Permanent Stats

As Gareth said a few weeks ago, it must be about time for another "all time" or "career" stats update. The last time we had one was when we reached 200 matches. Tonight the Popped Collars will play their 248th and 249th matches in a double-header, presumably meaning that next week will see the 250-game milestone reached.

Popped Collars Pre-History

In the beginning, there was a team, and the captain said "Let us take this game a bit more seriously". And there was the Popped Collars. And we saw that it was good. And we kept stats, and started a blog. Readers of this blog know much of the story from that point on - mostly because many readers of this blog are the people that have been playing for that team since then.

But what about before the beginning? What was this team that became the Popped Collars?

2014 Season Stats

Two weeks ago, season 2014 came to an end with It's On Like Donkey Kong defeating Popped Collars in the B-Grade grand final. That match brought to an end the 10th season of existence for the Popped Collars team. In the coming weeks, there will be some blog posts to commemorate the milestone, but before that here are the stats for the season just gone.

Winning Percentages

It's Grand Final week - Popped Collars take on It's On Like Donkey Kong at 6:50pm today in the "B-Grade" decider.
Also, in last weeks' blog, I may have incorrectly quoted our overall win/loss percentage. In an attempt to rectify that, and to see what chance we have of winning tonight's big game, here are a few quick Popped Collars win percentages.

Inspirational Stats

It's semi-final week, and time to inspire the troops to perform well. Here are a few quick stats to get you fired up for tonight's big game.

>7

Last week's match against Thrill Killers was indeed a thriller, and contained several instances of balls having more than 7 runs scored off them. Or, in the case of the final ball of the match, almost having more than 7 runs scored off it. Today's very brief blog entry is about scoring more than 7 runs off a single ball.

Contributors in wins and losses

Last week, Popped Collars won a thrilling game, getting home by just 2 runs after Gareth safely wafted at the final ball wide outside the off stump, while Rian invoked Gandhi at the other end. When the stats were compiled, it turned out that only 2 players from the winning team made positive contributions - and one of them was only +1. With that introduction, I'll leave you to deduce the obvious topic of this post.

Everyone's s**t bowling

A continuation of last week's blog about everyone's worst performances with the bat. Today, it's the same thing for bowling.

Everyone's s**t batting

In the interest of fairness after our last blog, and with some particularly poor batting performances recently, today we're going to have a look at a bunch of bad batting stats (bowling next week). Normally, we celebrate quality, or are intrigued by the unusual - today, we're laughing at the unfortunate.

Gareth's s**t bowling

Two weeks ago - the last game we played - was a good win for the Popped Collars. Individual performances within the game varied, and Dan was unfortunate to come away with some less-than-optimal bowling figures. In reading out the stats following the game, rather than offer quiet words of condolence (or just saying nothing) Gareth decided to point out just how s**t the figures were.

His comment apparently "didn't get the reaction [he] expected", and Dan sought revenge.The question was asked: What are Gareth's worst ever bowling figures?


On 6 occasions, G has come away with more than 40 runs off 2 overs. His worst ever is 1/47. Yes, there's a wicket - meaning he went for 52 runs off 15 balls. His first over (and the first over of the match) brought 0/31. Through two overs, he was hit to the back net 6 times.

Gareth actually had to bowl a 3rd over in that match as well - adding 15 more runs to his match tally of 1/62 off 3 overs.

As a side note, this was during the brief period where I was also recording who took catches and affected run-outs. It was me who took the catch to give Gareth his one wicket that game... you can thank me later, G.

Popped Cup results - The Final

I had intended to put both of today's games in one post. But it turns out this needed its own entry. Read on to find out why, and find out who will be the Popped Collars World Champion.

Popped Cup results - 3rd/4th playoff

Julian Mellor and Andrew Pearson face off, looking to salvage 3rd place in the World Cup.

Popped Cup results - Semi-Finals

It's semi-final time!
Rian takes on Julian, and Xavier clashes with former player Andrew Pearson.

Read on to see the results...

Popped Cup results - Quarter Finals

Eight players remain in the Popped Collars World Cup. Number 3 seed, Jim Ragg, was the big casualty, finishing on the bottom of his pool. Gareth is the lowest seed (12) to advance, but he has to face his regular batting partner and the tournament favourite, Rian, in today's match.
Here are the quarter-final results...

Popped Cup results - Round 3

The results for round 3 of the group stage of the Popped Collars World Cup are here...

Popped Cup results - Round 2

The results for round 2 of the group stage of the Popped Collars World Cup are here...

Popped Cup results - Round 1

The results for round 1 of the group stage of the Popped Collars World Cup are here...

Popped Collars World Cup

With the World Cup in Brazil drawing to a close this week, I feel the need to write a related blog post. The team can often be heard treating the hitting of sevens as a soccer scoreline (the singing of "one-nil... one-nil one-nil one-nil!" is often heard after the first such shot of a batting pair).
And so... using results from past "seven-hitting matches"... over the next 7 days, this blog will be reporting the results of a virtual "Popped Collars World Cup"!

Stumpings

Everyone loves a good stumping: the wicket-keeper, the bowler, the other fielders, supporters of the fielding team, the umpire, usually the batting team have a good laugh too. The batsman himself (and the captain of the batting team) are probably the only exceptions.

Weston update

After a bunch of weeks without a blog, here's an update on the Popped Collars performances since making the move back to the Weston Indoor Sports Centre.

Popped Collars Version 4.0

Tonight, the Popped Collars return to where they began. After playing at Lyneham, and now Kaleen, we now prepare to return to the Weston Indoor Sports centre.

Not many wickets

In our most recent match, we had what can only be described as "a shocker" in the field. Catches went down all over the place, run-outs were missed, balls were fumbled. The result of this was we took only two wickets in the entire innings (also we lost the game). Both of those wickets came in the final over the match - for much of the game it looked like we would not take a wicket at all!

I've written about similar things here before, but since it is topical, here's an updated look at the stats of wickets lost by a team.

I can't be bothered finding the past posts about it... but perhaps you'd like to look yourself using the new "Labels and Topics" section on the right of the page. Use it to browse through all the old posts by topic!

Debuts, comebacks, and the low ceiling

And we're back for 2014. I'll just do a couple of quick stats today that I've had in the back of my mind over the first few games of the year.