The Blog Re-read: Part 7 (and Repetitive Overs)

Random fact: despite being published to the blog in December, this post (along with most others in the "re-read" series) was written a couple of months in advance. I did this so that I could fulfill the promise I made to the team of "a blog on each game-day for the rest of the year", and so that I'd have more time to work on something different for you.
But enough about that... let's continue with the blog re-cap (and some stats about Gareth's over of singles last week).

At the end of 2014 we played in the "B-grade finals", which was really just the bottom 4 teams in the top grade. Nevertheless, we made a grand final. We lost, making it the first time we had lost a GF at Weston - but still collected another Weston Beer Mug/Glass to add to our collections.

That 2014 season was the season of Rajit's wickets... both taking them, and getting out in strange ways while batting.

It was at this time that I created two permanent pages on the blog. One was a page which contains all the vital career stats of our regular players. It is still updated after every few games. I assume it isn't followed too closely, because at one point I realised that the "wickets taken" column was actually reporting the "number of times out (while batting)". It changed some of the numbers significantly, but no one seemed to notice. Probably no need to add any more to that page, despite initially planning to include other stats there over time.

The other was the story of where the Popped Collars came from. What I called the Popped Collars Pre-history.

I did that to commemorate 10 seasons of the Popped Collars - another milestone to go along with the 100th post and 200th game that had happened about a year earlier. But unbeknownst to me, there was to be another pair of milestones closely following each other. This time, the second one was five years since the blog started. I didn't notice that it was coming up, but thankfully Brad was all over it!

Then Gareth played his 200th match, and I decided that with so many milestones happening, it was time to do a blog about them generally.

Over the next two weeks I tried to get some audience participation, but got no replies. The answers to the second quiz have still not been revealed... better add that to the list.

Finally today, another write-up of a classic match. This time it was the game we won by keeping the final two opposition pairs to -15, including a last ball run-out to win the match. Adding to the hilarity, it happened the day after a match at Kambah where some of the Popped Collars players had been part of a team that defended 69 in a grand final.


Bonus Stat: Repetitive Overs
Last week Gareth bowled an over that went like this:
1, 1, 1, 1, RO, 1, 1, 1

Is this the most repetitive (or consistent) over anyone had bowled? Or has there been an 8-of-a-kind before?

The short answer is that it is indeed a record for "ones" scored in an over, but there have been plenty of occasions where 7 "twos" were scored in an over. If you only count the basic scoring shot off each ball (i.e. ignore jackpot ball, no-balls, overthrows, etc) then there has been a single instance of 8 "twos" in one over.

For more information, here is the list of "most of each thing" in an over.....

	Most in an over	Notes
Dots	5	This has happened 74 times before. The theoretical limit is 6-in-an-over (due to the 'third ball' rule) - but no one has done that yet.
Ones	7	Gareth's 7-in-an-over is indeed a new standalone record! Previously, 6-in-an-over had happened 8 times. 7 of them were by PC/GG bowlers. Rian did three of them, and Gareth had one himself.
Twos	8	Rian and Jim once hit Joel (from 4Skins) for a perfect over of twos! One of them was the jackpot ball and two of them were also no-balls, giving a total of 22 runs off the over. But every scoring shot was a 'two'. If you don't want to count that as a perfect over, there have been 11 other occurrences of 7-in-an-over.
Threes	4	Done on 5 occasions. Rian/Gareth have done it twice as a batting pair.
Fours	4	Done on 6 occasions. Xavier/Action Dan did it twice as a batting pair just 2 weeks apart.
Fives	4	Done twice, both times by PC batters - Rian/Gareth in 2010 and Xavier/Andy in 2011.
Sevens	6	Rian and Xavier did this while playing for GG - it included a 5-in-a-row. The over went 7,1,4,7,7,7,7,7 totalling 0/47. The bowler was Emma, a long time Friday night Lyneham player (who featured in the first ever game I played in Canberra... and I still have the scorecard for, of course). The Popped Collars record is 5-in-an-over by Gareth and Rian earlier this year against Donkey Kong. Rian hit a perfect 4 sevens from 4 balls, and Gareth chipped in with one of his own to set the record.
Wickets	5	Has happened 23 times, mostly while we are bowling, thankfully.
Same wicket type	5	One of the "5 wickets in an over" were all Caught. Sanjit and Matt were the batters against the Gold Diggers, and that is the only time there has been 5 of the same type of wicket in one over.
Extras	7	Sanjit and Matt have both bowled 7 extras in an over before, as have 2 opposition bowlers over the years.
Same extra type	6	Out of the four "7 extras in an over" mentioned above, three of them consisted of 6 "leg sides" - Matt and Sanjit included. This is the most of the same type of extra bowled in one over. Sanjit is also the only Popped Collars player to have sent down 5 "wides" in one over. Three opponents have bowled 5 "no balls" in one over.