Mixed bag this week with two wins from the four league teams but there was a very welcome bonus victory from the 5XI although sadly the scores in that game do not count towards player points. So, standby for a quick review, followed by some fun facts and figures to keep you going until the teams for this upcoming weekend’s games are released. We have the small matter of the clubs most historic match on Thursday as the 1XI take on the MCC – just to make it clear and I will say this only once, points scored in this match also do NOT count towards your team total.
The 1XI came second to fellow promoted team, Bentley, with only Tom Willats and Jack Scutt making it into double figures. It’s been a tough opening, but they will bounce back.
The 2XI just couldn’t get over the line at home to Wickford losing in the 43rd over. Despite a magnificent ton from skipper Michael Gray with great support from Dave De Jong they probably ended up 20 runs short of where they wanted to be. Harry Robinson was the pick of the bowlers, taking the first three wickets in the reply.
It was third time lucky for the 3XI as they finally managed to get a win on the board. It was great to see Jack Carter back in the whites and scoring a half century. With a fifty from William Pearn and another good innings from Freddie Robinson, a good total was posted. The bowlers shared the wickets amongst themselves and eventually got the team to a 15-run victory.
It was also another win for the 4XI, Ian Rudder starring with the bat with a fine fifty. He was backed up by good scores from Deepak Kumar and George Church. The bowlers then did their job with 2 a piece for Sam Stannard, James McCartney and Nick Sharp.
In the fantasy league standings, the player of the week was Michael Gray who, following his century scored an incredible 232 points, if you had Michael as captain, didn’t you do well as the great Brucie would say (one for the older generation that!). One person who did use his captain pick well was Michael giving him a week total of 842 points meaning he becomes the first player to win the Player of the Week and Manager of the Week double, well played Sir.
In the league standings Dan Copp retains his place at the top with 1,931. A small gap is starting to open with 102 to second in Kya Ladd, and then a further 109 to third in Tharun Shanmuganand, but there is still a long way to go, keep the faith.
Just a few other facts and stats, as I know you love a fun fact.
· The top point scorer after week 3 is Freddie Robinson who has 307 points
· 82% or 32 of the 39 teams have Freddie in their teams.
· Sam Stannard is now the only player to be in all 3 teams of the week
· 39 teams have now joined the league – payouts remain unchanged
That’s in then. There’s a lot going on this week – enjoy the game against the MCC on Thursday and if you can, please come along to the Community Tea – there will be a lot of cakes on display. I’ll be back on Friday to hinder you some more. Don’t forget whoever is top of the league at the end of this weekend will be the May manager of the month – get thinking about your picks now.
