REMINDERS & HINTS

• When you send me an email please put your team abbreviation and conference in it so I know who you are e.g. IOS(UC1).
• Don't forget the mail deamon can do many tricks. Try sending an email with the subject 'help' to cricket@ultra-sports.com and it will reply with a list of the commands it understands.
• I have four people helping me 'run' Ultra Cricket - Mark Astley is the UC1 rep, Tom Caton helps with UC2 and Michael Sargent is the UC3 man while Brendon Meynell is the contact for all things UC4. Their emails are ucX@ultra-sports.com with the X being the Conference they run.

GENERAL NEWS

Show last 12 months only

October 22, 2007  This is my email on the Future of UC

As Mark has hinted at in Forum - UC's future is very unsure. I am planning an extended holiday next year which will prevent me running UC for at least 3 months. As you are all very well aware UC has not been run as regularly as it should over the past few years. As my family grows I have less and less time to do the necessary admin. You'll also notice all the promises about code changes and no action.

Also, the finances continue to be very tight. Also, the system admin to prevent hackers from spoiling things (as can be seen from the fact that Google is at present warning that this site is unsafe (it isn't anymore - it was for a few days a month back).

The plan - quite soon I am hoping to move off my own server onto a administered server. If I can pull this off and maintain all the functionality required then we should be able to cut the costs quite dramatically. I then plan to shut down UC and spend spare time doing some programming - basically a major rewrite of UC and hopefully some graphical front ends.

UC almost had 1000 teams a few years back. We're down to less than 300 now. People are expecting a more user friendly interface. I have always wanted to learn how to write in something like Visual Basic and Mark is keen to learn also - so the plan is that we will learn together and with some luck in a year or so UC will return bigger and better. Mark may even take over the Commissioner role if he has the time and interest once at High School!

If the move to the new home works I'll work with a few people and see if we can keep some form of UC competition running during the hiatus. But basically I don't see a future for UC in its present state.

How can you help? If you can programme - let me know. I'll need some advice on the best language and environment to learn. And we should be able to pool our time and resources I imagine to get some of the coding done together.

I have kept UC running for 15 years but I think the past 5 may have been a bad idea. I needed to sort out some of the user interface issues back then. I kept hoping I'd have more time and enthusiasm :-)

Let me know if you have any thoughts on how we can keep UC ticking along and what we can do to ensure its long term survival. I am afraid the mighty $ will play a role in all this.

Cheers
Tim
 

November 21, 2005  Updating this page too.
We are on a new PC with a much faster CPU - more memory but less disk space at the moment. We are also using a new version of linux which does mean some scripts were not working since some of the system files are located in different places and some utilities are now loaded where they always should have been but they weren't there on the old incarnation of UC. I think most things have been copied over and are working - but we'll see! Tim
 

July 10, 2005  Thanks for the help with the favicon thingy. It seems to work as sporadically as it is does. I am also getting assistance with the C code and MySQL stuff - no offers of help for the other requests though.

Tim
 

July 5, 2005  I have thought of another project someone could have fun with. Updating Otto (the Autoselector) especally keeping in mind the need to have Otto work with 3 ODI campaigns like UC4 and 2 Test comps like UC5 - also some form of Otto training orders are needed to stop abandoned teams falling in a total heap Tim
 

July 4, 2005  Time to get some things fixed - and since I don't have the time it is time for others of you with the time to spend the time to fix things. [I love horrible sentences like that!] Anyway - the following things need fixing.

• The resend script on the team admin pages - there is a bug which means it won't work for UC5 - I know what the bug is - I just need someone to fix it with some creative thinking so it works for all conference in the future. Script is in PHP
• The Abselo ratings. I need someone to go through the various scripts and work out what needs to be done (if anything) to make them work for UC4 and UC5 - the setup was designed for teams playing 1 test and 2 ODIs each week. There may need to be a few tweaks. Scripts are in Perl mostly.
• I need some help with getting my C code to talk to my MySQL database. Someone with some experience in these things should be able to sort me out pretty quickly and then quite a few subtle but far reaching improvement to the administration of UC could occur - making life much better for everyone!
• Can someone make a .ico file for me please - using the UC cricket ball with the map on it from the logo? Would be nice to have that little extra touch to the site.

August 27, 2004  There has been some slippage in the dates from those advertised below. My plans are now:
This weekend - setup UC1
Next week - in Canberra doing a course on Regulatory Economics
Following week - start UC1 - plan is to get 3 weeks done in 14 or 15 days so we catch up on UC2 a little. Finish UC3 Cup and settle on league structure.

The plan is to have UC3 restart in about mid-September. Once that happens I'll start up UC4 - there will be some teething problems as I convert scripts over to run just ODIs but most things can work there. I'd hope to have UC4 running soon after UC3 starts.

UC5 (The Test only conference) will need some help. I need some people to propose some formats and have a debate on the forum about it. Should it be 2 or 3 tests a week - how long a season - any Cup. In fact the UC4 guys need to decide if they want some form of Cup or not. I'd prefer not, from a logistics point fo view but I'd like to see comment.
The more help I get the more likely things are to start soon.

Tim
 

July 28, 2004  Sorry if this is a spoiler to anyone - but the UC HQ will be investigating the pitch at KPZ after the recent UC1 Cup Semi Final.
After electing to bat first OBC were soon in deep trouble at 3 for 7. H.Block and Daffers settled things for a while but when Daffers fell for 7 with the total on just 38 things looked grim for OBC. H.Block ended up with an unbeaten 42 and 12 from Lee saw OBC get to into the 70s before the tail saw 3 ducks and the final total crawl to just 84 - a record low for OBC. P Mouland got 4 for 9 for KPZ as the number 1 seeds looked set for a quick romp into the final.
It being well before lunch KPZ went out to bat and disaster struck first ball as T Abbott went for a duck. Before you could say boo it was 4 for 14 and OBC were back in with a sniff. At 6 for 36 the game was swinging OBC's way and despite a 19 run 7th wicket partnership KPZ subsided for just 64 runs - to lose by 20. Four bowlers struck, with Guy taking 3 for 16 from 10 overs.
Both teams went into the game with fearsome attacks and the pitch conditions were perfectly suited to the attacks - and as a result wickets tumbled. I should also point out both sides went for very attacking fields which obviously paid off in this game.
 

July 6, 2004  Managers with Enhanced Teams can now test the new 'batting tactics' in the ODI code. You should have got an email explaining the syntax and where it goes. If you want to test the new tactics and you don't have an enhanced team - then all you have to do is pay me $10 (Australian) and not only do you get a chance to test the code - your team is eligible to play in the SuperCup and you get more information in your weekly results mailout - what a bargain :)
 

June 30, 2004  The 'Final' UC2 divisional structure is out. Already found 1 mistake. Let me know if there are more.
 

June 19, 2004  This has not been a good week for UC. Let me explain why.

Last Friday the mailserver dies so people can't get email in. So when I log on on Saturday evening when I was planning to run UC3 and UC4 I couldn't - I restarted the mailserver and did a few other things.
Sunday was a busy day and a few of my favourite TV shows were on. So no UC.
Monday - a public holiday - run UC3 and UC4 but the server froze up on me so I could not get as much done as I had hoped.
Tuesday - a funeral after work meant not much evening left - left UC.
Wednesday - a two hour meeting after work became 3+ - too late to do UC.
Thursday - after soccer training decided I had better get UC back on track - but server locks up soon after I start work preventing me from getting much done - give up and go to bed at midnight
Friday - it being Kate's birthday party on Saturday - had other priorities to attend to!
Saturday - get on in evening to find mailserver down again - webserver going bananas and mysql on its last leg. A reboot is called for. At least things seems to be working as they should at the moment!

So - if anyone knows enough Linux to help me find out why the UC server keeps 'locking up' [System load hitting 30+] and crashing sendmail and apache then please contact me asap.
Thanks
Tim
 

June 1, 2004  Time to cause some chaos.

UC2 is about to start season 27. This will be using the new 'format' - 8 teams per division - 14 week seasons - no cup - no playoffs and promotion/relegation determined by combining your position in the Test and ODI ladders.

There will be a number of teams that may not wish to continue on in UC2 under these conditions. I appreciate this - it is a big change. But one I think is necessary for the integrity of UC.

What I will do is convert all 4 conferences over to this format. UC3 and UC4 will have to merge.

What I intend on doing is starting up a Test Match only conference and an ODI only Conference. The ODI only conference should be something like a 16 team division with a season long Cup. 3 games a week - should work easily.

The Test only conference is more problematical. I think it will have to be 2 tests a week - I don't see a Cup working and so initially it will be just a league structure with again probably 16 team divisions and a 15 week season.

So - what I need now is for you to work out which of your teams will go into which conference.

The aim is for UC2 to start within a week or so - but I will allow teams from UC4 to transfer over *IF* there is space. At the moment UC2 has 4 teams too many and I have already foolishly promised 10 newbies a spot in UC2 - so I have to lose 14 teams [which should be ok since there are about 20 abandoned teams in UC2 at the moment].

UC1 and UC3 teams wishing to move to UC2 will have to wait for the next UC2 season.

UC4 will cease to be - all teams will have to move to other conferences - preferably UC3 [there will be a wait between seasons here.] UC3 will finish last and take on those teams from UC4. UC4 will be reborn as an ODI only conference. UC5 will be reborn as a Test only conference.

Dates (approx) Mid June - UC4 finishes season 26
Late June - UC2 starts season 27 - combined format
Mid July - UC1 finishes season 26
Mid August - UC3 finishes season 26
Mid August - UC1 starts season 27 - combined format
Late August- UC3 starts season 27 - combined format
Late August - Tim away again for 1 week
Mid September - UC4 starts season 27 - ODI only format
Mid September - UC5 starts season 27 - Test only format

Transfer between conferences UC2 teams can 'rest' and join any conference if they act now! Otherwise they will be locked into season 27 which won't finish until October.

UC4 teams need to find a new home [not too many into UC2 please] unless they want to play ODI only.

UC1 teams can transfer to UC3,4 and 5 easily - will have a long wait for UC2.

UC3 teams can transfer to UC4 and 5 easily - if they want to move to UC1 there is a chance - and a long wait to join UC2.

Remember - the rule of only one team per conference per manager will still apply. So - you can end up with 5 teams once UC5 restarts in September.

I'll let you know who to email with requests. But most importantly - please email Tom Caton on uc2@ultra-sports.com if you want to be in UC2 for season 27. If you are in UC2 at the moment you should have done this already - if not you may get omitted from the next season.

This is probably as clear as mud - I'll try to keep info up to date on the website as things occur.

Tim
 

May 19, 2004  Last night I finally got round to uploading the latest 'patches' to the Codes. A few little cosmetic things for me - a few bug fixes (batsmen ending up at the wrong end after a legbye on a no-ball and a fix so people can't crash the code with dodgy ODI field settings - the guilty will remain anonymous) and a change in the chances of wickets in ODIs - there should be more now!
 

May 6, 2004  I have been asked which conferences would go to Test or ODI only and which would stay 'mixed'. I had not thought that far!

I guess my plan is at the moment to leave all 4 conferences as mixed and start UC5 and UC6 - one a Test only and one an ODI only. My only concern is the number of teams required to ensure a critical mass for a conference and how much use there is in having more than 2 or 3 conferences.

One reason for more than one conference is to prevent people having to wait 16 to 20 weeks for a new season to come around. At the moment there is a new season starting about every 5 weeks. By removing the Cup and Playoffs starting a new conference should not be a problem.

May 5, 2004  I have almost settled on the new league structure which will confront UC2 in a few weeks time.

For starters we will have divisions of just 8 teams. You will be in the same division for both tests and ODIs - to get to the SuperLeague you must be good in both forms of the game from now on.

You will play a full Home and Away season - once in Tests and twice in ODIs.
There will be no Cup. There will be no playoffs.
The divisions will be organised in a diamond structure. There will be 1 SuperLeague, 2 Division Ones, 4 Division Twos, 8 Division Threes, 4 Division Fours, 2 Division Fives and a Flying Eagles Division (numbers permitting). That gives us 22 divisions of 8 teams or 176 team maximum per conference.
In the top half (i.e SL, D1 and D2) it will be 2 Up and 4 Down. It will be the mirror in the lower divisions with the bottom 2 down and the top 4 coming up.

Newbies will be strengthened and will go straight into Division Three.

By removing the playoffs the season will run easier for me and we'll avoid the imbalance we have in the present Test season between home and away games. I have agonised over the Cup - but since we are moving to a 'combined ladder' competition I thought it a bit odd to retain a competition just for One Day teams - and a Cup using Test matches is too complex.

However - I do intend to run SuperCups in both ODIs and Tests far more regularly - some will be conference specific and others multi-conference. And I also plan on setting up a Test only and ODI only conference.

I think that should answer most queries.
 

March 29, 2004  I have finally sorted one of the issues I had with the Stats pages - the Top 50s now tell you what position you are in that list - it works with batting in the All Time records and will start working in all areas after this weekend. Tim
 

March 25, 2004  Combined Ladders and Diamond League Structure My current thinking on what will happen after UC2 finishes its current season is that we have a radical overhaul of UC. This will occur to each conference as they finish season 26.

The plan is I will rank all teams in a conference based on their combined Test and ODI position. I will then put teams into Divisions of 8 teams each. There will be 1 Super League, 2 Division Ones, 4 Division Twos, 8 Division Threes, 4 Division Fours, 2 Division Fives and One Flying Eagles team – in a conference with no vacancies. That is a maximum conference size of 176 which should be fine. I’d knock of the Flying Eagles division and then a Couple of Division Threes and lower to cope with smaller conferences.

Newbies would be straight into a Division Three – probably made up solely of Newbies rather than putting them in against other established sides – if numbers work. I’d aim to adjust newbie team skills so they are equal with the new Division Three sides. That means they can win UC in 4 seasons.

Combined ladders work thus. Below are the final ladders, point won’t matter once the teams are ranked in the code.

Test		ODI		
Apple		Guava
Orange		Pear
Banana		Apple
Guava		Pineapple
Pineapple	Grape
Pear		Orange
Blackberry	Banana
Grape		Blackberry

This means the teams would have the following ‘scores’

Apple 1+3=4
Orange 2+6=8
Banana 3+7=10
Guava 4+1=5
Pineapple 5+4=9
Pear 6+2=8
Blackberry 7+8=15
Grape 8+5=13

And the final ladder – the one used to decide who gets promoted and relegated would be

Apple 4
Guava 5
Orange 8
Pear 8
Pineapple 9
Banana 10
Grape 13
Blackberry 15

March 22, 2004  UC will have a week off next week. This will happen a few times this year I am afraid. I have enrolled in a Graduate Diploma course at the Australian National University - which means I have to spend 4 weeks there doing 'intensive' courses. I may have internet access but not the time to do any UC admin/run games etc. Those of you who live in or near Canberra - let me know. We'll see if there is enough for a gathering or two this year. There is a possibility a couple of my weeks will be in either Melbourne or Sydney - I'll let people there know. If all my time will be in Canberra I may try to organise something so Sydney managers can catch up with me if they like. Let me know if this interests people. In the UK we used to get enough people together for a Cricket match and a meal. Tim
 

March 18, 2004  There has been some controversy recently surrounding the issue of ethics, playing age 0 players and the spirit of the game.

I guess I should put my tuppence worth in. When I created my first cricket game on the computer the aim was to create a cricket simulation – to give realistic looking scorecards if nothing else. When I got access to email, I discovered the world of ‘play be email’ games and worked out I could alter my cricket game to work in a similar way. The intention was always that you as manager were to learn the difficulties in selecting competitive teams from a limited resource base and to see how well certain tactics worked. The simulation aspect/realism of the code had to be tempered by ensuring the game worked as a ‘game’. Thus complicating issues like weather and in match injuries don’t occur in UC – and teams can chase ok in the 4th innings of a test match and it should not matter whether you bat first or second in an ODI.

I always had an expectation that teams would end up being better in one form of the game (Test or ODI) than the other – either due to personal preference or just the tactics employed and I was not overly concerned with teams being in SuperLeague in one form and Division 2 in the other. Rather naively I presumed people would not be happy with this situation and would try to improve their team in the weaker form of the game whilst trying to maintain their position at the top in their stronger suit.

Overtime I have come to realise that there are a number of managers who have decided that to win Tests (or ODIs) is their aim and that a way of doing that is to sacrifice the other form of the game. This can be done by blooding young players in ‘sacrificed’ games to gain them extra experience and thus future high skills as well as by only training players in certain skills to bring out pretty bizarre players (e.g. 100 batskill and 40 aggression in the one player).

Certainly there was nothing against the rules in doing this. There was also nothing unethical about this approach. It was against the ‘spirit’ of the game as dreamt by me, but since it was never that well expressed by me, I am not surprised everyone else did not pick up on the vibes. :)

The situation came to a head with the recent code changes that meant that lower skills were more heavily punished. This has led to teams scoring more than 400 in ODIs and some very lopsided Test results. These results have highlighted the extremes some managers have gone to design their team with a certain goal in mind [that could be to win a SuperLeague, get a player to break world records or just have some ‘fun’].

This is where the problems have started. Some managers, quite justifiably in my opinion, claim such behaviour ruins the game for them in a number of ways; lack of real opposition, unrealistic results, ridiculous records for their team or the win at any cost problem.

In response to this I have decided to change UC to ‘combined’ leagues – meaning that there will be no advantage in winning the SL by playing an under strength team in one form of the game to get a future advantage in the other form of the game. However, this only partly addresses the issues.

The issue of playing age 0 players when they reach skill 60.1 and the entire discussion about the skill threshold is a red herring in my opinion. Let me state for the record that

1. The skill threshold of 60 is there solely to prevent teams playing a ridiculously under strength team for whatever reason be it deliberate or accidental. The code will reject orders if it can’t find a team of players over skill level 60. This is a sanity check. It is coded in just to prevent very bizarre results.
2. I do not have a problem with people playing age 0 players – but read on.
3. Whilst playing 60.1 is not breaking the strict rules of the game the 60 threshold was not meant to give approval of playing a player with skill 60.1 – again, read on.

What I do not think is good is when a manager chooses an age 0 player when there is a significantly (deliberately vague and subjective - J ) better player available in the squad. In fact this is not limited to age 0 – it is the selection of an underskilled player that is my bugbear. In real life a top level team would not get away with playing a very low skilled player if they had much higher skilled players available. The example of Pakistan choosing a 16 year old etc is not the same thing – one presumes that the player chosen by Pakistan is there since they are deemed the best player for the conditions. If you convert this to UC they may well be age 0 – but they are not skill 60.1 and replacing a skill 90 player from the first XI.

There is only one situation where this is ‘sort of’ ok – when you still win. If you win, you win and your selection methods cannot be criticised too much. However, I still feel it a bit ‘unrealistic’ to play a skill 60 player ahead of a skill 80 player. Now this is usually the result of a manager trying to blood an age 0 player to give them added experience so that they are a better player in the future. Managers like Ken Megill do this very well. They maintain a winning side whilst developing the stars of the future and all I can say is congratulations and well done. Managers who gain the superstars of the future by either ‘throwing’ one form of the game or by losing most games for a season or two I feel are not really playing in the ‘spirit’ of the game. If you can blood a youngster whilst winning all (or most) of your games then there can be few complaints.

Why do I believe losing games in the short term is bad? – you name me a professional sport that would allow a team to go two seasons without a win and still maintain their manager? Sure, there probably are some but the point is in UC, the manager cannot be sacked for poor performances. In fact there is very little of the real world negative feedback. This is deliberate. I don’t want to penalise managers for making mistakes or failing to understand some of the technical nuances of UC. Similarly I don’t reward winners as is often the case in the real world.

I think trying to bring in specific rules to prevent managers from losing today to win tomorrow is fraught with difficulties. Whenever you set rules people will tend to ‘push against them’ to see if they can get some advantage. What we need are incentives to act differently.

A change in the experience model is very likely – and should occur soon I hope. The idea being that the skill of the player is compared to the average for the game. The closer you are to the average skill the more experience you gain from playing. Thus if you are much lower skilled than the others playing you won’t learn much – and also if you are much better skilled than the others then there will be nothing to learn. This will greatly diminish the benefit of blooding players that are not ‘ready’ yet, as well as putting a cap on maximum skills to some extent. I have yet to decide on the detailed workings of the scheme. Is it the player’s batskill v the average match batskill (would mean bowlers would never get much batting experience), the player’s average skill v the average match skill or something else? I have had some suggestions, which I think answer these questions but I don’t have access to them right now to check.

I am also thinking of introducing a penalty for not playing skilled players. Take this scenario: Mark Waugh gets dropped from the ODI team and announces his retirement. He does not remain available for the odd call up as cover for an injured player.

If a player is consistently not being selected in the first XI they will retire. Thus you will not always have the cover of the aging star. And what’s more I’ll reduce the TPs if they leave the team in a huff – as they take their experience with them. I’ll have to carefully manage this but the idea is that a player with a skill over 80 and age > 4 will give ‘notice’ if they don’t get selected in the first XI (when available – injuries won’t count) for say 6 games (2 weeks) and then retire if still not selected. This will mean you will have to keep your older stars happy, possibly at the expense of your younger players. It also means you may well have to keep drafting young players whose sole aim is to be cover. E.g – keeper gets injured – who do you call up – a young guy or the slightly higher skilled but long since deemed over the hill player? In UC, if you don’t have a young player since that does not ‘suit your drafting cycle of getting a keeper every 4 seasons’ you will just bring back the old guy for a few games. He may not have played for 2 seasons but he is still out there in the squad somewhere. Is this realistic, that the old guy would come back? I can think of some examples where this has occurred, but more usually the ex-star has retired once he is not getting a game and the backup must be a youngster. I think this added complexity with add some ‘realism’ to the game and make playing younger players less of the simple way to make a super team in the future.

This still leaves the issue of managers setting up a team with the aim of playing all their youngsters in the first few seasons with the intention of fashioning a super side a few seasons down the track. They will see all their older players resign when they are not picked – no loss; they will get the experience since the average skills will be low and they will all grow together. Thus, neither of the two options proposed above will prevent this. So, how to stop this? I am not sure there is a way. In real life this may be prevented since a manager may well lose his job if the team fails to win some games and without any older players with experience around training may not be very effective – who would you learn from? [I’d just pay for decent coaches wouldn’t I… fair enough response]. How can we give a dis-incentive for such practices whilst not penalising a manager who designs his team less than optimally? My only thought is that the average age of the selected XI must be greater than some level. This is unrealistic, non-intuitive and just asking for people to play maths and ensure their team is at this threshold – none of which will stop people from still trying to build the ‘super’ side of the future. The only penalty I can think of at the moment is to make it such that you can’t make it to the top before the effects of the ‘super’ team are lessening. Maybe the combined league structure will make it harder to get promoted up as quickly, lessening the ‘reward’ for this style of play?

Please do not pick holes with the numbers I have given above. This has all been typed in a rush during my lunch break. The idea of this note is that it provides my thoughts on the issue and some direction for the future of UC.

I am happy for the discussion(s) to continue on the forum and elsewhere. This is good. I often change my mind or at least have it modified by comments from others.

In summary
1. I have no problem with people selecting age 0 players in their first XI
2. I have problems with manages selecting players that have just crossed the skill threshold when they have other options
3. I have problems with managers not attempting to win in both forms of the game – they might not be able to, but they should attempt to and should focus on improving their ability in the form they are struggling with
4. I have problems with teams sacrificing present results to gain an advantage in the future

I intend on
1. Changing the method experience is calculated so that low skilled players gain no advantage in playing against high skilled players
2. Going to combined leagues – so you have to be good at both forms of the game to win the SuperLeague
3. Introducing some system than penalises a manager for not playing more experience players by having them removed from the squad permanently and reducing the available TPs.
4. Introducing a new injury/fatigue regime (which is unrelated to the above but I just thought I’d let you know I have not forgotten it!)

March 10, 2004  I'd better start putting some stuff in here better I! I am doing a little more exploring with what Mat has setup with regards to the Website - to restart things here - here is a little bit of advice on Cricket captaincy. I have just been reading John Nyren's book about The Hambledon Men, published in 1833. Towards the end he offers some "Hints to Captains". One of these is that "If you bring forward a fast bowler as a change, contrive, if fortune so favour you that he shall bowl his first ball when a cloud is passing over; because, as this trifling circumstance frequently affects the sight of the striker, you may thereby stand a good chance of getting him out." I do not recall that any of our Captains have deliberately tried this stratagem, thus far. Perhaps it may commend itself in the future.
 

August 16, 2003  Just to let you know what has been mucking things around UC timing wise for the past fortnight.

Mon Aug 4 My darling 3 year old Kate spends most of the day on the couch asleep suffering from a virus.
Tue Aug 5 My wife joins my daughter so I have to leave work early to collect my son.
Web Aug 6 Wife is better (having been ill the previous week) and leaves me to nurse Kate for the day - hence UC1 is run during the day rather than that evening which is the more common occurence when I don't get it done on a Tuesday night.
Thu Aug 7 I have a training day which finishes early - hence UC2 is run during the day also!
Sun Aug 10 I get the virus - spend most of day in bed.
Mon Aug 11 I feel shocking - running fevers and getting cramps.
Tue Aug 12 Still off work but feeling better - do some UC coding.
Wed Aug 13 Still off work - go to doctor to get medical certificate and do some UC coding - shame no UC1 to run! Go out for meeting in evening but decide early night is in order so don't run UC2
Thu Aug 14 Go to work - mistake. Make it through day and bravely go to Uni to meet old work colleagues at a seminar - feel shocking on return and decide I had better go to bed and not run UC2
Fri Aug 15 Go to work but struggle all day. Feel shocking and go straight to bed when I get home.
Sat Aug 16 Quiet day - feeling better and in evening manage to start making in roads into UC backlog. Will see if this was a mistake tomorrow!
 

July 30, 2003  Fixed two little bugs today - one fixes a problem with the fielding tactics in ODIs that stopped people fielding A at the right time and the other one makes sure your fixtures for next week get sent out in the mailout.
 

April 24, 2003  Those people struggling with submitting orders due to formatting issues please read http://www.expita.com/nomime.html.
 

April 6, 2003  I have just loaded up a new version of the Test code that has just a few spelling mistakes fixed and the odd error trapping improvements added. The new ODI code with fielding tactic changes is being tested by enhanced teams.
 

March 27, 2003  Got this from Dom McNamara Has this finish got all the makings of a RSA v AUS world Cup match? Initially I wanted to send this because it MUST HAVE set the record for the most text in an over . . . you be the judges:

Frank_Davis bowls over 49.0
WICKET!!Teepookana b Frank_Davis for 2
New Batsman is Tyenna joining Cethana who is on 6(7)
Tyenna: 124 games. 1437 runs. Avg 24.776 SR 64.095 HS 92
* Tyenna scores 1.
12 needed from 10
* HOWZAT?!?
Cethana c Wayne_Phillips b Frank_Davis for 6
New Batsman is Pelverata joining Tyenna who is on 1(1)
Pelverata: 179 games. 1202 runs. Avg 18.492 SR 59.742 HS 58
12 needed from 9
* Pelverata scores 3.
Pelverata Runout(K) by Mervyn_Waite for 3
New Batsman is Liawenee joining Tyenna who is on 1(1)
Liawenee: 97 games. 127 runs. Avg 6.684 SR 48.289 HS 21
NO BALL!
8 needed from 9
* Liawenee scores 2.
6 needed from 8
* Liawenee c C_Grimmett b Frank_Davis for 2

New Batsman is Monpeelyata joining Tyenna who is on 1(1)
Monpeelyata: 36 games. 8 runs. Avg 1.143 SR 16.327 HS 4
6 needed from 7
* Monpeelyata scores 3.
3 needed from 6
* Frank_Davis finishes spell - 10 0 4-64
Over 49.0: 8 for 248 5.06 3.00 12.00 Monpeelyata 3(1) Tyenna 1(1)

Ernest_Jones bowls over 50.0
Wayne_Phillips lets through 1 bye
2 needed from 5
* . 2 needed from 4
* Tyenna scores 1.
1 needed from 3
* . 1 needed from 2
* . 1 needed from 1
* Bad return by Tim_Wall. 1 overthrow. Monpeelyata scores 1.
 

February 27, 2003  A change in sub-commissioner - Sarge has taken over Gordon's role in helping with UC4. Interest in UC4 has picked up again with a huge response to join UC4 - could be 3 newbie division for the first time in one conference for a few years.
 

January 27, 2003  UC has finally reached North Africa with my first manager from Morocco - indeed interest to UC seems to have picked up in the last few weeks with 16 new teams in two weeks - mostly all brand new managers.
 

January 21, 2003  I am back from holiday and have sorted out the problem that prevented me logging on since my return. I will try to get my backlog of admin done asap and get back into running regular conference rounds soon.
 

January 11, 2003  The Super Cup first stage is complete. I am now on holiday for a week so in this week Bricks will inform you of the draw for the second round and how things will progress. He is in charge. The emails may need to come from someone else so keep an eye on your inbox.
 

November 4, 2002  Phil Shead has done lots of work to develop a team rating system that will be automatically updated after every round. So - check out how well your team is going each week in the Abselo ratings - either by following the link from the Conference menu or on your team's page.
 

October 30, 2002  Dugal has taken over the reins from Alex as UC1 sub-commissioner. Thanks to Alex for his stirling work - and welcome to the fray for Dugal.
 

October 22, 2002  I have added a new mailout format - plain standard zip. The files will come with a different name which should allow you to know exactly which archive you are unpacking also. Thanks to Phil Shead for this help.
 

October 16, 2002  Not sure who to blame for this - but the UC2 Test SL threw up a bizarre game between Vegetarian_Conspiracy and Wishy-Washy_Windies. WWW batted first and made 219 - so far nothing unusual. VEG were then skittled for 99, Reon taking 5 for 39. Still nothing totally odd. Then WWW made 168 - Ricardo making 93 of them. Chris made 37 and no one else made double figures! VEG were set 289 to win on a low scoring wicket but had got to 3 for 175 and looked like giving the target a good scare. There were then 5 for 195 when the following occured:

WICKET!!Lamy b Franklyn for 0
New Batsman is Diamontopoulou. Dioxin_Chicken is still in on 86
*
After Over 70.0: 6 for 195 Dioxin_Chicken 86 Diamontopoulou 0

Mervyn ends spell; 4 overs: 1 chances, 3 runs.
Mervyn: 20.0-10-3-30

Day 3 ,Session 2, Mins 38.83 : Reon bowls over 71.0
The ball is seaming all over the place for Reon
Pressuring Field Setting
Mervyn pulls the ball in saving a boundary 2 *
. * . * . * . * . *
After Over 71.0: 6 for 197 Diamontopoulou 0 Dioxin_Chicken 88

Day 3 ,Session 2, Mins 42.91 : Franklyn bowls over 72.0
The conditions are helping Franklyn get swing with the ball
Attacking Field Setting
HOWZAT!?!
Diamontopoulou lbw b Franklyn for 0
New Batsman is Cox. Dioxin_Chicken is still in on 88
* Hat Trick attempt
WICKET!!Cox b Franklyn for 0
HAT TRICK to Franklyn!!!
New Batsman is Solbes. Dioxin_Chicken is still in on 88
* Hat Trick attempt
WICKET!!Solbes b Franklyn for 0
New Batsman is Sforza. Dioxin_Chicken is still in on 88
* Hat Trick attempt
HOWZAT!?!
Sforza c Ridley b Franklyn for 0
Congratulations to Franklyn on getting a 5 wicket haul

You read that right folks. Franklyn goes from 0 for 38 to 5 for 38 in five deliveries! Now - that is what I call polishing off the tail! 
 

August 5, 2002  For the first time since UC moved to its own dedicated machine we have had a hardware upgrade. I can tell the difference of the faster CPU and increased memory! I just ran UC3 is a quarter of the time it took to run previously! Those fast bowlers are really getting a move along!
 

July 17, 2002  Keynes are setting some sort of record I doubt will be matched in a long time. After 9 games this season they have just been involved in their third tie - and I am talking about TESTS not One Dayers. Some will say this proves UC is stuffed and I should give up now. My retort is - if the number of games played each week were played in real cricket I am sure someone would probably tie 3 in a row somewhere! Keep an eye on KCC in UC1 and see if they can make it 4 in a season.
 

July 4, 2002  Got the website back up and running after a minor (*smile*) technical glitch in upgrading the webserver - I think I know how to do it much quicker next time.
 

June 19, 2002  Thanks to a Stephen Barrow who is a bit of a whiz when it comes to Excel I have a download for you - it is an Excel spreadsheet that just need to have access to a formguide and it loads in the formguide and sorts it and make some colour coded highlights.

This is the second version - with new features that compares formguides for skill changes and the like. Download now
July 17, 2002Current projects on the go:

All time Conference stats - Alex Woo working on - no recent news
New PHP scripts to make more uptodate web pages - Josh Hutchinson - awaiting testing on server
New FAQ - Ken Megill - no news
New Test Code - Tim Astley - slight glitch in latest function
Order Writer - second version being tested - Mat Hall
 

June 17, 2002  For those teams who have paid me the appropriate money I am running trial games using the new test code. There is even a chance it may get used for the upcoming UC2 season - only a season late! To get a look at the code just get your team enhanced.
 

May 20, 2002  I am not even having enough time to put things here! I have changed the times of the deadlines for UC - All deadlines are now 7pm. I probably won't run most conferences on the right day but at the moment UC5 on a Monday night is working well. UC1 will be set for a Tuesday and UC2 on a Wednesday but they will happen when I get a chance midweek. I won't run them sooner than the deadline though. I have moved UC3 and UC4 to Friday - that means if I get the chance that night I will but otherwise expect them sometime on the weekend.
 

April 5, 2002  OK - not been a good few months for UC, what with school holidays, moving house and house renovations and then a forced change of IP address. I start work on Monday and we'll see what happen from there. At least I am home and internet access seems stable.

The IP address change meant many people could not get to the UC server for a day or so this week - it is fine now and all should run smoothly for a few weeks I hope!
 

March 20, 2002  UC faces an uncertain future. I have accepted a full time job in the State Government. Thus my free time has been dramatically cut. I am hoping to keep UC running as it is for now - but we'll see what the load is like and changes may be required to lessen the number of teams/conferences. I will also be on the lookout for more people to 'help' with some of the admin.
 

March 12, 2002  Another update - it is looking like I will be moving back home on Tuesday 19th. Quite how soon after that I'll be able to get my computer up and running I don't know. I have just done the UC4 draft and will run UC1 and UC2 later this week - maybe Wednesday.
 

February 26, 2002  Update - I am now living in very temporary accomodation. No computer! The builders should be more or less finished tomorrow and then it is the floor sanders turn - he will take a week but may not be able to start until next Monday. Once he has finished and the carpet is down we will move back in and UC will be back on schedule I hope.

What this means is that the deadlines for next week remain - I hope to turn the reminders on later this week. The deadlines will probably not mean much. If I can get onto the Net I will try to run the games next week sometime and the following deadlines may be delayed to give people time to get orders in for the next round after that.

Once I am back home I will give some priority to getting the new UC code working better and release another version for testing and we may have a Super Cup around Easter time - depends on whether my wife drags me away for a holiday or not.
 

February 21, 2002  I am afraid UC will have a week off next week and it may last a fortnight. As stated before I am renovating my house and have been house sitting for the last 5 weeks - this comes to an end tomorrow and I will then be living at a friends house until we can move back into our nice new home. At the moment the builders are putting skirting boards on and other 'fittings' - the kitchen should be in place early next week - but then we have to polish the floors and get the carpet laid and that will stretch things out for another week at least.

The upshot of all this is that I won't have my PC at home - I may take it to my work (which I do one day a week at present) but I doubt I'll be at work much in the next fortnight. I hope to sort things enough to run a round of games in each conference at some stage the week starting March but make no promises about exact dates.

Also - a very close friend of mine's wife died this week so I will be helping him out over the next few weeks.

My apologies for another break in service. There is lots of chat on the mailing list (some of it quite heated) and the Forum is always there to keep you busy - UC4 people can do their draft and UC5 can start thinking about it too.
 

February 6, 2002  Life remains chaotic for me. I am just about finding time to run UC but little else is being done. Mark starts back at school tomorrow so I will suddenly have 3 days a week without him for 6 hours which will help a lot. But, I also have to start painting the inside of my house starting next week and then move house probably twice more in the next few weeks.

I also have not got Linux to pick up my network card which would prevent much testing of the new UC code even if I had time to do some coding....anyone with much experience in the trickier aspects of Linux and Network adaptors please contact me to give me a hand.

There are some thoughts on a face lift for the UC web site too - a few more scripts and a replacement for Weekly Wickets are the on the cards.

And finally - I am also spending quite some time on the lookout for a real paying job - depending on what sort of job I end up getting UC could be affected to some extent - from totally stopping to limited changes. Just some warning.
 

January 11, 2002  I have had to call off any attempt to restart UC next week. I am moving house and with child care and a little radio commitment (I am being a reporter for the One Dayer in Hobart) there won't be much time and I really want to spend any time I do have on improving the new game generation code and setting up UC2. It also looks like Monday and Thursday will be my best days to get UC stuff done so UC1 and UC5 will move to Monday and UC4 to Thursday - UC2 will remain on Tuesday and UC3 remain on Thursday.
 

January 3, 2002  With all the credit to Matt Hall we now have a Test Match viewer. The final deciding games of the Champions Cup are up for view and future ODIs will also be put in the same Applet - I have found one glitch in it and we'll ignore that for now - Matt and I have grand plans for a much improved Match Viewer later this year!
 

December 26, 2001  The Christmas fare is settling - all has gone well at the Astley household. Thanks for all the Christmas greetings guys.

UC will be on the back burner for a week or so - no child minding facilities until well into next week and lots to do with the builders. Things could go very wobbly pear shaped over the next couple of months before settling down to something more regular. I need to concentrate on fixing the Draft Applet and getting the new Test and ODI codes working before the start of the new UC2 season.
 

December 3, 2001  Ultra Cricket will close a week earlier than previously advertised as I am going to have a few days away before Christmas. The restart may also be a little delayed as I really want to get the new much improved UC code in use for the start of the UC2 season in January. Adding to the mix is the fact that UC HQ will be temporarily relocated as we undertake major renovations to improve UC HQ facilities (i.e. update the kitchen and add a new bedroom!). Please bear with me.
 

December 3, 2001  The Predictor is my attempt at having a look at up coming tests. At the moment I wait for tests to get underway so I can start getting a grip on team lineups and tactics. At the moment the orders I am using are pretty simple ones. Over time I hope to improve them. If you have any knowledge or comment on the team tactics or the predictor's results and how I present them - please let me know.
 

November 15, 2001  Another review of Ultra Cricket - thanks Abhishek!.
 

November 12, 2001  The World Cup is about to come to an end. The Americas great run finally came to a heart breaking end in the Semi-Finals as NSW won to meet the injury riddled Victorians in the Final. This meeting between two huge sporting rivals will be fierce but there is dissention among the Victorian ranks with a manager asking for their star players to leave the squad. They cite selection problems in the final Super 6s game as a reason for their players to be removed from the squad.

The Final will be played on Wednesday 14th.
 

November 6, 2001  Every so often an ODI ends in a Tie - some teams manage it twice in a season and I think one or two teams have managed it twice in 7 Cup games - but twice in one week....

Open_Hostilities v Stargate_CC at The_War_Zone
----------------------------------------------
OHS : 6 for 200 off 50.0 Overs
Best scores: Gettysburg 71(129)
Best Bowling: Carter 1/24 (10.0)
SCC : 6 for 200 off 50.0 Overs
Best scores: Bray'tac 75(132)
Best Bowling: Dieppe 3/35 (10.0)
A tie between OHS and SCC
Player of the match is Bray'tac(SCC).
*************************

Stargate_CC v Lava's_in_the_Air at Stargate_Command
---------------------------------------------------
SCC : 9 for 223 off 50.0 Overs
Best scores: Hammond 53(53)
Best Bowling: Ruapehu 3/45 (10.0) Usu 3/39 (10.0)
LAV : 7 for 223 off 50.0 Overs
Best scores: Tongariro 97(137)
Best Bowling:
A tie between SCC and LAV
Player of the match is Tongariro(LAV).
*************************

In UC2 FSK were trailing by 247 runs on the first innings of their test against PMX when....

 
Filth_Skunks's second innings 
How Out              Runs Bls FOW 
G_Anderson c S.Katich b B.Willia   0  (2)  0 
S_Hitbowl  c B.Haddin b B.Willia   1  (4)  4 
C_Bradley  c S.Katich b B.Lee      2 (13)  5 
R_Johns    c A.Gilchr b B.Willia   0  (1)  4 
D_Hynes               b B.Willia  10 (26) 16 
B_Leys        lbw     b B.Lee      0 (12) 13 
D_Shlong      not        out       2 (31) 
R_Johnston c B.Haddin b B.Lee      2  (6) 21 
A_Williams c B.Haddin b B.Lee      0  (3) 21 
D_Granger  c B.Haddin b B.Willia   0  (5) 22 
G_Fiacchi             b B.Willia   0  (1) 22 
EXTRAS     LB  0 B  0 W  2 NB  3   5 
TOTAL                             22 
OVERS 16.5 
O  M   R  W Wd NB 
B.William   8.5  1  21  6  2  2 f 
B.Lee         8  7   1  4  -  1 f 

Then in the first round of UC1 we had

 
Tigullio_Bay_Cricketers's batting card. 
Name                      Howout             Score Balls FOW  4  6 
A_Sciamadda             Runout(K) by C_Parrott 400 (993) 867 34  3 
L_Anghesu                  c T_Love b A_Almond  43 ( 81)  63  6  0 
U_Sciabeccu              c T_Moore b C_Parrott  30 ( 62) 136  4  0 
A_Rosso                           b C_Gollings 198 (471) 561 18  2 
U_Russu                       lbw b C_Gollings   4 (  8) 565  0  0 
J_Peters                 c M_Herrare b C_Brown 181 (475) 944  5  2 
W_Done                    c A_Almond b C_Brown  45 (119) 955  1  0 
A_Derna                 c A_Almond b C_Parrott  34 ( 78) 1006  3  0 
T_Fool                    c T_Love b C_Parrott  16 ( 39) 997  1  0 
U_Gussu                                 Notout   5 ( 12)   -  1  0 
U_Ghirindun                        b C_Parrott   0 (  3) 1006  0  0 
Extras LB 27 B  0 W  8 NB 15                    50 
TOTAL                  Allout for 1006 off 387.4 Overs 
<> 
Name                   O   M  W  R   Wd NB  RR   Speed 
M_Herrare             1.0  1  0   0   0  0   0.0 Medium 
S_Moore               1.0  1  0   0   0  0   0.0 Medium 
C_Gollings           104.0 18  2 282   0  6  45.2 Medium Swing 
Goodlife_Peter       74.0 15  0 190   1  4  42.8 Medium 
A_Almond             67.0 12  1 181   1  0  45.0 Medium 
C_Parrott            70.4 15  4 169   0  2  39.9 Medium Swing 
C_Brown              70.0 17  2 157   6  3  37.4 Medium Swing 

And then AT trailing by 97 runs in a Test in UC1 week 2 went...

 
ACME_Toonsters's batting card. 
Name                      Howout             Score Balls FOW  4  6 
Ash                c Schroeder_K b Bradley_M.Z   4 ( 21)   6  0  0 
Johnny_Bravo        c Vonnegut_K b Bradley_M.Z   1 (  8)   3  0  0 
James_Bond_Jr                       b Wyndam_J   1 ( 20)  12  0  0 
Gossamer                 c Sagan_C b Herbert_J   0 (  6)  11  0  0 
Zandar                          lbw b Wyndam_J   2 ( 20)  13  0  0 
Popeye                 c Vonnegut_K b Wyndam_J   0 (  4)  12  0  0 
Ryan_W                                  Notout   4 ( 31)   -  1  0 
Bad_Dog                          b Bradley_M.Z   5 ( 16)  23  0  0 
Motor.Mouse                    lbw b Herbert_J   6 ( 14)  30  1  0 
Autocat               c Vonnegut_K b Herbert_J   0 (  2)  30  0  0 
Snagglepuss                        b Herbert_J   0 (  1)  30  0  0 
Extras LB  5 B  0 W  0 NB  2                     7 
TOTAL                  Allout for 30 off 23.3 Overs 
<> 
Name                   O   M  W  R   Wd NB  RR   Speed 
Sagan_C               2.0  2  0   0   0  0   0.0 Fast Medium Seam 
Wyndam_J              5.0  2  3  11   0  0  36.7 Fast Medium Swing 
Bradley_M.Z          10.0  3  3  10   0  2  16.7 Fast Seam 
Herbert_J             6.3  3  4   4   0  0  10.3 Fast Swing 

October 17, 2001  I have had some problems with Engage - the company that was sourcing my adverts. They have not paid up since March this year and now have decided to stop the adverts all together. This has meant a rework of the website which will take a few more days to complete as I endeavour to track down the remaining links to the Enagage/Flycast site. I have promoted my William Hill adverts for now but am looking for a more reliable Advertising company. If you know of one please drop me a line.
 

September 20, 2001  With much gratitude to Graeme Griffiths I have got a new mailout system for results. This system should send the results as an attachment - making it much simpler for people on different system to unpack and read it. I have been testing it on Friendly games and with the Newbies for a month and have had no problems reported. I will start using it with UC2 and UC3 as of today.
 

September 9, 2001  Please read Gordon's news on the birth and unfortuneately death of Aaron Josef Oakes this week - our thoughts and prayers are with Gordon, Teresa, Kyle and Ryan.
 

May 21, 2001  With much thanks to Bricks I have updated the Geographical Listing of teams. So - you can now track down those managers that live within a reasonable distance and say hello. If there are any errors in the list please let either Bricks or myself know.
 

April 18, 2001   Check out this review for ICC and see what is says about UC :)
 

April 10, 2001  Ultra Sports has made it onto Websmostlinked.com - we are presently 135,695 out of 1.2 million they have ranked - not bad huh?
 

April 2, 2001  The UC Server got a real working over on Thursday March 29. It was a record day as 27,737 hits were recorded that day beating the previous record of just under 21,000 set earlier in March. The Ultra Sports Web site is now getting over 400,000 hits a month.
 

March 22, 2001  My absolutely adorable daughter Kate has come down with Chickenpox. This means she can't be in child care. This means I have to look after her more. This means I am not at work. This means I am going to have less time for UC for the next few days. I hope you understand. It also means I am dead tired after Kate didn't sleep much last night. I think she will over the worst of it by the weekend.
 

February 22, 2001  Weekly Wickets has a new editor. Shane Hill has bravely stepped forward and decided to take on the thankless task. We are hoping to 'reformat' WW into a more news bulletin sort of paper - coming out something between weekly and fortnightly - depending on content.
 

December 17, 2000  It is tough being a Commissioner. With it being Christmas time and thus a time to be generous I have just had to be really harsh on two managers. One guy was really keen to join UC1 - asked me a few times a few months back to join and I said he'd have to wait for UC1. Then he failed to reply to 'confirm' his intention to join and has just emailed me to ask where he is in the UC1 structure... he ain't. And then a long standing and very commited UC manager missed the change in the drafting rules and I have had to turn down a heart felt plea to allow him to draft an extra age 1 player. The rules are the rules and must apply to all with no favourtism. Does not make me feel very good - espeically at this time of the year - but they... that is what I have to do.
 

August 23, 2000  Recently people have been muttering about too many draws. Well - welcome to Bradman Test Division 1 in UC1 where results, and I mean results are the order of the day - check this out:

ADC make 369 and 279 to handsomely beat Bali(187 & 186) by 275 runs and that was the close game!

The next closest was Spring Creek's win over LT - SC made 410 and bowled out LT for 187 and 298 and got the 76 needed to win without loss of a wicket.

Next we have East Melbourne piling on 471 with B.Jakins top scoring and carrying his bat for 247*. ASB then get bowled out for 95 and 173 with M.Ossa taking 6/19 from 20 overs in the first innings and 4/58 in the second.

New Type pile on 513 (A.Parore 181) against Buckley's - they reply with 221 and 180 - Gough taking 5/41 and 6/23.

Maccabi bat first against Strydey Bo - MCB allout for 98 as newFast takes the awesome 9/36 from 15.5 overs. Both SB openers pass the entire MCB score - Christian 100 and Miranda 114 - the lower order also make hay and SB close at 9 for 602 - bowl out MCB for 362 Anita 174) - NewFast takes no wickets as the spinners cleanup and SB win by an innings and 142.

And finally - Waverley make 487 (Ciaran 111) and bowl out Bruce Hall for 209 (Dwindler 78* carrying the bat) and 218 for the 4th innings win of the round.
 

July 17, 2000  There was a clatter of wickets in a UC3 Cup game yesterday - check this out

 
Car_Parking's batting card. 
Name                      Howout             Score Balls FOW  4  6 
Capri                          c sooty b Jonah   5 (  6)   5  1  0 
Probe                                  b Geelz   2 ( 11)  13  0  0 
Supra                                  b Geelz   9 ( 20)  31  1  0 
Beetle                             c & b Geelz   0 (  1)  13  0  0 
Liberty                         c Millie b Zed   3 ( 11)  17  0  0 
Falcon                                  Notout  40 ( 51)   -  4  0 
Celica                           c Loz b Geelz   0 (  1)  31  0  0 
Corolla                                  b Zed   3 ( 16)  52  0  0 
MR2                               c Loz b Brum   1 (  7)  58  0  0 
Civic                            c Loz b Geelz   9 ( 13)  75  0  0 
Pulsar                           c Loz b Geelz   0 (  1)  75  0  0 
Extras LB  2 B  0 W  0 NB  1                     3 
TOTAL                      10 for 75 off 22.5 Overs 
<> 
Name                   O   M  W  R   Wd NB  RR Speed 
Geelz                 5.5  1  6  19   0  0  54.3 Slow Swing 
Jonah                 4.0  0  1  18   0  0  75.0 Fast Medium Seam 
Zed                   4.0  0  2  13   0  0  54.2 Medium Seam 
Kal                   5.0  1  0  13   0  0  43.3 Medium Seam 
Brum                  4.0  0  1  10   0  1  41.7 Slow Seam 
<> 
<> 
Cookies_n_Cream's batting card. 
Name                      Howout             Score Balls FOW  4  6 
Millie                       c Capri b Corolla   2 (  3)   2  0  0 
Al                             c Probe b Civic   0 (  1)   2  0  0 
Cooker                      c Beetle b Corolla   0 (  3)   2  0  0 
Loz                          c Liberty b Civic  12 ( 17)  24  2  0 
sooty                            c MR2 b Civic   9 ( 31)  28  0  0 
fox                                      b MR2   4 (  7)  32  0  0 
Geelz                       c Liberty b Pulsar   3 ( 18)  38  0  0 
Jonah                         c Falcon b Probe  10 ( 27)  49  1  0 
Zed                                   b Pulsar   2 (  4)  40  0  0 
Kal                                     Notout   2 ( 19)   -  0  0 
Brum                                   b Probe   6 (  6)  57  0  0 
Extras LB  2 B  0 W  2 NB  3                     7 
TOTAL                      10 for 57 off 22.1 Overs 
<> 
Name                   O   M  W  R   Wd NB  RR Speed 
Probe                 1.1  0  2   6   0  0  85.7 Slow Swing 
Corolla               5.0  0  2  20   0  1  66.7 Medium Swing 
MR2                   5.0  0  1  13   0  1  43.3 Slow Swing 
Civic                 5.0  1  3  12   2  1  40.0 Fast Medium Swing 
Pulsar                6.0  4  2   4   0  0  11.1 Slow Seam 
<> 
Car_Parking won by 18 runs 

June 23, 2000  Katherine Rebekah Astley (who will be called Kate) was born just before 4pm on Thursday June 22nd. I am one chuffed Dad. Baby and Mother are doing well and Mark is very happy to be a Big Brother. There will be obviously some delays in UC over the next week or two.
 

April 12, 2000  I am not sure how often this has been done before in UC but this was a good way to end an innings

Insaniac bowls over 47.0
. * HOWZAT?!?
Brussels c Slamfist b Insaniac for 7
New Batsman is London joining Buenos_Aires who is on 0(1)
London: 77 games. 143 runs. Avg 15.889 SR 56.746 HS 23
* London scores 1.
* Buenos_Aires scores 2.
* Slight fumble by Skull, Buenos_Aires scores 1.
* HOWZAT?!?
London c Slamfist b Insaniac for 1
New Batsman is Ridyah joining Buenos_Aires who is on 3(3)
Ridyah: 69 games. 64 runs. Avg 32.000 SR 54.701 HS 16
*
Over 47.0: 7 for 209 4.45 14.33 43.00 Buenos_Aires 3(3) Ridyah 0(0)

Enforcer bowls over 48.0
. * Buenos_Aires scores 1.
* . * Ridyah scores 1.
* . * . *
Over 48.0: 7 for 211 4.40 20.50 12.00 Ridyah 1(2) Buenos_Aires 4(7)

Insaniac bowls over 49.0
Ridyah c Punch_It b Insaniac for 1
Congratulations to Insaniac on getting a 5 wicket haul
New Batsman is Kuala_Lumpur joining Buenos_Aires who is on 4(7)
* Hat Trick attempt
Cautious Field Setting
WICKET!!Kuala_Lumpur b Insaniac for 0
HAT TRICK to Insaniac!!!
New Batsman is Colombo joining Buenos_Aires who is on 4(7)
* HOWZAT?!?
Colombo c Slamfist b Insaniac for 0

April 12, 2000  A new record stands for the fastest ODI 50. Ravenna of ITL in Sobers2 took on Callington Bay's bowlers and the following massacre occured.

242...4244442344334

53 runs from 19 balls. the four boundaries ina row came from the same over as Emerre got hit around and the next over from Emerre started with 2 more boundaries to Ravenna.

Ravenna did slow down - after reaching 50 he went

...41.1.16.142211121 before being runout in the final over for 81 from 40 balls. Whilst at the crease ITL put on over 100 runs in the final 10 overs and he was involved in a 77 run partnership from just 43 balls. Exciting stuff which you can watch here.
 

January 19, 2000  This may be a bit extreme but - this game out. Is it the Match of the Year, Century or Millenium - I bet the supporters of both teams can remember where they were when that game happened!
 

December 1, 1999  I got his report from Shane Hill - proud manager of INV.

In a recent cup match (29/11), the Invincibles (INV) were scheduled to play the Xtremely_Talented_Cricketers (XTC). The problem was, XTC was living up to its name, and it was doubtful whether or not INV would be able to do likewise.

So when Pollock.S stepped up to bowl over #35, with figures of 2 0 0 10, nothing much was expected of him. Here is what ensued:

Over 34.0: 4 for 176 5.18 5.06 5.31 Crawley 20(14) Azza
67(80)

Target altered by Captain at drinks to 285
Pollock.S bowls over 35.0
. * WICKET!!Crawley b Pollock.S for 20
Partnership of 42 from only 38 deliveries
New Batsman is Lust. Azza is still in on 67
* WIDE!
* Lust c Kasprowicz.M b Pollock.S for 0
New Batsman is Vanity. Azza is still in on 67
* Vanity c Kluesner.L b Pollock.S for 0
New Batsman is Sloth. Azza is still in on 67
* Hat Trick attempt
WICKET!!Sloth b Pollock.S for 0
HAT TRICK to Pollock.S!!!
New Batsman is Greed. Azza is still in on 67
* HOWZAT?!?
Greed lbw b Pollock.S for 0
Congratulations to Pollock.S on getting a 5 wicket haul
New Batsman is Dionysus. Azza is still in on 67
*
Over 35.0: 9 for 177 5.06 7.20 7.20 Azza 67(80) Dionysus 0(0)

Not only a hat-trick, but a DOUBLE HAT-TRICK!!! (why wasn't this noted Tim?) So from a commanding postion of 4/176, XTC were brought to their collective knees by one man, Pollock.S. (As a point of interest, XTC were bowled out for 192 in the 40th over, and INV won by 6 wickets in the 48th over)
 

November 16, 1999  A new World Record was set in UC3 last week. KOR were playing QLC in an ODI when G McGrath of QLC came onto the bowl the final over. It went

	Runs	Legal balls
wide	1	0
2	3	1
4 and noball	8	1
4	12	2
4	16	3
1	17	4
2 and noball	20	4
1 and noball	22	4
wide	23	4
6	29	5
1	30	6

So - finally McGrath finishes the over - with 2 wides and 3 noballs he had to deliver 11 balls helping KOR add 30 runs from the final over - setting a new UC record for the most expensive over. McGrath ended with figures of 1/105 from his 10 overs and Schist ended with 23*(8).
 

November 9, 1999  The greatest ever Keeper in UC Tests is Librarian of OU - who in the last test of the UC2 season passed 400 catches. Marc has told me he will probably retire mid way through the coming UC2 season - can he make it to 500 dismissals?
 

November 2, 1999  Here is some news from Phil Shead on the record breaking AM_Warren

WAL as few of you probably know are a test specialist side so it probably comes as no surprise this sort of thing happened in a one dayer where our extreme bat and bowlskills float around in division 3.

Batting first against KXC one of those team efforts saw us tot up 7/266. KXC start by surviving 2 overs from the underperforning fast bowling gun AR_Taylor and one from the even worse performing allrounder AM_Warren. Next over the fan got a bit sticky,

AM_Warren bowls over 4.0
. * . * Boods c MM_Smith b AM_Warren for 4
Davo comes in takes a pair of 2's then
* Davo c AR_Taylor b AM_Warren for 4

Over 4.0: 2 for 12 3.00 5.54 5.80 Shane 1(9) Taylor 0(0)

Surviving Taylor again Wazza storms in excitedly for his 3rd over, sending the first ball miles down outside off stump and wide is called, then next ball actually hits the wicket and

Taylor lbw b AM_Warren for 1
* . * WICKET!!Marsh b AM_Warren for 0

finishing the over with a noball and 3 dot balls.

Over 6.0: 4 for 18 3.00 5.66 5.93 Shane 4(13) Lehmann 0(4)

At this point the wise and experienced captain takes him off with figures of 3-0-7-4, into the attack comes spinners Peake and Vivviers, then more spin from Vincent and Knight. KXC bats enjoying this for 14 overs before rTaylor returns but they see him off. It's over 31 and 4/134 when Warren returns Shane happily sees of his over. But our ultra smart captain realising Warren took his wickets at the other end switches him so at 4/145 he bowls his 5th over (and over 34). Shane takes a single and then
Lehmann c FK_Jarman b AM_Warren for 44

Giving Warren 5/8, but 9 runs come off the rest of the over, and seeing this shocking performance, the captain pulls him again! and back come the spinners. The 2 bats combine for a 36 ball 50 run partnership including Shanes 100 before Taylor takes the sixth wicket.

Next over Warren is back and he removes Shane immediately,

Shane c AR_Taylor b AM_Warren for 105
6-0-24-6

And Warren is on career best figures. Then the big one, over 42 starting at 7/206,

AM_Warren bowls over 42.0
Dibbles scores 2.
* . * Dibbles c TM_Michael b AM_Warren for 5
New Batsman is Dinner_Set. Uboat is still in on 5
* Dinner_Set c TM_Michael b AM_Warren for 0
New Batsman is Eagles. Uboat is still in on 5
* Hat Trick attempt
Eagles scores 6.
* WICKET!!Eagles b AM_Warren for 6

Hat trick ball goes over the fence, then the number 11 has his stumps rearranged. Warren finishes with an all UC one day record of 9/32 from just 7 overs and all this to a man who is the antithesis of a one day allrounder!.

 
2)  . 1 . . . . 
4)  . . W 2 2 W 
6)  Y W . W N . . . 
31) . . 2 . 1 . 
34) 1 W . 3 4 2 
40) W . 3 . . 1 
42) 2 . W W 6 W 

"You won't find Tasmanian Tim Astley in the back pages of the newspaper. Yet wherever he travels, a legion of cricket fans revere him as though he was David Boon. Stubbies and bowlers, however, are not on his menu. However, code cutting is. Astley has run Ultra Cricket on the internet since 1992. It currently features 800 teams around the globe. Unlike the more common fantasy sports, where fans select their squads from professional players, Ultra Cricket gives 'managers' complete control over the virtual cricketers' names, abilities and training regimes. Rivalries between some of these virtual teams have grown to be quite fierce over the years, though geographically thousands of kilometres stand between them. Many real-life friendships have been forged. When sports fans cannot physically meet to compete against each other, this virtual alternative is available."

A UC3 Cup match between BUX and SEF saw some explosive batting from the SL outfit. When Tammy Nelson walked out at first drop BUX were 1/105 from 28 overs - the not too hot rate of 3.75 - the captain was aiming for 235 odd but Tammy had other ideas.

This is what she did

1.32614.23 (22* from 10) - 30 runs from 3 overs saw the rate climb over 4.3 an over.

1.1114.1..1 (32* from 21) - 50 partnership from 46 balls

314.316 (50* from 28 balls and 79 from the last 10 overs for BUX)

2..42.2241414 (76* from 41)

1.42.2.4. (89* from 50 - but 2 tired shots nearly got her out)

2.424 - 100 from just 57 balls - a record - previous best was 61.

She didn't stop there

..1..1414.. to end with 112* from 68 balls with 13 4s and 2 6s
 

August 24, 1999  The Life and Times of Otto Selektor

Otto was born back in season 2. In those grand old days of only One Day games - a real knockout Cup and the Flying Eagles - some teams could not always get orders in. The original remedy was to just reuse previous orders and hope they wouldn't become invalid due to injuries. This proved tricky and it then relied on me to correct the orders which was hard to do in an unbiased manner.

Into the breach stepped Sarge, the keeper of the stats and manager of the famous Lemming's Townsfolk(LT). Sarge had written a little piece of code which just picked his best 5 batsmen, best keeper and best 5 bowlers. He used this as a template for working out the orders for his side. This proved an excellent tool for me to use to make 'default' orders. We left training orders alone - they got reused week after week, but match orders followed a nice simple pattern. Thus Otto was born. Otto became famous and appeared in numerous editions of Weekly Wickets.

The code was modified when tests arrived, when injuries were altered in effect but in essence just picks a very simple standard side. It uses NO tactics - it knows nothing about the home ground or the opponents and is fed no variables. You should be able to work out who Otto will pick for your side and for any opponents.

Boris came on the scene when a slight modification was made so that Otto picked an allrounder instead of a 5th bowler in ODIs and Tests. Since the code was updated a new name came into vogue and now the code has two names, but the nature fo the code remained the same.

A lot of people seem to have quite a few missapprehensions about the purpose and role of Otto.

A few people complained that Otto was too keen to step into the breach. Thus for the past 4 or 5 seasons ( I forget how long) if you miss one week's orders your standing orders get reused. Then Otto steps in.

1. He is there to make sure every team has valid orders
2. He is there to make sure the team fields a competitive side and a realistic side. He cares nothing for tradition, youth or tactics - just raw skill.
3. He is there to prevent teams getting the benefit of knowing exactly who an abandoned team will select. This was seen as important in earlier days.

So, why does Otto seem to do so well? Well I'd say it is a bit of an urban myth that he does so well. When we lose we look for a reason and we spot a team being Autoselected - we may not do so when we are winning. Otto does not go for a youth policy - thus it may pick an old SL70 player ahead of a younger SL68 one. This may have immediate effect but in the long term is disastrous (just ask anyone who has taken over an abandoned team). It also is not uncommon for a manager with no real idea what they are doing to lose interest as their team starts losing badly and for Otto to step in - Otto will quite probably pick a better side BUT not a great side - it can't make a useless team into SL Champs.

The other myth I'd like to stamp on right now (I did say moth didn't I? :) ) is this one of the uncaring manager.

I do not deny there are some teams they get abandoned very soon after they start. A manager joins but doesn't realise quite how much commitment it takes and life gets in the way. Other people get onto the Net with some free deal and it doesn't work out. They are just the facts of any PBeM game and when you play it you have to accept about 10% if not more of the team you play will be abandoned.

Then there are unavoidable circumstances; things that draw us away from frivolous games liek Ultra Cricket and focus us back on reality - all of the following have occured to real UC managers;

• severly broken leg leading to hospitalisation for a few weeks
• death of an immediate family member meaning a quick trip overseas
• illness of an immediate family member meaning a quick trip overseas
• birth of a child
• death (at least 1 manager has died and I think 2 others may have)
• urgent business trip
• car accident leading to a coma (which the poor lad is still in I think!)
• illness of the manager
• ISP goin bankrupt and losing all internet connectivity
• alteration in business rules regarding use of company email
• ISP just going bananas and swallowing email
• failure of home computer and lack of funds to replace it immediately
• computer being stolen

There are lots of reasons that penalising people for no orders is wholly unjustied and irresponsible. Some people would say that in a lot of the above situations I could be informed and make arrangements. I'd just like to say that would be nice BUT if you seriously would bother to email me about some fun game when someone in your family is on their death bed - you need to take a long hard look at your priorities. Until such time as someone invents a email system that can tell you why an email was NOT sent the present system will remain.
 

May 12, 1999  A new World Record was set today - the fastest 50 in ODI history. B_Wayne of LYP in UC2 scored an amazing 50 against MBB. Here is how it went:

114163434.4.426.2124

50 runs in 20 balls beating the old record of 21 balls. He slowed down on reaching his 50 and the frustration showed as he got out soon after - but it will be a record hard to beat.
 

November 10, 1998  I just discovered another review of Ultra Cricket - this time in German. Check out dis site.
 

June 23, 1998  I have received the sad news today of the death of one of our managers. David Innes, manager of Old Apollonians (OAP) in UC3, died after receiving fatal injuries in a car crash last month. His good friend Scott Wemyss, manager of APM, has resigned as manager of his side as a result, saying that

"David's love for the game of cricket really kept my team going as well as his".

I shall keep both teams running for a few rounds before putting APM up for adoption. OAP will close down at the end of the season.
 

May 27, 1998  After literally thousands of Tests Hans of STF has cracked the big one. As far as I know he is the first player to take all 10 wickets in an innings and here is how he did it.
 

January 1, 1970  As some of you (if not most) are aware the UC server got hacked into by some political protestors. Nothing was permanently damaged but I am still trying to fix some unresolved issues and since the machine was effectively off the air for 2 days I have decided to take a little breather and cancel UC for this week. I may be able to get on top of a few other amdin things in the meantime. Sorry for the loss of UC but while people like hacking there is little I can do.
 

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