First then, the bad news. I contacted Craig through his page elsewhere [ a 'social networking website' as the BBC so quaintly put it today] to ask about his countdown and the Prediction League for this year.

Alas- he does not think he will have the time to organise the Prediction League this year. It is, to be fair, his final year and there is the little matter of a job, internship or higher degree to sort out as well this summer. He has, however, promised 'full support' to anyone wishing and willing to take on the admin. for this much-loved competition.

I need to apologise at this point, dear reader. Elsewhere on here, I said Craig had been 'seduced by booze, blondes and Henderson's Relish'.

I was wrong .

They are brunettes, not blondes. And I forgot to mention Sheffield Wednesday as well.

Worcester Sauce all day long for me, you can take the lad out of the county but you can never take the county out of the lad.

Wish I had more time to drop in and I do hope I have more time to do so once the season starts (32 days ) but certainly time is against me until at least April 14th (dissertation deadline)

Hope everyone is well and looking after Worcestershire in my absence.

He's STALKING my every post!

I get an email sent directly to me whenever anyone posts in my section

Good luck with the plans Craig. We need to find some cover or 12th man replacement - are you going to have time later in the season or not at all ?

........ we've only got a few weeks left. Any volunteers to run this ?

If no one else wants to do it, and there are no objections, I am willing to have a go. I would need help getting started.
However, I will be away 23-29/5, 19-26/6 and probably 18-25/9, so it be well be that some else may be more available than me, in which case, I would be more than happy for them to do it.

Looks like we have the A Team in place - well done guys!

Thanks for taking this on, Tim.

If you need any help/advice then feel free to send me a message.

Right, back to the dissertation...

Let's just hang on a couple of days to make absolutely sure no one has a burning ambition to run it, and then we'll get cracking on Sat AM.
Any objections?

956
Mitchell Mason
(Smith Jones)

OK then as no-one has come forward to either offer their services or object to me looking after the competition, we'd better get started, as the first championship match is on Friday 9th.
I'll accept predictions for that from Monday evening, but I just wanted to see if there are suggestions for improvements that could be made. If we are going to change anything, we need to move quickly, preferably tonight or tomorrow, before predictions come in.
Once the season is underway, I plan to accept predictions well in advance from those of you going on holiday etc, as has previously been the case, and up to the usual deadline of 2 hours before the scheduled start.

1. As always we will be predicting for Worcestershire CCC matches; competitions included in the competition are the County Championship, Friends Provident T20 and Clydesdale Bank 40. Therefore friendlies and university matches do NOT count towards this competition. There will be a separate thread for each match so you will know which games you need to predict for!

2. As usual you will be making three predictions:

a) Firstly you will predict Worcestershire’s first innings score; this means first innings score in Championship matches and Worcestershire’s score in one-day games NOT the score of the team batting first.

b) Secondly you will predict which Worcestershire batsman will score the most runs in said first innings.

c) Finally you will predict which Worcestershire bowler will take the most wickets in the opposition’s first/only innings.

- You will also have the opportunity to pick a reserve batsman and reserve bowler as back-up if your first-choice player is injured/not selected in the starting XI.

Therefore my idea of a perfect prediction would look like this:

645 - Solanki - Jones

Reserves: Mitchell - Mooen Ali

N.B. Please make sure when predicting either of the Smiths that you specify which one you mean.

3. The scoring system will also remain as it was last season:

SCORE PREDICTION POINTS

ONE-DAY GAMES (Friends Provident T20, Clydesdale Bank 40)

Exact score: 10 points
Within 5 runs: 8 pts
Within 10 runs: 6 pts
Within 20 runs: 4 pts
Within 30 runs: 3 pts
Within 40 runs: 2 pts
Within 50 runs: 1 pt
Within 51 or more: Diddly-squat!

FIRST CLASS GAMES (County Championship)

Exact score: 10 pts
Within 10 runs: 8 pts
Within 20 runs: 6 pts
Within 40 runs: 4 pts
Within 60 runs: 2 pts
Within 80 runs: 1 pts
Within 81 runs or more: Nowt

PLAYER POINTS

Correctly predicted batsman/bowler: 5 points

N.B. In the unlikely event that two batsmen get a joint top score then points will be scored for both batsmen.

If, in the more likely event, two bowlers get the same number of wickets points will be scored for both in First Class games, but in one-day games the bowler with the best economy rate will get the points.

5. As usual the Twenty20 predictions will consist of one prediction for all games in the group phase. This just makes life easier as there are so many games in such a short space of time and also gives me less work to do! In the unlikely event that Worcestershire make it to the knockout stage there will further opportunities to predict. Points for the Twenty20 part of the competition will be added towards the end of the season as usual as a sort of ‘joker’ to make sure people keep predicting right until the death as they may still have a chance of winning once the Twenty20 points have been added.


6. I would ask that all predictions are made at least two hours before the scheduled start of play. I feel this is fair as it means no-one will have the potentially unfair advantage of knowing what the final XI is and which team has won the toss etc...

7. The first game for predictions this season will therefore be the County Championship game versus Middlesex at New Road starting on Friday 9^th April. The game is scheduled to start at 11am therefore I would ask that all predictions are in by 9am on the morning of the game. I realise this doesn’t give people much time on the Friday but that just encourages you to get your predictions in early.

8. As yet I’ve not decided what will be the final game for predictions this season but this will depend on whether there is a presentation; prize-giving ceremony etc... I will work all this out in due course and let you know which game will be the ‘final round’ and also any information on any prizes.


9. I would ask that anyone who takes part in the Prediction League also contributes to other areas of the forum. I doubt anyone takes the competition too seriously as at the end of the day it is just a bit of fun!

10. Thanks to Craig for all his hard work in the last few years, and good luck with your college work/ exams/ job hunting.

11. Good luck!

We're all grateful that you're doing this Tim, well done mug chap.