Badgers Cricket Club – What’s New Archive 2013

With Play-Cricket having fixed the worst of the problems with their new system (especially the display of partial overs, which resulted in incorrect information being output) and significant workarounds having been coded into my scraping routines to cater for the other issues that impacted on the ability to extract complete results information from their pages, I have finished off the addition of 1986. That means that there is now a season report, scorecards, more comprehensive historical results, complete full batting, full bowling and miscellaneous statistics tables and a list of best performances plus concomitant updates to the personal pages.

The inevitable discrepancies were found between the newly entered data and that already published, the gory details of which can be found on the Statistical Sett page (and if you’ve read through all of that lot, then good on you) and I’ll just finish up by saying that the next update is likely to be in the new year, with details of either indoor nets or the AGM.

Another season comes to its traditional close, with forty or so Badgers gathering to pay their last respects to another year of cricket, to dole out various odd shaped tokens (some more odd than others), eat, drink and bid a farewell until next season to their teammates. Details of who won what can be found on the news page, along with a brief report of proceedings, and the Hall Of Fame Trophy winners page has been updated accordingly. The season report for 2013 is now complete and official, and all of the other pages have been updated with the 2013 figures, including all decade by decade averages pages, the personal pages and the individual records page.

For those that prefer paper copies of these things, and didn’t manage to acquire the copy from their table at the dinner last Saturday, I have also uploaded the ‘for print’ version of the 2013 season report ready to be downloaded and printed. You’ll need a suitable program to view or print the PDF file but Abode Reader, which may already be installed on the system you are using, is available as a free download (from the Adobe web site), and there are other free alternatives including Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF.

My stated intention of adding an update related to honorary members or the full 1986 data has fallen foul of various external factors, including missing AGM minutes and the re-launch of Play-Cricket (with the latter necessitating a whole raft of changes to my scraping code, some of which are still not complete). The Play-Cricket changes have also, somewhat to my astonishment, made it impossible to link directly to the result details for individual matches, so for the time being I have hidden those links (they are still there in the HTML, but they should not display in any browser that honours Cascading Style Sheets).

I do still intend to add the 1986 details at some point between now and the new season, especially since 95% of the data entry is complete, but at the moment there are several issues with the new Play-Cricket that are getting in the way. Absent that change, any important news or surprise site updates things will go quiet now until the announcement of either the AGM or indoor nets in the new year. See you then.

The annual presentation dinner, without the dance for the fifth year running, is somewhat less than a month away and you should all have received an email from club chairman Allan Butt with details of that event on November 16th. For completeness I have updated the news page with the details of the evening.

A big thank you is due to Darrell and Jacqueline, who shared the duties, for helping me to check the scorecards generated from the database with the actual scorebook data, and their efforts mean that you can now find historical results for 2013 along with a partial season report plus the personal pages have been updated with all the 2013 performances and partnerships. The season report and personal pages will be updated further once the destination of the various cups has been revealed at the dinner, at which point the full details will also be made available on the decade by decade average pages.

For the record the changes made as a result of our checking can be found on the Statistical Sett page.

Next update probably won’t be until after the dinner, but I am working on putting together a list of honorary members down the years, so something related to that, or to the 1986 season, might just appear before that.

The 2013 season finished on Sunday at new opponents Westcott, a fairly simple win in the sunshine capping a year in which only a Friday night cry off by Broadbridge Heath prevented us from completing the highly unusual feat of playing a game every week of the season. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with some statistical notes and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. I have also added the summary report for Horsley & Send prefigured in the last update.

I have decided to separate this final match update from the end of season updates, which I will probably leave until the data has been fully checked against the scorebooks, a chore that Darrell and I will start once I have had a chance to update the current scorebook to ensure that all matches have the full details required. Expect to see the partial season report and other updates that don’t give away the destination of any cups, about halfway between now and the dinner on 16th November, about which you should already have received a communication from Chairman Al, and can expect another with menu details shortly.

Darrell’s debut as captain proved a little fraught, with Ockley suffering from four last minute cry-offs and Bill changing sides to even things up a little, but in the end the game petered out to a draw. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with some statistical notes and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. I have also added statistical notes for Horsley & Send and a full report for Cuddington Casuals, with a summary report for the former written but still needing to be typed up.

Last Sunday’s return to Horsley & Send after a twelve year hiatus was ruined by the lousy weather, although we did manage to play nearly three-quarters of a 40 over contest before conditions became too grim and the game was called off. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Another exciting finish in a low scoring game on Abbey Rec. in Merton saw the Badgers squeak home against an evenly matched Cuddington Casuals side. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

PLEASE NOTE that this Sunday’s fixture with Cuddington has been confirmed as a one o’clock start, not the one thirty that has been listed on the fixtures page since the beginning of the season. Don’t be late.

As close a finish as you could wish for in the gloaming last Sunday saw the Badgers butcher the opportunity to record the first tie since 1988 and Blindley Heath scrape home off the penultimate ball of the game. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with some statistical notes and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Despite a fair bit of rain over the previous twenty-four hours we managed a normal enough game of cricket against South Park Manor on Sunday. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with some statistical notes and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

I have added statistical notes to all of the games since Westfield and have also published Allan Butt’s match report for the Horley game.

After a whole raft of database and code changes – plus rather too much testing and debugging – I have managed to get the retired (hurt or otherwise) situation sorted out both in terms of scraping data from Play-Cricket and of handling partnerships, so we are back in action.

This update provides nothing in the way of commentary, as I’ve not had time to write any statistical notes or to incorporate the report that Allan kindly wrote for Horley. Recent results have been up and down like a fiddler’s elbow, but the usual summarised details of the games can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecards.

Whilst there have been little or no editorial updates I have performed the periodic refresh of the personal pages, which affects the best performances and partnerships but not the averages, and continue to keep both the lifetime averages page and the partnerships page updated.

Apologies folks, but technical problems caused by Mark retiring and returning during the Malpas game mean that I’m stuck in the middle of an update that isn’t likely to be complete before the middle of next month (because I have a raft of changes to make in various bits of code). We won one game and lost the other on tour, whilst last Sunday’s visit to Weybridge Vandals ended in a closely fought draw, but the only place you can see the scorecards for those games is on our Play-Cricket site. I am not playing next Sunday, so that one will not be appearing any time soon on either site, but hopefully normal service will be resumed by mid August.

It was another blazing hot day last Sunday, but this time we managed a victory, in a new fixture with the rebuilding Westfield. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with some statistical notes and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Tour this weekend, so next week’s update may be a little later than has become normal for this season as I will have two games to enter and cross-check.

Another hot and sunny day on Sunday saw the Badgers suffer an agonising last ball loss against Old Sutts. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with some statistical notes and the pertinent elements from the scorecard. In addition, Allan has very kindly supplied a match report for Tadworth, which just leaves us bereft for the last two games (the traffic has not been kind the past two weeks, so I have not found the time to write any myself, but volunteers are always welcome).

The book about 175 years of wandering cricket, detailed more fully on the news page, was launched last Friday and I was able to attend and pick up my copy along with a couple of spares, one of which I’ve donated to the club so that anyone can have a read before deciding that they would like to buy a copy for themselves and support Chance to Shine. I noticed a fair few Badgers scattered amongst the patron’s index and hopefully you will be receiving your copies shortly.

A blazing hot day (by recent English standards anyway) and a runaway Wallington, who became the first to post more than 300 runs in a game featuring the Badgers, made for a one-sided loss last Sunday. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with some statistical notes and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Somehow we managed to dodge the rain showers at Tadworth last Sunday and the end result was a cricket game that was almost as close as it gets, with all three results possible from the final ball of the game. Ultimately we came out on the wrong end of the result despite a mammoth effort from Mark. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with some statistical notes and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

I sat down last Friday to write a match report for the Leigh game but was distracted into a displacement activity (see the statistical notes from last weekend for the gory details). Fortunately yet another good run around the M25 presented the chance to write that match report a couple of days later, so no harm done!?

Another cracking win on Sunday at Leigh, a game that we looked highly unlikely to get a positive result from for large periods. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Another early arrival meant the chance to knock out another summary match report, this time for the Roehampton match.

As presaged in the last update we now have a summary match report for Dormansland and I have also managed to knock up a report for Leatherhead and added statistical notes for the Roehampton game.

Back to earth on Putney Heath last weekend as the Badgers suffered their first loss of the season at the hands of Roehampton. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Another early arrival, at Leatherhead, means that I had time to knock up a quick match report for the Stoke game and I have since found odd bits of time to put together statistical notes for Dormansland and Leatherhead. A spare ten minutes before the Roehampton game means that I have written but not yet typed up a summary report for Dormansland, but this week has been slowed down by needing to cater for a catch taken by other than a player in the batting line-up and I am still behind with both match reports and statistical notes, so if anyone would like to contribute a form of words for Leatherhead or Roehampton then they'd be gratefully received.

The fixtures page has been updated with details of the midweek game against Tadworth, which is part of their cricket week. You should all have received an email regarding availability for that one and I continue to maintain the availability spreadsheet on the club’s SkyDrive (see the pre-season email for the location of that if you have not yet saved it in your favourites/bookmarks).

Another sunny day, another win for the Badgers despite a ton by Leatherhead’s skipper. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

The Badgers continued their unbeaten 2013 with another win in the sunshine, this time at long-time sparring partners Dormansland. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Good journeys and early arrivals at the Ham and Stoke games left me enough time to sit and write a few words about the first two games of the season, so we now have a full match report for Ham and are halfway to having something for Beechwood. Unfortunately last Sunday’s journey was abysmal so nothing yet in the pipeline for Stoke, but if anyone would care to contribute a few words about either of this season’s wins then feel free!?

Last Sunday saw the first win for the Badgers in 2013, an entertaining game against Stoke d'Abernon on a pleasant sunny afternoon (something we have not been able to say very often over the past thirteen months). The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

The second game of new season was completed in less than ideal weather conditions on Ham Common and resulted in another draw, albeit slightly more entertaining than the first one. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a skeletal match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

I intend to implement a new regime this season when it comes to updates to this site to try and avoid the long periods of quiet caused by a failure to create match reports. Firstly, as last year, the scorebook detail will be uploaded to our Play-Cricket site (for now this is being done manually, as we are waiting for CricHQ to implement Play-Cricket support on the Android version of their App, and thus generally takes place on Monday morning, but once the App is updated then Play-Cricket should receive the data once we get home each Sunday night). I will then scrape the relevant portions of those pages into my database, update this website accordingly and then upload those changes before worrying about match reports of any form. Hopefully this will mean a Tuesday update most weeks (although this week is a little later because of the need to reconcile discrepancies in the paper scorebook) with the possibility of a further update later in the week with any statistical commentary or, you can always dream, a match report of some description.

The new season got off to a chilly but dry start in the pleasant surroundings at Otford in Kent a fortnight ago. Sadly that ‘dismal draw’ (Beechwood’s words not mine) was followed up by a later than eleventh hour cry off due to a lack of players by Broadbridge Heath. Full details of that first game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

One other item that has been rather glossed over in the past two updates is the fact that we have a couple of new club officers elected at this year’s AGM, with Matt Mann taking over from Andy Iwanoczko as Hon. Secretary and yours truly (Steve Pitts) taking over the role of Team Secretary in the absence of any more willing volunteers. Many thanks to Andy and Graham Ward for their sterling efforts on the club’s behalf – in Graham’s case for the past eight years, the second longest tenure in that position in club history.

The fixtures page has been updated with the provisional fixture list for 2013, including individual map links to each ground and the usual Google Maps map showing all of them, and I’ve also brought the historical trophy winners and both the current club officers and historical club officers pages up to date.

Many of you will already be aware, but for those that haven’t heard the Badgers are one of 125 clubs that will feature in a book on wandering cricket. See the news page for more detail and a chance to buy said tome.

Preparations are already well underway for the 2013 season and the night before last’s AGM has reminded me again of my dereliction of duty in relation to this site. Whilst discussing the situation during the meeting it occurred to me that I did not need to be quite so precious about presenting the updated version as a complete refresh with everything back into perfect shape, so instead this is the first of what I hope will be several updates between now and the start of the new season. This really is of the ‘just slap it up there’ variety and thus has not had much in the way of checking, so please let me know if you find anything out of whack.

The next order of business will be an update to the fixtures page and the associated Google Maps map of ground locations, but for now you can find the provisional fixture list on our Play-Cricket site. It is probably also worth noting that indoor nets are already underway on Thursday evenings from 19:30 at Aberdour School, the dinner is slated for 23rd November and the pages related to trophy winners and club officers are in need of an update since last year’s dinner and this year’s AGM respectively.

The statistics from 2012 were fully cross-checked before last November’s dinner, so the season report for 2012 is complete and official, and all of the other pages have been updated with the 2012 numbers, including all decade by decade averages pages, the personal pages, the individual records page and the historical results for 2012. There are no match reports for 2012 to speak of but most of the games do have a statistical note or two.

For those that prefer paper copies of these things, and didn’t manage to acquire the copy from their table at the dinner last November, I have also uploaded the ‘for print’ version of the 2012 season report ready to be downloaded and printed. You’ll need a suitable program to view or print the PDF file but Abode Reader, which may already be installed on the system you are using, is available as a free download (from the Adobe web site), and there are other free alternatives including Foxit Reader and Sumatra PDF.

Having unceremoniously taken it away from him last season before even announcing that he’d received the honour, I am pleased to be able to tell you that Guy Walker now has his very own personal page, having met the qualification criteria after the 2012 season.

As a displacement activity, whilst struggling with putting together a form of words about the Dormansland game last May or early June, I did some cleaning up using various tools that I’ve picked up over the years. This involved checking the spelling on word-heavy pages, checking the underlying syntax and structure of the HTML pages and checking that all links are still valid. As a result of this checking I made a raft of minor corrections to sundry pages (especially the match report and What’s Old pages) and took the decision to remove the ICRA labelling, since it appears that this is now defunct (according to what is left of the web site).