Badgers Cricket Club – What’s New Archive 2014

Another season draws to close, with just shy of forty Badgers gathering to say their goodbyes to the latest cricket season, fill their plates and glasses, listen to the Captain and Chairman wax lyrical on the events just passed whilst presenting sundry cups and mementos to the parties involved, before taking leave of their teammates for the long winter hiatus. 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 2014 is now complete and official, and all of the other pages have been updated with the 2014 figures, including all decade by decade averages pages, the personal pages and the individual records page.

One item of note amongst the changes above is that, now that the 2014 season has been included in the qualification critera, Rob Knew has his own personal page amongst the Badgers’ pantheon.

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 2014 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.

The exercise to rebuild all of the links to Play-Cricket scorecards has been completed, with the scorecards pages here updated accordingly, and I believe that I’ve found and fixed (after a fashion in some cases) all links from our site to the ECB sub-site. For those interested in the minutae, there were a couple of side-effects from that process, the details of which can be found on the Statistical Sett page.

I do still hope to add the 1985 details at some point between now and the new season, especially since nearly half of the data entry is complete, but that might depend on what other nonsense the developers and project managers at Play-Cricket contrive to dump on their beleagured user community. 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.

Unfortunately the Play-Cricket developers have seen fit do to the dirty on us for the second year running by breaking all incoming links to match results on our subsite (and all others). I am getting fed up with tidying up behind their unthinking and uncaring decision making but yet again I’ve spent a goodly chunk of early November fixing things, rather than progressing more useful projects – like the input of the 1985 data. Therefore the only update we have for now are changes to the scorecards pages here, with corrections to the links to Play-Cricket made for several seasons and (temporarily) removed from others. There may be other links into Play-Cricket that need fixing, although I have tweaked a few already, but if so they will have to wait until I have tracked them all down and figured out what the corrections might be.

Next update should appear over the next week or two as the passing of the tonight’s dinner and presentation of the trophies allows me to publish the full season report.

The annual presentation dinner is less than three weeks away and you should all have received an email from club chairman Allan Butt with details of that event on November 15th. For completeness I have updated the news page with the relevant details of the evening.

A big thank you is due to Darrell for helping me to check the scorecards generated from the database with the actual scorebook data, and his efforts mean that you can now find historical results for 2014 along with a partial season report plus the personal pages have been updated with all the 2014 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.

Whilst checking the regenerated pages following what is one of the major updates of the yearly cycle, I noticed an error that you’d all been too polite to point out in that the runs per game values on the head-to-head record summary page were all identical to the runs per wicket values – the result of a coding error dating all the way back to that page’s introduction in November 2011. As penance, both for making the mistake and not spotting it much sooner, I have added a similar pair of columns to the season-by-season record summary page and equivalents to the Season Analysis and Match Record section at the start of every season report.

Next update probably won’t be until after the dinner, but I am working on the 1985 season so something related to that might just appear before then.

The 2014 season came to a close on the last Sunday in September at Westcott, another lovely sunny autumn day and another comfortable win to finish things off. The usual summarised details of the games can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

As per last year 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 have just started now that 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 15th November.

A lovely autumnal afternoon on the green at Ockley saw the Badgers notch another win. The usual summarised details of the games can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

With the end of the season looming, now is probably a good time to remind everyone of the awards dinner to be held on 15th November, early details of which can be found on the news page.

Two weeks in one go this week, thanks to my missing the Addington game whilst the distaff side basked in the sun in Madeira. That game was another limited overs loss for the Badgers whilst last Sunday’s visit to Horsley & Send proved more fruitful. The usual summarised details of the games can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match reports and the pertinent elements from the scorecards.

Our first declaration game for ten weeks proved not to be a fruitful return to the traditional format, with Blindley Heath hanging on for a draw after struggling to get anywhere near our total. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

A much better contest this week, with RS Casuals posting over 200 for us to chase down with ten balls to spare. The usual summarised details of the Badgers’ game can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Somehow we managed to avoid the torrential downpours on Sunday and get a complete and uninterrupted game at South Park Manor, even finishing early enough to decamp to Reigate Priory to watch Amy fall agonisingly short of making her maiden fifty, all while narrowly failing to carry her bat and her team to victory. The usual summarised details of the Badgers’ game can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Even the cancellation of Sunday’s game due to the lousy weather did not inspire me to write any more words for the missing match reports, but we came back to earth with a bump again the previous week, with Horley taking us to school on how to play limited overs cricket. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Apologies for the delay in getting this update finished, but the tour games left me with a significant challenge in making sense of the opposition scorebooks which I didn’t finally get sorted out until Tuesday evening of this week, at which point I still had the match reports for three games to sort out.

The Chester Tour came and went, bringing the winning streak up short at seven, but the Badgers returned to winning ways on Desborough Island last Sunday against Weybridge Vandals. The usual summarised details of the games can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match reports and the pertinent elements from the scorecards.

The winning streak continues, albeit against a cup quarter-final weakened Ripley who fielded a team comprised mostly of colts and a Westfield eleven who struggled to cope with the Jake and Bill show. The usual summarised details of the games can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match reports and the pertinent elements from the scorecards.

I have rather belatedly got around to creating a Google Map for the tour locations, which you can find on the fixtures page, so that if you would like to come along and watch you know where we are!?

A rain interrupted but ultimately successful visit to Wallington saw the Badgers extend the winning streak to five games. 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.

A lovely day at Tadworth last Sunday and something of a role reversal in that the Badgers were the ones posting the big score before restricting the opposition scoring and running out easy winners. 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.

A better contest this week on a grey day at Leigh but the Badgers continued their winning ways, much to the noisy excitement of the club president! 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.

It is probably worth pointing out that we play Tadworth twice over the next seven days, with a midweek 20 over game, now correctly documented on the fixtures page, on the Wednesday of next week.

A rather unfortunate one-sided affair to follow up the excitement of the previous week, with the Badgers steamrollering Roehampton on Putney Heath. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

A cracking game at Leatherhead on Sunday saw any of the four possible results still feasible at the start of the final over, with the Badgers sealing the win from the very last ball. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with Matt Smith’s maiden match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

The periodic refresh of the personal pages, which affects the best performances and partnerships but not the averages, has been performed and both the lifetime averages page and the partnerships page will continue to be updated each week.

The winning start to the season came to a grinding halt the week before last at Stoke and was followed up by being on the wrong end of a draw at Dormansland. The usual summarised details of the games can be found on the results page along with a full report for Stoke, statistical notes for Dormansland and the pertinent elements from the scorecards.

Play-Cricket continue to make life difficult for me, seemingly randomly tweaking parts of their scorecard layout, but hopefully I can catch up again before next week’s match needs to be posted.

A blustery and chilly day on Ham Common saw the Badgers emerge triumphant in a close-fought contest. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a match report and the pertinent elements from the scorecard.

Whilst I’ve not managed to do so thus far this season, it is my intention to try and update this site as early as possible each week, with the result being entered into our Play-Cricket site either Sunday night or Monday morning and the minimal changes (ie. without worrying about a match report) made here by the middle of the week. However, I am unlikely to meet that deadline this week as Play-Cricket have changed the format of their scorecard output again, so I have to re-work my scraping logic to cope before I can update the database and then this site.

The new season finally got off the ground, after last weekend’s rain ruined non-trip to Beechwood, with a new fixture against Cheam. It was a rather unusual game in many ways but the Badgers acquitted themselves splendidly to start 2014 with a win. 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.

It is probably worth pointing out at this point that the site rollover to a new season brings with it a lot of updates under the covers. Whilst I have tried to check as much as possible prior to upload, if you see anything that looks amiss then please let me know so that I can fix it.

We have managed to arrange a fixture for this coming Sunday, in a nice and familiar environment, against Cheam. The fixtures page has all of the usual details and the team list will be sent out later today.

Hopefully the new season will get underway today in Otford, although the weather is looking decidedly dubious at the moment, so I thought that an update to the site would not go amiss. Not much has changed since the post-AGM update at the end of January, with the only item of significant note being that we don’t have a game for next week yet, due to Ewhurst pulling out upon discovering a clash of fixtures. The only other noticeable change since the last update is that I’ve reinstated the links to Play-Cricket from our scorecards page(s), suitably tweaked to reflect the correct landing page details, now that they have finally reinstated that capability, five months after their new release broke it. I still don’t like what they have done with the tabbed layout, forcing you to click through three different tabs to see the whole of the card, but I will continue to nag them about it in the hope of getting a single page that can be navigated just by scrolling up and down.

The AGM has come and gone, with a fairly small whimper given how long we took over it, and you can read a summary report of the event on the news page along with information on indoor nets. The fixtures page has also been updated, with the fixture list distributed at the AGM, replete with map links, and I’ve created the now usual Google map with the locations of our 2014 opposition.

Those of you present at the AGM will have seen Ben modelling one of the items available in our online club shop, which is always open to take your orders for a range of items bearing the club crest.

One of the things that became apparent during the AGM was that the rules posted on this site as part of the last update were not completely up-to-date, since last year’s meeting – the minutes for which were only published a few hours before this year’s – ratified a change removing the clause related to holding more than one officer position. I guess it is a moot point now as I have updated the rules on the clubhouse page to reflect that change and several others made on Monday.

Oh, and my thanks to you all for being too polite to point out that I used the wrong year on the header for this What’s New section with the last update and that there were several corrupted pages in the statistical section which were not displaying properly, and in some cases had muddled content too. Both of those things have now been fixed.

All of a sudden the AGM is just around the corner, being much earlier than normal this year, and you should all have received an email from Chairman Allan Butt with details of the occasion. As belt and braces I’ve added an item to the news page with a summary of the event.

The club has also signed up with an online sportswear supplier – Kalibazar – and we now have our very own online club shop where you can purchase a comprehensive range of Badgers be-logoed gear. I have also added a link to the shop in the side bar to the left, although it won’t appear on every page until such time as I have re-generated them for one reason or another.

In preparing a couple of changes to the club rules for the AGM it has come to my notice that one of the existing rules, instituted in 2010, says that the rules themselves must be made available on the web site. Now that particular clause had completely passed me by (and indeed I don’t remember ever seeing a non-draft version of them) but I have belatedly conformed and in the process created a final version of said rules for upload. You can find the end result on the clubhouse page.