Week 21 Day 2
I'm rapidly running out of days! Rudolph finished off the Hampshire innings by catching the last man and then scored a useful 68 before getting out. Shahzad and Kaneria both took 3 wickets, the latter as a hat-trick but everyone has him, while New resisted the Northants attack while all around him failed and ran out of partners on 46. Elsewhere there were odds and ends making a total for the day of 406. Not bad, but again it turned out to be not enough. GFM updated early again (which is great, even if the news isn't what I wanted to see) and this is the top 3:

Team	Start	Thu	Total
Outside Edge	1	499	22836
Bramernic Spitfires	16	406	22485
GOLD 1	3	514	22469

I still have a captain change or two up my sleeve, although it's difficult to know who to trust it with. I would give it to Key but he hasn't played a Pro40 match for ages and I definitely need the captain to play on Sunday. Croft and Blackwell could both miss out on their current innings if their captains decide to declare. I think I need to sleep on this one.

Week 21 Day 1
The week of reckoning. 1015am and only one match has confirmed team news. I could put Mitchell in my side, but surely his near triple century last week was a one-off given his mediocre performances in the rest of the season. Andrew is also on my radar for the bowling place. Slowly the other teams start to get confirmed, yet nothing from Old Trafford or Trent Bridge. Bell and Trott are both contenders to fill the slot vacated by Compton, but are they playing? Teams are in from Headingly and Wainright is playing, but again, was last week a flash in the pan? I have 12 rating points available as Murtagh was the only 9 rated bowler, but it somehow seems wrong to maybe only use 5 or 6 of them, yet looking at the form over the last 4 weeks that seems to be the way to go. With about 30 seconds to spare I finally opt for Rogers (who has always done me proud in past seasons but somehow never quite made it before now) and Shahzad. The final dilemma: Yorkshire are fielding so should I switch captain? Rudolph doesn't seem to like early starts, but there's a fair chance he won't have to bat first thing, so perhaps I'll take a chance and leave it as it is.

And so to the action. Key and Rogers are batting straight away, slowly at first. Key lets himself off the leash, makes 50, then annoyingly gets out. Stevens comes in but after two balls he's on his way back to the pavillion clutching the infamous bath toy. The only batting duck of the day and he's in my team. Argh!!!! At the other end of the spectrum of scores, Rogers bats for the whole day and manages to record another double-ton, the highest score of the day. Unfortunately my bowlers have a very slow day with no wickets for Kaneria or Blackwell, one for Shahzad and Croft, a brief bat for Tredwell and nothing for Schofield. The net returns from nine of my players total just 4, leaving me with effectively just the fruits of Key and Rogers. And when the table is updated this morning it is not enough. Four more days to go ...

Team	Start	Wed	Total
Outside Edge	1	401	22337
Bramernic Spitfires	16	258	22079
GOLD 1	3	421	21955

Week 21 Preamble
Five more days to play and after a few days off I can't wait for the action to get underway again. Scouring the early team news, well squad news really - no-one is commiting to a team just yet, it seems that all my players are likely to be playing. I still have to decide on replacements for the Middlesex lads, of course. There do seem to be some high-profile absentees from the final week, and I'm hoping/praying that this might cause some headaches for the other challengers.

In the meantime I'm happy to report that my international team managed to finish in 57th. This was well within the top 100 target that I'd set myself, though having peaked at 50th with one match to go, I'm a little disappointed not to have hung on to a top 50 place. It was a cracking game though.

Week 20 Day 5
The end of the penultimate week, just five more days to play. But first off there's a welcome break, a chance to focus on football for a weekend, a chance to celebrate England avoiding a whitewash. But even after Swann had bowled Australia out and Strauss and Denly had knocked off half the runs, still the rest of the team managed to almost let the convicts back in. In the fantasy world, the opportunity to rest players once the series outcome was clear played havoc with selections and meant that the generous allocation of transfers was in fact not enough. I ended up with only nine playing in the final match and I imagine most other teams at the top will have been in a similar position. I just hope that very few had Swann, let alone captained him, or my chances of staying in the top 50 will have gone. I stuck by Denly as captain which was jointly, with Ponting, the next best option. I guess the update will happen tomorrow after they have triple checked that there are no errors.

In the football it was a good day at Selhurst Park. It was all down to me, of course. I finally ditched my heavily Palace oriented fantasy team which was always certain to provoke a clean sheet. But who cares? Palace won, kept a clean sheet, halted the decline, and all because Warnock finally saw sense and put Lawrence on the transfer list.

And what of the Century challenge? Saturday was a relatively quiet day all round. Almost everyone chipped in a little and some of the deficit was clawed back. It's all in the lap of the gods now. It could hang on how many players actually turn out in the final match. Of course it wasn't all plain sailing on Staurday. Early in the morning I weighed up the likelihood of Worcestershire batting again and possibly gifting Trescothick a few catches and then set about choosing his replacement. I quickly confined my search to Sussex and Yorkshire players as they seemed likely to still be battling in the championship next week. In the end I chose safety and went for the already settled in Rudolph, with the fact that he couldn't get -20 a big plus factor. Five minutes into the day and he's gone without adding to his overnight score. And he was my captain too. At least Trescothick didn't score any either. Here's the top four at the end of week 20.

Team	Start	Sat	Week20	Total
Outside Edge	1	76	1512	21936
Bramernic Spitfires	16	108	905	21821
GOLD 1	3	240	1254	21534
Jones Boys Two	4	398	1080	21002

Week 20 Day 4
Today was a real roller coaster of emotions. It started when I swapped captaincy to Kaneria; then watched in horror as he only took one wicket. Meanwhile, down at Taunton, Somerset collapsed in rapid time from a steady 3-down to all out without passing the follow on mark. Out went Trescothick to bat for the second time, without my captaincy. Relative elation followed when he swiftly returned to the pavilion accompanied by a rubber bath toy. Relative because elsewhere my players were achieving very little. Compton couldn't repeat his first innings exploits, Croft failed to take a single wicket (though he was not out 21 at the close); you must be getting the picture by now. So I wasn't entirely surprised to see my five week reign at the top of the table bought to an end when the table was updated a short while ago.

Team	Start	Fri	Total
Outside Edge	1	422	21860
Bramernic Spitfires	16	140	21713
GOLD 1	3	221	21294

Tomorrow is the end of week 20 and then after three days rest it's the final week. With both championship divisions won there might be scope for rest and rotation, though Durham didn't do much this week. Can I trust Kent to take next week seriously? Will the weather behave for one last five day period? Where will the safe picks be? It's going to be a nail-biting week.

Week 20 Day 3
Today was the last day where TFC and TFCEA clash. It was also the day when Kent clinched the second division trophy. That was a high point. I was out calling bingo numbers this evening, so managed to miss the carnage of the England innings. That of course was the low point, except every cloud does indeed have a silver lining as my team managed to climb another 15 places to 50th. Can I stay there on Sunday? There's not much I can do about it now though, as I've used the last two transfers tonight. Broad went out again, replaced by Lee, giving me an all Aussie attack. I had to keep Johnson in the hope that he'll be back again on Sunday. I also replaced Clarke with Mascarenhas on the basis that I expect him to play both matches. It could all go pear shaped if the wrong players get rotated, but I'm sure I won't be the only player with an under strength team in that scenario.

Looking back at the county game and finally some of my players started to earn their keep. Compton was the star moving on to a very respectable 178. Trescothick made a typical 72 while the bowlers and all rounders all chipped in with useful batting points. At the end of the day they had added a reasonable 392 points. When I returned home this evening I then found that the update had already been done (thank you GFM). All the top 3 scored pretty much the same and this contest really is going right to the final day.

Team	Start	Thu	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	392	21573
Outside Edge	1	383	21438
GOLD 1	3	395	21073

Week 20 Days 1 and 2
There was so little cricket on day 1 this week that it hardly merits a section of it's own. For the record I scored 21 points and managed to extend my lead to 504 points. Of course there was cricket on Tuesday, a glorious run-fest at Trent Bridge where England asked the Aussies to score 300 to win and then promptly let them do it, thanks in the main to some schoolboy fielding errors. It was good news for my TFFEA team though. With Ponting (though sadly not captained) it rose from 78th to 65th. Originally I thought that giving you half your transfers and captain changes for the one-day part of the competition was overkill, but now I'm not so sure. The Aussies rested Lee while injuries have caused rotation to key England personnel as well. I'm definitely out of contention for the main prizes now, but it's been great fun and I'll be trying to get in the top 50 if I can.

So, after the rain-drenched antics of Tuesday, the high pressure took control and allowed a full days play everywhere on Wednesday. Unfortunately, most of my players seemed to want to get back to sitting in the dressing room. Kaneria was a notable exception, but then everyone who matters has him. Unfortunately I was sidetracked at the crucial moment when it was announced that Somerset would field and therefore didn't make him captain. That may yet turn out to be a costly mistake. Elsewhere, Key and Stevens both went cheaply while all others in the Kent lineup were having a field-day scoring at between 5 and 6 an over. Chances are that neither will have to bat again which will be a double whammy. In the first innings Kent skittled Leics out without needing more than a catch from Tredwell and New was another who pined for the warmth of the pavillion. The wicket on Tuesday turned out to be Murtagh's only contribution, while at the Oval Schofield had a rare off-day with the bat and lost all the points he did get while not taking a wicket with the ball. Which leaves only Compton (not out at the close) and the all-rounders. Blackwell at least made a half-century, but I'll need a lot more from him with the ball today. And finally, replacing Brown for the final two weeks is Croft. He actually came in for the last day of week 19, but then didn't play in the one-day game. He spent the first day waiting to get in, so hopefully some points will be forthcoming on Thursday.

And so to the damage. In one day three-quarters of that 504 point lead has been wiped out. Ouch! Looks like this is definitely going right to the wire. I just hope Kent don't decide to rest any of my players next week having sewn up the 2nd division championship.

Team	Start	Tue	Wed	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	21	244	21181
Outside Edge	1	9	622	21055
GOLD 1	3	25	373	20678

Week 19 Day 7
The end of another rollercoaster week and the last with cricket every day. There are 5 days in week 20, 3 days gap, then the final 5 days in week 21. Week 19, however, finished very much as it had started for me, relying solely on Trescothick. My challengers had more players but there were no really standout performances in either match. When I look at the performance over the whole week I was pleasantly surprised to see I'd actually increased my lead by 4 points!

Team	Start	Mon	Week19	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	60	1825	20916
Outside Edge	1	151	1821	20424
GOLD 1	3	62	1969	20280
Jones Boys Two	4	186	2022	19922

With around 600 points gap between 4th and 5th, these really are the only teams still in with a chance. Unfortunately today's cricket is all in the south east which is where the worst of the weather is forecast to be. Two matches are already delayed and prospects don't look good for Canterbury all day. Thankfully England have moved north to Nottingham and the quest to avoid a whitewash can continue this afternoon.

Week 19 Day 6
The last day of the Glamorgan v Essex championship match meant that no confirmed team news would be available for any of the Pro40 matches before the deadline. In some ways that is frustrating, but in others maybe it was a blessing in disguise. I knew Key and Brown weren't playing from the squads, but I might have been tempted into a rash transfer if I'd seen Blackwell's omission from the Durham side. As it was, six of the seven players who did turn out all contributed to an outstanding 466 points. Top of the class was Compton with a century while Stevens scored a rapid 46 and took two bonus wickets for another 100 point haul. Only Kaneria failed to add anything significant but I'll let him off for that.

However, publication of the table shows that both my challengers had good days as well so the lead is up to just under 600. They clearly aren't giving up so I can't yet relax. Here's the latest top 3.

Team	Start	Sun	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	466	20856
Outside Edge	1	428	20273
GOLD 1	3	321	20218

Week 19 Day 3
I spoke too soon. The kids may have gone back to school, but now all the things that have had to wait until then have suddenly said "hello", you can sort me out now. Plus, a couple of urgent jobs have just turned up. Still, I'm not complaining too much. I'd prefer to be busy after all.

Today was a good day on the pitch, apart from the fact that it was a good day for everyone. It's going to be another high-scoring week. As we found out earlier, all my serious challengers have both Tresco and Danish, so their good scores meant nothing. I suspect that Stevens is probably only in my team (at least I hope he is) so his quickfire century was very welcome. Shame there are no bonus points in the championship. 608 seemed very good until the update told me that the team in 3rd had scored 50 more!

Week 19 Day 4
A serious worry today. Stevens went on to complete a double century but no-one else did anything much at all. He contributed 79 points out of the daily total of just 112. Somehow the challengers both managed to post another huge score, so I wonder whether they are using up transfers and/or captain changes. I still have a few left myself, but the transfers are mainly reserved for ensuring that I have a few players in the final week. The lead is still 350 though, so maybe no need for complete panic at this stage.

Week 19 Day 5
The update came in nice and early again which led to some renewed thought about transfers. Thankfully today was also the next one-day international and with my team in 64th and an outside chance of possibly finishing higher I had to ensure that I gave that game serious time. Swann was dropped from the side which meant I had to make one transfer and I ended up just getting the changes in in time.

Having fried my brain playing with combinations for the international I decided to leave the TFC side alone. The result was a moderately good 251 points and still with the rough game-plan in tact for the remaining two weeks. My two challengers swapped places and the lead went back up to almost 500 which I'm comfortable with. Here is the top 3 with daily scores over the last 3 days.

Team	Start	Thu	Fri	Sat	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	608	112	251	20390
GOLD 1	3	658	599	152	19897
Outside Edge	1	590	260	61	19845

There is a further 441 point gap to the team in 4th place which I'm keeping half an eye on, but realistically it must be too far bahind. All I need now is a bout of autumnal weather ... no, not really; that would scupper any hope I have in the international game. Besides, as I write this Sunday is turning out quite well, despite several players being rested for the Pro40. But more on that in the next installment.

Week 19 Day 2
At last, a pretty much perfect day. All the kids are now back at school, normality has returned and things are falling into place nicely. Of course it could have been better, but then I've given up hoping that England's cricketers might actually win a one-day international. The footballers however are a different matter. Capello seems to have instilled all the right ingredients into a pretty much invincible team. Not only has the team qualified for South Africa but they've done it with TWO games to spare and not dropped a single point in the process. Of course it's going to be harder at the finals, but with two extra 'friendlies' to help prepare there has to be a reasonable expectation that England can do well.

Returning to the cricket, the England team may have struggled but my fantasy team jumped up from 121st to 64th. Cameron White as captain finally paid off while all my bowlers took at least one wicket. The only blot on the performance yesterday was Prior's duck, but it was only a minor blip. I must be too far behind the podium positions, but it's great to be right up there in the top 1% of teams. Just like the Aussies, I'll have some thinking to do before the next match on Saturday. They say Ponting will definitely take back the No 3 spot so I'll be looking carefully to see where White ends up. Speculation last night suggested he'd drop down to No 6 replacing Hussey. If true then he won't be nearly so attractive.

And while all the fun (for me) was happening at the Rose Bowl, some of my other players were starting their championship matches. I made no further changes as the whole team is playing a 4-day match apart from New. Stevens was the star, ably assisted by Key and Murtagh meaning that the memories of last week are fading fast. Here's the top 3:

Team	Start	Wed	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	231	19419
Outside Edge	1	172	18934
GOLD 1	3	98	18488

Week 19 Day 1
Well, that turned into an interesting match. Everything you could want including yet another scare with floodlights which almost fell victim to high winds. Something really does need to be done about this situation. We are going to suffer high winds in this country, even in summer, so if the TV circus is going to rely on these mobile floodlights accompanying them around the country, maybe TV needs to stump up more cash to provide a sturdier alternative.

Anyway, enough ramblings. Today I'm going to start with the latest table and include the whole top ten again because it really does make fascinating reading.

Team	Start	Tue	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	97	19188
Outside Edge	1	159	18762
GOLD 1	3	79	18390
Jones Boys Two	4	153	18053
KPs Love Child	11	38	17970
Red Eleven	35	159	17906
All Out Winners	2	122	17881
batsentertainment	32	148	17636
SJ1	24	0	17551
Roadblock Hijack	7	104	17497

One of the best things about fantasy cricket is that there are so many more permutations on a reasonable squad (compared to most fantasy football). Look above, up there in 9th place is a team without Trescothick and Kaneria. Further down the league there are some teams just with Kaneria, one even has him as captain.

I'm sure anyone following this diary will know by now that I just had Trescothick and Kaneria. Fortunately I managed to get back home with two minutes to spare to switch captain back to Trescothick. With the help of other teams in my open league I can predict that Red Eleven and Outside Edge probably had Tresco (c), Hildreth, Kaneria and Keiswetter. GOLD 1 could well have fielded Tresco, Keiswetter and Kaneria (c) while Jones Boys Two maybe has Tresco, Foster, Turner and Kaneria. KPs Love Child looks to have Tresco and Kaneria (c) while All out winners might have Tresco, Trego, Keiswetter and Kaneria (c). Finally Roadblock Hijack almost certainly just had Tresco (c).

The trouble is that with such a wide variety of combinations it would be impossible to cover all possibilities. Unlike FF there is also a much wider spread of points scoring too. In football it is rare for a player to score more than 15 points and all too common for him to score plenty of standard 2's. In FC there is no such standard score. A batsmen is just as likely to score -20 as 150, or more. This is why I far prefer FC to FF.

Moving on, day 2 sees most of the four day matches start, so no more reverse engineering (unless there's a real standout score). The weather is set reasonably fair for the week and it's definitely still game on.

Week 18 Day 7
Well thank heaven's that is over! The week ended on a fairly mediocre 861 points but the contribution of the first four days made it very definitely a week horribilus. The other thing that ended today was the school summer holiday. By some quirk of planning this year's holiday had been seven weeks long. Next summer will be back to the more usual six, thank goodness. Of course things are never quite straight-forward and one of the kids actually doesn't go back until tomorrow, but being the eldest he doesn't tend to need quite so much attention.

As I hinted yesterday, I completely sat out the final match of the week. In fact only one of the top 5 had any interest at Hove, and I predict that his interest was Ed Joyce. There is definitely a bonus to be had when only one match is played. The first day of week 19 is similar, although I would imagine that there could be several players appearing for most sides - Trescothick and Kaneria must be in any serious side, possibly along with Keiswetter, Suppiah, de Bruyn, etc. Perhaps the picture will be clearer tomorrow when the scores update. For now we'll take a look at the top 10 with just three weeks left to play.

Team	Start	Mon	Week18	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	0	861	19091
Outside Edge	1	42	1072	18603
GOLD 1	3	0	701	18311
KPs Love Child	11	0	899	17932
Jones Boys Two	4	0	625	17900
All Out Winners	2	10	478	17759
Red Eleven	35	42	559	17747
SJ1	24	222	1145	17551
batsentertainment	32	73	689	17488
Roadblock Hijack	7	192	931	17393

I hesitate to write anyone off just yet, but barring a miracle the winner must surely come from the top 5 now.

There seems to be a problem posting on the FISO forum today. The site admin and developers have been informed. More info will be provided when I have it.

Edit: Update 1545 - the problem has been resolved.

Week 18 Day 6
Another day where both domestic and international cricket are vying for my attention. I've also got to juggle quite a few other activities during the day. Thankfully the first of those is my usual Sunday morning spent here. I say thankfully because it meant that I was logged on before 10am and could react to the omission of Stuart Broad from the England side. Afterwards I had to pick up my eldest from his archery club and then take the middle one to the library. Today was the last day of the summer reading scheme and the library was only open until 2pm. He had to talk about the last two of his 15 books or he wouldn't get a bowling voucher. We arrived at the library at about 1.30, just in time. After a late lunch we triple checked everything was ready for the start of school tomorrow before finally being able to catch up properly with the scores.

The international side climbed 30 places to 121st, a new high for me in this game. Just 54 points now seperate me from the top 100 and 5 more ODIs to make them up. Fingers crossed. And so to the TFC challenge. Kent continued to persue thier youth policy so my captain was rested again. Stevens took the only wicket to fall before rain prematurely ended the match, making up for his disappointing batting score. Tredwell opened and scored a few as did New for Leicestershire. I thought that would be it as Yorkshire decided to bat out the final day at Trent Bridge, but once Notts decided to express their dismay by bowling everyone I ended up with a bonus wicket and two catches for Ali Brown. However, Notts announced he would be rested in the Pro40 match tomorrow, so unless I use another precious transfer my week is already over. The scores have been updated early again and it's been another good day, so maybe I'll just forget cricket for one day. Here's the latest top 3.

Team	Start	Sun	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	132	19091
Outside Edge	1	103	18561
GOLD 1	3	77	18311

With nearly 400 points between 3rd and 4th I'm hoping that it's now a 3-horse race, but after the poor start to week 18 I'm still not discounting anything.

Week 18 Day 4
Today was a day of conflicting interests. It started with serious thought about bringing in a player to replace Ervine. This thought process was interrupted several times by requests to help with cleaning the house. In the end, 1030 arrived and I'd talked myself out of the idea on account of very bad weather forecasts for the north of England. Next up was preparation for the final park picnic and play. A group of parents organised meet-ups at local play areas throughout the summer holiday as a cheap way of entertaining the kids. When I agreed to take them this lunchtime I'd forgotten that the ODI started at 1pm. Luckily my eldest was too old for this sort of activity, so a quick lesson in how to make transfers ensued. I arranged to call him at about 1240 to check teams. It all went well, apart from the fact that neither of us spotted the variance in the initials next to Mr Hussey's name. As it turns out, this error had saved me 20 points in the Twenty20 match, but I still don't know how I didn't investigate just how I'd scored more than expected.

When I returned home from the park it was a case of more disappointment as every scorecard produced yet more woe. Bowlers were conceeding runs without taking wickets, Brown went for another duck, while in Manchester they finally managed some play and Yardy (who I nearly bought in) ended up making a valuable score. Curses! At the end of play my team had managed to muster a stupendously huge total of three points! Yes, just 3. At least my international team seemed to be going well, although when the scores were eventually updated it became clear that what looked a reasonable total wasn't even enough to maintain my place. A thouroughly miserable day cricket-wise.

Remember a few days ago I was sitting on a 700+ point lead? I knew it could all change, but even I was shocked when the table was revealed. The only consolation was that one of my challengers had actually managed to go backwards. Here once again is the top 3.

Team	Start	Fri	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	3	18486
Outside Edge	1	309	18302
GOLD 1	3	109	18051

Week 18 Day 5
Throughout the week thus far I had resisted the temptation to make any changes, convinced that the poor weather would mean most people would struggle for points. The single figure total from Friday focussed the mind and told me I had to do something. Thanks to a rare late update from the Telegraph I had no idea how well Outside Edge had performed, but something told me it wouldn't be good news. So belatedly out went Ervine, replaced now by Blackwell. Plus, after a wasted two days for captain Tresco I gambled and gave the armband to Key. As he was already on 17 I knew the worst I could get was double zero.

With transfers out of the way and tables not updated it was time for the last trip out of the summer. We bought travelcards and made our way to the British Museum. This was another of those cases of something being so close to home that you don't go and see it. We had no idea just how big it is until we arrived. We probably only saw a quarter of the exhibits, but it was an interesting experience nevertheless. The highlight for me was the clocks gallery as that had working exhibits.

The best bit came when I checked the scorecards on our arrival back home. Key had excelled himself, Blackwell likewise and Schofield had another good knock with the bat. Only five players scored points today but the 473 was getting on for double the total from the first four days. Halleluia! Here's the latest top 3.

Team	Start	Sat	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	473	18959
Outside Edge	1	156	18458
GOLD 1	3	183	18234

Now that the transfer window has closed and the Telegraph have added all the new players, I've updated the points pages for both TFF and TFFCH to reflect all the ins, outs and transfers. The fixture grids have also been updated with the latest information available from the BBC, although it looks like there are still some changes to be made where teams are involved in the Europa League.

Week 18 Day 3
This week is turning out to be very depressing indeed. So much so that by 2pm I was so fed up flicking from scorecard to scorecard seeing my players doing nothing that I took the kids bowling. That turned out to be a real buzz. The kids are naturally much better than dad - well they have been to bowling parties recently - and no-one managed to get too far ahead of the others. The youngest scored the only strike of the game and stayed just in front after that. Dad meanwhile started to get the hang of it and managed a spare in each of the last two bowls with 9 and 7 being the additional scores. This took me into the lead by six with just the youngest to go. He took out six with his first bowl and then missed with the second - a tie. Definitely going to go there again though.

Back to the cricket, Thursday was the third sub 100 day in a row. It's not even as though I could blame the weather that much. OK, my captain was stuck under the permanent cloud at Riverside, but all the rest were involved somewhere to a greater or lesser degree. About the best thing I can say is that none of the challengers had a significantly better day. I seriously considered a transfer for Ervine this morning, but the player looking most attractive was Yardy and the weather didn't look that good in the north. Anyway, here's the latest top 3; there's a 400+ point gap to 4th now.

Team	Start	Thu	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	95	18483
Outside Edge	1	115	17993
GOLD 1	3	175	17942

No, we're not talking about the latest controversial application of their calculations, but possibly the best new album to arrive at Bramernic Mansions for many years. Created by Neil Hannon of Divine Comedy fame and Thomas Walsh (Pugwash) it is a beautiful meander through a perfect summer. While there is absolutely no need to understand anything about cricket to appreciate the tunes, if you do follow the game then the whole album is paradise.

We're so impressed by this work that it's got pride of place on the front page of our shop, so it's easy for you too to enjoy this meeting of leather and willow set to the perfect summer soundtrack.

Where did those two days go then? Foolishly I assumed that the expensive shopping trip at the beginning of the summer had sorted out all the school uniform stuff so that we were free to enjoy the rest of the holiday. But no, there were still a couple of odd bits to get. The trouble is, everyone else realised on the day after the bank holiday that they really ought to be sorting these things out too, so the shops were absolutely packed. At least we only had to get one or two odd bits, a fact that I must thank Mrs Bram for because the main expedition was quite relaxed compared to Tuesday morning. Sorry, it started out in the morning but ended up mid way through the afternoon. The problem was that most shops were running out of the sizes that we actually needed.

Then on Wednesday it was the three-weekly event of gathering together all the Avon orders and typing them into the computer. That bit usually falls to me because I supposedly understand computers a bit more. It's not normally that much work, except that yesterday the Avon website was suffering an attack of the gremlins. A simple two hour job turned into more like an six hour marathon. In amongst it all we still had three kids to entertain; I'm sure that this summer holiday is longer than usual - someone said it was seven weeks this year, but it feels like nine or ten. And then there was a fantasy cricket team to keep tabs on ...

Week 18 Day 1
As mentioned last time, there was just one match starting on Tuesday. I'd hoped for another good day for Tresco and the ability to see whether any of my challengers didn't have him. What I got was a good day for Blackwell and the realisation that at least one of them has got him. Thankfully Keiswetter managed a duck so he's now almost caught up with New in that department. With just Tresco as captain I scored 72 which meant that some of the lead was eroded. Nothing to worry about yet, especially as the weather forecast predicts very little cricket this week.

Week 18 Day 2
OK, maybe I do need to start worrying. The other games all managed to start and some play was possible everywhere. About the best thing I can say is that I didn't get any ducks (though I'll probably regret saying that tomorrow). Those that did bat made small contributions and none of my players bowled at all. Meanwhile another challenger has a really good day and the lead is down from over 700 to just over 500 in two days. Yikes! This could turn into a very long last four weeks at this rate. Here's the top of the table at Wednesday night:

Team	Start	Sat	Sun	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	72	86	18388
Outside Edge	1	117	230	17878
GOLD 1	3	58	99	17767
Jones Boys Two	4	105	75	17455
Red Eleven	35	192	40	17420
All Out Winners	2	57	69	17407

Week 17 Day 7
Thanks to the desire to televise as many Pro40 matches as possible there are no cricketless days (weather permitting of course) until September 20th. There are quite a few days when only one or two matches are taking place which gives people an opportunity to see who has particular players. The last day of August was good because there was one standout player - Andrew Hall who scored 148 points. Today is another as there is just one championship match. Somerset are batting first so hopefully I can verify that everyone does indeed have Trescothick.

Yesterday was the last bank holiday before Christmas and with the best of the weather being in the South East we decided to lead the sheep down to the beach. I say lead because the day started somewhat overcast and many people seemed to be waiting for confirmation that it would indeed be a fine day. When we arrived at Minnis Bay there were plenty of the free parking bays on the seafront and loads of room on the beach. Three hours later people were still arriving to a beach that was now packed and they were moaning about the queues on the roads. After a day of paddling, sandcastles and ice-cream we left a little earlier than many and avoided any jams on the way home. Who said you have spend bank holidays stuck in traffic? I must also thank David for keeping me in touch with progress from Canterbury by a steady stream of text messages.

Anyway, back to the challenge. I don't have Hall (having lost patience with him earlier in the season), but I do have more than enough Kent players to add a respectable 165 points. However, looking at the table it does seem that GOLD1 might have had Hall as captain (along with a bowler who lost 4 points like All Out Winners did). Here are the current top 10, although realistically I think that the top 7 are the only ones still with a chance.

Team	Start	Mon	Week17	Total
Bramernic Spitfires	16	165	1939	18230
GOLD 1	3	292	1650	17610
Outside Edge	1	201	1589	17531
All Out Winners	2	-4	1413	17281
Jones Boys Two	4	88	1601	17275
Red Eleven	35	44	1161	17188
KPs Love Child	11	14	1266	17033
batsentertainment	32	-2	1244	16799
Highway CC	12	52	1145	16638
Roadblock Hijack	7	-6	842	16462

I'm also finding it interesting how four of the top five were the teams in pole position at the split. Had I not ditched two players in the week before, then in fact the whole top five would have been a closed shop. But hey, let's not dwell on that scenario too much.

Just before I sign off, a quick reminder for anyone else playing TFC that transfer deadlines have now come forward to 1030 on championship days and 1245 if there are only daytime Pro40 matches being played. Until next time ...