Bats Abroad

The new Battrick season is upon us, and it's all change in my One Day league with three new teams, two promoted and one demoted. The camper at the top of our league was neatly disposed of by the team that finished second, but not by beating him but by deliberately losing so badly as to force the offending team into the final automatic promotion spot available for the next level.

The system works by ranking all the leagues top teams by points and run rate. Top half auto-promote, the bottom go into a playoff against 5th and 6th place teams from the leagues above, and campers inevitably throw these matches. The team at the top can easily survive in Div III but just wanted to camp for the money and more importantly the morale bonus he picks up for winning easy games in order to make life in his FC league easier. Note: The camper had tried to throw the final match as well as he had enough of a lead to keep 1st place but his team wasn't as bad as the scrubs the losing team put out.

I managed a reasonable 3rd place with a 9-5 record after once more starting badly. The league was very close (barring the runaway leader) with only one win separating 2nd from 7th at the half way stage. With the camper gone I expect the same this coming season, but with 1st place as the prize, but with relegation as the booby prize. I'll be happy just to keep out of the drop zone.

Held my own in the First Class League, my first season at this level, by mostly playing for draws on a flat pitch. Finish third (out of six) 29 points from the drop zone. W3 L2 D5. With a dormant team coming down, and almost certainly guaranteed bottom place, there only really one relegation spot available.

20-20 was boring. Held station with 2nd team.

Have sold some old timers who couldn't make the first team or even the immediate reserves, these backup players have been replaced by trainees. Have finally got a sort of production line going with one player per year being trained up. The first of these should reach first team quality just as a few of the first teamers start taking the Stamina hit due to old age (i.e. 30+!)

Ray's moved his team - to the cricketing hotbed of Papua New Guinea and matches that start at 2am our time. Given his team is in a OD full of Bots his guaranteed promotion to Level 3 and lots of members and money. When he does promote then he will, unless the admins intervene, be going into a league that will be at least half full of Bots. Not sure if I could stand the boredom of such a situation.
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