h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

First of all, a couple of apologies. I had intended to update last week, but I had a problem with my home PC and couldn't get it fired up, so I'm later than I had hoped with this update. Secondly, the tables are a bit odd again this week; the spreadsheet is set up to calculate a lot of the stats for me, but it made up some very odd numbers and I've had to abandon the up and down moves for now. Andy, Malan's points are included in the league table, but not in the team list at the moment

I've awarded a couple of bonus points this week to Vikram Solanki and Kabir Ali, for being the first players past 1,000 runs and 50 wickets respectively. And they have certainly made the top interesting.

Solanki's points have pushed Alfredo through the pack and opened up just a glimmer of daylight between himself and AndyG. There isn't a lot in it, and any of the top six are still in the title race, but time is running out and it looks like it's going to the wire. Down at the bottom, B looks clear of the bottom three; DD, bubba-fretts and Megachedda will fight out the wooden spoon.

In the ProPhortyPhifty, it's a different story. Only Herculean efforts from Collingwood or Pietersen will be enough to stop AndyG from retaining his title. At the bottom, Magwitch is still just about in touch, and the intriguing possibility that Alfredo will claim the spoils in one league and the wooden spoon in the other remains.

***

The Board have announced their ODI squad to play South Africa over the next couple of weeks, based on FK performances over the course of the season:

Marcus Trescothick (Sticky Wikkits)
Vikram Solanki (Alfredo's Assassins)
Owais Shah (Organcheese)
Jonathan Trott (Completely Stumped)
Paul Collingwood (c) (Jules' Kronies)
Matt Prior (wk) (Batty Boys)
Ravi Bopara (Down and Unders)
Graeme Swann (New Pork Hankies)
Tim Bresnan (Over and Outs)
Steve Harmison (Green and Golds)
Kabir Ali (RSH)

Twelfth Man: Michael Carberry (Bermundan Women)

Some of you will know that I love fiddling around with stats, and I've come up with a vaguely workable way of simulating a match based on real-life performances and Duckworth-Lewis. I'm going to have a play with the system and see if I can manufacture at least one realistic result during the ODI series, just for a bit of fun as much as anything. If it's really good, I may even award points as a result (and I will include the twelfth man in the scoring based on the team's overall performance if I do). The points earned will not be enough to affect the title race unless it gets really, really tight, and I don't think it will come to that, but if it works this is something I could use now and again next year to tie in with internationals.

Very strange tables indeed, Skanks

Go Pietersen

Go Captain Collingwood!