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[Gingerbusiness]

That would be me. I bowl the odd bit of pace now and then when we are a little short.

Yeah, we still have Abi. He was bowling SERIOUSLY quick in the last league game of the season. He had an operation early in the season so could only bat for a few months. I remember bowling at Kumar? at your place - He was VERY concerned about his average. Batted 40 overs for 48 runs!

Stoke Green play hard, but they are mostly a good bunch of lads off the pitch (Their skipper is a bit annoying - especially as I am sure he is in as a specialist captain as he doesn't seem to be able to bat, bowl or field very well...). You always have to be wary of them as they always seem to have 'friends' coming back to their club from some of the bigger local clubs around them (Slough, Beaconsfield, Burnham etc - rumours of money being used. Aziz their left arm spinner was in the Burnham 1st XI as their front line spin option in 2012! He just 'decided' to drop 4 leagues 'for the fun' of it).

It will be interesting to see who are the weaker teams this season. On last years performance, you'd say Henley 3s plus one other but you never know.

[uknsaunders]

I have a photo of the divisions. Will stick up this evening.

[meats]

Cheers uknsaunders.

I played against Stoke Green's opening bat from the 2012 season in an end of season friendly against Wooburn and he was a nice bloke - the older guy not the Asian. Maybe we got them on a bad day but they were just outright abusive as opposed to sledging/banter. Sunny, that's the one yep. He moved to play for Burnham and I think spent most of the season in their 3s. Nice bloke and I have a lot of time for him but yes he was concerned about is average! There were a few internal issues that season and had he remained captain last season then there were 3 or 4 guys who said that they were going to go to you guys. Thankfully for us that situation was avoided and with more or less the same squad as 2012 we won the division.

Was Parker still playing for them? Far from quick but didn't give much to hit, was far too good for div 4 but maybe less of a threat against most div 3 teams? If what I've heard is correct then they've been promoted as best 3rd place across div 3.

I would expect Henley to be one of the weaker teams. We always play Purley pre-season and have always held our own against them, they seem to be around mid-table year after year and that's a position that we would happily take come next September!

[Gingerbusiness]

Purley's biggest problem was losing Nick Holman mid-season last year in my opinion. The guy is rapid for about 6 overs and can do a lot of damage. Plus they put FAR too much pressure on Pat Allen to score all of their runs. I know he rates himself highly, but they cant always go to him to get them out of trouble and could eventually be their downfall if he has a poor season.

Parker is still there. He gave our No.9 alot of stick because we stitched him up and told him that Parker was rapid so he backed away from his first ball...! Parker came down, gave him some stick... The next two deliveries disappeared for 6. But in all fairness, Parker does seam the ball all over the place!!

That would have been Clive Bourne you'd have spoken to. Nice guy. He is in their Saturday 2s though. Parker is the only guy in their 1s who isn't from sub-continent parentage...

Does Cook still bowl all the overs and take most of the wickets for you? I think we are two of the nicer teams in the league so can see why some of your players would come to us. We knew that you lot were after Abi at one stage.

[meats]

I believe Ash was trying to get Abi over yes. Cook still bowls a lot of overs, can be unplayable early season when it's green and wet but can become a bit of an up and down bowler when it becomes dryer and harder. He's now our captain. Purley are a decent bunch of lads but we might think that way because we play them quite a lot every season so we all know each other quite well.

Clive, that's the guy. He was saying that he was expecting to be in their 2s for 2013. Very nice guy. They had three white guys when we played them, Clive, Parker and their keeper although I think he was filling in that week as he literally couldn't catch a cold against us.

I didn't realise Purley lost Nick but yes he would be quite difficult to replace. They place a lot of emphasis on Pat to score runs, I think he had quite a major injury/operation over the winter so it took him a while to get back into things. They've got a couple of other decent batsmen but they overly rely on him.

You still got the Smith brothers? I'm guessing they're both scoring at div 3 as they're both very good bats.

[Gingerbusiness]

Yeah the Smiths are still here - First team stalwarts now! Both of them are very good, but for totally different reasons.

Greg scored 700 league runs (1500 in the season). Lewis, is now 1st XI vice captain, scored 400 league runs (1000+ in the season) this year opening the batting.

We seem to bat all the way through now though. Our skipper (300+ league runs) and our No.3, Abhi and Myself (250+ league runs) plus others with 200+, its an exciting time. Especially if you consider the average of our 1st XI is 22.

[csnew]

Stoke did go up to div 2.
The captain is a specialist captain. Can't do much else apart from that and throws like a girl. Mouthy lot they are. Think it's the 3rd season in a row that they've gone up.

[Gingerbusiness]

Thats true - Good luck Div.2!. The way they sign 'friends', fully expect them to bring in Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Aamir soon!...

[csnew]

Wouldn't surprise me if they did.
Core of the team is the same and they bring guys in on a game to game basis. Won't surprise me if they pick up a few farnham royal ex 1st guys

[Manormanic]

Manormanic - agreed! Cove and Eversley had some very good youngsters in their 2s when we played against them. I'm sure there are plenty of other clubs out there who have some good youngsters who I haven't played against!

My lads did pretty well on this front - we had one game where we had seven guys under 19 in the first XI!

[meats]

My lads did pretty well on this front - we had one game where we had seven guys under 19 in the first XI!

Good effort! I'd have felt even older in that team than I did in mine and I'm only 29!

We bat all the way down, our number 11 is a genuine 11 although he likes to think otherwise  We can be quite susceptible to England style collapses but we were rescued more often than not with pretty much everyone in the team making a significant contribution with the bat at some stage in the season to dig us out of several holes. Certainly sounds like exciting times at Hurst and T&T.

[Gingerbusiness]

Good effort! I'd have felt even older in that team than I did in mine and I'm only 29!

We bat all the way down, our number 11 is a genuine 11 although he likes to think otherwise  We can be quite susceptible to England style collapses but we were rescued more often than not with pretty much everyone in the team making a significant contribution with the bat at some stage in the season to dig us out of several holes. Certainly sounds like exciting times at Hurst and T&T.

Now watch the inevitable batting collapse which always comes after declaring confidence in anything batting related!

[meats]

Now watch the inevitable batting collapse which always comes after declaring confidence in anything batting related!

I'm sure we'll have a few next year too 

I'd be more than happy if you happened to have 2 next year against us, I don't want to be watching the Smith brothers hit us around Hurst again for fun   

[meats]

Found 3B courtesy of Chesham's website:

Beaconsfield 2, Chalfont St Peter, Chenies & Latimer, Chesham 2, Kew 2, Marlow Park, OMT, Reading 2, Teddington Town and Wooburn Narkovians.

By process of elimiation I think make 3A, not in alphabetical order:

T&T, Hurst, Wargrave, Eversley 2, Wokingham 2, Purley, Henley 3, Ascot, Falkland 2, Newbury.

Pretty sure Eversley have come up as best 3rd place finisher. Farnham Royal seem to have gone into 4A. I'm guessing that their 2s have become their 1s, 3s the 2s etc?

If I'm right then Ascot have a relegation reprieve, reasonable side or one you expect to struggle again? I'd imagine Wokingham and Falkland will be useful, no idea about Newbury. Eversley, if they've come up, are a useful side and they've found a couple of good batsmen to back up their good bowling unit. Nice local league which is always nice

[Gingerbusiness]

I saw Ben Saville was playing for Eversley 2s last season - 1st team captain the season before! Very classy bat.

Ascot... IF they have stayed up, it will not be a nice game between us and them this coming season... They know why...

Newbery have a few useful players - Charlie Anstey being their main threat. Opens the batting and takes a lot of wickets with his off breaks.

I did read somewhere that Farnham Royal are definitely going into Div 3... Though you would have thought if Farnham Royal were in 3, they would be in B, not A, due to the proximity to the other teams.

Wokingham and Falkland will be very decent indeed.

I have a feeling there will be a few disciplinary issues in 3A looking at the teams involved BUT the stronger teams from A (Kew and Chalfont) have moved across so could be a very open 3B.

Very Interesting... if that's the case! Over to UKSaunders!