I'm sorry my response to your various points is a month after the original post but I have been concentrating most of my "spare time" efforts on trying to see that you get a reasonably presented new scoreboard - one for Championship Matches and another for 1-day Matches. The IT guys, Grant and James, have been marvellous in getting the boards to where they are and I would like to thank them for their hard work in this project.
I'm sorry but, for me, the efforts of those who have produced the scoreboard (and the software behind it) are a long way from marvellous. It took days to get it into the state it should have been delivered in and even now when it is starting to look like a scoreboard (name of current bowler would be a worthwhile addition), it often updates too slowly. Providing something that starts of as garbage and becomes adequate is not cause for celebration.
Mick, I'm sorry but you are being very harsh on people who had nothing to do with the ordering or late delivery of the scoreboard and it's associated software. They are the ones who have had to pick up the project and make it work after the person originally responsible left the Club. Because the new board was erected in front of the old board it was a question of getting something up and running as soon as we could and, therefore, we started off by providing what I admit was basic information but we felt it was better than none at all. We have been experimenting with various layouts and combinations of layout without any pre-set guide to go by and no formal instructions or suggestions from the manufacturers. The program is run through my scoring laptop and my own training consisted of sitting down one evening and experimenting to see what could be achieved. If you feel that it does not update quickly enough it is probably that it is not simply a question of pressing a button. I have to plot where every scoring ball goes to produce information for the Players/Coaches before the button can be pressed and that is what causes minor delays in the update.
I don't mind constructive criticism, Mick, but before you do so please make sure that you know the complete story rather than making sweeping assumptions based on ignorance of the facts. We will always be open to suggestions for improvement to the board but whether they can be adopted or not will have to be set against considerations of space, quantity and visibility from the Pavilion side of the ground. If we try to put too much on the board the font size may have to be reduced and cause problems for people trying to read it from a distance.
We are trying to give everyone a good service but it is going to take time to get it right. You cannot, I regret, expect a project like this to run perfectly from the start - please be patient a little longer. I feel that we have made good progress given the situation which was thrust upon us and we will eventually have a board which will be better than the one that we had even if we cannot please everybody all the time. I, therefore, repeat my thanks to Grant and James for the work they have done so far.
