Badgers Cricket Club – What’s New Archive 2003

With the annual dinner and dance out of the way the Badger settles down for its winter slumbers. Details of who won the various trophies can be found on the news page, including the shocking revelation that two out of the five cups were presented to the wrong people!? The season report for the 2003 season is now complete and official, and all of the associated pages have been updated with the 2003 figures, including all of the decade by decade averages pages and the personal pages.

Ever since this site has been in existence I’ve made vain promises at the start of every off-season about the work I intended to do on the site, so this time around I’m not making any forecasts whatsoever. I still have a list of extensions and improvements with at least a dozen items on it, but I rather doubt that I’ll get around to most of them in what remains of this year, and who knows what 2004 will bring. Either way the site is likely to be in hiatus until details of the AGM are known early in the new year, so for the time being just enjoy what we already have and maybe something new and interesting will appear before the 2004 season begins.

Sundry minor changes have been made to the internal page navigation on many of the pages. This started out as a slight tweak to those averages pages organised by decade, intended to make them easier to navigate when working through the full set for a given category, and ended up affecting two-thirds of the pages on the site. The end result is that there should always be a meaningful text link or two at the bottom of the content of each page (eg. each decade links to the previous one, each results table to the previous year) in addition to the standard exploding text ‘menu’ that shows up on every page.

I’ve also fixed an obscure problem that was messing up the layout of this home page and causing the What’s New section to be displayed to the right of the graphic rather than always underneath it irrespective of the size of the browser window or the size of the text chosen by the user. This was especially ugly in Internet Explorer v6, because there seems to be a bug that causes the content to disappear off the right hand edge of the screen but without a horizontal scroll bar being added to the window so that it could be viewed.

As usual my apologies for the delay in getting this update completed and on line. The season finished over a month ago, but it took me three weeks to piece together a match report (Darrell told me it was because I didn’t have the pressure of an upcoming game to force me to sit down and finish it, and he’s probably right) and I’ve also been working on the statistics for the season, which are now complete and fully cross-checked. Add to that a fair bit of tidying up behind the scenes – although most of that work won’t be visible even to the most anal retentive – the usual stuff about work and parenthood, plus the fact that sometimes this feels too much like work, and you have the best explanation I can offer.

Details of the final match of the season against Merrow can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. Alan Tickner has also kindly furnished me with a match report for Maori-Oxshott, so we now have a full house in that regard.

You should all have received emails from Alan Tickner with details of the annual Dinner and Dance, but you can also find most of the information on the news page.

The initial end of season housekeeping has taken place, so you can now find the official results for the 2003 season on the historical results pages and a skeletal season report (missing those tables that would give away the destinations of the cups).

Details of last weekend’s match against Ockley can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Details of last weekend’s match against Crondall can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Details of last weekend’s match against Burgh Heath can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Details of last weekend’s match against Blindley Heath can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

I’ve still not received a match report for the game that I missed against Maori Oxshott, but I can offer you the usual items from the scorecard.

Oh, and my apologies for not posting details earlier in the week of where today’s fixture with Burgh Heath is being played, but I’ve only just found out myself (and I’m supposed to be playing!?). See the fixtures page for an address and map link, but for those of who you played against them last year it is in the same place.

Apologies for not getting this update online before last weekend, but I spent the previous week working away in Wales and then we left early on Saturday morning for a week’s holiday in the Lakes, so it just didn’t get finished in time. Since I didn’t play last week, and nobody has deigned to send me a match report, I can’t give you any details for Oxshott, but I’ll pick up the scorebook today at Blindley Heath so should be able to get up-to-date by the end of the coming week. Details of the match against Newchapel & Horne can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Thanks to Allan Butt we also have a match report for the Ewhurst game. Allan must have had to rack the old grey cells to recall the proceedings of a month ago, especially without the scorebook for reference, and I’m most grateful for his contribution.

Details of last weekend’s match against Reigate Cavaliers can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Details of last weekend’s match against Rowan can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Thanks to a week off work I’ve finally found the time to write the match reports for the tour games, at Hook Norton and Milton, and the ever dependable Alan Tickner has kindly provided me with a report for Clapham Nomads. There is still nothing as yet for the Ewhurst game, but I believe that I’ve talked one of the participants into writing something for us all.

Lots to get through, but I’ll start with the customary apology for not having updated the site in the past three weeks. Most of you probably know that my back started playing up after the tour weekend, and for a time I couldn’t sit comfortably for more than an hour or two at a stretch. Since I was struggling to put in a full working day because of that, I certainly wasn’t in a position to use some of that sitting time to make changes to the site. Due to that hiatus there are still no match reports for tour weekend, and we are also missing reports for the two games that I was unable to attend (willing volunteer sub-editors will be greeted warmly).

Details of last weekend’s record breaking match against Old Alleynians can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

There have been three other games since I last updated the site, including a record breaking win against Ewhurst (a record that lasted exactly a week), a thirty-five over thrash against Clapham Nomads, and another record partnership, this time for the fifth wicket, against Woldingham Village. You’ll find further details of those games on the results page along with a match report for the Woldingham game and scorecards for all three.

As a result of Alan Tickner retiring hurt against Woldingham, and not resuming his innings, I’ve discovered an oversight in the handling of that situation. The laws say that under such circumstances, as opposed to other types of retirement, the batsman is considered to be not out. Unfortunately I wasn’t handling things that way when calculating the averages, although obviously I am now, and that has a knock-on effect on previous seasons. Thankfully the changes are not significant in terms of trophy winners, although they do make quite a difference to Mark Gordon’s 1995 average when he was a runaway winner of the batting cup.

Last weekend saw our annual tour to the Cotswolds, and a good time was had by all. We stayed at the Deddington Arms for the first time, in an attempt to find somewhere to rival The Lygon Arms in Chipping Camden but closer to our current fixtures. It turned out to be a good choice and, apart from a blip over Saturday breakfast, they did us proud. A big thank you to David Aldwinckle for all of the effort that he put into organising every aspect of this year’s trip, and to Richard Kemp for arranging a Saturday morning trip around the Hook Norton Brewery.

Two games of cricket were played, of rather contrasting styles and results, and you can find details of both on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecards. Unfortunately I’ve been suffering with back problems ever since returning from tour and have not been able to sit at a computer for any length of time, with the obvious consequence that there are no match reports for the tour games, as yet.

I really ought to have flagged this up earlier, since it has been known for several weeks now, but the Friday game on tour has been cancelled, for reasons that still remain obscure – at least to me. I believe that a golfing alternative has been arranged, but all those involved are fully aware of the arrangements and I can’t imagine anyone wanting to spectate as they might for a cricket match. My apologies if the lack of notice of the cancellation causes you any problems.

Another record breaking outing this week, but on the wrong side of the ledger. Full details of last weekend’s hammering by Carshalton & Croydon Gas can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

I’ve made a few more minor tweaks behind the scenes – the more observant may spot a couple of differences in the miscellaneous statistics tables, both in the season by season averages and the personal pages – but nothing of any real significance to report.

We have a fixture for this coming Sunday, which I believe will be against Carshalton & Croydon Gas CC, but Barry only sent out the address and not the team name, so I can’t be certain. Details of the address and a map can be found on the fixtures page.

You wait six years for a hundred run opening partnership, and twelve years for a ten wicket win, and then two come along at once! Full details of last weekend’s match against NPL Lensbury, including that partnership and Simon Fox’s second highest batting performance for the Badgers, can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Whilst struggling over the match report (which is why this is a little late this week – I hate writing reports when I’ve made a significant personal contribution) I’ve also been fiddling with the code that generates the personal pages. The most visible end result is that the total lines are more consistent and include total games bowled and overall best bowling performance, where these can be worked out from the available data. If, like me, you use Opera as your browser, then you’ll also find that the tables are laid out in a more consistent fashion and I intend to apply that fix to the other averages pages as time permits.

Last weekend’s match against Stoke D'Abernon featured a record breaking performance by Alan Tickner and Patrick Redding. For more detail read the match report and/or the news item, peruse the results page or take a gander at the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Details of last weekend’s match against Epsom Methodists can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

No other major changes, although I have made a number of minor corrections to various match reports, news items and photo gallery pages. My thanks to Keith Miller for spotting the silly mistake that I’d made in the dates for the previous three What’s New entries. Amazing how easy it is to miss errors right under your nose :)

PLEASE NOTE that Saturday’s game with Epsom Methodists has been moved to Reigate Priory. Mark seems convinced that this means the cricket club (where we usually play Reigate Cavaliers) but my suspicion is that we will actually be playing at Reigate Priory Playing Fields, which are the other side of Park Lane (clearly visible on the map), since Reigate Priory CC have three sides playing at home this week. All other details are the same, but I’ve updated the map link on the fixtures page accordingly.

Details of the aborted second match of the season, at Dormansland, can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

The 2003 season finally got underway the weekend before last, but last week’s match against Leigh was rained off on the Saturday morning. Details of that first match, against Caterham, can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

The only other change since last time is the extension of the season report pages, and the associated season by season index, back to 1988. Whilst many of the tables contained therein can also be found by working through the averages by category, these reports are the only place that you’ll currently find match records and the rolling five year tables, since they don’t currently have their own pages.

Whilst I have yet to receive much in the way of feedback – is anyone actually reading any of this? – I would still be grateful if you’d let me know your opinion of the recent changes, especially if any aspect of the new structure causes you problems, whether technical or aesthetic.

My heartfelt apologies for not updating the site recently, but I’ve been snowed under at work, and there has just been too much to do to complete the site revamp in the way that I’d intended. Please accept my further apologies if there are still any rough edges as I’ve not had the time to do as thorough a check of everything as I’d like but given the imminent start of the new season I thought I ought to get the site up-to-date.

We did have a Conference arranged fixture for Saturday (3rd May) at Godstone & Horne near Blindley Heath, which I’ve added to the fixtures page, but the game was cancelled on Friday evening because their pitch had apparently been flooded by the latest rains.

The AGM has long been and gone, and you can find a brief report on the news page along with details of this season’s indoor nets. In addition, the fixtures page has been updated with the provisional fixture list for 2003, which still has a couple of gaps if you know of anyone who’d like a game.

As you can probably tell from this page, the long-signalled revamp of the site is now up and running – the fruit of a year’s worth of labouring, tweaking and tinkering behind the scenes. The new menu system simplifies navigation of the site for those with Javascript enabled browsers, whilst taking little or nothing away from those without, and the switch to using CSS for layout control gives me the capability of making the site a little more attractive visually without detracting in any way from the underlying content. Unfortunately some of the new content, such as the about page, is not yet as complete as I’d like it to be, but pressures of work have meant that sitting at the computer composing copy has not been high on my list of leisure-time activities of late.

One new feature to look out for is the addition of player specific statistics pages for those who have been playing for long enough to make it worthwhile separating their accomplishments from everyone else’s. Please note that there are still a couple of anomalies on those pages, especially on the total lines, but if I wait until I’ve sorted them out it could be 2004 before anything appears. I also have a list with another sixteen new items or major changes to the site on it, at least half of which I’d intended to implement over the winter, but I’ve spent the past several months of my life keeping my family in the style to which they’ve become accustomed by slaving over the development of Safestone’s RACF Agent for Symantec’s ESM instead.

Whilst I have yet to receive any feedback from anyone other than Graham Ward, I would still be grateful if you’d let me know your opinion of the changes, especially if any aspect of the new structure causes you problems, whether technical or aesthetic.

Those of you who’ve been paying attention to your email will already know that this year’s AGM is slated for the 19th February and that arrangements have been finalised for this summer’s tour. Further details on both can be found on the news page.

The previously advertised revamp of the site should occur within the next two or three weeks, but I thought I’d get the news updates online sooner rather than later. The implemented version of the impending changes is what you are looking at now – the previous version is no longer available on this site – and I’m still waiting in vain for feedback from anyone other than Graham Ward. Please let me know if any aspect of the new structure causes you problems, whether technical or aesthetic.