Welcome to Kaleen

With the closing down of the National Indoor Cricket Centre, the Popped Collars have been forced to move. With dwindling players numbers, it was off to play the 6-a-side competition in Kaleen. Two weeks ago was the team's first match at the new venue - so here is a blog post full of small quick stats and stories from those first two matches.



Game 1
September 14, 2012 vs Galas.
First game at Kaleen, and it was good to see another refugee from the closed NICC - Dean, "the big fella" from Lyneham, up in the chair to umpire the game.

Firsts
Brad both bowled and faced the first balls of the new era. The captain clearly looking to lead from the front. He also took the first wicket, the first to lose a wicket, hit the first back-net shot, and got hit to the back first.

With the new very low roof-line in the Kaleen nets, Sanjit hit the first seven, and Matt was the first to have his bowling hit for a maximum.


Game 2
September 21, 2012 vs Team Freak
Team Freak have been around for countless years playing the Friday comp at Lyneham. They've been around for at least 10 years. Now they're at Kaleen as well.

Firsts
Xavier hit the first half-century at the new location in a partnership of 85 with Sanjit.

Least back-nets in a score of fifty
Xavier's was an unusually high score, given that most of the shots were just dabs (or pro-shots) for two. There was a seven, two side-backs, and 2 threes - everything else was a no more than two. The score only managed to get high through several no-balls, lack of dot-balls, and double-runs off the last delivery. The innings equals the record for the least back-net shots in a score of 50+. The other occasion was an innings of 56 by A.Ragg (2 sevens and a five).

Sanjit's partnership record
Another equal record to come from the Xavier/Sanjit pair was Sanjit highest partnership. Once before, he and Brad have made 85 (Brad 55, Sanj 30) - but it took just two innings for the new (presumably regular) batting pair to match that.

Least wickets
The entire Popped Collars innings against Team Freak saw only 1 wicket fall. And that was courtesy of Andy Ragg (in his last game - that's another story) being bowled (possibly off a reverse sweep) - in the last over of the innings.

Prior to that game, the least wickets we've lost in an innings is 6. Admittedly, every other game in the stats is an 8-a-side game... but 1 wicket in 12 overs is still a far better record than 6 in 16 overs. Many thanks to A.Ragg for spoiling the chance for a perfect innings.

Latest Arrival
The second batting pair had finished. The opposition had chosen a batter to be the sub for the final pair. The batsmen were in position, ready to receive their first ball. Then Gareth arrived. That's got to be a record.

Batting Averages
Finally, after two high scoring games, here is a poignant and meaningful stat for you all.... batting averages so far, just to make (most of) us feel good. Sorry Gareth.

Batter	Kaleen Average
Evan	45.0
Xavier	34.0
Matt	33.0
Sanjit	32.0
Rian	32.0
Brad	30.0
Andy	29.0
Gareth	11.5