Archer's Storyline

After a few months of hibernation I was intrigued to hear of Jofra Archer's new record. It set the mind running and prompted this little story.

Jofra set a new record for the IPL with the most runs conceded from his 4 overs - 76 runs at an average of 19 per over.

The following stats are looking just at the NPL figures over the last four years to reflect the introduction of the rule change that resrictricted the number of overs for each bowler to a maximum of 10.

The highest runs conceded was 89 from Dan Freeman - less than half the number of runs per over from Jofra.  Second in the table comes Tauseef Kataria with 79 runs.  Strikingly both of these came in the same game at Kimberley in 2023 when the home side accumulated 370 for 6 in their 50 overs.  This massive number of runs also set a record as the highest opposition score in the NPL.

75 runs have been scored against a bowler's 10 overs on three other occasions.  Two of the these were from Dan and Tauseef again with, surprisingly, the other player being Savin Perera.

Savin also appears on the contrasting stat of the lowest runs conceded from 10 overs.  Despite no wickets taken and only one maiden being bowled he only went for 16 runs at home against Radcliffe-on-Trent in 2021.

Next in the list are Lewis Caine and Dom Harvey with just 17 and 18 runs respectively.

On - Out - In - Out - Off

Just in case you're wondering, the title of this post reflects a bowler coming on to bowl, getting one out with their first ball, a new batter coming in, getting them out with the second ball and then coming off as a bowler (in more ways than one!)

Surprisingly to me there have been three instances where a bowler has taken two wickets from just two balls bowled.

The most recent instance was Sam Dickinson against Great Dalby in April 2022.  He concluded their innings with his 2 wickets with their score on 94 and the 4th XI went on to win by just 2 wickets.

Prior to that Arjun Sandhu took his 2 in 2 at Bramcote for the 3rd XI in 2015.  Bramcote were all out after Arjun's bowling for only 53 and lost by 157 runs.

The first instance recorded in Play-Cricket was by Rod Kitching for the 1st XI against Long Eaton in 1984.  Rod bought himself on to bowl with Long Eaton 6 wickets down after batting first and must have been very disappointed when they decided to declare before he could bowl his hat-trick ball.  Even more frustrating would have been the 1st XI's eventual loss by 5 runs.

I guess Sam and Arjun would also have liked the opposition to have had 12 players so they could have tried for a hat-trick.

There have also been 4 occasions where one of our bowlers has only bowled one ball and taken a wicket with it.  All four games resulted in a win for the Squirrels. 

• Martin Rayner for the Sunday 1sts in 2011 against PCCC.
• Matthew Ahluwalia for the 4th XI against Gedling & Sherwood in 2010.
• Peter Bateman for the 2nd XI against Wilsons in 2011.
• Sam Henson for the 4th XI against Shepshed Town in 2010.

The closest that a bowler has come to claiming 3 in 3 is Nick Gibson in 2016 against Collingham.  He took 3 wickets in as many as 6 balls in the 4th XI's 4 wicket win.

The 4th XI

I was so disappointed to see that the Club committee have decided to withdraw the 4th XI from the SNCL.  Over the years the team has given a great introduction for such a lot of junior players to senior, competitive cricket.  The senior players that have committed themselves so much and worked so hard to provide such a great environment for giving players the opportunity to see whether they want cricket to be a part of their future, deserve so much more than a medal.

Over the team's 16 year participation in the league there have been 228 games with 97 wins, 118 losses, 1 tied and 12 abandonments.  Carl Knight has played in 211 games, Andy Waddle 100, James Binnie 90, Sam Randall 81, Josh Knight 78 and Paul Hallam 77.

Highest & Lowest in the NPL

Thought I would have a look at the teams that I expect to be the highest and the lowest in the league for the 2025 season.

After a fair amount of time examining each team's situation I've come up with the following league table:

Kimberley

Clipstone

Papplewick & Linby

Hucknall

Welbeck

Notts & Arnold

Cuckney

Cavaliers

Wollaton

Plumtree

Attenborough

Collingham

It may be seen as quite surprising to see newly promoted Clipstone coming out just below Kimberley particularly in light of 2024 Division 2 champions Collingham being the lowest.

Kimberley of course could have had a little more advantage over the other teams if the deciding numbers hadn't been based on the square!

A Pretty Petty Part in the Performance

Ollie Pope must, in one way, have found the first test between England and Pakistan a disappointing game.  The positive aspect for him will have been seeing England secure the win.  The negative side will have been scoring a second ball duck as England reached their third highest ever total of 823 for 7 with Joe Root and Harry Brook scoring a double and triple century respectively.

There have been 6 games where Attenborough have scored over 300 runs and one of the batters have recorded a duck.

Pete Turner and Asantha de-Alwis had golden ducks in 1st XI games against Loughborough Carillion (a cup game) and Hoveringham in 2005 and 2013.  Both games saw us score 303 in securing wins.  Chris Allcoat also got a duck in the Hoveringham game although he did twice as well as Asantha in lasting two balls.

Chris Allcoat was on the other side of the equation in the 2014 1st XI game at Farndon.  He scored 104 out of the team's 304 while Allan Moss was the one with the duck.

The most recent instance was the 2021 2nd XI drawn game against Wollaton when Mason Tolley and Angad Singh both failed to score while Albert Gardiner hit 109 out of 309.

The earliest recorded instance was back in 2005 when Pete Turner was a long way from his golden duck mentioned earlier.  He was in for 25 balls before being dismissed while Sam Clulow hit 168 out of 311 in the drawn game against Ellerslie.

The highest team score with a duck recorded was 318 in the 1st XI's win against Gedling Colliery in 2016.  Ben and Pete Bhabra scored the majority of the runs with 142* and 93 whilst the player with the duck in this game was Neil Thurlow.

All that said - at times everyone's played a pretty part but it's the performance as a team that matters most.

Runs at Number 10

No this is certainly not the story of William Gladstone's record four runs at 10 Downing Street!

I overheard a bit of a conversation between a couple of mates the other day.  One asked "Who's the best cricketer in at ten bro?"  Now I obviously don't know why on earth they were concentrating on the number ten batter and also whether they were actually thinking about Attenborough cricketers.

Irrespective of the whys and wherefores, it prompted me to check on who has the best record when batting at 10 for our club.

The highest score in a single game goes to Sagar Jeram who managed an unbeaten 65 when playing for the 3rd XI against Southwell last year.

For the 2nd XI Martin Rayner holds the record with an unbeaten 41 against Southwell in 2019.

Martin also shares the record for the 1s.  He and Chris Sheehy have both scored 36.  Chris's was unbeaten against Ellerslie in 2011 and Martin's was scored against Carrington CC in 2013.

For the 4th XI Jago Barham-Morris hit an unbeaten 28 against Old Dalby in 2019.

When it comes to total runs scored, one player is streets ahead.  Martin Rayner has 676 with the highest for three of the teams - 1s is 343, 2s 196 and the 3s 137.

Charlie Simkiss is second overall with 210 scored across all teams and Arjun Sandhu comes in third with 168.

Top overall for just the 4th XI is Ben Goodlass with a total of 50.

Therefore the award for the best cricketer in at ten bro for Attenborough undoubtedly goes to Martin Rayner.

Who Has Scored the Most Runs

The following details are extracted from Play-Cricket so may not reflect the full picture.

76,322 is the number of runs scored over the course of their career thus far.  This gives an average of 322 from the 230 games spread across all the senior competitive teams.

Pretty impressive on the batting front but the bowling is even more remarkable.  3,166 wickets have been recorded - incredibly giving an average of 14 wickets per game.

Soz!