Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics

Submitted by Mark B on 25 February, 2015 - 14:19

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

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Comments

John Cannon

25 February, 2015 - 15:29

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

Mark B

25 February, 2015 - 16:57

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

James Mansson

25 February, 2015 - 23:01

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

Ian Comley

25 February, 2015 - 22:35

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