TIGER IN THE SPOTLIGHT 1: JOHN GRAIN

John hammers a boundary on his way to 33 against London Badgers

The Tiger in the Spotlight feature is our chance to thank each and every SpecialEffect Tiger who took to the field throughout the 2012 season. Whether they joined one ambush or all six, each of the 26 Tigers who shed their sweat for the cause this season will appear here in the coming months.

The first Tiger in the Spotlight for our new blog feature is John Grain. 

A founder member of the team that played in our first glorious victory back in May 2009, John has been a regular in the ambush ever since.

John joined the Ambush for four of the six games through the 2012 season. And a very good season he had too. His aggressive batting style and deadly accurate slow right arm bowling brought John some well deserved runs and wickets.

The highlight of John's batting was a blistering 38 against Witney Rugby Club on 17th June in which he crashed four sixes in quick succesion. He topped off that batting performance by taking a catch in the same game.

And John obviously enjoyed playing against the Witney Rugby lads because in our first game of the season on 13th May at Kilkenny Cricket Club, Carterton, he ripped through the batting with 4-0-28-4. Don't get your calculators out ... that's an average of 7.00 per wicket and an economy rate of 7.00 per over (like you'd have needed a calculator to work that out, eh?).

The unveiling of the new Tigers shirt

So John ended the 2012 season with a Tigers batting average of 20.50 and a bowling of a wicket every 14.57.

But even without his cricketing performances, John's a fantastic Tiger to have in the Ambush anyway. Yes, he's been my best mate for the last 38 years, but he's also a great friend of SpecialEffect and a smashing fella to play alongside.

John Grain ... we salute you, Tiger  

TIGERS of 2012

To those who joined the Ambush for the 2012 season ... we salute you.

The Tigers' cricket season has ended and I've started compiling the stats for 2012. So I'm going to start off by acknowledging every Tiger who gave up their Sunday afternoon's and shed their sweat for the Ambush throughout this year's cricket season ...

In order of appearences ...

TIGER HARDCORE
Robbie Nicholson (6 caps)
Baz Floyd (6 caps)

 Tigers v Witney RFC

TIGER VETERANS
Cam Newton-Grain (5 caps)
Rob Webb (5 caps)

 Tigers v London Badgers

TIGER DIE-HARDS
John Grain (4 caps)
Stu Duff (4 caps)
Iain Nicholson (4 caps)

Tigers v Stuffed Beavers

TIGER AMBUSHEERS
James Harrison (3 caps)
Ed Juszczak (3 caps)
Paul Fagg (3 caps)
James Grist-Perkins (3 caps)

Tigers v Southfield Superstars

TIGERS
Chris Grain (2 caps)
Geoff Hoare (2 caps)
Bill Donegan (2 caps)
Huw Neyroud (2 caps)
Ben McPherson (2 caps)

Tigers v The Dream Team

TIGER SKIRMISHERS
Mick Donegan (1 cap)
Steve 'Alan' Brackley (1 cap)
Ed Bradbury (1 cap)
Serge Eaton (1 cap)
Sam Kellie (1 cap)
Des Gayle (1 cap)
Tim Lowe (1 cap)
Liam Dunkley (1 cap)
Tom Kellie (1 cap)
Sam Parsons (1 cap) 

Thanks to each and every one of the 26 Tigers who joined the Ambush for the SpecialEffect Tigers through the 2012 season. Hope to see you in the field again in 2013!

FLOYD WILL NOT RETIRE FROM CRICKET

Floyd on his way out? No chance

Less than a week after England skipper Andrew Strauss announced to a shocked cricketing world that he would retire from all forms of cricket, Baz Floyd has come forward to announce 'there's no bloody way I'm retiring'.

West Oxfordshire's cricket fraternity let out a collective groan when Floyd insisted that his bad form this season was not down to him having to stand in for absent skipper Chris Grain.

'The pressures that come with being skipper of the Tigers has made absolutely no difference to my batting performances this season. I was crap anyway.' Floyd insisted 'A couple of members of the Ambush have tried to re-assure me that repeated bad decision making and appallingly executed shots towards cow corner is just a loss of form. I don't agree. You see, saying I've lost form seems to suggest I had previously enjoyed good form. That's just not true.'

Fellow middle-order batsman, James Grist-Perkins, told us 'Yeah, Baz's life expectancy of six balls is putting quite a lot of pressure on the middle order. I panic if I haven't got my pads on when I see old bucket-hands strolling out to the crease. I know Huw and Cam who bat at six and seven both feel the same. Apart from getting padded up on time we're not that bothered. Just means we get to bat longer, doesn't it?'

James Grist-Perkins

'You don't know what pressure is until you see Floydy 

walking out and realise you're not padded up'

Floyd has vowed to continue not bothering to play himself in, going for ridiculous shots that are way beyond his capability and staring in disbelief at broken stumps and celebrating wicket-keepers.

'There's always next season isn't there? Did I ever tell you about my 48 at Churchill?'

SpecialEffect WEEKLY UPDATE

After all the excitement of Sunday's SpecialEffect Tigers third victory on the bounce to end our 2012 season, I'm a bit late in getting this week's SpecialEffect Weekly Update on the blog.

In fact, it's later than a Baz Floyd cover drive.

But here it is. A brief rundown of what those wonderful people at SpecialEffect got up to last week ...

Click here for the SpecialEffect Weekly Update