Pretty pictures

With no good stat suggestions, and nothing new and exciting coming to my mind, I decided this week to draw some pretty pictures for you. I plan to not write much; rather just allow you to look for yourself and make your own observations. Or just admire the pretty colours.

Time after time

After the debacle of the first game of the year, Popped Collars suffered their second consecutive loss - this time a far more legitimate (though still very close) one. Perhaps it was Rian and Gareth colliding while taking a second run - resulting in a run out - that cost the game (it wasn't, but I just wanted to mention that incident in a blog so we can remember it for years to come). Perhaps it was the fact that we had fill-ins (we haven't lost a game this season with our usual team). Or perhaps it was the time of night (both losses were in 8:30pm games) ... that's a stat to be investigated... let's do it.

A farce, but at least it was close

Welcome to the world of the Popped Collars for 2013.

For this week, rather than listing numbers and looking up stats, I'm going to do a match report on our first match of the year, played last Friday. It was certainly one worth remembering. Firstly, because it marked the end of our 13 (or 14) match winning streak. Secondly, the blatant cheating of one of the Gold Diggers players, and the incredible level of incompetence from the umpire turned the game into a bit of a joke.

But at least the scoreline made the ending exciting.

And... even if you were at the game, this blog has a cracking surprise twist that you won't see coming. Stick around.

Xavier gets bowled. Brad and Rian score 8s.

Brad scored 8 runs off consecutive deliveries, and Xavier was bowled twice in one over. These two events sparked questions - and in the first case, further events - which form the basis of this week's blog. Probably the last for 2012...

Stumpings and Negative-tens

Last week's match brought about a few unusual things. Popped Collars made scores of 58, 56, 54 in their three skins. Brad and Xavier teamed up for a hat-trick of stumpings, and there were three other stumpings during the innings. And Popped Collars took a wicket on each of the three double-score balls, wiping 30 runs off the opposition's total. We also had a record-equaling 11th consecutive win.

Here is collection of quick stats about these intriguing numbers.