TFF Transfer Deadlines: Wed 08-02-2012 at 19:45,
Sat 11-02-2012 at 12:45, Sun 12-02-2012 at 13:30.
August 10, 2009
Diary of a TFC Century League Challenge 2
So the leagues of 200 are split at the end of week 10 and Bramernic's Spitfires is placed at 16th in division 2, 190 behind the leader. This isn't a bad position and with plenty of changes left I'm feeling quietly confident. It remains to be seen just how many of the other 99 teams will be "going for it". However, before we can get going there is the small matter of replacements for Kaneria and Hockley. Murtagh has recovered so he takes back his bowling spot, while Ali Brown comes in to boost the batting lineup. Week 11 is poor in that only 818 points are scored, but I still manage to climb a few places. In the championship match at the beginning of week 12 Walker finally gets me a century, but it's his last appearance for over a week so out he goes, along with Masters who has served me quite well. Captain Trott has a brilliant match and is largely responsible for getting me to the top of the table by the weekend. My patience with Hall finally snapped on the morning of the Friends Provident final and Yardy takes his place. Monday sees the start of the Twenty20 Quarter finals, so replacing the Essex boys are Key and Cook. The latter is a mistake really - it should have been Tredwell, I still don't know why it wasn't Tredwell, I could afford Tredwell, oh well. Unfortunately there was worse to come. While concentrating on bringing in the Kent boys I completely forgot that Warks were playing that evening so the armband was ripped off Trott and given to Key. Despite these errors the team scored 1365 points in week 12 and remained on top, just. The top 10 teams were:
The numbers in red itallics indicate the starting position at the beginning of week 11.
Week 13 was another disappointing one with only 897 points. No changes were made, largely thanks to the awful weather that eventually claimed the loss of one of the quarter finals. Roadblock Hijack took over the lead by just 8 points. However, one particular player had definitely stuck his hand up and said "pick me". My first thought was, no, you've just scored 274 runs so you won't get anything decent again for a while. Then Peters manages to get a duck in the few overs possible of the first Pro40 match of week 14. Sensing the need for some more flexibility I replaced him with Compton. Then came the carnage at Canterbury at the start of week 14, along with the news that Trott had been called up for England. Rain had washed out the first day of Somerset's game at Edgbaston and Surrey were starting a day later anyway with both sides batting first. I didn't want to drop Key with Twenty20 Finals day just around the corner, but the captaincy was too risky (as indeed it proved the next day). So out went Trott and Botha with a formation change bringing in Ramprakash and Trescothick, the latter getting the armband back in the nick of time. The result was 1383 points and a top ten looking like this:
This is not going to be an easy task. The initial two leading teams seem to have woken up again while the emergence of another team from below 30th at the start shows there are more people going for it than I first thought.
| Bramernic Spitfires | 16 | 11593 |
| Roadblock Hijack | 7 | 11569 |
| Highway CC | 12 | 11514 |
| The Big Hiiters | 14 | 11488 |
| myhatthatwasnaughty | 19 | 11001 |
| Golden Duck XI | 8 | 10938 |
| Jones Boys Two | 4 | 10888 |
| Sam Pountneys team | 33 | 10864 |
| SpeakamanSuperHawks | 18 | 10845 |
| SJ1 | 24 | 10824 |
The numbers in red itallics indicate the starting position at the beginning of week 11.
Week 13 was another disappointing one with only 897 points. No changes were made, largely thanks to the awful weather that eventually claimed the loss of one of the quarter finals. Roadblock Hijack took over the lead by just 8 points. However, one particular player had definitely stuck his hand up and said "pick me". My first thought was, no, you've just scored 274 runs so you won't get anything decent again for a while. Then Peters manages to get a duck in the few overs possible of the first Pro40 match of week 14. Sensing the need for some more flexibility I replaced him with Compton. Then came the carnage at Canterbury at the start of week 14, along with the news that Trott had been called up for England. Rain had washed out the first day of Somerset's game at Edgbaston and Surrey were starting a day later anyway with both sides batting first. I didn't want to drop Key with Twenty20 Finals day just around the corner, but the captaincy was too risky (as indeed it proved the next day). So out went Trott and Botha with a formation change bringing in Ramprakash and Trescothick, the latter getting the armband back in the nick of time. The result was 1383 points and a top ten looking like this:
| Bramernic Spitfires | 16 | 13873 |
| The Big Hiiters | 14 | 13659 |
| Roadblock Hijack | 7 | 13575 |
| Highway CC | 12 | 13479 |
| Outside Edge | 1 | 13474 |
| Red Eleven | 35 | 13415 |
| myhatthatwasnaughty | 19 | 13379 |
| KPs Love Child | 11 | 13299 |
| All Out Winners | 2 | 13195 |
| Sam Pountneys team | 33 | 13150 |
This is not going to be an easy task. The initial two leading teams seem to have woken up again while the emergence of another team from below 30th at the start shows there are more people going for it than I first thought.
