Ross Pullar’s Weblog

Result NDCS ( 18 ) v IFAW ( 6 )

Again as we left the building on Wednesday we had a small ( 8 ) group of merry men and women ready to step up to the plate… Luckily we were able to get Charles and Chris to give us the right number of people…

The first two innings were a fraught affair with some niggles and it took us some time to really get to grips with the game! I have to say I thought we were quite lucky in fact, the opposition were VERY understandable and I’m sure other teams would not have been so lenient. It did not help that we were all trying to tell each other how to play and not concentrating on our own game. (you know who you are ;-)) The only point worth noting was George’s home run, the only one we scored all day…

Third innings we seemed to wake up a bit both with our batting and fielding… Big thanks to Jenny for volunteering to be back stop, sterling work, you were great at shouting when to run! Anna G took up first base and played a steady game.

Allan was as ever batting and fielding like a trooper and certainly not scared to get in there when there was any niggles in those first two innings.

We had an interesting competition with the IT team, all scoring in innings two, three and four. Thank to George, Chris and Charles.

This week’s newby was Lilli Reisner, whose working with Kevin to help with some Fundraising work over the summer. She certainly knows how to hit the ball and got a bruise on her leg for her trouble at third base.

Anna P was great at second base, ensuring we stumped a few of their runners, she also managed to deal with some wild throws aimed at head height.

My final mention has to go to Gary. During the game he produced some gem comments and probably one of the funniest moments this season with the bat. After three innings his shock to hear we were winning was priceless, “We’re Winning!” and the final ball he played, which hit his bat / hand and fell forward. He just froze and stood there while the rest of us were shouting!

The opposition

I seem to say that the opposition were good each week, this week is no different, they were deffo kind in the first few innings and I think they thought they might win this pretty comfortably after our disastrous first two innings… Some lucky pitching from me seemed to affect their better batsmen and we certainly picked up with the fielding in the last two innings. (Feel free to respond IFAW!!) We chose their MVP because it was the first time she’d ever caught anything, I think that made Gary feel a bit better, knowing his shot had made her day!

I would add the scores but they are in a bag still to be returned!!

NDCS will be fundraising in the following areas throughout July

Northern Ireland

Claidy
Londonderry
Maydown
Foyle
Rosemount
Waterside Eglinton

England
Bristol
Nottingham
Northampton
Derby
Stoke
Carlisle

Wales

Swansea

We will also be doing door-to-door fundraising for Deaf Child Worldwide in the following areas

Navan
Tallaght, Dublin
Lucan
Swords
Louth
Dublin
Kilkenny
Offaly
Carlow
Naas
Ardfinnan Ballina Ballinderry
Thurles
Tipperary Town
Nenagh
Cashel
Carrick-on-Suir
Cahir
Clonmel
Dromineer Dundrum Fethard
Summerhill, Templemore Terryglass
Kilsheelan Newport, Roscrea
Bansha Birdhill Borrisokane
Holycross Killenaule Kilross
Clogheen Glen of Aherlow
WEXFORD:
Enniscorthy
Ferns
New Ross
Wexford Town
Rosslare
Gorey
Bunclody
Courttown Campile
Boolavogue Ballyhack
Duncannon Curracloe

Result NDCS (17) v Cancer Research UK (31)

We were a small but perfectly formed team this week with only seven NDCS bods. (Thanks to Adrian for getting there in time!) We were lucky enough to get two of their players too, Thanks to Jo and Becky for stepping over the line to don the Amythist!!

Star of the show without a doubt was Louise, stumping at least three of their players and batting like a real pro, I think the fact she varied the side she played helped. Not just that she played to have fun, in the right spirit and really did deserve the MVP for us.

I’ve already mentioned Adrian but he played his part with his pitching and batting limiting them to 2 runs in his innings.

Batting wise we had some great plays with Pritesh getting at least one home run! (feel free to let me know if anyone else scored a home run!) Ramzan had the honour of playing in the “glory slot” between 2nd and 3rd and certainly played his part in getting people stumped at both posts.

I always see Kathy and Rob as being steady dependable players and they continued that notching up six runs between them, Kathy stumped at least two on 1st while Rob had a go at pitching and brought about their lowest score of 2 runs in the 4th innings.

Both our “ringers” held fast stumping and catching out their own, and batting well.

Opposition

Thought this might be a toughy after we played them in a friendly. They have some really great hitters (Max I should have caught your one!!). Their pitcher was consistent and they have great team spirit. Their captain’s comment on email the day after, “it was the most fun one we’ve had”. We may not be winning but at least we’re having fun! Good luck for the rest of the season…

First Innings
NDCS 2
Cancer Research UK 7

Second Innings
NDCS 12
Cancer Research UK 16

Third Innings
NDCS 2
Cancer Research UK 6

Fourth Innings
NDCS 1
Cancer Research UK 2

As part of the work we have done with the Digital Avengers we looked at testing Facebook adverts V Google Adwords.

The Challenge

To see which advertising medium would produce the most number of enquiries.

How we we went about it

Over a three week period we decided to use one of our Running Events, The Royal Parks Half marathon.

The adverts used include:

Facebook

With both adverts the user went to the same landing page. From there the user was able to enquire about the event and have relevant information sent to them.

What we found out from the test

Overall Facebook beat Google for enquiries!

Results of enquiries made during the three week period

Facebook advert content

We found that the advert with the cartoon face on it had a greater response rate with over 370 people clicking on the cartoon in comparison to 5 with the sensible advert. CTR being 0.10% for the cartoon advert in comparison to 0.03% for the normal advert.

Questions

Some of the questions we now need to ask ourselves moving forward include:

Enquiries are all well and good but what really matters is who says yes to signing up to the event and wants to raise money for NDCS. How many of those who inquired went on to do the event?

Is this a valid test? Should we compare an advert on someone’s page with the targeted advertising from Google? Is the Facebook advert more of a banner or affiliate advert?

What effect would changing the wording in the landing page have with enquiries?

Further writing about the Facebook V Google phenomenon

The first is Jonathan Mendez’s blog , who looked at comparing Facebook and Google. In summary, his findings were that with the Facebook adverts, the time spent on the site was less. Ultimately he questioned the back end mechanisms and here I agree that they are light years behind Google and do have to catch up. I still wonder about the user journey with his experiment, we were clear that the journey for the user was to go to the landing page get a taste of what we were offering and then enquire for more information. Allowing the user to visit your site is great but if there is no focus then what do you expect?

Another article that seems to question Facebook’s validity for adverts is AU Interactive with it’s Facebook Ads Don’t Work. Here’s Proof. Again I think that the comments are interesting with suggestions such as “Targeting ads based on what people are searching for is safe. Sneaking a recommendation into a users news feed hoping they will share it with their friends, not so much.” is interesting when we look at this comparison.

A great suggestion from Slightly Shady SEO has them asking Facebook to lighten up a bit…

Final thoughts…

I’m not totally convinced I have an answer to the test we did, I think there are variables that need to be tested further, such as having the same advert! Looking at this from a neutral perspective, there is definately something in Facebook advertising and I look forward to reporting back on this once we have looked at testing the questions above further.

I’d be interested to hear other people’s thoughts on this and any other issues we might want to test.

This weekend four teams took part in the Three Peaks Challenge , climbing the highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales, raising money for NDCS .

We’d just like to thank them for their hard work and hope their are aching limbs are not too sore!

The teams taking part were:

If you are interested in taking part in our Three Peaks Challenge, visit our website for more information.

Result NDCS (20) v Breast Cancer Care (36)

Yep we were pretty much whooped this week!

Being 19 v 4 down after two innings did not help!

Postmortem in the Tattershall Arms after saw us all agree that it was just a bad day at the office with our batting, fielding and pitching on the whole being pretty poor!

Have to say though, there was a superb catch by MVP Allan T. (Mind you he does play in the glory position!! ;-0). Good catch too from Rob in out field.

Thanks to Gary for the half time oranges! By then we were looking like a right bunch of lemons though!

I thought a change of pitcher might change our luck, nope they still marched on and we just about got 4 runs! I also remember I think that Louise grazed her knee and needed some attention. (hope its ok?)

It was the last innings where we redeemed ourselves both fielding and batting! Some interesting pitching tactics from Adrian really caught them off guard and they only scored 9 in that innings! (they were not sure where the ball would come from, did he?) It saw a super catch from Anna too!! I think we have a new back stop / caller too in Emma who was keen to make sure any decisions that were ours went our way.

But it was in the batting where we really improved with 12 in that innings! Six coming from the IT team (George, Charles & Adrian) alone… Well done. Couple of others who shone with the bat were Allan and Kathy who also got two each.

A big thank you to those that were happy to sub during the four innings. People like Ramzan were able to be our eyes off the pitch.

Opposition
These are a good bunch players whose good mixture of big hitters and tactical fielders. As this is their first season they are doing pretty well! Wish them well for the season…

First Innings
NDCS 0
Breast Cancer Care 9

Second Innings
NDCS 4
Breast Cancer Care 10

Third Innings
NDCS 4
Breast Cancer Care 7

Fourth Innings
NDCS 12
Breast Cancer Care 10

This is a list from my category cloud…

Took me 5 mins to create through www.wordle.net

It’s a great site which allows you to add a selection of words and makes them look funky! You can change the font, layout and colour.

Result NDCS (20) v UNICEF (15)

Have to admit I had this one down as a tough game and we would be lucky to win, and I was not wrong, they ran us all the way, leading by two runs as we went into the last innings! Thanks to some great batting and safe hands in the fourth we edged it by five runs.

For the first game of the season, we played well as a team and there were plenty of people who could have picked up the MVP award.

Thanks to Rob H for his warm-up skills - think this might have been the difference!

(In batting order)

Pippa* - Star opening batter, hit some beauts and played well as back stop!
Pritesh - took him a couple of innings to warm up but once he got into his stride he was great, and great out in the field.
Anna - Solid on third base and batted like a trooper!
James - Great hitter and some solid fielding
Cathy - have to say a star with the bat and must have clocked up at least three catches on first base! (*My Joint MVP)
Allan - batting for Britain and pretty much sealed the game for us in the last innings with catches and stumpings a plenty! (*My Joint MVP)
Emma - Newby, second week in the job, in there like an old pro! Really like the couple of stops she made between first and second base.
Rob H - Steady with the bat and some good catches out in the field, nice one Safe Hands!
Adrian* - Great alrounder and in the warm up my choice for pitcher if I’m not around.
Ross - Happy with performance, but better to ask the rest of the team really.
Ruth* - First game and really got stuck in and was kind enough to take photos of the match with Pippa

*Thanks to those who were happy to Sub!!

Opposition

These guys are a pretty good side with some really hard hitters, but also some real deft plays with the bat! For me their biggest asset was their gaffer, sidelined through injury, she was shouting from start to finish. Personally I thought she really got behind the team, and was keen to communicate to the team…

Match details…

First Innings
NDCS 8
UNICEF 4

Second Innings
NDCS 3
UNICEF 3

Third Innings
NDCS 1
UNICEF 7

Fourth Innings
NDCS 8
UNICEF 1

NDCS will be fundraising in the following areas throughout June

Northern Ireland

Belfast
Carrickfergus
Seapark
Whitehead
Dromara
Dunmurry
Hillsborough
Moira
Sprucefield
Castlerock
Garvagh
Kilrea
Portrush
Portstewart
Claidy
Londonderry
Maydown
Rosemount
Waterside Eglinton
Bellaghy
Castledawson
Draperstown
Maghera
Beragh
Carrickmore
Dromore
Omagh
Craigavon
Lurgan
Mahon Road in Portadown
Portadown
Coagh Moneymore
Pomeroy
Stewartstown

England

Carlisle
Derby
Stoke
Bristol
Northampton

Wales

Swansea

We will also be doing door-to-door fundraising for Deaf Child Worldwide in the following areas

Meath
Louth
Clondalkin
Tallaght
Lucan
Dublin
Kilkenny
Cork
Waterford

Free this weekend and in London why not come along to the following gig and help support NDCS?

If you are unable to make it maybe you can give a small donation to her Justgiving page.

Niamh is taking part in one of our Challenges, for more information on the treks, cycle trips, marathons and team building activities you can go on visit www.ndcschallenges.org.uk