BTW Mahindinho, I'm not referring to Swansea in my header - I do actually have to live just outside Cardiff these days, owing to work. To save typing it out over again, if you don't mind, I'll cut and paste from a previous post
"However my main objection is commuting! When I first started working I tried and failed to commute back and forth to work, and in the end it was my deteriorating mental state brought about by trains, which led to me having to up sticks from my beloved God's city of Swansea, to move up here to Chav Central, AKA Cardiff.
'My deteriorating mental state' sounds a bit dramatic I suppose, I don't want you to go away thinking I'm some sort of nut-job, (well no more than you already do anyway!) but what I meant was that Great Western's sheer ineptitude was ruining my quality of life. In theory, it should have only taken me fifty minutes to get from Swansea to Cardiff and vice Versa, but in nine months of commuting, I think the bloody thing ran on time about twice! Mind you, this was in the immediate aftermath of the Hatfield rail crash, so maybe things have improved since. I was leaving the house at about half seven and not
getting home some nights until gone nine. Although, having said I don't want you to think I'm some sort of nut-job, I think I was actually beginning to crack up:-) I developed a pathological hatred of those recorded announcements they have at train stations - You know the ones?
"Ding dang dong - I'm sorry to announce that the 19:03 service to Swansea is delayed by approximately one hour and seventeen minutes - Owing to emergency speed restrictions on the Acton Main Line - First Great Western are extremely sorry for the severe delay to this service!"
Two main problems with these: Firstly, how the **** can they say "*I'm* sorry to announce..."? It's a ****ing robot! - You can't be sorry, you're not real! Give me a human to shout at, I'll bloody well tell them what a misery they were making of my life - I'll make sure their *extremely* sorry, don't you worry! And secondly, five minutes later the same announcement would come on again, giving the same excuse, but this time it would be an hour and twenty-five minutes late.
A, how can it give the same excuse for getting *even* later, when one assumes that by this stage the train has already passed the aforementioned speed restrictions on the Acton Main Line?
And B, how can it have possibly got another *eight* minutes late since the last announcement, which was only *five* minutes ago? I mean, surely to god, even if it had have stopped dead in it's tracks since the first announcement then it could still only have been another five minutes late? To have got eight minutes later in the space of five minutes it must actually have gone into reverse, and gone back up the track towards frigging Paddington!!!! Never trust train companies, , they lie to you! Also never trust men with centre partings, or anyone who has two Christian names instead of a proper surname, or anyone who calls you 'Chick' - Stick to those four basic rules and you won't go far wrong in life."
Yes, quite a few of my good players are still getting trained. Staveley (21) is High Sup/Resp Bat, and is due for a Bat and Conc pop soon. I'll carry on training him for another couple of seasons, and hopefully he'll be Wand/Qual by his mid twenties.
Greening (20) is currently Qual/Comp Bat, and due to turn Rem in the next month. Hopefully I can get him up to Sens before I'm done with him, but his Conc has, and I guess will continue to, hold him back from his true potential, so before he gets that far I might trade him in for a lower skilled, but younger and more rounded batsman.
20yo Keeper Noon is Resp WK and Prof/Resp Bat - And is due for a pop in all three in the near future. Guess he's not starting from a high enough position to make it worth training him indefinitely, like the other two, but I'll give him at least next season, by which time he'll hopefully be Sup/Sup Bat, and close to Sup WK. His batting should then be good enough to hold down a place in my middle order for the time being, and his keeping will be as good as I want really. I don't really have the statistical analysis to back this up, but I've got a hunch that you get diminishing returns from WKs, the higher up the levels you go. I mean, I don't think that there's the same difference in performance between a Prof WK and a Rem WK, as there would be between a Prof Bat or bowl and a Rem counterpart. I suppose that there are a limited amount of chances for keepers, and if you only get three chances then you can only take three catches, even if those three catches were so easy a Med WK could have taken them. Plus, if you get a proper Gun all-round WK, the wages are prohibitively expensive, certainly in comparison to their return in terms of performances. I don't know, I'd certainly say this is true at the level at which I'm playing, but perhaps when you get further up the leagues you need a better keeper to compete?
Anyway, the other batting trainees are 21Yo Patel and 19YO Bennett. Patel is Prof/Resp Bat, and is only getting a net until he reaches Strong in a month or two, and only that because he's Sup/Feeb Lead and I'd like to keep him as captain of the side for as long as possible. Bennett is Prof/Med Bat, and due to hit Strong soon. He may go on to Qual/Strong or something, or I might flog him TBH, as he can only get runs in the middle order, which is a bit of a bind with a WK/Batsman and an All-rounder also in the top six.
My only bowling trainee is 20YO Bewers. He's now Sup/Resp, and due for a Bowl and Cons pop before long. I'll persevere with him, and I guess he'll reach Wand/Qual in time. However, Bewers is a Cautious LM, so at some stage in the future I'll have to find the funds to buy a strike bowler.
All-rounder Steve Cash (30) is getting one fielding net, out of curiosity as much as anything. He's Resp/Strong Bat and Strong/Comp Bowl, and I'm getting pretty regular secondary poppage out of him - Which is nice, though I'm not sure it's worth carrying on the experiment beyond the end of the season.
I know that a lot of my trainees are getting on a bit, and that, in the long term, I'd get more change out of 17yo Resps, but with no money to bring in trainees without having to sacrifice a first team player, what can I do? I've figured that this group of players is good enough to succeed eventually, even if weaker teams overtake me in the short term.
Later, Trev
