Badgers Cricket Club – What’s New Archive 2023

Hopefully all interested parties will already know that the annual dinner and awards presentation will be taking place this coming Saturday, 4th November, will have filled out their menu choices and have paid for their meal. If you feel you have been missed out and would like to be there please contact the skipper immediately.

Now that the 2023 season is set in stone I am able to bring you the season report which will be used to inform the destination of some of the cups on the night (although no doubt you have all already worked out who is getting what from the Play-Cricket statistics pages, which is why we don’t hold this back until after the dinner these days).

All of the other pages have been updated with the 2023 figures, including all decade by decade averages pages, the personal pages (for which Nat has qualified for the first time) and the individual records page. In addition you can now find historical results for 2023 along with the leading performances and partnerships for the season just gone.

One item of note, and the reason this update is so close to the dinner, is that I have been trying to expand the content of the averages tables for the the first time since they were originally designed to fit on a sheet of A4 paper output on a dot matrix printer back in 1988!? Unfortunately I have only found the time to expand the single season batting and bowling averages and only regenerated those for the current decade but please let me know what you think and I will continue to work on revamping the remaining pages and adding similar columns to the multi-season reports (where the data to do so is available).

As ever the end of season update brings a lot of other (mostly automatic) changes under the covers, so if you see anything that looks wrong please let me know and I will endeavour to sort it out.

The season finished with our first ever visit to Forest Green, a ground that the skipper has wanted to play on for many years, having held his stag do in the Parrot pub, which overlooks the ground, a quarter of a century ago!? The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

Now that the final game is in the record books I will start on the end of season processing, most of which is automated these days, so expect to see the usual barrage of new entries for the 2023 season report before too long.

A rare ‘home’ fixture for the Badgers last Sunday, courtesy of Daniel’s connections with Cranleigh who hosted the game right at the end of their season to enable us to get a game at all. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

PLEASE NOTE that Darrell has arranged a fixture for Sunday against the mysteriously named Players XI to be played, thanks to help from Dan Ward, at Cranleigh CC. Full details on the fixtures page.

Sadly Sunday’s visit to Horsley & Send resulted in the shortest game of the season – quite a feat given that Shepperton only saw twenty-two balls bowled. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

A new but old fixture this week with our first visit to Warlingham in 55 years where we made a poor fist of chasing a decent total in a timed game. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

Our 34th visit to Blindley Heath, and 36th match overall since we hosted them at Rose Hill on a couple of early occasions, saw another good contest with the Badgers just managing to edge it. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

NOTE that there probably won’t be another update for at least a fortnight as today is the Andy Curtis Memorial Charity event, kindly hosted by Woodmansterne.

A short trip for the President to watch the game this week – it must be less than half a mile from Roy’s long time residence to Banstead Cricket Club’s pavilion – and both his son and grandson featured heavily in another win. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

I have fixed the problem with my scorecard checking program and the reporting of partnerships that involve more than three batters, which has an effect on the scorecards for last season’s tour game at Overbury as well as this season’s Newport Pagnell match, along with another bug that I only noticed whilst testing the first fix that affected the double retirement in the home side’s innings in the Crown tour match.

A welcome return to the bucolic delights of Ockley last weekend saw the Badgers back to winning ways on the greenest of green tops. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

Having finally managed to sort out all of the nuances of matters arising from the retirements at Newport Pagnell and the fact that only one team batted at Shepperton I have managed to get caught up as far as last weekend and thus am uploading where things have gotten to before moving on to last Sunday’s game. Expect an update with those details this weekend.

The usual summarised details of the games since tour can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match reports, the detailed scorecards, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecards.

We were on the receiving end of a good pasting last Sunday to the extent that our opposition did not even offer us a beer match to further embarrass ourselves.

Having finally found the time to fix the problems I was having with the Sunday game on tour and getting it uploaded to Play-Cricket, I now have to try and get caught up but have been stymied by another problem – the first wicket partnership in that game featured two retiring batters and my partnership calculation logic does not cope with that :(

The usual summarised details of the games successfully processed thus far can be found on the results page along with statistical notes only match reports, the detailed scorecards, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecards.

Please note that for the second week running Darrell has arranged a fixture to fill an empty slot in the calendar originally reserved for potential tour weekends and we will be paying our third ever visit to North Holmwood, albeit only the second to play the home side. Full details on the fixtures page.

Sadly we played less than four overs last Sunday due to the weather closing in just minutes after we had got underway (and even more sadly, Darrell and I had actually got the innings off to a half decent start for a change).

No actual updates this week, for the same reason as last, but I have decided to tidy up and upload the updates I had almost finished preparing before leaving for Ewell the Sunday before last and these can be found under 23rd July below.

Please note that Darrell has arranged a fixture to fill the first of two empty slots in the calendar originally reserved as potential tour weekends and we will be paying our first ever visit to Shepperton CC. Full details on the fixtures page.

No other updates this week, sad to say, as I have not had any free time to work on the site. The update for the previous week is also still in limbo (albeit partly complete) for the same reason.

Somehow despite the dodgy weather last weekend Tour went off well and three games of cricket were played. The Friday evening game was rained off but we ended up playing two contests, one of twenty-two overs and the other of eleven, against Crown on the Saturday whilst a more normal 35 over contest was completed against a Newport Pagnell side bolstered by Darrell (who both top-scored and took one of only two wickets to fall).

Despite live scoring the first Saturday game and the Sunday match, I only have the previous weekend’s Oxted game and the Crown one to upload here due to a technical issue caused by Newport Pagnell scoring their innings using Play-Cricket Scorer that I am still figuring out how to work around by changing my own code. I have not had time for any statistical notes other than the previously missing Crawley, or anything more detailed. The usual summarised details of the games can be found on the results page along with the detailed scorecards, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecards.

Tour starts today, although the weather is not looking great for this evening’s visit to Great Horwood, and for Darrell and I the games are actually quite a bit closer to home than our normal fixtures.

I was on holiday for a week prior to the Oxted visit and thus played no part in the game against Crawley and know nothing of it other than that the bar person in the Sports Club was unhelpful to say the least. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

PLEASE NOTE that Darrell has arranged a fixture for this coming Sunday, 2nd July, at Crawley Cricket Club. Full details on the fixtures page.

Also on the fixtures front the remaining two games have been arranged for the looming tour, and details of all three can also be found on the fixtures page along with a separate map for the key tour locations (the key locations being the four places listed on the left hand side – I have no control over the other icons that Google adds and which are almost certainly not useful).

After a two week hiatus without a game due to a shortage of players we successfully put together an eleven for the planned visit to Chipstead, Coulsdon and Walcountians who, as they had done last season, proved to be most hospitable hosts. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

PLEASE NOTE that for the second week running we have been unable to raise a side and thus will not be playing at Tatsfield tomorrow (Sunday June 18th). Sadly the 2023 Test Championship final did not provide the sparkling cricket or nail-biting ending anticipated last Sunday but let’s hope that the third day of the first Ashes Test does not equally disappoint!?

PLEASE NOTE that we have been unable to raise a side for this coming Sunday (11th June) and thus the intended game against Guildford Phoenix has had to be cancelled. Let’s hope that the final day of the 2023 Test Championship final is worth watching?!

A return to Hook & Southborough, who we played for the first time in 25 years at a similar point last season, and a pleasant afternoon against friendly opposition on possibly the slowest outfield I have witnessed in many a year, saw the Badgers notch up their fourth win in five games. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

Our annual visit to Woodmansterne with a Bank Holiday Monday at our backs saw the Badgers win comfortably enough on the field and by a country mile in the bar after the game. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

A return to Dormansland for the first time in four years – thanks to the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the weather in 2021 and their being unable to raise a team last season – and it was good to be back for the 61st contest between the two clubs. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

I cannot imagine for one minute that anyone cares, but the work on the 2013 historical data mentioned back on 23rd April has been completed and the page with the detailed scorecards for 2013 now has all of the games that were possible to recreate (we did not have scorebook images or a CricHQ record for either Roehampton or Leatherhead and the latter tell me that they have thrown away all of their scorebooks since uploading everything to Play-Cricket). On to back-filling 2012 then, but there are unlikely to be detailed scorecards added for that year, or for any earlier seasons, as we do not have the necessary information for most of the matches.

After a week’s hiatus caused by a waterlogged pitch stymieing our first ever trip to Long Ditton, we made our annual visit to Ham Common and managed to get our 2023 tally underway, helped somewhat by Ham being short-handed even with the addition of Matt Stokes to their number (thanks Matt, much appreciated). The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

The new season kicked off in the shadow of the North Downs in Kent, and for the second year running the weather was pleasant, rather than the more traditional bitter cold, for the opener against Beechwood. The usual summarised details of the game can be found on the results page along with a statistical notes only match report, the detailed scorecard, and the traditional Badgers’ focused scorecard.

Some of you may know this already but Bill, having lost access to the old one, has set up a new page on Facebook which is now also linked from the drop down menus on every page of this site. Have at it social media users.

Whilst almost all of it is automated these days the start of the new season brings a large number of changes to this site, most of them in the plumbing behind the scenes, and paradoxically that probably means that things do not get checked as thoroughly as they might in the past. Therefore if I have missed a mistake or other discrepancy that you spot, please shout.

The 2023 season is barely a week away and the Badger prepares to emerge from hibernation to take on a selection of opposition old and new in the ancient art of cricket. The site has lain untouched and unloved since just before the annual awards dinner and indeed pretty much all activity on the database also ceased during that period, but I am currently back nibbling away at the chore of updating historical data to fill-in missing details and one minor side-effect of that, probably of no interest to anyone else, is that some new detailed scorecards for 2013 are now available and I hope to complete all of them in order to flesh out the data for that season.

In getting caught up I have completed various bits of housekeeping such that you will find the trophy winners from last year have been added to the Honours Board cup winners page following the presentation of the awards at the dinner back in November and the club officers page and the associated Honours Board officers page have both been changed to reflect decisions taken at this year’s AGM.

Thanks to more great work by Darrell we also have a couple of new opponents on the fixture list for 2023, and the details can be found on the fixtures page as well as on our Play-Cricket site.

Chances are that the next update to the site will be after the first game of the season has been completed and thus I can roll the site over to the new season. Fingers crossed that that will indeed be the last Sunday in April thus giving me the Bank Holiday Monday to get everything sorted out.