Not Long Now..................

If Glos can pickup a couple of wins at the Cheltenham festival they could get themselves in the hunt for that 2nd promotion spot - they've not done particularly well there in recent years though.

That was a big win for Somerset - games like that make you think that it might be their year.  I think that was an impressive run chase in the circumstances.  Notts have a long history of turning games around from losing positions and it looked like they might do it again - I'd love to say that Tom Moores is an example nepotism but, I have to be honest and point out that I've been pretty impressed with him every time I've seem him play.  He has that classic battling wicket-keeper quality about him.  They may have found the replacement for the massive hole Chris Read left.  Nevertheless, I'm sure Jack will point out that they are up to their usual tricks of nicking all the promising players from more successful academies around them - Leicester yet again being plundered.  Feel sorry for Leicester particularly - they are clearly doing something right in player development but as soon as they get a quality player Notts take them.  Not sure what you can do!

I went to 2 days of Lancs and Essex this week.  Best Championship match I've seen this year.  One point to make is that Lancs deserve huge credit for their pricing at Old Trafford this year.  It's £10 for a day's Championship cricket and they've been rewarded with decent crowds.  On Sunday, at one stage Onions and Bailey (test player and increasingly looking like future test player) bowling at Cook and Westley (legend in the making and recent test player) and it was very high quality stuff from all.  I'm not sure there's better value entertainment for the quality you are paying for anything really! Cook batted brilliantly and was looking like cruising to 100 with Westley going well too but Mennie (the Lancs Aussie who's been quite average before) and Onions came back after lunch and bowled an inspired spell which swung the match in Lancs favour.  It was well poised overnight and more or less level pegging at the end of the first innings.  However, Porter really is a terrific bowler and he just tore through the Lancs top order - it was hard to say they did a lot wrong.  It was precision bowling.  Harmer mopped up the tail.  105 was never going to be a big enough target but, again, Onions had Essex wobbling big time with 4 quick wickets before Bopara and Ten Doeschate (now banned for gobbing at umpires) took Essex over the line.  Really good game with pendulum going one way then the other.  Porter and Harmer again showing why Essex won the Championship last year. Despite all that though the much heralded Lancs team are finding themselves at the wrong end of the table.  They are more fun to watch than in previous years, and I like that they are now picking Parkinson regularly, but they are definitely a bit soft.  Not been great in white ball stuff for a while either now - big changes coming at Old Trafford I think unless they have a much improved second half of the season.

I'm pretty sure Lancs are going down - they have looked weak in pretty much every game I have seen and never seem to press home advantages.  They have good individual performers but as a team they seem disjointed with bad body language and they make strange selection and captaincy decisions.  This week was a good case in point.  Coming off a bad defeat to Worcester they decide to pick Parry and Lilley and leave out Parkinson.  So they have gone with 2 spinners and neither are the guy who looks like a match winner.  It just gives the impression they don't know what they are doing.  They have picked this guy Lamb who, with respect to him, has not looked like he is ready for Championship and won't pick Lester who is left-arm, did well last year and is taking wickets in the 2nd XI.  I think something is quite wrong there and I can see a clean out of senior management at the end of the year even if they stay up which right now I'm not sure they will.  I went to Day 2 of the Hampshire game - as with a few other occasions this year, they had the opposition in a bit of trouble but let them off easily through leaking runs and a general air of disinterest.  Quite a baffling side -glad I don't support them!  I'll be disapointed if they go down though purely because I'd like to see Div 1 cricket ideally but if they play Gloucs next season then that is a nice trade off.  They've felt like a county that needs a kick up the backside for a couple of seasons now - in danger of being this season's Warwickshire I think.

Surrey just seem to have stepped it up a notch in these 2 weeks and I think they have made it their Championship to lose now unfortunately heading into the business end of the season.  Dull! It is interesting that we are producing spinners again and somewhat belies some of the negative criticism around the Championship too early (even though it definitely does!).  Vardi seems a particularly exciting prospect/

Spent last night at the Ageas watching the 20/20 match Hants v Somerset. Somerset bowled very well against a poor, fairly unmotivated Hampshire side. Both captains used their bowlers well but I got the feeling that Hampshire being unable to qualify just went through the motions. Fairly good crowd in esp as it was on TV as well. For the first time in 3/4 years I thought Somerset looked a very good 20/20 team with a few players in good form and a good balance in the bowlers. I don’t expect Somerset to win it as we’re not even sure of qualifying because it’s so close in the Southern Section.
Wouldn’t it be great if both Somerset and Gloucestershire got through to finals day and avoided each other in the semi finals and set up a final between us?

Long time ago now and lots of water under the bridge but... Was at the Som v Lancs match last week for all of it, all two days. Lancs couldn’t believe their luck right at the end. But for the whole of the first day and up until the last hour and a half on day two Lancs were poor. When they had Somerset in trouble in the first innings Gregory came in and took the match away from them and with a lead of 93 we should have won. We batted for 90 minutes like rabbits in headlights but it doesn’t hide the fact that Lancs were poor. I’ve seen enough of us to know that our second innings was very unlike us this season. Talking to a few Lancs supporters I think it was a normal performance from them. Strange after they played really well at Southport to beat Worcs.
Also went to the Ageas to see Hants v Som. Now that was over in two days as well. Poor pitch with variable bounce, which at times was dangerous. 19 wickets on the first day and 34 wickets by 3.30 on the second. Yet nothing was said, no pitch adjudicators or anything. I wonder why? That pitch was prepared for Abbott and Steyn and they bowled well and on the second day they were unplayable. Best 2 hours of fast bowling I have seen in person over 55 years of watching cricket. Unplayable but being really snotty I went to see Hants v Somerset not SA v Somerset on a pitch prepared for their fast bowlers, but that’s what I saw. Yes I know people say we prepare Taunton for our spinners but we have all the adjudicators over us like a rash, Hampshire.... nothing. That’s my point. And in the Lancs match at least 6 of the Lancs batsmen played swipes and bad shots, it wasn’t the wicket. We weren’t much better.
Well done Surrey, totally deserved County Championship. Best team and full of English players, well done and great respect to them. Interesting to see who will go down, think it will be Worcestershire and Lancashire. I don’t think Onions, Jennings and Buttler signed up for that!!😉

I wonder whether a season in division two might actually benefit Lancs in the long term? Players like Hameed, Mahmood and Parkinson might get a bit more game time and form playing against weaker sides. I was certainly surprised to see Maharaj playing for them on a short term contract instead of Parkinson a few weeks ago.

On paper, Worcester look like they'll finish well a drift but I can think of a number of games where a bad session cost them. I think the bowling attack looks stronger now than it did at the start of the season. The magoffin signing hasn't really worked out and the extra pace that Parnell has given them is what they really needed close season. He's a left armer too and I think he's a great signing. Add Leach who has missed half the season with injury to Pennington, Barnard and Tounge and I reckon that is a quality seam attack.

The batting has been the problem though. They've lost a couple of games in the first session of the first day. They need to find a couple of reliable batsmen either from outside or from within. Their best performances of the season have been based around the batting of Clarke, Moeen and Mitchell but they've either been unavailable for much of the season or hit and miss. Averaging 40 with a couple of hundreds is decent but not enough to carry a batting side. It sounds like Joe Clarke is off to Notts which won't help. As always though there are a couple of young players coming through and I expect Worcester to sign an overseas top order batsman next year. At some stage I really do think this side will survive and thrive in division one. The proposed change to a 10 team first Division might help them do that.

The one day campaign was obviously a highlight. It's funny how often the least fancied side comes through to win finals day. Really pleased for Ben Cox, especially after the heavy handed way he was left out of the championship game the week before. He's got to be one of the best keepers in the country and in another era would be close to the England side.

I thought Gloucester had a promising season until they lost Norwell and especially Miles. They've been inconsistent but they seem to have some batsmen coming through the ranks which is really encouraging. And then the news broke about the departures and you wonder what the point is. Worcester have lost one of the most promising young players of his generation. Fine, I think small counties can live with that. But when you lose a couple of run of the mill bowlers it grates.

Time for some kind of remuneration system for young, home grown players I think.