SCORECARD


“Death in Bromsgrove”

Old Mo 105-8
Old Doms 110-1

Doms win by 9 wickets

It’s not like we’re sore losers when we visit Doms – after all we’ve had plenty of practice.

However the psychological influence on Fitmen to consider mid-week, rush hour travel to Bromsgrove is enough to make selection tricky. Add to that the Ramadan month (with subsequent unavailability) and the perfect storm approaches.

An analysis of fixtures between the two clubs over the last 5 seasons (there’s one more in the series on Sunday 10th August at Yardley Wood Road) throws up the stark statistics of Played 18; Won 3; Lost 8; Tied 1; No result 6.

Doesn’t look good eh? More about statistics ……and a crumb of comfort at the foot of this report.

Back to the game where Old Dom were worthy winners. It was one of those ‘games of two halves’ – just that the hosts won both of them convincingly.

The hottest day of the summer so far saw the mercury in the high twenties as The Fitmen arrived at the gloriously appointed Bromsgrove CC ground.

The scene was set - Darren & George glided in sporting their matching “His’n’Hers” VodaBeamers; an age group county game (Worcs v Warks maybe?) was concluding on the top pitch around 5:45 and all was well with the world. So - just time for a pre-match livener and off we go. But “Shock horror”…………the bar was shut!

So not a great start for the warm up regime……………..

Back to the ground………..parched…………and Si called the ‘nailed on’ heads and The Fitmen had a bat.

It all started so well as Extras got us off to a flyer – 5 of them in the first over. Even after 2 overs we looked ok with double figures …….just none off the bat. Calamity was to follow though as Taz and Will both got second ball ducks and Birdman was still mentally in Derby as he also failed.

Cue Turgio senior to ‘dig in’. 34 with no further casualties after 6 overs was a relative recovery and with 60 odd at the half way stage plus a couple of big hitters to come led the more optimistic (the bar was now open) to consider a decent total.

Lurcio eventually fell for 15, Pickering brought out his 2 wood and drove six fours in his 25 (thoroughly earning his double Big Mac at the drive through on the way home) whilst George Dawes looked like he would find the middle sometime soon during his 35.

But around the above highlights, the wickets continued to tumble and weren’t accompanied by any discernable acceleration in the scoring rate. There was a distinct danger we wouldn’t make 3 figures. Malloy marked his 14th consecutive hour in the baking sun with a cameo 1, Chris got (very) long strides in to ensure he was undefeated at the death and a couple of Chinese cuts from the chairman saw the Fitmen over the hundred mark…………..just.

A quick turn around, and a Canute like attempt to stem the inevitable tide saw Taz and The chairman fail in relatively equal quantities. The latter did pick up the only wicket to fall as Tom H (putting in his usual effective performance behind the stumps) did an impressive keepie uppie session to snare the Doms opener off his boot.

After that, the less said the better.

The impressive remaining Doms opener took no risks in his half century – he didn’t need to. The number 3 (after struggling for a couple of overs) suddenly recalled where the middle of his bat was and then the end came mercifully quickly in the 13th over. The bowling victim (it could have been anyone – but happened to be Nutter) was despatched for 4 sixes at the end.

A right pasting…………..perhaps the highlights were the impressive attempts to avoid the skipper’s eye as he cast round for an inspiration bowling change.

On the bright side, the CFO (who has never knowingly turned down a potential opportunity to become a super hero) has been enjoying great success in the greenhouse this summer. Already in his 6th week of cutting cucumbers, his photos of rare apple breeds impressed in the post-match analysis. The russet-like fruit photos kept Birdman’s attention for almost 2 minutes - until the ladies tennis provided irresistible distraction.

PS
We trust that Dom’s batting hero played himself back into form. He’s had a run of low scores recently….but Thursday night’s net should see him right for the rest of the Birmingham Premier League season:
http://bromsgrovecc.play-cricket.com/subsite/web_pages/24752



Postscript.............."Lies, damned lies and statistics" - decide for yourself.



Statistics v Old Doms ……….. aka excuses central

Fitmen v Old Doms………..or should read Old Doms v Fitmen?
Played 18; Won 3; Lost 8; Tied 1; No result 6.

The stats are even more stark when you look at the mid-week games which show P 10 W0 L5 T1 NR 4. Certainly the tied match in 2011 was a cracker with Tom (67 not out) and Butch (52) so very nearly getting past the 162 target. Sharrif smote 14 off the only 4 balls he faced to edge us to the line if not quite across it.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that visiting Bromsgrove isn’t the most lucrative pastime in the world. However……………here are some handy excuses/reasons.

The seasons from 2010 to the present have seen 18 fixtures between the clubs. The Fitmen victorious in only 3 ………….plus a famous high scoring tie in 2011.

There is of course one to go this season– a Sunday game on the 10th August at the Graveyard (our graveyard that is).

Short Form (T/20) v Long Form (40 overs)
T/20 P 10 W0 L5 T1 NR 4 – won 0% of fixtures completed
40 overs: P8 W3 L3 NR 2 – won 50% of fixtures completed

Home & Away?
Let’s look at home fixtures for the Old Mo: P3 W2 L0 N/R 1 ………. Won 100% of fixtures completed
And contrast that with away fixtures: P15; W1; L8; T1; N/R 5 …….. Won 10% of fixtures completed

So, out of the 18 fixtures, just 3 were home and 15 away. Of those completed just 2 at home and 10 away.

Home Advantage?
An analysis of the winners of football’s premier league in the last 5 years shows that if they played only 16.7% of their fixtures at home and 83.3% away, none of the winners would even have qualified for the Europa League let alone win the title. In one case the winning side would have been in the relegation zone and in a further two cases would have had an uncomfortable flirt with relegation.

The most consecutive league games without a loss at home remains 86 – by Chelsea in the Premier League. This period extended from 20 March 2004 to 26 October 2008. With that sort of form, if they’d enjoyed 83.3% of their fixtures at home, they would have won the Premier League by a staggering 43 points!

In 1972 Bill Shankley’s Liverpool won 21 consecutive home games (29.01.1972 to 30.12.1972) but still failed to win the ‘71/’72 title. Brian Clough’s Derby did!
Now if Liverpool had been able to play 83.3% of their games at home during this season, they’d have won the title by 27 points…………and in those days there was only 2 points for a win. The genius of Brian Clough may of course still have intervened.

Pos Club P W D L F A GA Pts
1 Derby County42 24 10 8 69 33 2.091 58
2 Leeds United42 24 9 9 73 31 2.355 57
3 Liverpool42 24 9 9 64 30 2.133 57