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!

 

The Season Summed Up With Stats

After looking at our four Saturday team's games in their respective leagues, the following stats jump out.

The total of our league positions for 2024 is 35, the same as our previous worst in 2011, although the 1st XI were only in the 10 team SNCL that year.

The 1st XI contributed a relatively small amount to the league position total.  In finishing top of the lower half of the Nottinghamshire Premier League (7th), they secured their highest ever position in league cricket.

Based on games that were not cancelled and excluding the 2020 covid affected season, we accumulated both the highest number of losses (49 or 71%) and the lowest number of wins (16 or 23%). 

Our best season was 2014 with 68.5% wins and 25.9% losses.  The previous highest losses was at 64.6% in 2011 and the lowest wins was 27.3% in 2017, although this was probably partly due to a somewhat higher number of abandoned games.

In terms of taking wickets, 2024 saw the lowest average ever at 6.2 per game, slightly down on the 6.4 wickets per game in 2021.  All of our teams took less than the average for each team over all the years where we've had four teams.  

Our best season for wicket taking was 2015 when it averaged 8.1 per game, significantly lead by the 3rd XI where the average was an incredible 9.1, with Pete Bateman and Arjun Sandhu taking the first and second most wickets.

As for scoring runs, we saw the lowest average runs per game since 2019 at 156, quite significantly lower than the previous three years which have all been above 170.

Excluding centuries from the Club's professionals over the years, 2024 was the first year that no centuries were scored.

Despite the frustration and disappointment that must have been felt by our players, hopefully all those that have contributed will still have enjoyed their cricket experiences in 2024.  My thanks to all.  

By its nature, the results and consequent league positions, are always cyclical and therefore, fingers-crossed, 2025 will see a movement in a positive direction for all the players, teams and our Club and the junior cricket and community that it so importantly supports.

2024 Honours Board

Here's a link to some stats for the 2024 season.  

There's also a link on the Play-Cricket website under the Records tab on the main menu.

There are separate pages for Honours, Top 10 for Saturday games and Performance Improvements.

Thanks and well done to all that have contributed to the Club this year. And chapeau to those that have also managed to record an improvement in any aspect of their game.