Well, at this early stage of the season, everyone at The Gurs is happy enough, save for the accountant, who's currently locked in a darkened room with a flannel on his forehead! Having, two weeks ago, enjoyed my healthiest ever financial position, with the sales of Burke and Atherton-Ham swelling the coffers to £610K, I'm now in my worst ever strife, languishing £204K in debt!
There's not yet any chants of "Vayro Out" from the terraces, but the back pages have started carrying stories with anonymous insider sources telling of how Vayro is plunging the club into impending Leeds Unitedesque crisis by going against financial advice and ploughing ahead with the expansion of the stadium. He's pinning all his hopes on a risky gamble that the New-look Cymru Gurgitaters CG with a capacity of 16000, built specifically to the 45:40:11:4 ratio, will be ready to host its first match on Friday, though with constructers, last Friday, giving an estimate of 7 days for the work, that hope looks touch-and-go at best.
Meanwhile Richard Dunfield, the second signing of the Vayro Era, has been placed on the transfer list, with a reserve price of £165k. Officially this is because he's soon to slip out of the reckoning with youngsters Noon and Bennett both rapidly improving, although many believe that it's a desperate attempt to balance the books and rescue a financial mess which has spiralled out of Vayro's control.
But seriously, I am in a bit of a mess, but I figured it was worth enduring some hardship, just to get the stadium up to the sort of capacity which could take advantage of two home league matches in three weeks, plus hopefully a game or two at home in the cup if I make it through the second round. If my gamble pays off, the stadium is ready for Friday and Dunfield sells, then I should be back in the black by the next financial update. If not then I'm in the ****, and I might have to sell one of my crown jewels. But even if that happened, I should be able to compete without one of them against most sides this season, and after a season of fullish attendances in the bigger stadium, I should be in a position to buy another gun. But I suppose I do need Dunfield to sell really - And I guess £165K is a little bit steep for him (21yo Woe Stam, Resp Bat, Med Conc +Med WK). But I'm quietly confident that some mug will buy him, and even if he doesn't go, with his deadline tomorrow, I'll still have time to sell him at a more realistic price before the next update. At the moment he does still make it into my top team at No.6, as he's over half-way up Resp Bat, and he's got reasonable Conc; but with Woe Stam he's not as versatile as the Young'uns Noon and Bennett, who both have Comp Stam and can bat anywhere in the order, even though they're both slightly lower Resp Bat.
On the field, I probably exerted a bit of over-kill against my Bot Cup opponents. I did Tie on Adam's advice, but I took the precaution of picking my strongest CI, albeit with a reshuffled batting order which saw Noon and Bennett opening and gun bats Staveley and Greening pushed down the order to No.4 and No.6 respectively. Skipper Patel won the toss and inserted Coddington CC, who were duly rolled over for 33, a Gurs record crushing. Bewers didn't actually seem to bowl all that well, going wicketless in his first four overs, but still managed to walk away with the MOTM Champaign for his eventual figures of 6.5/1/12/6, which included three sets of two in two balls! So even though he blew two chances at a hattrick, he'll have a third bite of the cherry when he opens up against Dragnets on Friday. Edworthy provided an able foil at the other end, claiming the first four wickets of the innings with 5/1/12/4, but was robbed of a fifer when the default overs took him out of the attack. The only other bowler to turn his arm over was Bridges M, who was anonymous in comparison, with the most expensive over of the day, 1/0/5/0. Noon and Bennett made light work of the chase, overhauling Coddington's total in just 5.4 overs. Noon bounced back from three consecutive ducks in competitive matches to strike the only boundary of the match in his breezy 17* (16), while Bennett was more reserved but equally composed, with his 13* (19).
Quite pleased with my ratings of Feeb/Med/Abs - Feeb/Comp/Woe, especially considering that they came on TIE, with default fitness and morale, so plenty of room for improvement if I can get on a roll. Though I think I will have to GFI for my season-defining match against Dragnet on Friday. They looked very comfortable in their Cup Bot bashing, chalking up ratings of Comp/Woe/Wor - Feeb/Feeb/Woe.
Next Sunday's Cup match is pretty winnable, though by no means a foregone conclusion. It's against Fambridge, a human side who, like me are in their third season, and who posted very similar ratings in their first round match: Feeb/Woe/Abs - Med/Feeb/Feeb. If I had my heart set on progressing I'd GFI or at least PAN, but after GFIing against Dragnets on Friday, I'll have to TIE it in order to recover my fitness, and if I go out I go out - Although at least one home match in the Cup would have been very nice for the pocket.
And I was also very pleased with my training update as Bewers and Greening have both reached Med Stam, allowing me to sack four of my five fitness coaches.
So My current nets are:
Greening, (19yo, Med Stam, Strong Bat, Woe Conc, Prof Field) - 2 Batting Nets.
Bewers, (19yo, Med Stam, Feeb Bat, Feeb Conc, Prof Bowl, Comp Cons, Med Field) - 2 Bowl
Noon, (19yo, Comp Stam, Resp Bat, Med Conc, Med WK, Wor Field) - 1 Bat, 1 WK
Bennett (18yo, Comp Stam, Resp Bat, Woe Conc, Wor Field) - 1 Bat
Staveley, (20yo, Med Stam, Strong Bat, Comp Conc, Med Field) - 1 Bat
Bridges M, (21yo, Med Stam, Strong Bowl, Resp Cons, Med Field) - 1 Bowl
Patel, (20yo, Woe Stam, Prof Bat, Resp Conc, Comp Field) - 1 Fitness
I know that the current thinking is leaning towards concentrating more nets on fewer players, but to be honest I don't have the squad to be able to have gun players with crap PFLs. Maybe after the current crop of trainees have run their course I'll think about trying to create a super-player who I could do without playing for two or three seasons, but at the minute I'd just like to use the nets to put the finishing touches to the squad I already have. Greening is due to pop to Sup Bat in about four or five weeks, hopefully he'll go on to reach Qual or very close by the end of the season, and then I'll just leave him on one net while he's 20/21yo, by which time I reckon I can get him to Rem, possibly even nudging Wond. I did want to give him a fielding net too, as Woe Conc isn't really good enough for a Gun, but then I figured that he's not going to need it this season with the league I'm in. If I do manage to get promoted, by then he'll probably be Feeb or Med Conc, and I'll finish him off with a fielding net at that stage, when he'll actually train quicker by dint of being a year older.
Similar story with Bewers really. He's going to hit Strong Bowl any week now, so hopefully he'll be a bit of the way up Sup by the time he gets to 20yo, then I'll leave him on one net for two seasons and let him develop to hopefully High Qual/Low Rem.
Noon I shan't persist too long with, but if I can get him up to High Prof/Low Strong Bat, and High Comp/Low Resp WK before his twentieth birthday then he'll do a job for a few seasons.
Bennet I'm undecided about. I figured that seeing as he's there, I might as well give him a batting net. He's lowish Resp now, so I'm guessing that he'll just have reached Prof by the end of the season. If there's nothing better to train next term then I might pile two nets on him while he's 19yo, and try and push him up towards Sup Bat, though I'm not basing any plans around him. He needs fielding as I shouldn't be carrying a Wor fielder, but seeing as though he's not exactly integral to my plans, the nets are probably better served elsewhere.
Staveley is on the homeward stretch as far as his training goes. He's 20yo now and I'm reasonably happy with his secondaries, so I'm just giving him the one net to add that bit extra batting. He's around half way up Strong, so he'll probably get to say a third of the way up Sup this season, and might reach Qual by the end of the next, when I'll finally call it a day for him.
Bridges M is probably too old to be training, but seeing as he's currently my best bowler, (Until Bewers overtakes him, most likely somewhere towards the middle of this season), I thought I'd give him one net for now, so he might get to Sup, or even part way up it, by the time I take his net off him.
Which all leaves Patel. At a 20yo low Prof, there's no point in training his batting, but with FC put off for another season he's had a reprieve. Even though I hope that in two or three seasons' time he wouldn't be good enough to get in my team purely on the strength of his batting, his Sup Leadership and Woe Experience, as well as his Resp Conc and Comp fielding mean that he'll probably just sneak in there for years to come, even if it's just at No.6 or No.7. Even so, I'd like to get his Stam up so he can play FC, or open in OD when I want to give Greening and Staveley a blow. Starting from what must be fairly high Woe Stam, (as I've previously given him four weeks fitness training), I reckon he can reach Med or even Comp Stam by the time FC comes around.
Owing to my cash flow difficulties I'm going to have to continue harvesting ITS for later in the season. My academy has dropped to Resp, and I don't see the point in sinking just 30 ITS into a YP, I might as well weight until I've got £60K spare, carry out the necessary repairs, and then use the max 36, or whatever it is, with a Sup academy.
Well That's all the news from Wales, Later, Trev
