and I rather doubt that I ever will now.

As a result of the statistics being fully checked you can now find historical results for 2004 along with a skeletal season report plus the personal pages have been updated with all the 2004 performances and partnerships.

Full updates to the season report, personal pages and other statistical pages will follow as soon as possible after next weekend’s dinner and dance.

Oh, and skipper Mark Gordon has a new email address and phone number, which you will find on the club officers page.

A rather damp close to the season, but a rare win at Merrow made up for the conditions. Full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. I’ve also added a match report for Crondall and will hopefully get one written for Ottershaw within the next week.

No additional statistics are available just yet, since this year I’m going to wait until Darrell and I have cross-checked all of the scorecard data with the scorebook, but you can expect to see a partial season report and the official results for the season before too long.

You should all have received an email from Alan Tickner detailing prices for the dinner and dance along with a menu selection. If you’ve not seen those details yet then I suggest that you give him a ring and ascertain why not as you wouldn’t want to miss out on the festivities, now would you??

Another close and exciting finish at Ockley this week, with any result possible at the start of the final over. Full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

No other match reports just yet, but I have started one for Crondall, and hope to get the last month’s games sorted out over the next week. The older gaps, back around tour time, will probably never be filled in now, and certainly not to the normal depth.

My apologies for the lack of an update last week, but I simply ran out of time on Sunday morning with a paragraph or two still to be written for the latest match report and I’ve had no spare time during the evenings this week either.

The date and location for the Dinner & Dance have been confirmed, and hopefully you should all have received an email from club chairman Simon Fox. The news page has all the information that I’ve been able to glean.

This Sunday saw the annual visit to the north-eastern corner of Hampshire to play Crondall, and full details can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard. The previous Sunday brought a new fixture against Ottershaw, played out in blazing sunshine, and the details of that game can also be found on the results page along with the scorecard. No match report for either game just yet, but I have found the time to finish off one for the Blindley Heath game.

After the abortive attempt earlier in the week it now looks like we really do have a game scheduled for this coming Sunday, yet again thanks to a determined Alan Tickner. Our opponents will be Ottershaw CC (not sure which eleven, since they run two on a Sunday and both have TBAs) and in addition to the usual map link on the fixtures page, you can also find directions on Ottershaw’s own site (that page doesn’t look pretty, because the site uses frames and therefore gives me no nice way of dropping into a particular page – if you’d like to see the rest of their site then follow the link from their name on the fixtures page).

It appears that I was too quick off the mark (not often I can say that) and the Claygate fixture has been cancelled already. Exactly what the logic of going to the conference for a game and then pulling out the following day is I’m not sure, but there you go. Watch this space for further information.

Oh, and my thanks to Mr. Ward for spotting the deliberate mistake in the Blindley Heath scorecard. Just goes to show what happens when you hurry and don’t check things as thoroughly as usual. My apologies to Mr. Little, whose contribution is now correctly attributed.

Thanks to sterling work by the ever dependable Alan Tickner we already have a fixture lined up to fill this coming weekend’s TBA slot. Our opponents will be Claygate CC First XI, and in addition to the usual map link on the fixtures page, you can also find directions on Claygate’s Surrey Downs page.

Yet another exciting finish, in the gloaming at Blindley Heath last Sunday, and another Badgers victory. Full details can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard, but there is no match report as yet since I wanted to post Sunday’s fixture details straight away.

Full details of last Sunday’s game at Maori-Oxshott can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. Yet again I’ve completed the match report in a rush (only just over two hours to go before today’s game with Blindley Heath is due to start) and therefore it has not been properly proof read nor has there been any chance to fill in the historical gaps.

PLEASE NOTE that as of 24th August club captain Mark Gordon has moved house again. The news page has an item listing the new details.

Another exciting finish in last Sunday’s game against Newchapel & Horne and the small matter of 482 runs. Full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. I’ve completed this week’s report in a bit of a rush, so it hasn’t been proof read as thoroughly as usual, and obviously I’ve not had time to back fill any of the missing reports.

Full details of last Sunday’s game against Reigate Cavaliers can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. Still no sign of the missing match reports, either from me or anyone else, and no other changes to report.

An entertaining new fixture last Sunday against Ham & Petersham saw the Badgers grab another victory. Full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

I’ve managed to complete the match report for Stoke D'Abernon, which I first started writing eight weeks ago. Still no reports for the other games that I missed though, and no obvious sign of any volunteers to fill the gap.

PLEASE NOTE that we have a change of fixture for this Sunday, and we will now be playing Ham & Petersham rather than Rowan. Further details, including a map link, can be found on the fixtures page.

For some reason we ended up playing limited overs again this week – I suspect that Jonathan Zoob, Old Alleynians’ absent third eleven captain, would not approve, and I’m not sure that I do either – for the fifth time in the past six games. Full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Still no reports for the June games, but I thought I’d get this update up as soon as possible to document Sunday’s change of fixture. I may well get a chance today or tomorrow to fill in some of the gaps, but if anyone feels like saving me the trouble, then please feel free.

Another week where we got lucky with the weather, another limited overs game – although this time we batted second, and another win – albeit with far fewer alarums and excursions than last week. Full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. Still no reports for the June games, but I do hope to get around to those during my impending week of leisure, although I won’t complain if someone gets the urge to save me the effort.

There have been a couple of technical problems with our hosting company at the tail end of this week, but hopefully those have been resolved and the site is now up and available as normal.

In contrast to last week’s moribund effort this week’s game was about as exciting as a game of cricket can get, with any result still possible at the start of the final over, and Badgers squeaking out a one run victory. Full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. Sadly there are still no reports for the previous month’s worth of games, but if anyone gets the urge to write up any of them, then please feel free to do so.

Not the most exciting game this week, but at least we got lucky enough with the weather to complete a full game, minus twelve minutes for a brief but fairly heavy rainstorm. Full details can be found on the results page along with pertinent elements from the scorecard, but sadly still no match reports. Anyone that feels the urge to write up any of those games that I’ve missed out on, please feel free to do so :)

The queries regarding last Sunday’s scorecard have been resolved, and the only change sees Graham Ward get credit for his catch.

I’ve been trying to get a definitive answer as to the location of our game this coming Saturday against the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and thanks to their David Stock I’ve been able to create a (hopefully) accurate map link on the fixtures page, along with a more helpful address.

Tour proved to be something of a curate’s egg, with a good time off the field tempered by very mixed weather that resulted in the abandonment of one match halfway through and a fierce gale that made the other fairly difficult for anyone bowling into the teeth of it. The highlight of the weekend was a record breaking eighth wicket partnership, documented more fully on the news page, and the overall details can be seen on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecards.

My current working life makes it almost impossible to find the time to do a proper job on the site, so there are still several missing match reports and also queries over a couple of elements of Sunday’s game. I hope to get things sorted out over this weekend, but don’t be surprised if things are still little better come next week.

Another disappointment this week as a promising new fixture against Beechwood was ruined by the weather. What little cricket did take place can be seen on the results page along with a (very short) match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. I still haven’t completed the report for Stoke D'Abernon, but I do have a day off on Monday, so perhaps I’ll have everything up-to-date by Tuesday morning??

My apologies for the absence of a match report for the Stoke game, but even a blank weekend didn’t leave me enough time to finish writing it. Since there is other news, especially with regard to this weekend’s game, that needs to be posted I am updating the site (albeit rather late in the week) and leaving the report to be completed later.

Whilst the lack of a game last week was a disappointment, the previous Sunday’s game against Stoke D'Abernon turned out to be an exciting closely fought contest which could have gone either way. Full details can be found on the results page along with the usual parts of the scorecard, but sadly no match report.

Despite the fixtures page saying that we have a TBA for this week, it seems that a game has been arranged for some time (since the middle of April) but nobody deigned to tell me :) Our opponents will be Beechwood Cricket Club and we will be playing them at Otford in Kent, although they do play some home games at Limpsfield in Surrey. See the fixtures page for full details including the usual map link.

Recently I’ve been playing around a fair bit on Play-Cricket, mainly in relation to Darrell’s colts team but also trying things out on our satellite site. One of the things I have been doing this season is entering results there as well as here (a painful process, involving much scrolling and mouse clicking, and all in Internet Explorer since the site doesn’t support Opera) and whilst trying to figure out a way to get the same Darrell into the Epsom Methodists side as already defined for Kings Langley, I discovered that the site tracks basic statistics for all players (full stats being an add-on package with a yearly cost).

If you view the results there (you may need to register and join the site to do so, I’m not sure) and then click on an underlined player’s name, you will see a page of statistics for that player. Being a freebie these are not updated immediately a result is entered, but they seem to do so a day or two later. A couple of entries that I found interesting are the bowler’s dismissal chart (which is something that I don’t track, only batsman’s method of dismissal) and also the win/loss ratio in games that a player has played.

Obviously there isn’t much data there yet, only this season’s games and the Old Alleynians game from last year which they entered, and the historical data is unlikely to appear (since they don’t provide a mechanism for bulk uploading of results, and don’t seem inclined to do so) but I will endeavour to keep the results up-to-date for this season.

PLEASE NOTE that Saturday’s game with NPL has been cancelled due to the home side being unable to raise a team. Since we were also struggling to put together a full eleven the unfortunate decision has been taken not to go to the conference to try and find a replacement fixture.

My apologies for not getting an update done last week, but a power cut on Saturday morning killed any hope of doing so, and therefore I’ve rolled last week’s details in with this week’s, which the Bank Holiday has given me the time to finish off before work and other commitments intervene.

The second game of the new season, at long time opponents Dormansland, followed a remarkably similar pattern to the first, with yet another genuine batsman at number eleven ending the game with a golden duck. Full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

This Saturday’s game against Epsom Methodists was an altogether different affair, with nearly as many runs being scored in the two innings as in the four from the preceding two games. Again full details can be found on the results page along with a match report and the scorecard.

PLEASE NOTE that Saturday’s game with Epsom Methodists has moved in terms of both location and start time. Please check the updated fixtures page for the new details.

The season finally got underway on Saturday and just to demonstrate that the more things change the more they stay the same, the game culminated in an old school Badgers collapse. Full details, including the more positive fact of Ian Gregg’s best ever bowling figures for the club, can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard. Due to a lack of time I’m afraid that there is no match report this week :((

The start of a new season always brings a whole raft of changes to the site, as new pages are added to hold the now historical information and others updated to reflect the new details, so if you spot any anomalies then please let me know so that I can correct them.

Having noticed that Leigh have a site on Play-Cricket (because the fixture was showing up on our satellite site there and I’ve never found the time or energy to enter our fixtures using their rather painful and mouse-click intensive selection system), I had a dig around and discovered that several other opposition clubs have set up shop on the ECB-owned template-driven cricket-specific system, and so I’ve added links to them to the links page and in those cases where the site is the main or only one, to the fixtures page too.

PLEASE NOTE the change to the arrangements for tomorrow’s match at Caterham detailed in the following paragraph.

Whilst the current weather may make this seem like a moot point, I’m not going to prejudge what tomorrow may bring, so ...
Due to the clubhouse having been destroyed by fire, the game against Caterham will take place on the other pitch in Queens Park, and we will be using the facilities at Old Caterhamians Rugby Club for changing, tea and post-game socialising. The rugby club borders Queens Park, but is actually located in Park Avenue, on the other side of the park to where we normally park our cars. The coordinates for this link to a map of the area are lifted directly from the rugby club web site, so if the arrow (or circle, since I’ve switched to Multimap due to problems with Streetmap) is a little awry then blame them and not me!!

PLEASE NOTE that sundry interested parties have finally been contacted and there is definitely no game this coming Sunday (2nd May).

We did have a fixture arranged for Sunday, courtesy of David Aldwinckle and the CCC, but it was decided to cancel on the basis that we were struggling to put together a full eleven and when Barry spoke to Leatherhead they were going to be fielding a mixture of their Sunday Firsts and Seconds. Shades of Croygas from last season but with a weaker Badgers’ XI. Rather a shame, but hopefully we’ll get to play next week at Caterham. Given the impressive turnouts for the recent net sessions we should all be ready and raring to go, so let’s hope the weather doesn’t continue to jeopardise play.

The new season is fast approaching, and I for one am looking forward to it, even if I do have the job of managing Kings Langley Colts cricket to further eat into whatever free time I might otherwise enjoy. The AGM has been and gone, and you can find a brief report on the news page. Next up will be indoor nets, which start on April Fool’s Day appropriately enough.

I’ve also updated the fixtures page to reflect the provisional 2004 fixture list that David Aldwinckle has kindly put together for us and the club officers page now that we have a new Chairman.

Please note that the date of the AGM has been changed (twice!) and will now definitely, honestly, be 10th March 2004. For other details, including a map link and agenda, see the full AGM notice on the news page.

A handful of minor changes have been made to the site over the past week, including the addition of a questions and answers page, the first appearance of a submenu under the Hall of Fame entry in the left hand menu bar, and considerable tidying up of the fortieth anniversary document including adding links back to the up-to-date versions of various tables.

Details of the arrangements for this year’s AGM can now be found on the news page, although you should all have received a letter to the same effect, along with the detailed accounts, via email. Also, due to an administrative error by Nescot we’ve got a change to the details for indoor nets, so if you followed my previous advice you’ll need to adjust your diary entries accordingly.

I’ve finally managed to do a little more work on the hall of fame page, and you can now find details there of the trophy winners dating back to 1959, to set alongside the previously available historical list of club officers and the best partnerships in club history.

The first update of 2004 is not the anticipated AGM details but instead brings news of the dates for indoor nets. Get them in your diary now so that there’s no excuse for not being prepared for the new season.

My apologies for the brief interruption to service that happened sometime on, or just before, 6th January and was resolved during the evening of 7th January. One of the disadvantages of doing things on the cheap is that you have to remember all of the nuances of the terms and conditions, but I’d forgotten that I needed to log on to the Freenetname account every 30 days or it would be deactivated. Mea culpa, and I’ll try to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

About six months ago I made a change to the personal pages that stopped Opera making a mess of the display of various tables, and promised that I’d apply the same fix to other averages pages ‘as time permits’. Well, I’ve finally found the time to do it, so for other Opera users (are there any, I wonder??) you’ll find that various tables, especially the bowling averages, now look somewhat neater. From extensive testing I believe I can safely say that the changes make absolutely no difference whatsoever to the other mainstream browsers (I’ve tested with various flavours of Mozilla, Netscape and Internet Explorer) and really shouldn’t negatively affect any browser. The eagle-eyed amongst you may also spot odd tweaks here and there, as I’ve had a blitz on various elements especially link text and spelling (horror of horrors, and much to my chagrin, I actually found some mistakes that you’d all been too polite to mention).

One other minor change of note is that I’ve added a section to the top of each of the scorecard pages that provides meaningful links to each of the games in that season, which should make it quicker and easier to find the card for a particular game.