Batsmen.

There are two batsmen in a standard set, one striking and one standing!

These are the two batsmen in my set, if the ball hits the batsman and then careers of, the score determinator can be used to determine the run or runs scored, similarly if the ball was then to hit the wicket, that would count as out ,played onto wicket, and likewise if the ball was to end up in the cup of a fielder, it would count as being caught.

Fair play!!

         All the sets contain two umpires, to give the game a little authenticity!

            The photo shows the two umpires that I have in my club edition set, they might not actually do anything , but at least they look the part. It's quirky things like this that appeals to my strange sense of humour, may the madness be with you!!!!

Bowling.

When I first was aware of subbuteo cricket I did not bother with it, being of the opinion that the bowling would consist of some sort of ramp contraption resulting in the ball rolling somewhat lamely towards the wicket!

                However I was pleasantly suprised to find this not to be the case. The picture shows the bowling figure, use of which I have shown in a previous posting. This method enables the ball to be pitched short, long, or to either side providing quite a challenge for the batsman! With a bit of practice, one can send the stumps flying in spectacular fashion, or deflections to the slips or wicket keeper, it is actually quite clever, and once one has got the hang of it can be great fun!!

Cricket musings.

Rugby has been getting a good airing of late, so I thought it was maybe time for some more matters cricket.

            Here is a picture of one of the wicket bases complete with stumps in place and bails. Quite often when tracking down the old sets for either collecting or amusement, the most likely item to be missing is the bails, or should that be are the bails!! I was fortunate to aquire a complete set with both sets of bails present.
            The raised areas are for deflecting the ball either to the slips, or the wicket keeper, if the ball ends up in the cup of either figure, that counts as being caught behind.It is quite common for this to happen once the bowling technique is acquired.

Scrum.

Previously I have stated that the scrum machine was random as regards to which side the ball emerges, however I have been experimenting lately, and if the ball is tilted slightly towards the team taking the scrum, 3 out of 4 times the ball comes out that side of the scrummer. Therefore in some situations it would be better to take the scrum than to play advantage.

Scoreboard.

As with the other games in the subbuteo series, rugby has a scoreboard to chart game progress.

 It would really require another person solely manning the scoreboard in an actual game, but it is good for boosting one's moral with scores that you would like to see!!!

Heavy and light.

There are basically two types of playing figures, the earlier teams were what is classed as heavyweight, whilst the later teams were of the lightweight variety.

The yellow figure is of the heavyweight variety, whilst the red figure is of the lightweight type. As can be seen the bases vary slightly and so do the figures, as can be seen the yellow figure is chunkier. Also control when attempting swerve shots seems to be more reliable with the heavier figure.

Penalty

          The kicker is used for kickoffs, re starts and penalty attempts. Sometimes it goes just right and the ball pleasingly sails between the posts and then again it can also go really wrong!! In the picture it shows the kicker about to be used for a penalty attempt.

   On this occasion it went wrong, and although straight, it fell short of the cross bar!!!

Line out.

If playing union, then a line out occurs when the ball goes to touch. I use this as a means of getting the forwards up the pitch in the hope of making scoring a try more possible. I use either the method described in the old rules, or by flicking the ball up the kicking wedge.

This picture shows the method of throwing the ball in according to the original rules, what I find is the ball quite often does not go straight, and takes a bit of practice to get a fair throw.

 This picture shows the method that I mainly use for the throw, it is fairly easy to get a straight throw this way, minimising the amount of re throws that need to be taken. All a matter of taste I suppose, but I like the game to be fair for both teams!!

Union game.

Well I am meant to be doing music practice, but as everyone is out of the house or otherwise occupied, I thought why not have a good ole game of rugger! So we have Australia versus the Barbarians. I decided on 25 minutes each half, with 5 minutes half time for reflection on tactics etc. The game developed into a very close and defensive game, despite trying to open play up, but a fortunate tactical kick by the Barbarians resulted in a try fairly close to the posts, with a very easy conversion. There was only 2 minutes remaining of the first half, and despite a promising restart by Australia, they were unable to make anything of it and the first half ended Barbarians 7, Australia 0.
                 The second half got off to a flying start for Australia, with a very game possession move from the kick off, resulting in a good tactical kick, and a good run with the ball, resulting in a neat try in the right hand corner. Despite the angle for the conversion attempt, the kick was good, resulting in a drawn scoreline. From there the game got very defensive, with no side getting any real advantage, until a good tactical kick forced a line out inside the Australian 22 yd line, and the resulting possession by the Barbarians resulted in a short run with the ball, a tactical kick, and a copy book try. The conversion attempt should have been staightforward from a fairly easy position, but fell just short of the cross bar. Minutes to go an Australia restarted with good possession and a line out well in the Barbarians half, but good defense kept them from scoring and the full back's kick to touch being well into injury time, signalled the end of the game.
      Final result:  Barbarians 12.  Australia 7.

Play Ball

In rugby league, when a tackle is complete you have a play ball situation. The tackled player is placed in front of the ball with a receiver approx 30mm behind, the opposition have 2 markers in front of the player and the rest of the side behind the play. The player is then flicked at the ball thus passing back to the receiver, the ball must make contact with the receiver, if the ball misses then a scrum is awarded to the other side. 5 tackles are allowed, after that the possession goes over to the other side, therefore the best ploy is a tactical kick and try and keep possession.

       Picture shows the play the ball situation.

League match.

   Having a spare hour I thought I would set up the pitch and try a league match, and also try and open the game up a bit! So Halifax took on Bradford Northern, I decided on 20 minutes each way, being a suitable time to try out different theories. When possession is established, I would when practical, resort to tactical kicking to gain ground. This seems to work well enough, without making the game easy, in fact the first half finished nil nil.!! The play ball scenario of league speeds things up a little, but scrums instead of line outs probably take up just about the same time. A fortunate tactical kick by Bradford put the ball in the in goal area, and despite a game blocking flick, Bradford swerved neatly around the figure and scored a try. The resulting conversion attempt sailed beautifully between the posts leaving Bradford leading 6 nil. Near misses by Halifax were becoming somewhat frustrating, until in the final 2 minutes a brilliant tactical kick put them in a very favourable scoring position, a poor blocking flick resulted in Halifax securing a much needed try. All that was needed now in the dying seconds was a conversion to draw the game, sadly the attempt literally just brushed past the outside of the left hand post, and full time being up the final score was Bradford Northern 6 Halifax 4.
                The more I play this game, the better I like it, there is still a way to go with the rules, but it's fun trying out different ideas. It is probably some 40 years too late for the game, and it is never going to compete with all the electronic gizmos, but to people like me who prefer hands on, I think it just may still appeal.
            Rugby Union season has just started, so I had better stage some union games, watch this space for future matches!!!!

Subbuteo Rugby Association.

     I mentioned the rugby association site in a previous posting, but have since found out that the site is about defunct. It seems that the guy who set it up has walked away from it so to speak, and therefore nothing is happening on the site. The trouble is, the front page still has a subscribe option, which under the circumstances would be a waste of money, just a warning in case anyone reads my ramblings.

Scrum

Here is an example of the scrummer in action, the teams shown ready for the ball to be put in.

 The next picture shows the ball having come out and hit one of the forwards.

 This player is then moved to the front of the ball ready to pass back to the scrum half.

To complete the action, the last picture shows the pass having been completed and from there open play can resume.