Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Now that Horsham 5’s 2014/15 season has finished I thought it would be useful to provide a (light-hearted!?) end of term report in advance of Ian’s wider presentation to the AGM in September.

MATCHES:

We played 7 matches of which we won 3, lost 3 and drew 1.

PLAYERS:

We used 10 players who played a total of 34 games (excluding 1 default). Of these we won 13, lost 11 (including 1 default) and drew 11 – giving us a win percentage of 37.14%.

Of the 10 players used, 5 players (Matthew, Lucy, Richard, Brian and I) played 4 games or more. Of this group particular “mention in dispatches” should be given to Matthew (P5, W3, D1, L1) and Lucy (P4, W2, D2, L0) who together secured 35.14% of the team’s total points.

MILEAGE:

Of the 7 matches played, 4 were away (Hastings, Uckfield, East Grinstead, Eastbourne and Haywards Heath). So we travelled about 271.2 miles in total taking about 4 hours, 10 minutes to do so. The equivalent of driving from Horsham to Douglas (in the Isle of Man) and half way to Leipzig (in Germany). MSL Fixture Secretary, please note.

REFRESHMENTS:

We ate on average about 3 chocolate hobnobs and 2 Rich Teas at each match. By a rather spooky coincidence Matthew and Lucy also together secured 35.14% of the team’s total biscuit consumption.

Finally, we cumulatively drank a total of 18 cups of coffee, 10 cups of tea and 6 soft drinks (the defaulted board didn’t consume anything).

Any future team captain of this group should be looking for improvement across the board during 2015/16.

Over and out

Mark

Comments

You have done a great job, Mark (but failed to quantify the amount of milk used!). Shouldn't the win percentage be based on the 19 1/2 points scored in the 34 games played? i.e. about 57.35%

Well done all,
John

Mmmmmmm … depends if we are US or UK!

In Baseball a winning percentage is the fraction of games a team/individual has won. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matches played (i.e. wins plus losses) with a draw counting as a ½ loss and a ½ win.

But in Football a win percentage is the wins divided by total number of games with draws discounted.

So being British I will go for the latter. This makes 13 wins of 35 (think you should include the default) giving 37.14% or, as Baseball would record, 0.3714!

We took our tea and coffee black …..(only joking!). See you Tuesday.

James Mansson's picture

Well, actually it depends on the scoring system. Since the system of three points for a win and one for a draw was introduced into British Football Leagues, win percentage as stated has becoming meaningful, as (for instance) a win and a loss is better than two draws. However, chess remains largely with a system where 1 win = 2 draws, i.e. a win and a loss is the same things, so the kind of "win percentage" you mention is not a meaningful statistic.

Ian Comley's picture

I will ensure that I include biscuit consumption in all future annual reports!