Where Will I Pitch Up Next?

 

England Cricketers 2009 at Sydney
Image by NAPARAZZI from Wikimedia Commons
CCA-SA 2.0

I find myself again with nine matches at unvisited Step 4 grounds to choose from this Saturday, 28 August.

This week’s randomish decision-making will be in two stages, making use of the fact that 3x3=9. It won’t be truly random in the strict mathematical sense of the word because the outcomes aren’t equally likely, but I have no idea what will happen, which is good enough. Neither will anyone else to be fair, because these days there seems to be more interest in reading the Magna Carta than this blog, but I digress.

STAGE ONE

On Wednesday 25 August, there are a number of teams playing women’s cricket for the Charlotte Edwards Cup. They will unwittingly make the decision for me because three of those teams can be loosely geographically connected to my options. We’ll choose the BEST BOWLING FIGURES obtained by any one of the team’s players as the “winning” point of detail on the day.

So, if the best bowling figures on the day are from the South East Stars (who take on Lightning at Guildford) then I will go to one of Basingstoke Town, Corinthian or Lancing. Tash Farrant or Freya Davies might be the bowlers to send me in that direction.

Meanwhile, the Northern Diamonds take on the Sunrisers, in Garforth, which is in the north-east. So if the best bowling figures are delivered by a Diamonds bowler, then it is only right and proper that I should head in that general direction, to one of Liversedge, Yorkshire Amateur or Stockton Town. Names that could feature here include Nat Sciver, Beth Langston or Katie Levick.

The last group is slightly more contrived, but Widnes, Glossop North End and Barnstaple Town are either in the West or play in a league with the word West as part of its name. So there is some logic in attaching them to Western Storm, who take on Thunder at Cardiff. Anya Shrubsole and Fi Morris are among those who might perform well with the ball for them.

Small print: it can be any bowler, not necessarily one of those named here, but she must be from the nominated side rather than the opponents. In the unlikely event of two players on different teams having identical best figures, then the tie-break is the analysis of the second-best bowler on that same side. Best figures are decided in the traditional cricketing way with wickets being higher priority, so 3 wickets for 20 runs is deemed better than 2 for 10, irrespective of any other consideration.

These are T20 games starting at 2.30pm, so by the early evening my list of nine football venues should be reduced to three, ready for some other randomish events to take over. Watch this space. It might be related to the evening's football, or it might involve the casual toss of a Toblerone box. Such excitement and suspense. Thank you for your interest (both of you).

UPDATE 1: What Happened in Stage One?

Western Storm were the only team of the three to bowl first. Thunder struggled from the start, and leg spinner Nicole Harvey took 3 for 13 off 4 overs, whilst not conceding a boundary. Those are good figures for a T20 innings.

As SE Stars and Northern Diamonds started bowling in their respective replies, Stars' Tash Farrant took a wicket with the fourth ball of her first over. However, this was soon overtaken by Beth Langston of Diamonds, who struck with her fifth and sixth deliveries. However, she also conceded boundaries and interim figures of 2-0-16-2 meant that she could only now overtake Nicole Harvey by getting at least two more wickets.

Several other bowlers took an early first wicket in their spells: Alice Capsey and Bryony Smith for Stars, and Katie Levick for Diamonds. Alex MacDonald took two wickets in the second half of her spell for Diamonds to finish on 4-0-11-2. Kalea Moore had 1-7 from two overs as Stars suffocated Lightning, and really it looked like only a late flurry for someone as Lightning got desperate will beat the earlier performance.

Meanwhile, for the record, Western Storm were strolling to a seven-wicket win at Cardiff which has no further impact on my decision-making. It all came down to the final overs of the day at Garforth and Guildford. Hollie Armitage also took two quick wickets for Diamonds and finished with 4-0-18-2. Really only Beth Langston, or something exceptional from Katie Levick could displace me from a western journey of some description. However, there were not enough overs left. At Guildford, Tash Farrant and Bryony Smith also ended up with two wickets. As it happens, my three selected teams all won today. The key point is that, thanks to Nicole Harvey and 4-0-13-3, I now need a way to decide between Widnes, Glossop North End, and Barnstaple Town for a Saturday hop.

UPDATE 2 : STAGE TWO

There are THREE Champions League Playoffs this evening. In order of distance from Chateau Yapp they are at Brøndby in Denmark, Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia and Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine. These can therefore be linked randomishly to Glossop (169mi), Widnes (177mi) and Barnstaple (221mi). I will use the same "last-goal scored" method as last week (see here for details and small print) to have the decision made for me. Basically, whichever of these matches supplies the latest goal (as measured by the timekeepers for that particular game) makes my decision. It's randomish, but good enough.

UPDATE 3 : What happened in Stage Two?

RB Salzburg scored two very early goals at Brøndby, and then Monaco scored in Donetsk. That was the game that was level on aggregate at that moment and so something would have to give. I realised at this point that I needed to tweak the "small print" a bit. For my purposes, extra time goals would count but penalty shootouts will not. Monaco added a second goal to break the deadlock, and as things stood at half-time, I would therefore be headed to Barnstaple Town.

A goal in Denmark just after the hour turned my attention back to the north-west and Glossop North End. Then, with 15 minutes or so left to play, Marlos, one of Shaktar's Brazilians, pulled one back for them and bringing Barnstaple back into play. That goal took their tie to extra time, but with nothing else happening elsewhere, that's the decision made no matter what happens now. Barnstaple Town v Melksham Town on Saturday. Thanks, as ever, for humouring me.