Sunday, 18 December 2022

The Mandarin Duck

 


Arvind’s (and other’s) exploits this year suggested it was time to do a deep dive with the archive. Here are a few low-lights.

Mandarins have been recorded as scoring at least 1,113 ducks. The first was scored by Ron Dearing, later Chief Exec of the Post Office and Lord Dearing of Kingston Upon Hull, on 5 May 1965 vs Windsor Victoria. The most recent was by Graeme Tunbridge at Alton on 18 September 2022. 1,081 of the ducks came from a total of 7,509 innings. 14.39% of all Mandarins innings end with the blob. That’s one in seven.

Although 2022 seemed dominated by zeroes, in fact it was a pretty normal year with 32 scored in 233 innings (only 13.73%). As it happens the full records break down into two “eras”, 1978-1993 and 2009 to the present, and there is a (probably statistically significant, help please Rob) distinct difference between them. In the earlier era the rate of ducks was 15.04%, but in the modern era only 13.54%. Better pitches? A less cavalier approach? Fewer Rabbits?

2012 and 2008 were years where the rate of zeroes fell below 10% but both are only partial records. The best two complete seasons were 1991 where only 9.80% of 306 innings were zero and only just behind, 1986 at 10.03%. In four of the six years between 1978 and 1983 the rate was over 18%, which was also exceeded in 2007, 2017 and 2020. There seems to be no correlation between the percentage of  individual zeroes and team success. Three of the most successful winning years, 1983, 1987 and 1993 had zero rates around 18%. So did two of the worst years, 2013 and 2017.

One team, Wembley/Berkeley Taverners excelled in getting Mandarins out for nought. We recorded 5 against them in 1979, 5 more in 1980 and 7 (the record) in 1982, with only 10 men. Then we stopped playing them. There are four other instances of 5 zeroes in an innings, vs Great Tew 1980; Elstead 1988; Hampshire Mercenaries and Hetairoi 1993. And we got 6 against Woldingham in 1978 and on The Day of Shame, East Horsley, 23/7/2006 (last occasion of 5 or more zeroes in an innings).

Most zeroes in a season is 59 in 1993. Most by an individual in a season is  6, shared (fortunately) by Paul McIntyre, Jon Day, Mike O’Shea and Rob Eastaway (all in different seasons). In the modern era, with fewer games, no one has exceeded Arvind’s 4 this season. However, Arvind does not hold the record for most consecutive noughts. Mike O’Shea got 4 in 1980/81, and Bill Stow got 4 in 1985 then added a fifth after a two season furlough, in 1988. One respect in which 2022 was out of the ordinary was the number of players getting 3 or more zeros – six players this year, only exceeded by 7 players in 1984 and 1993.

Most noughts in a career is held by Paul McIntyre, 64, but he has played an awful lot of innings, so has far from the worst strike rate. And he improved dramatically between the two eras, halving his strike out rate in modern times. Most players with long careers seem to register zero at a fairly constant rate – only a minority have fared slightly worse as they age.

The longest sequence without a zero is held by Mike Richardson, 83 innings between 1983 and 1990. Luke Mayhew was not dismissed for zero in 58 innings, 1979-1987, and Tony Gray managed 51 between 1982 and 1990. Over roughly the same era David Gower had a sequence of 119 for England, but that is way more the next best test player. The modern cricketer can’t focus the same way. Best sequence in recent times is Chris Healey, 38, with Robin Pharoah leading the charge to better that, currently on 30.

For players with at least 100 innings the best records are Luke Mayhew, 3 ducks in 108 = 2.78%; Mike Richardson, 7 in 176 = 3.98%; Chris Healey, 9 in 200 = 4.50%; Tim Baxter 8 in 146 = 5.48%; and Graham Hadley 14 in 226 =6.19%. If the qualification is reduced to 40 innings, Robin Pharoah leads the way with 1 duck out of 40 =2.5%, and Jono Maher has 1 in 35. For comparison, the best test players with long careers are ducking in about 7% of innings.

And the worst record? Well, the usual suspects, with seven Mandarins recording nought in over 25% of innings, of which three in over 30% of innings, highest 38.82%. Again, this seems to be in line with the worst test records at around 33%.

Further gruesome details available on request………

Chris Baker

Sunday, 13 November 2022

Mandarins Season 2022 Statistical Digest

Summary of Results

Played 23, Won 10, Lost 12, Drew 0, Tied 1.  Win percentage: 45.6% (2021 34.1%) . 5 games were cancelled.

Heaviest Victories:      By 7 wickets vs DEFRA Agricola, by 94 runs vs Charlatans.

Narrowest Victories:   By 1 wicket vs Peper Harow, by 24 runs vs SMCC Midweek.

Heaviest Defeats:        By 8 wickets vs Dunmow, by 89 runs vs Alton.

Narrowest Defeats:     By 9 runs vs Quilibets, by 1 wicket vs Brightwell and Elstead.

The tie against Far From The MCC CC was only the 4th in over 1100 recorded Mandarins games, and the first in a limited overs game. Needless to say, the scorebook does not actually add up to the claimed totals...

Highest score for 214/9 vs Charlatans. Highest score against 234/5 vs Millfields.

Lowest score for 94 all out vs Alton (0nly below 100 score). Lowest score against 97/5, HMT/Cabinet Office T18, 131/8 vs Superstars (proper cricket)

Mandarins scored 11 x 50s and no centuries.

  • Pharoah          86 vs Heber
  • Brand             76* vs Elstead
  • Baxter            69 vs Quilibets, 66 vs Harwell International, 61 vs Brightwell
  • Stancombe     67 vs Goldleaf, 64* vs Millfields, 50* vs Brill
  • Healey           56 vs Mandarins A, 52 vs Charlatans
  • Hawkhead     52 vs Norfolk & Suffolk over 70s

Best bowling was Rakesh Ramani 6.3-0-25-6 vs Mickleham. Rakesh also took 5-fers vs Superstars and Elstead. 

Notable events:

  • 50 players turned out for the Mandarins (2021,58) of whom 15 appeared just once.
  • Mandarins took 73 catches and 3 stumpings. Ramani had most victims, 10.
  • Worst collapses were 4-4 vs Brightwell and 4-5 vs Peper Harow.
  • Arvind scored 4 consecutive Golden Ducks vs Millfields, Brill, Charlatans and Brightwell, undoubtedly a club record (only one other instance of 4 consecutive ducks by Bill Stow in 1985).
  • Sam Brand was in peril on 3 ducks before scoring at Elstead, and Tunbridge starts the new season on 3.
  • Versus Milfelds, Stancombe and Eastaway broke the all time club record for the 9th wicket, scoring 79* and overtaking the 75 made by JC Gray and Jeremy Jarvis on 22 June 2008.
  • Mandarins passed 50 twice for the 9th wicket, having only done so twice in the previous history of the club.
  • Versus Weekenders Tunbridge awarded 5 penalty runs under rule 28.2.1.3 (wicket keeper deflecting ball with discarded glove) – first instance of penalties in a Mandarins game.
  • In the one wicket win over Peper Harow, Johnny Extras top scored for us with 41 out of 195/9.

Best Partnerships for each wicket

  1. 106 (Composite) vs Harwell (Baxter/Hawkhead/Wilmot/Tivey)
  2. 87 vs Charlatans (Baxter/Healey)
  3. 67 vs Goldleaf (Stancombe/Parthasarathy) 
  4. 89 vs Mandarins A (J Porter/Healey)
  5. 47 vs Brightwell (Baxter/McKeon)
  6. 47 vs Mickleham (Manian/Ramani)
  7. 47 vs Green Sox (Stancombe/S Forman)
  8. 42 vs Charlatans (Wilmot/Ramani)
  9. 79 vs Millfields (Stancome/Eastaway) – all time club record for 9th wicket
  10. 21 vs Erratics (G Porter/Heard).

Other 50 partnerships:

  • 74(2nd) vs Superstars (Baxter/Healey)
  • 66(2nd) vs Elstead (Wiliams/Brand)
  • 62(1st) vs Peper Harow (Williams/Warren)
  • 62(1st) vs Quilibets (Baxter/H Forman)
  • 61(1st) vs SMCC Midweek (Baxter/Jarvis)
  • 57(3rd) vs Elstead (Brand/Manian)
  • 57 (2nd, composite) vs HMT (Warren/Stancombe/Brown)
  • 56(3rd) vs Norfolk&Suffolk (Hawkhead/Hawkins)
  • 54(2nd) vs Norfolk&Suffolk (Hawkhead/Somerville)
  • 52(9th) vs Peper Harow (Manian/Eastaway)
  • 51*(4th) vs DEFRA (Lowin/Hale)
  • 51(1st) vs Goldleaf (Taylor/Jarvis)
  • 50(4th) vs Quilibets (Baxter/Manian)

BATTING AVERAGES (qualification is 3 completed innings)

Player

Played

Innings

N.O.

Runs

Highest

Average

100/50

Healey

8

8

4

188

56*

47

-/2

Stancombe

15

15

6

368

67

40.89

-/3

Baxter

12

11

0

336

69

30.66

-/3

Mills

5

5

1

107

39

26.75

Warren

5

5

1

106

32

26.5

Brand

4

4

1

76

76*

25.33

-/1

Lowin

5

5

2

39

22*

19.5

Wilmot

15

13

3

179

46

17.9

Eastaway

12

10

3

117

27

16.72

Ramani

14

11

1

164

33

16.4

Manian

17

17

3

216

49*

14.71

Porter, Jon

7

6

1

72

47

14.4

Hawkins

9

8

4

54

29*

13.5

Forman, Harry

9

9

2

81

20

11.42

Porter, Gemma

4

4

0

43

24

10.75

Maher, Josh

3

3

0

32

27

10.66

Forman, Stan

8

8

0

84

20

10.5

Somerville

6

6

0

62

33

10.33

Tunbridge

13

13

0

132

29

10.16

McKeon, Chris

8

7

0

61

13

8.72

Brown

3

3

0

24

14

8

Tivey

3

3

0

23

10

7.66

Forman, Dan

16

10

4

43

10

7.17

Baker

12

9

0

29

16

3.66

Lane

3

3

0

6

3

2


Also batted, appeared more than once, in order of appearance:

  • Williams 4-3-1-70-25*-35.00
  • Jackson 2-2-1-7-7*-7.00
  • Jarvis 3-3-1-54-27-27.00
  • Hale 2-2-2-52-27*
  • Heard 10-5-3-39-12*- 19.50
  • Brockbank 2-2-0-7-5-3.50
  • Hurst 8-3-3-25-17*
  • Hawkhead 4-4-2-66-52*-33.00
  • Parthasarathy 2-2-1-62-31*-62.00

One appearance: Pratap 1; Achawal 1; Hough 7; Vijay Anand 1; Yeo 25; Reeve 1; Kulkarni 5; Elias 42; R Pharoah 86; S Pharoah 10; Taylor 19; Avin DNB; Lowen 8*; Adam Eastaway 5; Heather 29* Keayes 2.

BOWLING AVERAGES

(Bowled more than once and took a wicket)

Player

Overs

maidens

Runs

Wickets

Average

Economy

Strike Rate

Hale

5

0

19

2

9.5

3.75

15

Manian

18.3

1

97

9

10.77

5.24

12.33

Mills

10

0

60

5

12

6

12

Baxter

26.1

3

110

9

12.22

4.22

17.44

Parthasarathy

9

1

49

4

12.25

5.44

13.5

Ramani

109.5

15

432

34

12.6

3.93

19.38

D Forman

86

14

420

26

16.16

4.88

19.85

M Hurst

43.4

7

181

10

18.1

4.14

26.02

Eastaway

74

12

294

14

21

3.97

31.71

Jackson

10.1

0

63

3

21

6.45

20.33

Healey

36.2

6

152

7

21.71

4.18

31.4

S Forman

43.4

7

194

8

24.25

4.47

32.49

Lowin

7

0

25

1

25

3.58

35

H Forman

49

6

194

6

32.33

3.98

49

G Porter

19

3

102

3

34

5.33

38

Stancombe

77

7

344

9

38.22

4.47

51.33

Jon Porter

17

0

82

2

41

4.8

67

Heard

42.2

7

208

5

41.6

4.91

50.79

Somerville

9

0

53

1

53

5.93

54

Baker

21

0

112

1

112

5.32

126

Also bowled:

  • Achawal 3-1-20-0
  • Hough 2.5-0-25-0
  • Lane 2-0-10-1
  • Vijay 4-0-30-0
  • Yeo 2-0-19-0
  • Reeve 4-0-24-0
  • Kulkarni 9-2-60-3
  • Elias 0.4-0-9-0
  • S Pharoah 1-0-12-0
  • Tunbridge 2.2-0-19-0
  • A Eastaway 4-0-28-0
  • Josh Maher 5-1-33-0
  • Avin 9-1-40-0
  • Heather 3-0-18-0
  • Keayes 7-1-33-3.

Mandarins took 73 catches and 3 stumpings:

  • 10: Ramani
  • 7: Manian, Tunbridge
  • 5 + 1: Warren
  • 4 + 1McKeon 
  • 5: D Forman, Wilmot
  • 3: H Forman, Stancombe, Baxter, Heard
  • 1 + 1: Tivey
  • 1: Eastaway, Lane, Brown, 2; Healey, Elias, Williams, Parthasarathy, S Forman, Taylor, Hurst, G Porter, Brand, Hawkins, Somerville
Chris Baker
Archivist