Well Tar Alan, now you tell me!
Having laid out almost all my available cash on a spinner with decent Cons and Stam, in the expectation that he was going to spend his weekday summer afternoons bowling twenty over unbroken spells, FC is now apparently not coming:-(
But at least, as you say Adam, in no more than a couple of weeks he'll have popped to Strong, and with any luck I'll be able to sell him for £600K plus if the crap hits the fan. And at least I got him for around £100K under my absolute maximum budget, so if my YP sells for £80K or better then I might have a dart for Neil Croft as well.
Like a lot of people, I'm now going to have to seriously rethink my training strategy, although I don't think I'm going to do anything for a couple of weeks, A, because I can't really afford to ATM, and B, because I've decided to get at least half of my fitness overhaul out of the way now, while I've got the coaches in place. But rather than setting Comp as the baseline, I'll now train everyone with a realistic chance of making it, to Med Stam - And then do something similar again at the end of next season - Always assuming that FC comes around by then. And at least it means a reprieve for my Skipper Patel. I was loathed to lose him, A, because he's got Sup Leadership and Woe Experience, B, because I've trained him up to Prof Bat, which coupled with his Resp Conc, has made him an extremely effective No.4 or 5, appearing remarkably adaptable to whatever situation he finds himself coming in to, and C, with Comp fielding, he's one of the more sprightly players in my team. But, and this is a big but, his Woe Stam was going to leave him well off the pace in FC, and I was doubtful as to whether it was worth persisting with him, as he was starting from such a long way back. But now, if I give him one Stam Net for the whole of next season then he should be there or thereabouts come the eventual dawn of FC.
Bearing in mind that I now have a near-Strong spinner, but that both my other decent bowlers are seamers, what sort of pitch should I set for my playoff? - And do I have time to change it before Friday? Currently my pitch is cracked, as my opponents last week had a Feeb rated seam attack and a Comp rated Spin line-up - But I don't really want to leave it like that, partly because it's not playing to Bridges M's strengths, and partly because my playoff opponents play five seamers and their only shithot bowler is a Strong quick, backed up by two Resps and two Meds. The way I see it I have one choice. Either Dusty, helping Bridges M out, and keeping my fingers crossed that Bewers and Edworthy struggle less on it than their seamers, or Slow, hopefully giving something to all my bowlers, but also giving their Gun some help. I think I'd ought to stay away from any of the batting-friendly pitches, as I have a massively superior batting line-up, and I can only imagine that H+F or Flat will negate that advantage. I have two Strongs, one Prof, three Resps and a Comp, whereas their best bats appear to be Comp or lowish Resp at best, although it's hard to tell as two of them are Comp/Resp all-rounders, but I'm not sure which way round.
Finally, if anyone is really bored today, do you fancy describing my squad to me? I am a full Battrick member, but, it would appear, not a full God member, so I don't have access to some of life's full membership features, such as working eyes, a six-pack, or hair of any colour other than ging'a!!
Oh BTW, How are you getting on against England Adam? And is anyone, in theory at least, up for a 2009 Ashes Beano in Cardiff?
Later, Trev
