Brilliant/Hilarious Moments of 2013...

Some of our most brilliant or hilarious moments of the season...

Last game of the season, Fardell middled a pull and smacked square leg umpire McClarty on the arm - Mark didn't really apologise...

Verma’s incredible bowling debut  17-3, and a direct hit run out

Steve Morgan’s direct hit run out of Fardell. He got so excited, he tried it again and again and again for the rest of the game

Van Daal's magical over of bowling - he's definitely a specialist batsman

Tween's incredible single over bowled of the season. Words cannot do it justice

Jamy's batting and wicket keeping - very capable, but very unorthodox and great fun to watch

Jamy's sledging should get a special mention - hum baby, hum baby... get wicketed... you name it...

McClarty's incredible batting debut at the top of the order, hitting 2 6's in our first game

McClarty doing a top job, particularly down the legside, as stand-in wicket keeper for our last game

AVEVA tweaking their field every couple of balls in the late August light - resulting in them nearly playing in the dark when batting

AVEVA using 3 slips for most of their innings... #WTF?

Brett's ace batting, the 6 master. His straight off drive is worth the price of admission alone, and his little cameos and ability to skip down the track are great to watch

Willem almost taking a catch and then falling with a thuddering jolt to the earth

Broadbridge's multitude of great bowling spells, the pick being 26-3. He gives the ball more air than Tony Hawk, some generous turn, and suckers the batsmen in

Jeroen's boomstastic 46*, almost getting a 50 for the first time this year (which would have been our first 50 since 2011). He scored all round the ground, and also generally looked pleased as punch before during and after every shot. A man who always plays with a smile

Lait's scoring zone - deep backward square - which he used to get 16 runs from 4 balls against Bidwells with his £20 timber

Piers getting hit in the face whilst batting, being caught and dismissed off his face and Sophie's little "Oh no" reaction...

Justin Edwards finding his range with bat and ball all season - including some great bowling, ace batting and good fielding.

Lait's bowling was brilliant all season. When it works, as it did for the latter half of the season - it's difficult to face and difficult to score from. When it doesn't work, well, it's really entertaining. Left arm round the wicket fast bowler anyone?

Brett's bowling, once he upped the pace, was very devastating. I was facing him on the end of some decent chin music, and it's really quite terrifying

The S-Tech game, with our top ever score of 181 with a great all round effort

The spectators, include Sophie, Matthias, Laura, Laura's mates, Zoe, Andy Parker and his family - we've got a fan club

Piers has had a brilliant season bowling - he's our go to man for death bowling

Piers also deserves a special mention for a catch at short extra cover, the batsman absolutely hammered it low at Piers, amazing catch, batsman shook his head, and he almost cried at the pain. I recall Piers making a lot of catches

Jeroen and Willem's misfields. Other people did misfield - and I managed to forfeit a round of drinks in one game by misfielding - but no-one does it like these two saffers

Jeroen screaming "Yeah" before hitting a ball for 6. The bowler's face was a picture

Cooper's wicket tastic bowling - with lots of mega big turn. The dry pitches saw him get some incredible variation and change

Enzo's chicken skewers!

Willem chasing me round the field for accusing him of being unfit

McClarty's sledge about my mum

Lamble's sledge about me being a beached whale

The sixes tournament, on possibly the sunniest day ever

When Fardell struggled to get down to a ball that raced past him - McClarty piping in with "would you like some WD40?"...

McClarty's reactions to LBW decisions - incredulity doesn't do it justice

Jones' little 25 at the end of the season

Us using two bats, one "Boom Boom" that was £35 from Kashmir, and Simon using a £20 Sports Direct number. I'm not sure which was worse

Piers falling over lots during one batting session - clearly needs some new shoes

Steve Morgan and Willem giving us a defendable total against Sharks. It really was a top notch lower order partnership to get us over the line to something vaguely defendable

Simon Lait's nicknames - Milky au Lait, Full Fat, Milkybar Kid

Us getting a logo (Thanks Piers)!

Lait's cough/splutter/choke signal before delivering his patented slower ball

The shock on Willem's face when he caught one from Juzzy's bowling

2013 Season Stats

This is what cricket is all about.... stat attack...

We operate a mythical index system at Jagex that takes account of runs scored, innings, ducks, batting average, bowling average, wickets and overs - and pushes those stats through a complicated mathematical algorithm that affords them a weighting based on a formula derived from an ancient Mayan Calendar that didn't successfully predict the end of the world.

It was devised by Neil Tween, our former finance dude - and has been updated by his successor Richard Colledge. In honour of it's originator, it is known as the...

Tween Index

Tween Index 2013

1 - M Fardell – 381 points

2 – L Brett – 265 points

3 – J Van Daal – 264 points

4 – R Colledge – 245 points

5 – P Morgan – 238 points

6 – J Edwards – 195 points

7 – L Verma – 175 points

8 – N Cooper – 155 points

9 – S Lait – 149 points

10 – J Nigri – 111 points

11 – R Lamble & W Amoraal – 105 points

13 – P Broadbridge – 98 points

14 – N McClarty – 85 points

15 – S Morgan – 84 points

16 – K Jones – 78 points

17 – M Gibbins – 36 points

18 – D Wise – 0 points

19 – N Tween – (17) points

Most Runs – M Fardell
Best Batting Average – J Van Daal
Leading Wicket taker – N Cooper
Most Economical Bowler – L Verma

It's good to see Mr Tween propping up his own invention. The more traditional statistics are below.

Batting

Bowling

 

2013 Season - Win/Loss Summary

Jagex Jaguars just completed our most successful season to date, with an exact 50% win loss ratio. We played 10 evening games – with two cancelled. We won 5 and lost 5.

The closest games were NCI and Eversheds, both of which we narrowly lost. My personal favourite game was probably the Eversheds game, partially because of the tight nature of the contest and the great individual contributions from McClarty and Verma and the excellent spirit of the contest. Games against S-Tech are always good fun, and the contribution from so many different players in the Jagex ranks makes this my close second favourite of the season.

Won (last 5 games)

Jagex 137-3 (Brett 28*, Jones 25*, Fardell 24, Sprague 15-1) beat Mills & Reeve 116-8 (Lanceman 25*, Sprague 15*, Cooper 11-2, S Morgan 20-2) by 21 runs.

Jagex 136-8 (Fardell 33*, Nash 26*, Lamble 21, John T 21-3, James 25-3) beat AVEVA 114-9 (Alex 35*, Arvesh 18*, Brett 17-3, Cooper 14-2) by 22 runs

Jagex 146-6 (Van Daal 46*, Colledge 24, Fardell 32-2, Thimh 15-1) beat Ensors 108-5 (Douglas 26*, Chima 25*, Lait 18-2) by 38 runs

Jagex 115 - 2 (Colledge 28*, Van Daal 25*, Nigri 25*) beat PEM 111-5 (J Lee 30*, P Davda 27*, P Morgan 8-2) by 8 wickets

Jagex 181-3 (Colledge 33*, Edwards 30*, Fardell 30*, Nigri 25) beat S-Tech 147-7 (Jack 31*, Sam 30*, Broadbridge 26-3) by 34 runs

Lost (first 5 games)

Savills 135-1 (Simkins 27*, Bailey 25*, Lait 22-1) beat Jagex 134-6 (Fardell 40*, Van Daal 28*, Verma 26*, Bailey 27-2) by 9 wickets

Bidwells 137-2 (Moore 27*, A. Scott 25*, P Morgan 13-1) beat Jagex 136-8 (Van Daal 19, P Morgan 17*, Edwards 17, W. Scott 17-2) by 8 wickets

Sharks 119-4 (MVS 25*, Michael 25*, Jim 25*, Broadbridge 14-2) beat Jagex 116-9 (P Morgan 19, S Morgan 17, Jason 14-3) by 6 wickets

NCI (Kumar 23, Johnston 22, Edwards 18-2) 97 beat Jagex (Colledge 27*, P Morgan 21, Laskisingh 9-1) 84 by 13 runs

Eversheds 138 (Humphrey 44, McGlashan 26*, Verma 18-3) beat Jagex 125 (McClarty 28, Van Daal 22, New 19-3) by 13 runs

Jagex Break the Lawmakers

Jagex 137-3 (Brett 28*, Jones 25*, Fardell 24, Van Daal 17) beat Mills & Reeve 116-8 (Lanceman 25*, Sprague 15*, Cooper 11-2, S Morgan 20-2) by 21 runs 

Jagex ended the season with a win against the law firm Mills & Reeve in our last game of the season - allowing us to end on a high. The game was reduced to 16 overs a side in the failing light of the late August summer.

Jagex won the toss and elected to bat. Colledge was unfortunately taken ill, so Jones and Fardell opened the batting. The first over was, well, pretty exciting. Fardell, facing first, could have been out at least twice. He edged the first ball from the quicker-than-expected Lanceman to the keeper, but the keeper couldn't hold on. He played and missed the next 2 before one clipped him on the bat and pad, made it to the keeper and was also dropped. He then missed a ball that begged to be hit, high and wide outside off, before the last ball allowed a stolen single. What Jones at the other end will have made of the shambolic no footwork rubbish at the other end, goodness only knows - but he definitely didn't look happy to see the strike pinched by someone with a strike rate of 0 from 6 balls.

The second over saw some normality return to proceedings, with Fardell and Jones alternating scoring. Fardell slogged and Jones played straight to plunder some runs, helping to make up for the slow start. Unfortunately, when Fardell absolutely middled a pull, it hit the square leg umpire on the arm (poor Mr McClarty) to turn a 4 into a 1. Fardell was less than gracious in his non-apology, accusing the umpire of getting in the way in a very slothful manner.

Both Jones and Fardell struggled to deal with the opening bowler, who proved tricky to score from. Jones was looking in more solid form, playing with a straight bat and generally being quite considered in his choice of shots. Despite looking terrible, Fardell somehow contrived to secure 24 runs, using more lives than a lucky cat living on lucky street brandishing a rabbit's foot. He eventually fell LBW to a slow one that he just missed - although he'd missed a lot of balls when all was said and done. I actually think I was already out LBW previous ball, but the umpire (McClarty) was gracious enough to not give me out because, well, he had his only personal hawkeye?!

Van Daal strolled out to the crease to join Jones and some keen running helped the score-book tick along, and hit a few gutsy 4's in his favoured cow shaped zone. Jones retired on 25 with some decent shots and nice footwork helping propel the scoring along, including a lovely square pull, which included a nice roll of the wrists and a late re-adjustment to help the ball miss the umpire. A re-jig in the batting order meant that Amoraal was in for a little bit to afford us an all South African partnership. Willem couldn't quite find his range, and was LBW after a few play and misses. Mr Brett then strolled out to the crease, and did what he always does, studiously blocking his first ball before clumping anything hittable, including a lovely straight drive that was caressed back past the bowler; Mills & Reeve's best bowler on the night no less. Van Daal found a bit of range, but was bowled off his pads whilst statuesque. McClarty moved from umpire to player for a bit and helped keep Brett company. He scored a four in his favourite area, behind backward square, and ticked the scoreboard over.

Brett was, once more, in scintillating form with the bat, with immaculate timing and excellent shot selection. He even finished on a 4 to find himself on 28*, and was only saddened that he didn't managed his weekly 6. Piers Morgan sauntered out to face the final few balls, not wearing his bandana. Piers hasn't had the best season with the bat, and this is the same year where he has done away with his Bruce Springsteen inspired headgear. Coincidence? I think not. The Mills & Reeve captain had miscounted the overs, and found himself with an over to go and no bowlers left, so he brought himself on. Piers helped himself, with a couple of 4's with plenty of humpty, and a brief return to the Piers of old. Jagex finished with 137-3 from 16, which in truth we'd often be happy with from 20 overs.

McClarty volunteered to take wicket keeping duties this week in the absence of the All American Hero, Jamy Nigri. Neil put in quite a turn behind the stumps as well - and introduced some genuine cricketing banter. Jagex opened the bowling with Steve Morgan. His first ball was a bit loose, and was late cut for 4. His second ball was a little short, but the batsman managed to gently pick out the short backward square fielder with ease. Brett, not to be outdone, continued his medium fast bowling, and bowled the M&R Captain off his bat with a great fast-ish ball. Steve responded to his bowling partner next over by bowling a peach at the stumps to splatter them. In an economic spell he returned 2-20 from 3 action packed overs. Brett conceded only 9 runs in his 2 over spell, and accounted for one key wicket. A great opening pair.

Mills & Reeve's best batsman on the night, Lanceman, buckled down when wickets around him fell, and proceeded to anchor the chase effectively, pulling together a partnership in the middle overs. His partner eventually fell to the re-juvenated Nick Cooper, caught and bowled. Nick followed this up with a next ball wicket, pitching it up to see an easy catch presented to Fardell. Piers and Willem tied things down for a while, with a large number of low-scoring overs played and M&R well behind the rate. Lanceman eventually retired, having tried to control the chase at a measured pace whilst providing some stability in the middle order.

Piers got the wicket his verve deserved, clean bowling a lower order chap. Neil "Club Man" McClarty was doing an ace job behind the stumps, including stopping some of the leg-side stuff diving at full stretch. Joseph Hart would have been proud, and he finished having only conceded 3 byes. Mills & Reeve were a little short on players, so we invited a couple of theirs back in and offered them Steve Morgan (who didn't get a bat). Amoraal accounted for one of theirs, caught and bowled. Steve hit a lusty 4 behind square, and Fardell quickly regretted offering him as a substitute. By this point the game was all but won, and Jagex did something special: we brought on Van Daal to bowl. Wide, wide (4), wide, dot, 2, dot. Both of the dots were probably wides as well. We've had some very special overs this season, McClarty, Tween: but this was up there.

Fardell then came on for the last over of the season, trying to bowl medium pace. He bowled a couple of dots, before Steve Morgan took him on and steepled the ball high into the air. The last batsman finished with a couple of 4's, to leave Mills & Reeve respectably short in the chase.

That’s it, season over, and only the curry to look forward to before winter sets in and it enters the cold, dark and depressing time of year - which is otherwise known as the football season.

In picking back over the annals of Jagex cricketing history, one interesting thing does stick out that has been interrupted by this game. Until this week, we had a total of 4 LBWs across 3 seasons, all picked up by Mr McClarty. He is now joined in the lonely Shane Watson club by Fardell and Amoraal.

Jagex Win Twilight Test

Jagex 136-8 (Fardell 33*, Nash 26*, Lamble 21, John T 21-3, James 25-3) beat AVEVA 114-9 (Alex 35*, Arvesh 18*, Brett 17-3, Cooper 14-2) by 22 runs

Jagex kept up the four game winning streak with a clean win against AVEVA in the failing light of an August evening. Justin "Juzzy" Edwards was slightly injured, so we had a late call up in the form of Andy Nash, who kindly agreed late in the day to keep for us. The teams agreed 15, 8 balls over this week, to help with the failing light.

Jagex won the toss and decided to bat first, with the tried and testing Fardell/Colledge partnership taking up where they had left off the previous week. The pitch was very green and moist and the opening AVEVA bowlers got appreciable movement in the air, and to a greater extent off the deck, making batting a difficult prospect.

This week it was Fardell's turn to score early. He was greeted to the crease by 3 slips, a first, a second and a fly. Not typical for amateur evening 20/20 cricket. He still contrived to score his first runs wide of the slips, guiding/slashing safely wide of fly slip in uncultured fashion. Colledge was trying to play some orthodox straight batted stuff, but was finding it difficult against the significant lateral movement of the ball from both ends. Fardell pootled along for a bit, and Richard was bowled, scoreless, by something of a moving in-ducker which he backed away from.

Van Daal, the hero strolled out to take his place. I had a quick chat with him, and told him not to swipe at it, or back away to leg. He then had a wild swipe, backed away to leg, and was bowled leg stump. He didn't look massively happy. Andy Nash then strolled out to face the hat-trick ball with the field in close. He defended a few to prevent the continuing tumble of wickets and generally looked nuggety and solid throughout. 

AVEVA were never really happy with their field settings, and spent long periods of the evening tweaking positions between balls. Whilst this is entirely their right, as they were batting second on a mid-August evening, it was probably not the best idea. I do remember waiting for a full on 3-4 minutes mid way between deliveries, mid-over, for some very subtle field adjustment.

The slips had retreated, before Fardell was beaten all ends up by a outswinger - bringing the call of "put the slips back in" from the wicketkeeper. Fardell responded by bludgeoning two fours straight back past the bowler, hammering a couple of singles, and then walloping a four past square leg to get back to the hutch in double quick time, retired on 25.

McClarty kept Andy company for a while in the middle, hitting a lovely pull shot behind square, with consumate ease and control and a nice roll of the wrists. The bowling was still proving very challenging, but Andy Nash managed to score a little to 3rd man and behind square to keep the scoreboard ticking over. McClarty perished going big, trying to hit past the bowler, he was a little early through the shot and hit high for an easy catch.

Brett joined Nash, our anchor for the innings, and he played out a few dots to get a handle on the prodigious swing. With his eye firmly in, he then clipped a Pietersen-esque four through midwicket, followed by two more down the ground. He hit a magnificent pull as well in quick order, clearly in a hurry, but it was pulled back on the boundary by some nimble-footed fielding, and he had only run 2, so certain had he been that it was going the full distance. This was part one of his battle with one of the top two AVEVA bowlers. Part two involved a well disguised slowed ball that trashed his stumps.

P Morgan strolled out for a bit, and hit a gentle two behind 3rd man. He wasn't his usual big hitting self, but kept the scoreboard ticking over. Andy Nash then retired on 26, bringing Lamble to the crease, following a cheeky warm-up fag behind the bike sheds. Piers then tried to pull out of a shot, sort of, but in doing so he offered the easiest of catches to short midwicket, departing earlier than expected. Lait then joined Lamble, and hit his first ball to the backward square boundary using a wonderful wallop/shovel action that finished over his shoulder. Tiger Woods would be proud of the follow-through and backspin.

Lamble and Lait pushed on for a while, before Lait ran himself out in spectacular fashion, calling for two and jogging through when he had no hope of making it. Steve Morgan joined Ralph for a bit, before he was bowled by a full yorker whilst deep in his crease. He's still avoided any ducks so far this season, so that's something. Cooper wandered out absent mindedly at 11 and was bowled first ball by another full one, bringing Fardell back to the crease. 

At the end of the 13th over, Jagex were sat on 109-7, which looked at least 20 runs short of par. Lamble and Fardell contrived to put a decent total on the board. Fardell hit a couple, but Bam Bam's big hitting award goes to Lamble for single handedly plundered 17 from the first 7 balls of the last over, before being bowled with the last ball of the innings. 136-8 felt about right in the failing light with the incredible swing.

Jagex had one heck of a bowling attack this evening and opened with Simon Milky Au Lait and Liam Brett in failing light. The AVEVA opener managed to get some profit from Simon, but he was still bowling tight lines. Brett's first over was, well, action packed. He started with a half track pie that the AVEVA batsman whacked behind square. Fardell was a little slow in his movement, prompting McClarty to asked if he needed some WD40. I've always thought of myself as more a Tony Stark Iron Man than a Wizard of Oz Tin Man, but clearly Neil sees it differently! Top sledging.

Brett's second ball was a juicy full toss, and was also dispatched, and his 3rd was also wayward. He then started to find some decent lines and recovered by the end of his over. Lait started his second with a lovely full yorker that moved and splayed the stumps and went on to bowl a tight second and third to add economy to his venom and wicket. Brett, not to be outdone, clean bowled two of the other batsmen, one a full toss that hit high up the stumps (who needs the pitch), and another involving a bit more of the track. He then tied a batsman down, the man who had bowled him, for a few balls. Having wasted the strike a bit, the batsman got impatient and went big, but only found S Morgan at long on, who had an age to judge the chance, and snaffled it cleanly, sending Brett off with 3 wickets.

There was also some cracking fielding in packs, when Piers and Cooper chased one down together, Piers sliding and popping it up to Coops, who threw with pinpoint accuracy to the keeper. Andy Nash was having a great game early on behind the stumps, stopping everything wayward or wide. One of the AVEVA umpires didn't really seem to get the rules of cricket

Steve Morgan came in and bowled some lovely lines, and was difficult to score from. He also clean bowled someone in the failing light, a full length delivery with a bit of spite thrown in for good measure. Cooper was the second change. He started with an absolute turd of a half track pie, except that he got a wicket, because the batsman gently tipped it to backward square, picking me out perfectly. Cooper carried on handing out pressies for his first over, before recovering in his second, and clean bowling one chap with a full pitched delivery. At this stage they were dropping like flies, and no partnerships had formed.

Lamble and P Morgan came in for a spell, and both gave Andy Nash some tough wide legside stuff to deal with, although he coped commendably, diving around like Wonderwoman™ to stop the extras. P Morgan eventually bowled one with another full delivery, and was the most economical bowler on the evening. Ralph was less so, but still wasn't too expensive in the context of the match.

Then the AVEVA number 11 strolled in. What he was doing at 11 goodness only knows, since he hit two consecutive fours from his first two balls, decent shots as well, before playing a late cut to third man 3rd ball. He wanted 2 runs, but his partner didn't and a truly catastrophic run out ensued. It was a real shame as he looked in lovely touch right from the off. At this point, AVEVA were miles behind and their last chance had probably gone - although their top scorer on the evening was back in.

Jeroen got in on the action a bit, chasing down some balls and showing off his throwing prowess and finely sculpted arms. No mis-fields this week. Colledge then decided that McClarty should have the last over. It was pretty special, similar to Neil Tween's one and only over this season. We don't normally bowl extra balls (2 runs are added with no re-bowl), but the scorebook reads 11 balls bowled, 5 wides, and 18 runs conceded. We decided to try and end the match on a legitimate delivery, it took 3 attempts, and the batsman then hit a switch hit behind backward point to finish on 35*. The light at the end was fairly abysmal, perhaps showing that winning the toss was key to the game.

9 games played, 5 lost, 4 won, our last four in fact. Last game of season next week, and a chance to get a 50/50 win loss ratio. I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it.

Sharks v Jagex - GAME CANCELLED

Sadly another one was lost to the rain...

Still, the good news is that Jagex is still technically on its winning streak. And England has retained the Ashes, mainly as a result of the British summer weather.

Pub anyone?

What's the Different Between Cricket and Basball...?

A helpful guide to the small differences between the two... 

http://www.quora.com/Sports/Whats-the-difference-between-baseball-and-cricket#ans2869605