Statto has deemed Connells worthy opposition for his imposing IV.57 side in an unmissable friendly this coming Sunday. His challenge, to be played at the Stockport 2nd XI CG, has been accepted and the clash is watering many a mouth amongst Connells' 1300-plus members, and however many Statto has!

Statto - Is this to be full teams? I am guessing so and have chosen a full strength team. I hope friendlies don't affect morale though, if we lose I don't want it imposing on our excellent league form with crunch games following it with haste against Owzat! and Ducks.

Up for stake? The WAT Battrick bragging rights. Connells have enjoyed success against No 1s, Panthers and SWAT, but are Stockport too much for them? We will see!

Can be full teams if you want then, Im not bothered either way. Ive had a look through the stats from our previous meetings and they look pretty even with 2 wins each (although I have won the last two, and got rid of over half the side from the teams that lost). I dont think theres any morale implications or no-one would give their reserves a run out. I have 1553 fans at the moment, and have expanded the stadium a week earlier than I should have done in order to accomodate them, probably costing me around 25k in lost interest. As a side note, I play my one day cricket in IV.53.

Apologies for my incorrect numerical recall! Full teams it is then!

I won by 5 wickets. CECC 177ao (42.5), Rideegammanagedera 50 Janes 5-24. SCC 179-5 (38.4)

Only Janes with any meaningful contributions for me, although most batsmen chipped in. Your ratings are looking decent now though, possibly a bowler or two light though still.

Our main spinner, Antoine, just hasn't turned up this season yet, not sure why. He's a superb and the rest are proficients, but I'm working on a couple of new bowlers in training to come in late next season - in the meantime Marsh and Antoine are training. The focus was on the batting until recently, but the bowling needs work.

Bit harsh on us to only score 177 and lose by 5, I think we're more evenly matched than that, but never mind. If we lose our star batsman first ball what can we do?! Well done Statto.

Probably down to secondaries. What are all your bowlers ratings, My seamers are prof/prof with comp stamina, strong/prof with comp stamina, res/prof with prof stamina and strong/sup with med stamina. That gives me a proficient seam rating, so there must be a problem somewhere (stamina or secondaries probably) for you to be 2 levels below me in the overall ratings. My spinner is qual/sup with res stamina on his own, but given that you have an average of the 2 you played. Ive bowled out every side Ive played this season so far, and in truth would have liked to have you all out for less than 150 looking at your ratings, but a wins a win.

We're definitely better than 150! Bit disingenuous to say that when our top order rates better than yours - Adu has 4 centuries in 5 innings before today and batting is the stronger suit of the team.

I haven't had a chance to train anybody up to beyond competent stamina yet, we need the whole team to be there first as I'm going for consistency across the board. The secondaries aren't where I want them to be but I have 10 psychologists so it's improving as much as possible given that I can't allocate more than one fielding net due to primary nets at the moment. The newer trainees are in much better shape than those from the dishevelled squad we had 2/3 seasons ago, and the finances are in much better shape with the club making money now!

We've produced a couple of excellent youth pulls this season and are looking at a new all-rounder at the start of next once a couple of nets free up. So we've already got a pretty good side but it will get better, and as our finances look in good shape the future is bright. As for your team, you'll comfortably stay up next year.

I said I wanted 150 because it would be a good performance by the bowlers. Ive shot out a couple of very similar sides on the same pitch for a lot less, and also looking at wages, BTR and the like, it only looks like 2 of your batsmen are above proficient (I may be doing you a disservice, but that is how I approach games) Given that I know through experience I can get proficients out quite cheap quite often I would be looking to get into your middle order quickly and often in those situations the change bowlers run through sides. Granted I was helped by getting what looks like your best batsman out first ball, but only 3 of your batsmen got scores (better than all bar 1 of mine managed admittedly) so I wasnt far off getting you out very cheap.

I didnt intend it as an insult to your team, but Im building a team around the theory that if no-one scores many against me I'll usually win, and at the moment I dont have any very good batsmen, mainly just proficients, so I need to skittle sides to ensure I can chase it down. I also want a strong bowling unit for the FC games if Im going to have to bowl sides out twice.

Sorry, didn't meant it to sound that reactive!

We have two superbs, two strongs and two proficients, as well as our keeper who can bat a bit. You got our best superb out first ball and our proficients were the ones who made the better scores! Beattie has two league hundreds this season. We underperformed on Sunday really, especially the strongs who you got out for veyr low scores, and 200 should have been a minimum. Our bowling is 4 proficients and a superb, and we're working on the proviso that we can usually chase down any total that is set, and this season we've done that, but there is still work to do. We're not in much of a position for first class games yet, and focusing mainly on OD games when FC starts.

Your bowling is very, very good and it looks like you have a quality spinner. Hopefully Antoine will reach quality for us this season before we stop training him, and Marsh next - he's a fairly high proficient at the moment but has already claimed the wicket of England interntional batsman/keeper Francis Daniell for 28 against Ducks this year. You'll do very well in III next season.

Feel free to challenge us again any time, I've forgotten what pitch type you play on but if you need practice on a dusty then we're the side to play.

Actually, training has altered things now, and we have our first quality primary in Adu's batting. You removed a near-quality first ball Statto!