Story [ICC3] Doomed to fail? The rocky road of Yorkshire in 2008

[silvanski]

My US wife, charming as she is but not into cricket ["oh, that English type
of baseball"] persuaded me to take the vacant job of player-manager-morale booster at Yorkshire ["terrier?"]and try to get the Zimbabwe job as well ["because of Leonardo Di Caprio's nice accent in the movie Blood Diamond"].:

As I decided to start in 2008 I first had to see where Yorkshire ended up in 2007.
In order to do this I let every game be decided at random (opting to skip the game), resulting in a steerless team failing miserably
County Championship: 9th
Pro League: 13th
Challenge Trophy: R1
Twenty Over Cup: R1

So upon my arrival in the spring of 2008 I found a team in shatters.
No easy task for this Belgian-born Texan but I got this line-up together

Bat:
Andrew Gale LHB-LS 24
Adam Lyth LHB-RM 20
Richard Pyrah RHB-RM 25
Joseph Sayers LHB-OS 24
Michael Vaughn RHB-OS 33
Jacobus Rudolph LHB-LS 26 (AFS-K)
JC Silvanski RHB-RM 45 (yours truly-Rookie)
Robert Key RHB-OS 28 best bat with 59.33 in 2007
Graeme Hick RHB-OS 41 (I like an old warhorse in the team)
Vikram Solanki RHB-OS 32
Yannim Eskandarian LHB-LS 21 (Rookie and fictional, wanted a converted baseballer)
Ben Wright RHB-RM 20

AR:
James Lee LHB-RFM 19
Anthony McGrath RHB-RM 32
Craig White RHB-RM 38
Sean Williams LHB-SLA 21
Ottis Gibson RHB-RF 39 (ITA) the Italian bug in ICC3

Bowl:
Timothy Bresnan RHB-RMF 23
Darren Gough RHB-RFM 37
Matthew Hoggard RHB-RFM 31
Mark Lawson RHB-LS 22
Jason Gillespie RHB-RMF 32(AUS) best bowler with 27.39 in 2007
Michael Munday RHB-LS 23

First match coming up will be home vs Somerset CC-D2, April 18.

I'm sure it's gonna be a rough ride...

My first major change was to replace the tuna sandwiches by "brisket on a
bun"... Much to my surprise the lads like it

updates with screenies to follow, watch this space

 

[gutterman]

great start mate, good strong line up. i will be looking forward to this one

 

[kookaburra69]

Good start mate,looking foward to seeing more

 

[silvanski]

Yorkshire vs Somerset CC-D2 teams

April 18, 2008
The teams for our first match under my management.

I opt for experienced players in the county championship and will let newbies incl. myself and others have a go in the 20/20 slogfest.
Ambitions are limited for now... we'll just wait and see how we do in our opening games.

 

[silvanski]

a decent 1st innings!

:onpc Any doubts and fears were eased by a decent 1st innings

Key, McGrath-just short of a century, Gillespie and Bresnan did a good job:happy
Vaughn on the other hand didn't seem to realize the new season has started :sleep

Fine performance by Somerset's Willoughby (4-99)

 

[Jaztheman]

Instead of attaching images to your updates you can put them anywhere in your post by using a image uploading sit such as www.imageshack.us or www.photobucket.com although there are some more. After you have browsed your picture and uploaded it you can copy one of the codes(depending on how big you want it, although you can keep trying different ones) and then paste it straight into here. Then you have the image in your post.

Onto your story, it is a nice clean start and it seems you have started very well with your Yorkshire side, so keep it up mate.

 

[silvanski]

Yorkshire vs Somerset CC-D2 result

As Aggers says "That'll settle some nerves"
A nice win! Enforced the follow on, which went succesfully (remarkable that Somerset was out for 248 in both innings) and we only had to clear 48 runs for victory.


And look at Darren Gough, one of my old warhorses!!! :happy
Edit to add that he bowled a bunch of overs in the second inns, hence the runs against

 

[gutterman]

good start to the season McGrath unlucky not to get a century there

 

[silvanski]

Thanks for the positive comments

On April 23 we played our first game in the Challenge Trophy, Northern group against Derbyshire.
I included Graeme Hick and he didn't disappoint, scoring a relaxed unbeaten 43 and taking a wicket.

Hoggard, despite being a bit too expensive at times made mince meat of the Derbyshire batting.

I'm sure our next game will be tougher: CC-D2 at Surrey.
There will be a few changes in the line-up based on the game vs Derbyshire ... i.e. Bresnan will be sidelined for practice sessions as he seems to be having problems with his accuracy... he conceded too many runs in the OD game but Key, Goughie, Hoggard and a few others can sleep on both ears.
Michael Vaughn has been called up for international duty.
Graeme Hick is in decent form so I'm giving him a shot vs Surrey.

Me and my fellow rookies aren't doing too bad in the 2nd XI... I scored 53 runs
Can't wait for the short matches to begin.

 

[gutterman]

superb win for yorkshire although 209 is a relatively low total for 50 overs but you won and i suppose thats all that matters kutgw

 

[silvanski]

superb win for yorkshire although 209 is a relatively low total for 50 overs but you won and i suppose thats all that matters kutgw

We started too cautious, not taking enough advantage of the field restrictions.
Glad for us that the Derbyshire batting was wobbly and we got rid of their dangerman Adnan.

 

[freddiw]

wow looking back great work
awesome 88 from dizzy ~~~~

could do with different images of maybe ingame or photos
also text
KUTGW

 

[silvanski]

Hoggard shines vs Surrey

Currently underway, our CC-D2 match at Surrey.
Despite having to miss Batty (2weeks out with an unspecified fracture) Surrey is slowly but surely building up a nice lead in their 2nd inns.
But our star of the early season is without a doubt Matthew Hoggard.
I'm counting on him and Goughie to cut through the Surrey low order.

Hoggard's 5th in the Surrey 2nd inns: Mark Butcher.

(I plan to transfer all my ICC3 stuff to my laptop as it shows the background, which gives nicer screenies)

 

[Left_Hander]

Nice ball from Hoggard. Surrey aren't batting very well.

 

[gutterman]

hoggard definately dominating the batsmen