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Boys,

We're not firing on all cylinders at the mo. So let's just do what we know we can do best.
Let's do it for London.
But..
...let's do it for Ourselves first.

That is all.

regards

Peter

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L: 23-21

Well then, that was fairly abysmal. Maybe mid-season blues?
Many thanks to Jack L and Anita M from the Juniors and Ladies respectively for making up the numbers. Both scoring 1 out of 4.
We gave away too many frames on the back of some appalling play. Poor shot selection. poor safety, poor risk management; going for finishes that weren't 95% certain; and Berks were only too happy to punish us.
The fact that we lost by a frame reflects well on the performances of Graham 4/4; Alex, Mickey C & Mark E 3/4; Brendan & Adam E 2/4. Well done them, especially Graham, the Captain's man of the match.
The rest of us were a woeful 1/4 and 0/4.

Berks are not the strongest team on the C League, and we should be beating them by the end of the 3rd set at least.

I know we were undermanned, and that unsettles teams, but we're supposed to be adult, professional and adaptable. Today we weren't.

I apologise openly for my errors in play.

We have four remaining fixtures to try and sort this out. Once the overall, up-to-date C League is published, we'll know where we stand, then we should reassess where to aim.

One good note though, London Squad profited by about 110 frames out of a possible 176, add on 12 bonus points and we've consolidated our position at the top of the Region. the Ladies and As winning, the Bs drawing.
Well done all.

Our next fixture is 9th August, at home v Kent. This will be Brendan's last county match. So let's send him back down under with a victory, as he was especially hacked off at today's paucity.

To those who were absent; I know some of you had legitimate and urgent reasons for not being there; but to those who just bunked off without informing your captain, shame on you.

That is all, for now.

regards

P.

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What were the individual scores?

Surrey A's won 26-18
B's won 33-11
C's won
Ladies won 26-18
Juniors won 32-12


Looks like your B team are a bunch of melters. :lolsign:

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on this site trying to give it aswell tom. lol

melters who are still 7 points clear at the top mate . lol

seems like your trying to have a pop at the B team because your trying to get your mind of the fact that your A team are getting smashed for this years region title. lol

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The A team is over. I can accept that. The national title on my shelf at home will do nicely though. Lol

Its actually quite good to see someone challenge the B team. Hasn't happened for a while.

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Hacked off indeed! We should have shat all over the team they fielded and be looking to gain points in the title race. The turnout was nothing short of poor, we had an abundance of players for the Surrey match and to be several players short was embarrasing. Some of the pool was woeful, I know that everyone has bad days (myself included) but we need to get back to fielding a strong team and playing quality, we have enough depth in our squad to do damage so would someone please tell me what the hell is going on!

I think we need to have a rethink about serious practice sessions so (JK + others - views please), what do squad members think about having a C Team knockout the Wed before a County match where players pay a fiver to have a straight KO in a rack to 2 or 3 with prises for 1st and 2nd? It's evident that many of the C-Team are mostly playing local leagues so this would give us the chance to compete against each other where there is something to play for and start focussing on the core issues. Once players get knocked out we could have a round robin type comp as well. Maybe using 2-3 tables we could easily get 12 players+, we get table time and JK gets money over the bar. I believe this would encourage players to turn up on the Wed prior to County and get some team spirit going.

Hats off to some of the players for trying to keep spirits high yesterday - Mickey in particular.

It's just not good enough travelling all the way to some of the venues without a full squad :no:

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This is pretty disturbing stuff to read. What's particularly irritating to learn is that the Cs needed help from the juniors and ladies. I didn't make the game because as a 'reserve' rather than a starter or a substitute, I'm there to attend if the team is short. When I spoke to the skipper about this on Friday he said not to worry as we were going to have more than enough players, and that he would contact me if the situation changed. So, my question is, where were those players whose attendance was expected but who didn't show? I'm feeling pretty ****ty now because the team was short and I could have made the effort to attend but there didn't seem to be the need for reserves. Anyhow, sorry folks. It's kinda typical - if I'd have turned up there would have been sixteen or seventeen guys ahead of me and my name wouldn't have been on the subs list never mind the starting nine. The time I don't show up, we're short. Sod's flaming law.

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i think the players that said they were turning up but never wothout even letting jeremy know should be named and shamed.


as for what jeremy was expecting from the B team , the only player jeremy was expecting to get but never , was Bri who unfortunately had an emergency phone call from India and flew off there on Saturday night.

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Sorry to hear that Doc. I still reckon it's a good idea to have the names of all eligible players on the website the week before so you can let the Captains know your availability for the match so we don't have this situation again.

Named and Shamed indeed - feed em to the :censor: pigs

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By the way, just in case there's any mixed signals my little rant there wasn't aimed at Jeremy who clearly did his best to work within the advice he was given. It's definitely aimed at the no-shows and more than a little aimed at myself for not coming regardless. But it's tough with reserves, to make the effort to go to a game knowing you won't actually play in it, which is what Jeremy believed was the case when he spoke to me on Friday. I suppose I can't blame myself for not going in those circumstances. It's just damned annoying though ...

There has to be a better way of confirming availability of all players across the squad in advance so that reserves can be called up to make up the numbers as and when necessary. I believe that the new structures being proposed for next season will be a step forward in this regard.

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Can you tell I watched Snatch last night :elol:

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i've been saying this since the start of the season.

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I will also stand up for Bri here, in the past he has sometimes been unrealiable, this year he has been to every game and put in his all in the B or C. Pool is important but family comes first.

Kyle let us down but we some times have to remember that some of the younger players are struggling for work (and money), same has happened with Ronnie. I will always stick up for them because over the years they have been very reliable interleague players for Barnet but sometimes things happen beyond your control.

People confirming online is a good idea, you also need to get the captains to find out from their players who has access to the site. I know most people will have access but some people won't if they are not working so maybe each captain (I will do it if you want John:kiss:) should check which players in their squad are able to come on here and confirm attendance.

I think the C team should always be looking to have at least 4 reserves on the day. You will get one or two from the B come down and from there you give players a substitute appearance from there.

For example: any players who are 0/2 at the halfway point should get replaced or at 1/3. Not sure on what the policy is at the moment but I think all in all we should be aiming for 37 or 38 players attending on the day and those that are subs in the C getting a chance at some point if people are not performing.

The Doc is a prime example, he should have been asked to come along. The odd month someone might not get a game but more times than most you will.

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I'm sensing some confusion and maybe a bit of resistance to the policy of rotating B players down to the C team - I can't understand why? It adds strength to the Cs (or at least it should on paper) and it helps bond the squad a bit more. The vast majority of players who have come down have shown 100% commitment coz they know they want to imrpress Johnny K and get back into the Bs.

All this talk about whether B dropdowns should be guaranteed 4 games regardless of how they play is missing the point - we are all part of ONE London squad; we should turn up and play for whichever branch of it we are asked to.

And just for the record - personally, "I do like a B inside the C side"

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With the benefit of hindsight I should have taken 5 reserves to Berkshire but I thought that 2 would be enough. Then again how easy would it have been to have got a couple of players, who haven't played County before, to go all that way on the off chance of getting a game.

I don't think there is any point in making scapegoats of the people who weren't there. Individually they all had valid reasons for not being able to make it.

Apparently there was a mis-understanding in that I was expecting Joe Cunningham not realising that he was still on holiday. Had I known that I would have asked The Doctor to attend.

Just to set the record straight I always send texts to the players asking them if they will be there. Most of them reply. There are people who don't bother to reply but I know who they are and I can usually find out by other means. Ultimately if I haven't heard then I assume that they won't be there.

I'm not sure what difference it would have made if availability had been posted on the site. The people who had last minute problems would still have had them.

Jeremy

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tell them in future that if they don't reply they will of had a wasted journey to the match as they wont be picked and your selection will be based on the players that do reply. simple.
like i said Jeremy, you have to be tougher , put your foot down.
if someone drives all the way to Brighton for example and then find that they wont be getting a game because you was unaware of them attending, they wont do it again. i guarantee it.