Where on earth did that week go then? With a rest day tomorrow we are at the end of week 16 and there are only five more weeks to go. It's not all been bad, of course. England have just won back the Ashes and the images of Freddie throwing down the stumps in front of Ricky will live long in the mind. However, in terms of this challenge, the last week has been something of a disaster.

It started with the realisation that three of my players had only two Pro40 matches to play, then Kent announced that many of the first team would be rested for these matches which left only Tredwell to pick up points. I needed to bring back Danish, so had to look elsewhere to free up some funds. Although Keiswetter had been the best performing keeper throughout the season, that position is traditionally a weak one, so I decided to look at the one rated alternatives. Two stood out; Bragg at Glamorgan and New at Leicestershire. Bragg seems to be an ever present these days, but his drawback (apart from playing for Glamorgan) is that he isn't actually keeping. New meanwhile has been given the gloves for the remainder of the season, and that tipped the balance in his favour. It started ok with 40 points for New and a disappointing 6 for Tredwell. Kent won the match though, so it wasn't all bad.

Then came the start of the real week, and the real disasters. I was otherwise occupied leading up to 11am on Wednesday so I didn't manage to get Kaneria in in time. He was always going to play, so why hadn't I just transfered him in instead of Cook the day before? Of course Essex bowled first and Danish took a couple of wickets, plus New undid most of his good work the day before with a duck. I've noticed that I had quite a few captain changes left, so needed to start using them in an effort to gain an advantage. The weather forecast for Thursday suggested little play at Taunton so the armband was switched to Danish. The reality was a curtailed day in Essex while Trescothick prospered in the West. And to make matters worse New succeeded in clocking up a pair. Friday came along and I switched it back. The weather did the opposite and I missed loads of Danish points while Tres got himself out. Arghh! At least Schofield enjoyed himself in Essex, though with the bat rather than the ball. I left well alone on Saturday and by the end had amassed a measley 928 points. Although I'd lost the lead during the week (to Red Eleven who had been 35th at the split), somehow I'd managed to get it back with Saturday's play.

Sunday lunchtime and it was time to change again. Sussex have no cricket for a few days and Yardy has been disappointing anyway, so out he went in favour of Ervine. Durham was always likely to suffer worst from the weather that afternoon and so it transpired, but he did manage a few points. Meanwhile the captaincy was handed back to Danish as none of my batsmen would appear today. I'm hoping Essex bowl first next week to make the most of it. With only four men playing I added another 162 points which takes me up to 1090 for the week. The green numbers in the table show the points scored on the latest day's play.


As we approach the business end of the campaign I'm going to try and make the updates more frequent, at least every other day that cricket is played. Until next time ...