Stat wars #2

Not that I'm bothered that much, but here's the current stats for all the Spinners that I'm aware of in our team. Again if you're just joining us for the first time on this blog I'm new to the game and don't quite fully understand how to decipher the content here and it needs to be viewed in the context of some of the blokes here play every day they possibly can, so someone like Neil Samwell for instance has bowled 160 overs and has an amazing RPO figure of 3.61. Whereas me (Dave Thompson), I've only bowled 32.2 overs. But couldn't you then argue that Neils been bowling for 15 years or more and I've only been bowling for 3 years and was one of the worst in the club last year - so this seems to represent quite a big turn around?

Wikipedia for instance states - Bowling average is a statistic measuring the performance of bowlers in the sport of cricket.
A bowler's bowling average is defined as the total number of runs conceded by the bowler divided by the number of wickets taken by the bowler, so the lower the average the better. For fast bowlers in Test cricket, most need to maintain an average of below about 35 to hold a place in the team. Bowlers who maintain an average of below about 25 over a long career are exceptional. The very best in the modern game have averages just over 20. Acceptable averages for spin bowlers tend to be a little higher ranging between 25 and 40.
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_average I understand that the more I play the higher these figures will potentially rise, but last weekend if it hadn't been for the left handed batsman I'd have had amazing figures based on the performance of my first three overs 3-2-1-2. Hopefully at the moment I'm addressing that problem and working on my Wrong Un so that I can get the ball to turn away from the bat and keep a good line and length. If I can get that together in a satisfactory manner I might then suggest that with more games under my belt and more experience there's surely the potential to improve? To me it seems that the more you play, practice and gain experience the more the potential for these figures to improve? Maybe I'm being naive?

To see the whole thing in full detail have a look at the club website. http://www.gandccc.webeden.co.uk/#/season-averages/4526675035

One of the things that did come to mind when evaluating and reflecting on the game on Sunday featuring the incident with the left hander was this......

In his book 'Getting wickets' (1930) Clarrie Grimmett writes about the bowlers role as a fieldsman....

It is not intended that he should go out in the field and knock himself out by chasing the ball needlessly, but it is obvious that, if he is alert and a catch is hit up that is going to save him in the long run if he uses some of his energy in running to secure it, that he should do everything in his power to take the ball.

With that in mind it struck me that the position that I was put out in to field, required that at the age of 49 a lot of running about was needed, whilst much younger blokes were in positions of relative inactivity. This meant that in addition to the issue of the lefty I was pretty knackered when the ball was thrown to me in order to commence my next over. Wayne in fact along with some of the others mentioned that I was bowling short and now looking back could this have been because I was out of breath still when bowling? Is it a strategy adopted by some captains that your bowlers are placed in primary catching positions as opposed to run and chase positions while they're bowling their spell?

Containment - off-spinners?

If you look at the figures for the off-spinners Wayne and Jay their RPO is very low alongside Neils. I've just had a look at some websites and it seems that it's generally agreed that Off-spinners are far more accurate than Wrist Spinners, but have less options for variation. Does it then follow that they actually play in a manner that is less attacking and more of a containment game?