The phone rang, it was the arena girl that wanted to know if The ∞ Nukes could play in the Bronze medal final last night in the very late shift? Of course we agreed, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth! One of the teams that should have played could not for some or other unthinkable reason???!!!

So last night, when the clock struck 22:00, we squared up against Wolfram X-rays, knowing that they already beat us twice in the season. We batted first and for the first skin and the next five balls, the X-ray machine worked perfectly. Then their shielding failed spectacularly. Fast neutrons were flying about in an uncontrolled fashion as Steve and Spiderman smashed everything that came their way. The Wolfies aged right before our eyes as their back net rattled eleven times during the second skin. Steve and Spiderman accumulated a record 72 runs to leave the x-ray machine decaying at an alarming rate. Wimpie and Michael continued the nuclear radiation with 44 in the third skin as the Wolfies struggled to put up some temporary shielding. Finally, the concrete truck arrived and they were able to encase our innings, stopping all neutrons and gammas at the source in the last skin. Suffering from serious radiation poisoning, the Wolfies set about getting the required 134 runs for victory. Tight fielding and bowling however kept a lid on the x-ray machine, limiting them to only 69 runs. Wimpie got a hat trick off the last three balls of the match, but Man of the Match goes to Spiderman with a net contribution of 32 runs.

Now that really brings us to the end of the season. All three our teams have something to show for our efforts and we look forward to annihilate the opposition next season. Below are some photos for your enjoyment! (Sorry for the picture quality!)

The Nukes Kywalkers looking good in Bronze

The Atomic Nukes in Silver

Since the X-Ray machine is now broken, this is all we have of The ∞ Nukes

So it all came to an end... The season that is! The Nukes Kywalkers played agaisnt Smiffs for the Bronze medal. We asked them to bat first. We applied the screws from the first over and limited them expertly to just 80 runs. We felt quite confident about getting that score. We were only two runs behind when our last batters walked in. Steve and Stefan got the required two and then let loose, adding 40 runs for the last skin! With that, we won the game and the medal in our first season! Man of the Match was Carel Viljoen with a net contribution of 18 runs.

The Atomic Nukes next played for the Gold medal against Soupaheroes. We tried our best when batting first, but no matter what we tried, they stayed one step ahead. We struggled to a total of 70 runs due to some excellent bowling and fielding from our opponents. They continued with the bat where they eneded the bowling and passed our score in the third skin. They powered on to 121, giving us a solid hiding. We got the Silver in the end, so at least we can show that for a somewhat mixed season. Man of the Match goes to Steve Aaron for a net contribution of 5 runs.

The next season starts in a weeks time! So keep coming back for more of THE NUKES! We certainly will!

This week we played two games to qualify for Bronze medal finals on Sunday. The ∞ Nukes played Bloukaas. They batted first and we felt we did quite good to restrict them to 101 runs. We made consistent ground on their score throughout our innings, but alas, we came up 9 runs short. This means no chance of any hardware this season... Man of the Match was Dugald Smith with a mammoth net contribution of 29 runs.

The Nukes Kywalkers played QMuzik.com at the same time. We batted first and put a massive 141 runs on the board. Confident that we could defend that kind of score, we did just that by limiting them to 82 runs. This means we qualify for the Bronze medal final on Sunday. Man of the Match was Martin Sage with a massive net contribution of 26 runs.

In the mean time, we learned that The Atomic Nukes will be playing Soupaheroes, who we beat to reach the final, on Sunday. This was after Quad Squad was disqualified for fielding two "unqualified" players in their semi-final game against Soupaheroes. Suppose you don't try and pull those kind of tricks if one of the arena staff are playing against you! It backfired badly!

The first Semi-Final week resulted in some mixed fortunes for us. First up, the Kywalkers squared up against Mufassa's Pride. Sly old Mufassa tore us to pieces. They batted first and after absorbing initial pressure they unleashed spectacularly to reach 149 runs, which a massive 44 runs in extras! We did our best, but could only manage 104 runs in reply. Man of the Match goes to Steve Aaron with a net contribution of 14 runs.

The Atomic Nukes played against Soupaheroes, a rematch of the last round robin game. We batted first and fought our way through some accurate bowling and sharp fielding to get to 93 runs. We thought it would require some effort to defend that against these oukes, but we rose to the occasion, took control from the first skin and easily defended our modest total by holding them to 84 runs. We booked our place in the Gold Medal final where we will most probably face these guys again. Man of the Match was Dirk with a net contribution of 14 runs. Dirk also took a screamer of a reflex catch one handedly from the top net!

The ∞ Nukes played Wolfram X-rays on the court next door. We batted first in this game as well. We started off well in the first skin, but they fared better in the second. We powered ahead in the third skin, but they fought back in the fourth. We ended on 102 runs, which meant that bowling and fielding had to be tight on our side, but those runs were never enough. They got to 115, thus forcing us to play for a place in the Bronze Medal final next week. Man of the Match was Dugald Smith with a net contribution of 3 runs. Schalk also pulled off his third hat trick for the season!

Overall, we are approaching 15 500 runs. We scored 15 437 runs in 143 games, which is an average of 108 runs/game. One should be able to defend 108 more often than not!

Tip of the Week: The First Imperative when batting is to not lose a wicket! When you do lose a wicket (as you almost certainly will), the Second Imperative comes into play - and that is not losing another. And so on!

The score sheets of the Atomic Nukes turned up! Remember, last week we played two games in sucession. The first game was against old rivals CSA. We got 110 runs batting first, to which they replied with 129. We bowled badly, conceding 34 extras! Special mention must go to Schalk Albertyn for a net run contribution of 12, but Man of the Macth goes to Philip le Roux for a net total of 13 runs.

The second game was against Soupaheroes. We agian won the toss and elected to bat first. We put a respectable 125 on the board. Their first skin got away from us though, outting up 50 runs. We fought back nicely in the second skin, but after that, things went askew with them eventually getting to 141 runs, meaning defeat by 16 runs. We again bowled badly, conceding 36 extras! Man of the Match goes to Erik van der Linde for a massive contribution of 29 runs.

This week is the first Semi-final week. We play as follows:
The Atomic Nukes vs. Soupaheroes ( 20:50 )
The ∞ Nukes vs. Wolfram X-Ray ( 20:50 )
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. Mufassa's Pride ( 18:30 )

Good Luck To All! This week has to be better than last week!!!

Tip of the Week: Limit those extras and watch the pressure pile on the opposition from your accurate bowling!

On 29-09-2005, The ∞ Nukes played against Wolfram X-Rays. We bowled first and did not do to bad a job of it, conceeding 116 runs. Then it was our turn to bat and sadly, our wheels came off quite badly. We could only manage 59 runs, handing defeat our way by 57 runs. Man of the Match goes to Johan Liebenberg for a stirling net contribution of 16 runs.

All in all, a week we have already forgotten! Better luck this week...

Although Heinrich has retaken the lead with the most wickets (163 in 78 games), Dugald is the most successful wicket taker at 2.34 wickets/game (68 in 29)!

Last night The Nukes Kywalkers played KWV in the late night shift. Actually KWV drowned us in the fermentation tank. They restricted us to 65 runs and then smashed their way to 189 runs. That hurt, to say the least! Man of the Match was Dirk Swart with a net contribution of 3 runs.

The ∞ Nukes will only be playing tomorrow night, whereas The Atomic Nukes have a bye this week.

Collectively, our season is going a bit pear shaped. We have a -0.72 net contribution, which means that we are losing more than we are winning. Better luck next week!

Tip of the Week: Develope the ability to adapt your game, be it batting or bowling. If something isn't working, can you do something differently to get the better of your opponent?

On 20 September, The Nukes Kywalkers played Qmuzik.com. We posted a very competitive 110 runs. Some solid batting there by Steve and Martin! Unfortunately, we lost the game heartbreakingly off the last ball by one run! Their last skin doing some telling damage as we had to face the Muzik! Man of the Match was Martin Sage with a net contribution of 18 runs.

In the next time slot, The Atomic Nukes played Rawalpindi Express for the second time this season. They batted first and the Express was truely running away from us in the first three skins. We caught up the train in last skin and pushed it back to a gettable score of 109 runs. We batted consistently throughout, with Sarel really destroying their bowling when he got his chance! In the end we won comfortably by 16 runs. Definately the fightback of the year! Man of the Match goes to Erik with a net contribution of 27 runs and his third hat trick.

On 21 September, The ∞ Nukes played against Saxons in the pajama shift. We got a decent 103, courtesy of a huge opening skin of 42 by Steve and Chris. Our bowling started off good, only conceding 14 runs in the first skin. We continued steadiliy after that, conceding 28 and 11 in the next two skins, but then their big guns outshone ours. They smashed 55 off the last skin, which took both the skin and the match as we lost by a mere three runs! Eina...

Overall, The Nukes have now taken 2020 wickets! May there be many more!
Two players have conceded more than 1000 runs, so their names will not be mentioned here...
Michael has taken the lead again with 162 wickets!

Tip of the Week: Try to minimize the extras when bowling, it is giving our opponents way too many runs!

The score sheets of The ∞ Nukes turned up! The first game was against Castle. We batted first and could only manage 85 runs. We knew we to get it together to defend a relatively low score. Only their second managed to get some runs as we restricted them to 67, giving us victory by 18 runs. Man of the Match turned out to be Dugald Smith with a net contribution of 11 and another hat trick!

The second game was against CRH. We batted first again and this time managed to put 99 on the board, which should actually have been 92 due to an error from the umpire. Nevertheless, this made little difference to the outcome of the game, as CRH raced to 111 runs, meaning defeat by 19 runs. Man of the Match was Chris Marais with a huge net contribution of 21 runs.

Collectively, we have now scored more than 14000 runs since The Nukes first picked up a bat in 2004!

Tip of the Day: Apply the tip of the week!

On 6 September, The ∞ Nukes played two games. They won the first and lost the second, but due to the unavailability of the score sheets, it is not possible to update the games. Watch this space!

In the last time slot , The Atomic Nukes played Gonads. This was a continuation of an old rivalry. We bowled first and restricted them to 91 runs by some accurate bowling and sharp fielding. We powered to a comfortable victory by replying with 115 runs. Erik & Steve were just outscored by Gerhard & Dirk, 37 vs 39! Man of the Match was Philip le Roux for a gigantic net contribution of 23 runs!

After last week's games, The Atomic Nukes have now moved into the top spot in league D1, whereas The ∞ Nukes claimed second position in league E3 and The Nukes Kywalkers did similarly in League E5 Green. GO NUKES!!!

Tip of the Week: When bowling, make it difficult for the batsman by giving him variety. Either a different type of ball, or by varying line and length. He will be less inclined to hit big shots if he is not sure what is coming next!

On 30 August, The Nukes Kywalkers played Mufassa's Pride. We were victorius for the second time this season! They batted first and put 95 runs on the board, that after the first skin got 61! We replied with 101 runs, giving us a small margin of victory. Michael and Warren put a massive second skin of 54 runs! Also some great bowling and fielding from us during the entire match (only 14 extras). Man of the Match goes to Michael Correia with net contribution of 14 runs.

Next up, The Atomic Nukes played Rawalpindi Express. We expected some express bowling, but it "turned" heavily in some cases! We managed to scrape to 102. A close game ensued: they were only 4 runs behind at the start of the last skin. Gerhard's sixth hat trick however broke their back as we tightened the screws and restricted them to 81 runs. Men of the Match were Dirk Swart and Philip le Roux for net contributions of 14 runs each!

Congratulations to:

Steve Aaron for reaching 1000 runs (currently on 1019) in 56 games at an average of 17.89 runs/game.
Gerhard van der Merwe for taking 150 wickets (currently on 152) in 70 games at an average of 10.80 runs/game.

Tip of the Week: Slide the bat into the crease when running!

On 23 August, The Nukes Kywalkers played KWV in the first time slot, again! A closely fought contest ensued in which we were victorius for the first time this season! We scored 96 runs and the reply was only 91. They were actually ahead at the start of the last over, but hey, some great team work pulled them back! Men of the match go to Pieter Viljoen and Steve Aaron, both with huge net contributions of 29 runs.

Next up, The Atomic Nukes played SARB Men. We batted first, but were in the end only asking our opponents to better 75 runs. We gave it our best shot, but a strong second skin from them took the game away from us. In the end, they won the game without taking too many risks, beating us by 12 runs. Man of the match was Heinrich Stander for another Steady Eddie performance of 5 net runs!

The ∞ Nukes then played Bloukaas. They batted first and put up a competive 111, their first and last skins scoring all the runs. All our skins contributed equally to our total of 100 runs, meaning that we incurred our first defeat of the season. Did we mention that we are now playing in E3? Man of the match was Dugald Smith with a net contribution of 23 runs.

Some interesting stats:

This week The Nukes will play its collective 1000th game. That means we pumped a lot of money into local action cricket! (You do the math!!!) In doing so, we scored over 13 500 runs, conceded just under 13 200 runs and cheered as we took 1846 wickets! On average, each player scores 13.66 and concedes 13.28 runs per game, which translates into winning more than losing! At this time, 120 partnerships have played together and that number will grow steadily as time goes on. Amazingly, Nattes and Steady Eddie have been partners in 67 games, scoring 1767 runs at an average of 26.4 runs! GO NUKES!!!

TIP of the Week: Play the ball into the net and take two off every ball = 48 runs / skin = 196 runs total!!!

Women's Day. What a good day for playing...Action Cricket! Our three teams played in three consecutive time slots, with some mixed results.

First up, The ∞ Nukes played Vikings (in E4). We easily broke the horns from their helmets, scoring 164 and restricting them to a mere 74, meaning a massive 90 run victory. Man of the massacre was Gerhard van der Merwe with a mammoth 35 run net contribution.

Next up, The Atomic Nukes played Rum Pappa (formerly Vis & Chips). Any hopes we had of avenging our bronze medal loss of last season were dashed as we were restricted to 85 runs and then had to face the music as 163 runs whistled past us. A 78 run defeat we already forgot! Man of the carnage was Erik with a net contribution of 7 runs.

The Nukes Kywalkers played Spoon Doctors in the last time slot. A closely fought contest ensued in which we were handed defeat by only 7 runs (99 outplayed 92 runs). That was a close one! Man of the match (twice in a row!) was Thinus Greyling with a net contribution of 15.

Also, the missing score sheet of last week's game turned up. Remember, The ∞ Nukes played Mobile Ballistic. We went ballistic on them, scoring 106 and keeping them to 66, meaning we won by 40 runs. Man of the macth was Schalk Albertyn with a net contribution of 17 runs.

Three Nukes teams underway, with a two out three strike on the first outing! Not bad dudes!

The Atomic Nukes played That Team and won quite convincingly with 38 runs. We all played a solid match, but man of the match goes to Erik vd Linde for a net contribution of 19 runs. Congratulations to Erik and Schalk who's partnership has now scored 1012 runs!

The Infinite Nukes played in the next time slot against Mobile Ballistic and also played them off the court, winning the game by approximately 30 runs. (Due to the score sheet not being available at the time of updating the other two games, this game is not included in this update. Watch this space!)

The Nukes Kywalkers followed with a game against Tonkers, who lived up to their name and tonked out a healthy victory of 37 runs. Man of the match goes to Thinus Greyling for a net contribution of 13 runs.

Today it all start over again! After playing grading games last week, the Spring 2005 season starts today. The Atomic Nukes is first up at 18:30, playing That Team. Then at 19:40, The ∞ Nukes plays Mobile Ballistic at 19:40 and following that at 20:50, The Nukes Kywalkers plays Tonkers. Good luck to all our opponents, you are going to need it!