Glamorgan Huge Challenge Ahead.........?

[sammy22]

Fianlly i've decided upon Glamorgan since they are apparantly the worst side in the game along with Derbyshire.

It's certainly going to be an interesting season, although on examing the squad I do at least have a couple of decent overseas batsmen. However other than opening batsmen there are no batsmen in the squad who have even played a game at county level, so it could be a tough season ahead with much depending on the overseas openers Elliot and Ganguly.

If they fail so do I it would seem although I am delighted to get the opportunity to work with Matt Maynard.

Bowling wise it could be a long season, not a single player with a bowling average of under 30, and even former england international spinner Robert Croft has an everage of 35+

Therefore it was important to make a couple of early moves in the transfer market and I brought in a youngster called marshall who hopfully will become a decent bowler, the plan is to put him straight into the side.

I also had 30,000 left spare and so decided even though he isn;t a great prospect to being in an extra batsmen called goddard on a 1 year contract. He may get a chance due to the shortage of quality in the side, and will probably go straight into the team.

I have no idea how I will do this season, I do know that players managing Derbyshire a similar team in quality have struggled to win many games all season and finished bottom of the tables. Therefore realistic targets will be to avoid bottom place in all leagues and maybe get through a couple of rounds in the cup, and the first phase of the 20/20.

A long hard season is ahead, but I am confident I might surprise a few teams along the way

 

[sammy22]

The opening side, as you can see not many batsmen who aren;t openers

The only difficult decision was whether to give new youngster Goddard a debut, but in the end i;ve gone for Thomas instead. However I expect Goddard to emerge at some stage.

 

[sammy22]

First game..........................and a win

Thomas who I didn;t nearly play scoring a brilliant 100. Bowling wise Harrision was the star and took 13 wickets in the match. I hadn;t heard of him before

Wobbled a bit chasing a low total, and found it more difficult bowling them out the 2nd time but a magnificent start.

I sense that I have a pretty decent first 11, but if and when players get injured along with international call ups I could be in trouble. I also don't have any physio points at all, as I choice to sign goddard instead

Still a great start having expected to get a hiding in most games this season I still can;t beleive i;ve won

 

[sammy22]

1 day win against Lancs. For my money the best team in the game and i beat them. Still early days yet.

 

[sammy22]

Another 1 day win, against another side who I expect will be challenging to win it Essex. Ganguly controlled things when setting a decent target, and although Essex started well Harrison and Thomas turned things around. Thomas was excellent taking 5 wickets for just 18 runs.

It's turning into the Harrison and Thomas show, although Simon Jones the 1 bowler who I had expected to be quite good has made a poor start. Another decent knock from Thomas(batsmen) cements his place in the side.

 

[Kweek]

right mate..time to learn to use MSPAINT. as getting images in word is very annoying!

 

[sammy22]

At least I was top at one stage in the season

 

[sammy22]

Agreed Kweek, however for attachments to be included they have to be under 1mb and all the images posted into paint are around 1.37mb.

 

[sammy22]

a

 

[Jamee999]

JPEG save not Bitmap.

 

[sammy22]

Thanks, but how do I save it as a jpeg as i don't get given that choice in the selection process just a load of bitmap and graphic options.?

I'll delay sending any more screenshots until I figure out how to do it properly, as it has been pointed out how irritating they are in word format.

county champ - drew with surrey

 

[chooka_nick]

Good story Sammy just get Paint under your belt and you'll be fine.

 

[sammy22]

beat suffolk

 

[sammy22]

Had to add a few games after they had been played which is why they are copied from the fixtures but as you can see Glouc were beaten bowled them out cheaply twice and batted well.

 

[sammy22]

Was struggling in this game looked like i was in trouble until the Thomas and davies put on over 100 for the last wicket. A great win.

 

[sammy22]

Defeat to Essex disasterous start was 34/3 but Maynard and Thomas came in and played some great stuff. Sadly it was perhaps 15 runs short of what I had hoped for and although the target was defendable once again I couldn't get out the Flowers

Dissapointing defeat.

 

[sammy22]

Clearly this won;t last but Harrison has been excellent with the bat, despite coming in at number 10 etc to start with and previously only averaged 10. He has been in great form with the bat, ironically whilst his form with the ball has dipped slightly.

So far Ganguly and Elliot have been the most effective with the bat, particuarly Ganguly, although his average of 29 compared to Elliiots 80 dosen;t seem to reflect this. Maynard has been hit and miss (sometimes literally) and Powell has not played well at all despite batting at number 3.

Ian Thomas has been excellent though averaging 45 despite nearly being a reserve for the start of the season Croft has been useful and as you can see I might change the batting order around a bit as some tailenders like Davies batting at 11 are averaging 37

However I don't want to mess around too much as I am pleased with the line up, which has seen me put on around 100 for the 9th and 10th wicket on more than 1 occasion.

 

[sammy22]

and the 1st class bowling averages so far.

Sort it out Robert Croft

 

[sammy22]

As you'd expect beat scotland batted well, Ganguly again excellent. Probably could have scored runs faster, but I don't like to mess about in important games for the sake of a few runs when I know i've got a decent total already.

Bowled quite badly but in the end got the job done, with Marshall finishing them off with 4 wickets.

 

[sammy22]

A display which perhaps suggests we are better than I anticipated. I felt avoiding finishing bottom of both tables which be a good season, yet now i'm hoping for a top 5 finish in both.

Batted very well, Harrison made 84 not out, batting at number 9.

We probably weren't as close to winning this game as it appears, as although we only needed to take another 2 wickets to win we were always up against time. A glut of late wickets game hope but it wasn;t to be.

Elliot given man of the match for a magnificent 172, although Harrison can count himself unlucky not to be given the award having taken 6 wickets in the match and made 84 not out.