Ashes Alphabet Lists – 1st Test Update

The first test of the Ashes has finished, with Australia cruising to a ten-wicket victory. It wasn’t as comfortable as the scorecard makes it look, with the Australians seven down and still a hundred behind in the first innings. Fortunately for the Aussies, Pat Cummins played the innings of his life, lasting two hours and scoring 42. At the other end, Steve Smith rescued his side, scoring 141* in an eight-hour innings that will go down as one of his finest, winning him Man of the Match.

Great performances by Josh Hazlewood at the start of the innings and Mitchell Starc at the end restricted England to less than 200, before David Warner and Cameron Bancroft made easy work of their 170 target, guiding Australia to a 1-0 series lead.

A-League FADR – Round 8, 2017-18

Hi, I would have written a longer post but I’ve been busy this week, the FFA Cup final was on Tuesday (meaning I had to wait until then to get results) and the library was closed at school today. So it’s just predictions, no analysis. 😊

Ashes Alphabet Lists

The Ashes, the oldest and most famous of all cricket rivalries, starts at the Gabba tomorrow. And as it’s so famous, we have all of the amateur cricket statisticians hurriedly rushing out blog posts covering some of the leading Ashes stats.

The problem with this is, though, that after a while all of these stats get a bit boring. I mean, we know Len Hutton has the highest score, we know Jim Laker has the best bowling, and we know Shane Warne has bowled the most wickets overall.

Which is why I’ve taken a different direction by looking at the Ashes Alphabet Lists.

A-League FADR – Round 7, 2017-18

A Thursday night game kicks off this A-League match-week, a day after the Socceroos qualified for their fourth consecutive World Cup. Others might be too weary celebrating to front up and write a blog post the next day, but not me. I can do it!

(Admittedly, I wrote this the day I needed to publish it, so don’t congratulate me too hard.)

The previous round of the A-League bought two notable results – the round started with an upset loss for Sydney FC at the hands of Central Coast, and Wellington Phoenix managed to knock five goals past Perth Glory on Sunday. Newcastle have made it to the top of the table; and Melbourne Victory and Brisbane Roar, the two most successful teams in A-League history, are still winless.

It’s been a topsy-turvy season, but will it continue?

A-League FADR – Round 6, 2017-18

Five rounds in and Sydney FC have returned to their top of the ladder position. Will they spend the rest of the season on top, as they did in 2016-17, or will they have their dominance challenged?

One of their challengers, unlikely as it seems, is Newcastle. The Jets, despite being pretty poor over the last few seasons, are scoring two and a half goals per game, and only conceding one on average. In fact, they’re one of three undefeated teams.

Can they keep it up? Find out below.

A-League FADR – Round 5, 2017-18

We’re four rounds into the season, and there’s still four undefeated teams, with another four winless. Only one team, Melbourne City, has a perfect record, which might be at risk against reigning champions Sydney FC on Friday night. Here’s what FADR has to say.