Northamptonshire Cricket League · Premier Division
A bowling average that prices each wicket by the batsman who lost it, so a top-order scalp counts for more than a tail-end one. 2026 season, to 5 September.
| # | Bowler | W | Raw | Adjusted | Δ | Wicket quality (1.00 = average) | Move |
|---|
Every batsman gets a value from his 2023–2026 Premier record, shrunk toward the division mean so that a man with three innings is not treated as a known quantity: (runs + 9 × mean) / (dismissals + 9).
A bowler's wickets are then averaged into a single quality figure, and his raw average is divided by it. Weights are normalised so the league-wide effect is zero — the adjustment reallocates credit between bowlers rather than flattering everyone.
A bowler's own dismissals of a batsman are excluded when valuing that batsman, so nobody can talk down the price of his own victims.
Weights come from batting averages alone. Conditions, match situation and who was bowling at the other end are all invisible to it.
Coverage is 1,126 of 1,395 season wickets. The unmatched ones skew toward tail-enders, whose low weights are therefore missing — so adjusted averages run very slightly generous. Qualifying bowlers average 94% matched; the two marked † are thinner.
Three rounds are outstanding: 29 August was abandoned league-wide, and 12 and 19 September are still to be played.