Paul Franks had the honour of hitting the winning runs in the final match of the 2004 English First Class season, and so brought the curtain down on another Fantasy Cricket competition just before 6pm on the 19th of September.
In the end, David Eves won the competition with a little bit to spare; Brian Guthrie was also comfortably placed in 2nd, while there was a bit of a dogfight for 3rd place, with Steffen finally claiming a podium finish. Congratulations to David, Brian and Steffen.
I hope everyone enjoyed the competition as much as I did running it (even if I didn't win this year!). I look forward to you all entering teams next year.
The end of the English cricket season is drawing near - and with it Fantasy Cricket 2004. There are a couple more rounds of the main County Championship left ... and of course the ICC Trophy is just about to start.
The observant amongst you (i.e. the ones who bothered to read the rules before entering a team), will know that the ICC Trophy was not originally included in the list of matches which count towards the fantasy cricket competition. However, I'm having second thoughts about this - in particular I feel it's a bit odd to have the finale to the England cricket season excluded from the competition.
Obviously changing the rules this late in the day could be considered a bit unfair, so I don't want to do it if people have serious objections. The most obvious complaint is that people who have used up all their team changes are left at an unfair disadvantage - I'm unsure to what extent people have done this. Feel free to leave your comment below as to whether you approve or not including the ICC trophy. If there are strong views against, then I won't change the rules.
The first match is this Friday (the 10th) - so I need to make a decision by then. Incidentally, this change would extend the competition slightly: instead of finishind on Sunday 19th, it would finish on Saturday 25th (which happens to be my son's first birthday!). I'll add all the international players (with ratings of 1 or 2) in a couple of days if necessary.
I await peoples views with interest.
p.s. Is anyone going to any of the matches? I have been to one ICC Trophy match ... anyone willing to guess when & where?