A look at developments in the match between Essex and Somerset in the county championship, a mention of yesterday’s elections and a photo gallery.
It is a grim, grey day here in Norfolk (after several fine ones), but there is play happening in the County Championship. The main body of this post will look at developments in that match so far. Yesterday saw voting in various local, regional and Police and Crime Commissioner elections (only the latter for us in King’s Lynn, but I made sure to vote – Green of course). Results are coming in, and the Tories, from an already poor starting position, have had an absolute nightmare overall. Labour, the main opposition party, are not benefitting as much from this as they ought – smaller parties and well organized Independents have been gaining more in general. In relative terms the biggest gainers are my own Green party, who have gained a number of seats, including at least one, in Peterborough, where it looks very like Tory votes went mainly to Labour and some to the hard right Reform UK while a greater number of previous Labour voters switched to Green, resulting overall in “Green GAIN from Conservative”.
SOMERSET IN CONTROL
Somerset won the toss and put Essex in to bat. Dean Elgar was out cheaply, which is something of a rarity, and Somerset built on that start, picking up wickets throughout the morning. By lunch the score was 97-5. Essex suffered a body blow not very long after the resumption, when Westley was bowled by Lewis Gregory for 43 to make it 111-6. A rash shot by Harmer, a great delivery from Pretorius to bowl Harry Duke and a good delivery from Jake Ball to find the edge of Sam Cook’s bat have added to the wicket tally. Essex are now 150-9, with Snater (born in Zimbabwe, now officially Dutch and a cousin of former England white ball international Jason Roy) having brought up that score with a four. Somerset have bowled very well overall and are currently well placed.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
I got off one stop earlier than usual on my way back from work yesterday as the weather was ideal for walking . This enabled me to photograph St Faith’s Churcb
A look at developments in today’s Rachael heyhoe-Flint Trophy match between Diamonds and Blaze and a large photo gallery.
After a busy morning (a visit to the library, a visit to the bank to make a payment to the West Norfolk Autism Group and a visit to Well King’s Lynn on Loke Road for my spring Covid vaccination) I am enjoying the afternoon listening to commentary on the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy match between Diamonds and Blaze. This post looks at developments in that game so far.
THE DIAMONDS INNINGS
The Diamonds started appallingly and it took a late flourish from number nine Abigail Glen, who followed the maiden 50 she scored last time out with a robust 38 today, to boost their score even as high as 188, a total which on the face of it should not be defensible in a 50 overs per side match.
THE BLAZE REPLY
The Blaze started reasonably well, but it was the Diamonds spinners, Erin Burns of Australia and the vastly experienced Katie Levick, possibly the best female bowler in terms of documented domestic success to not have appeared at international level, who put the skids under the Blaze. Levick’s figures are barely credible for a professional limited overs match in the 2020s – she has bowled her full allocation and ended with 10-2-13-1. Burns has two wickets, Abigail Glen one, Jessica Woolston one, and Diamonds skipper Hollie Armitage has pulled of a direct hit run out. Blaze at 117-6 after 38 overs, needing 72 off the last 12 to win are definitely in some trouble. While I have been preparing this for publication three further overs have elapsed and Blaze are on to 135-6, needing 54 off nine overs to win.
PHOTOGRAPHS
With the arrival of the month of May some nice properly springlike weather has already arrived, so I have had plentiful opportunities to take photographs…
This pic and the three that follow were taken while performing an errand of mercy – in between taking the pictures I was ushering the wasp towards a window I had opened to enable it to escape into the outside where it belongs.My first Holly Blue of the year (two pics)
A look at developments in today’s Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy match between Northern Diamonds and Western Storm. Also a photo gallery.
The Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy, aka the RHFT, is the English women’s domestic 50 over competition. The first round took place on Saturday, and the second round is happening today. There is live radio commentary to which I am listening of Northern Diamonds v Western Storm. This post looks at developments in that game to date.
THE NORTHERN DIAMONDS INNINGS
Northern Diamonds looked deep in trouble at 89-5, and not exactly comfortably at 177-7. However Hollie Armitage was batting superbly and she now found a really good partner in Abigail Glen. Armitage completed a fine century with successive boundaries in the 47th over of the innings, but was then out two balls later, and when Lizzie Scott was bowled first ball that was 247-9. At this point Glen, who had played the support role while Armitage was batting so well changed gear. By the start of the final over she had reached 39*, 11 short of a 50, but was at the wrong end. Diamonds number 11, the experienced Katie Levick, did not let Glen down, taking a single off the first ball of the over. Glen hit 4,4,2 and 4 in the course of the final five balls of the innings to end on 53* in a final total of 275-9. There were three wickets a piece for left arm spinner Sophia Smale, medium pacer Danielle Gibson and Australian leg spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington, though Smale was trifle erratic, reflected in the fact that her 10 overs went for 63.
THE STORM RESPONSE SO FAR
Storm have started fairly impressively, being up with the required rate, but have bene checked by a couple of quick wickets for Phoebe Turner, one of two Turners currently bowling in tandem, the other being Sophia Turner. After 16 overs Storm are 85-2, needing 191 from the last 34, and the match looks very evenly poised.
PHOTOGRAPHS
The weather was poor yesterday and has been incredibly volatile today – there has been everything from bright sun to hail, but I have been able to get some decent photos…
A look at the closing stages of round three of the County Championship and a photo gallery.
Today is day four of the third round of the 2024 County Championship (except for the two matches that ended yesterday due to the pathetic weakness of Lancashire and Yorkshire respectively). The weather has consigned some games to draws, including Somerset v Nottinghamshire. However a potentially interesting finish is brewing at Hove where Sussex are taking on Gloucestershire, and there has been on major result in division one today.
SURREY MOVE INTO SECOND
Surrey started today needing five wickets to polish off Kent. When Ben Compton fell early leaving Joey Evison to shepherd the tail (and it looked a positively diplodocan tail with Matt Parkinson coming in at number eight) it looked be ending quickly. However Parkinson batted surprisingly well, and at the lunch interval he and Evison were still there. I had missed the start due to doing a few things in the town centre, and my lunch time walk, testing out a new pair of shoes caused to me to miss the start of the afternoon session as well – this time two wickets fell while I was out. I was tuned in by the time Cam Steel dismissed Jaskaran Singh to take his tally of wickets for the season to 20 (three in each innings this match). Parkinson’s resistance ended not long later for a new career best of 39, becoming Kemar Roach’s first victim of the innings, and Surrey had won by an innings and 37 runs, taking a full 24 points (16 for the win, five batting points and three bowling points) to move into second place in the table behind early pace setters Essex. Surrey, bidding for a third straight title, have demonstrated a capacity to dismiss their opponents – in such cricket as was possible in round one they had Lancashire out for 202, they took all 20 Somerset wickets in round two, and here, on a wicket that their own 543-7 declared indicated to be well suited to batting they dealt with Kent for 244 and 262. A side that has the bowling can win even if their batting is less than stellar (Yorkshire 1900s and 1930s, Surrey 1950s to give three major examples) but it is rare for sides with deep batting but little bowling to fare well, which is why I choose to emphasize Surrey’s bowling success. Last season they had seven bowlers take between 14 and 45 wickets at averages between 19 and 26 a piece. This season they are demonstrating similar bowling depth, although Steel has a commanding advantage in numbers of wickets taken.
SUSSEX V GLOUCESTERSHIRE
The first two innings in this match were both heavy scoring, but Gloucestershire had a nightmare yesterday evening, losing six wickets cheaply in their second innings. They fought back today to give themselves 144 to defend. At the moment Sussex remain heavy favourites, but they have lost four wickets, and collapses can happen.
A look at developments in the county championship, with close looks at Somerset v Nottinghamshire and Kent v Surrey.
The third round of the county championship continues to progress. Essex have already polished off Lancashire by an innings and 124 runs, and Middlesex are close to completing victory over Yorkshire. Other matches are rather closer. This post looks closely at two of the games in progress.
SOMERSET V NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
Somerset took a huge first innings lead over Nottinghamshire – when the eighth Somerset wicket fell the lead looked like being manageable, but then Craig Overton and Migael Pretorius batted very well, Pretorius making 77 from number 10, and Overton being stranded on 95 after a poor shot from Bashir to end the Somerset innings. Nottinghamshire are looking untroubled in their own second innings, but they are only just in credit even so.
KENT V SURREY
This is the game I am now following, and Surrey are in total control – a massive second wicket stand between Dominic Sibley and Dan Lawrence saw them into a first innings lead with nine wickets still standing, and some more aggressive later play, especially from Jamie Smith, Cam Steel and Jordan Clark saw them reach tea at 543-7, an advantage of 299, at which point, as predicted by me they declared to have a go at Kent’s second innings in the evening. Dan Worrall has just accounted for Crawley, the second time in the match he has dismissed that worthy, and Kent are currently 16-1, still 283 adrift.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
Yesterday morning was a ‘just a cuppa’ for autistic adults at King’s Lynn library. This lego archiecture was constrained by how little lego was actually available for us.
A look at what is going on in round three of the county championship, with the main focus on Somerset v Nottinghamshire
The third round of the 2024 County Championship got underway yesterday. The Duke ball made its first appearance of the season after the Kookaburra had been in use for the first two rounds, and in the main it did lead to a sharp uptick in the rate at which wickets fell (Hampshire have embarrassingly failed to make use of it against Warwickshire – the latter are well past 400 and still batting). My attention at the moment is focussed on…
SOMERSET V NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
When it was time for play to start yesterday many matches were delayed by bad weather. Of the games that did start on time I opted for the one at Taunton. Kasey Aldridge, who had such a fine game against Surrey in round two, was missing from the Somerset line up, but otherwise they looked strong. This impression was confirmed when they dismissed Nottinghamshire for a paltry 193, with every bowler contributing (probably the least impressive was overseas signing Migael Pretorius, who was flattered by being given the wickets of two tail enders after not challenging the middle or upper order unduly). Nottinghamshire were unimpressive with the ball as well, though just before the close Aussie Matt Renshaw donated his wicket. The morning session today (most of which I missed due to a commitment at the library) was probably Nottinghamshire’s least bad out of the four, with three wickets going down, but nightwatcher Josh Davey batted right through the session (a feat also achieved by another nightwatcher this morning, Sam Cook, for Essex against Lancashire). Somerset moved into credit with six first innings wickets standing almost on the stroke of the interval. Since the resumption there has been little to suggest Nottinghamshire are getting back into this, and Somerset are currently 209-4, 16 runs ahead.
ELSEWHERE
Essex are in complete control against Lancashire, already well into the lead with nine first innings wickets standing. Warwickshire continue to pile on the runs against Hampshire although they are now nine wickets down. Surrey have had the better of such action as there has been at Canterbury, claiming six Kent wickets so far. The other match of big interest to me seems to be going well for visitors Gloucestershire – they amassed 417 at Hove and have already taken a Sussex wicket with not a huge number on the board against them.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
Mama duck supervising a substantial brood.
While I have been preparing this for publication both nightwatchers referred to have been dismissed, Davey for 45 and Sam Cook just one run short of what would have been his maiden first class 50.
A look at goings on in the county championship, with the focus on Surrey v Somerset. Also a bumper photo gallery, including some interesting butterflies.
The second round of county championship matches is reaching its conclusion, and this post looks at what has been going on, with the focus principally on Surrey v Somerset.
A GREAT FIGHTBACK BY SOMERSET
Surrey led by 143 on first innings, and when Lewis Goldsworthy’s brave resistance ended yesterday the score was 162-6, a mere 19 runs ahead. However Lewis Gregory, supported first by the highly impressive youngster Kasey Aldridge and then by Craig Overton looked to have saved Somerset time ticked on (some bad weather which took the first hour out of the day’s play also helped Somerset). His dismissal for 80 was the first of three very quick wickets to end the innings, as Migael Pretorius played a truly awful shot, and Shoaib Bashir was pinned LBW. All three of these wickets went to Cam Steel, giving hjim five for the innings, nine for the match, 14 for the season and 51 in all first class cricket. That left Surrey needing 209 in 20 overs, however the start of the Surrey second innings has been delayed by more bad weather. Surrey clearly intend to have a go when the innings is allowed to start – Jamie Smith and Dan Lawrence opening the batting.
ELSEWHERE
Between the weather and the tall scoring almost every other game is either confirmed as a draw or soon will be. However Essex still have a chance of outright victory in the Thames Estuary derby (Kent will be delighted to escape with a draw if they manage it). Gloucestershire and Yorkshire are also still duking it out, with the latter just about in with a chance of winning, although four wickets is a good many to take in not much time.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
This heron took wing as I was preparing to photograph it, but I did manage tio capture it.A closer crop of the flying heron.This small blue butterfly was moving too fast for me to zoom in really closely.This white butterfly with a black body has a very intricate veining pattern on its wings.An orange tipViewed close up (next pic is even clser) the tips that give it its name segue from orange to brown at the extreme edge and there is the faintest hint of blue in the head area.A large brood of ducklings.
While I was preparing this for publication Surrey scored 50 off the first five overs of their innings – the weather may stop them, but it doesn’t look like Somerset can.
A look at goings on in the second round of the 2024 County Championship with the main focus on Surrey v Somerset. Also a short section on the Kookaburra experiment, and of course a photo gallery.
We are at the halfway stage of the second round of County Championship matches for 2024. My main focus is on Surrey v Somerset, but I will also mention other games.
DAY ONE
Surrey won the toss and elected to bowl first. At 196-1 with Renshaw and especially Lammonby going very well it wasn’t looking great for the home side. However a run out accounted for Renshaw for 87, and Lammonby fell immediately after reaching three figures (a bit of an issue for him – he now has a double figure tally of FC hundreds but has yet to go on even as far as 120). That got Surrey on a roll, and Somerset soon found themselves 216-8. A bit of a revival, spearheaded by Lewis Gregory, boosted the final total to 285, which looked at least 100 below par given the flatness of the pitch and the fact of the Kookaburra ball being in use. Cam Steel, treated by his first county, Durham, as a specialist batter claimed four wickets to follow his five against Lancashire, and ended the innings with an FC bowling average of below 30 for the first time in his career. Gus Atkinson had 3-57 from 19 overs, proving that not all seamers are completely emasculated by the Kookaburra (see also Sam Cook’s cheap 6-for v Nottinghamshire in the first round of fixtures). Surrey reached the close on 42-0, with no Somerset bowler posing a threat, and both Burns and Sibley looking comfortable.
DAY TWO
Surrey batted sensibly, and never had anything approaching a collapse. Gregory looked an unthreatening medium pacer, Craig Overton was decent but not massively threatening and it was the two youngest Somerset bowlers, Bashir with his off spin and right arm fast medium bowler Kasey Aldridge who by far the most impressive. Sibley reached three figures, Burns just missed that mark, Jamie Smith played a little gem of an innings and Foakes made a solid half century. Dan Lawrence’s first innings for his new county was a failure, but Cam Steel followed his good bowling by settling in nicely with the bat, and Surrey closed day two on 358-6, 73 runs to the good with four wickets standing (and Jamie Overton is probably the best number nine batter in current county cricket while number 10 Gus Atkinson is far from being a mug with the bat).
DAY THREE SO FAR
There is no sign of any early trouble for Surrey as yet, and they have added six to their overnight total for no loss.
ELSEWHERE
Durham, after not getting on the field at home for their opening game, had a deeply chastening experience at Edgbaston, putting their hosts into bat and watching them amass 698-3 declared, with all of the top three passing 150 (skipper Alex Davies leading the rampage with 256). Middlesex also suffered horribly at Northamptonshire, the home side’s 552-6 declared meaning that the two first innings that Middlesex have bowled through so far have a combined aggregate of 1172-9. Derbyshire and Glamorgan are locked in a low scoring battle which proves that wicket taking is possible with the Kookaburra. Off spinning all rounder Alex Thomson has a 10 wicket match haul for the home side. The Thames Estuary derby between Essex and Kent looks like being a high scoring draw, but the Nottinghamshire v Worcestershire and Hampshire v Lancashire games look less batter dominated. The county of my birth, Gloucestershire, are currently having somewhat the worse of their match against Yorkshire. While I have been typing this Aldridge has claimed a thoroughly deserved third wicket of the Surrey innings, dismissing Jordan Clark. We are about to witness twin against twin – Craig Overton bowling to Jamie Overton.
THE KOOKABURRA EXPERIMENT
Many are bemoaning the absence of seriously low scoring April games which used to be a feature of the championship with the Duke ball in use. I am not among them, and nor am I rushing to judgement on the experiment. The purpose of using the Kookaburra in place of the Duke at the extremes of the season is to lessen the influence of those who have been making a living nipping the Duke around at 75mph – such bowlers will never succeed at test level, and increase the variety of bowling on show. The efforts of Sam Cook, Gus Atkinson and Kasey Aldridge shows that high quality seamers can still do it with the Kookaburra (only Atkinson of this trio is capable of touching the sort of speeds that would be considered genuinely fast, and even for him that kind of pace is the exception rather than the rule), while spinners never used to feature this early in the season, and the performances of Thomson, Steel and a few others are showing that these bowlers now get a look in early in the year. One season is not enough to form a definite judgement, so even I was unimpressed with the Kookaburra experiment I would want it to continue. As it is I see no reason to believe that it cannot work, and I hope it is persevered with.
A look at the points system in use in this year’s county championship and its main problem (the over generous reward for drawn games).
The second round of county championship matches gets underway on Friday (there is an IPL commentary today, which is just getting underway). This post looks into the rights and wrongs of the points system used in the county championship.
THE POINTS SYSTEM
The points system in use for this season is as follows: 16 Points for an outright win 8 points for a draw
In addition bonus points are awarded in the first 110 overs of each side’s first innings as follows: batting – 1 point for 250 runs, 2 for 300, 3 for 350, 4 for 400 and 5 for 450 and bowling – 1 point for three wickets, 2 points for six wickets and 3 points for nine wickets.
PROS AND CONS
I approve of the 16 points for a win, and though I accept that it adds a degree of complexity I also largely approve of the bonus point system. I have a problems with the allocation of eight points for a draw (it used to be five last season). Two matches in different ways illustrate the problems with rewarding a draw so highly. At Lord’s neither Middlesex nor Glamorgan were within a country mile of winning – the pitch won hands down, and there is no certainty that there would have been a result had that match been allocated eight days rather than the regulation four. At Hove Sussex utterly outplayed Northamptonshire but bad light forced an end with Sussex highly likely to win had it not done so, and Northamptonshire gained eight points which they had done precious little to earn. I do not go so far as legendary Somerset skipper of yesteryear Sammy Woods who was once heard to say “draws…they’re for bathing in” – I have witnessed some classic drawn matches, including the Old Trafford test match of 2005 and a match between Surrey and Hampshire, when with no chance of anything more than a draw for Surrey former South Africa test batter Hashim Amla batted the whole of the final day to shepherd his side to that draw. However I also do not particularly want to encourage sides to play safe and look to avoid defeat, and I feel that awarding as many as eight points for a draw (which if it comes with full batting and bowling points thus means 16 in total) is likely to encourage negative tactics. I think five points is ample for a draw. A further problem with eight points for a draw is exemplified by the fact that Durham and Hampshire have eight points a piece for four days of doing nothing because the outfield was always deemed too wet for cricket. Surrey meanwhile have 11 points because in just over 80 overs of cricket at Old Trafford they managed to bowl their hosts out for 202, and were 15-0 in reply.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have a bumper photo gallery, particularly notable for the variety of butterflies featured…
A Tortiseshell butterflyA Peacock butterflyThe most exotic butterfly of the year so far – an Orange Tip Peacock butterflyPeacock butterflyA shieldbug.Tortiseshell butterfly.A peacock butterflyA comma butterfly (two edits).
A look at the main events of the first round of County Championship 2024 fixtures. A new young batting talent announced itself at Edgbaston. and a bowler staked an England claim at Trent Bridge. Also a substantial photo gallery.
The umpires at Hove have just confirmed that the game there between Sussex and Northamptonshire is a draw due to bad light, which means that the first round of county championship 2024 fixtures is done and dusted. This post looks at events of the last four days.
TWO COMPLETE NON-EVENTS
Many matches were adversely affected by rain, bad light or the cumulative effects of long periods of continuous rainfall. Two, Derbyshire v Gloucestershire and Durham v Hampshire saw not a single ball bowled on any of the four scheduled days. I am not sure about the Derbyshire game, but there was not actually much rain during the four days themselves at Durham, but owing to several months of near continuous rain in the region it was not possible for the ground staff to get the outfield dry enough to be safe for play.
REMEMBER THE NAME: KASHIF ALI
Kashif Ali was making his debut for Worcestershire, and they had opted to give him the number three slot, which might be seen as big ask for a young and inexperienced player (he is 26 and had played only eight previous FC matches). He came into the match against neighbours and fierce rivals Warwickshire without a first class century to his name – and departed Edgbaston four days later with two to his credit – 110 in the first Worcestershire innings and 133 in the second. Weather interventions on the third and fourth days saved Warwickshire’s blushes, forcing the visitors to accept the better of a drawn match. Full scorecard here.
THE NEW ‘CHEF’
At the end of last season Sir Alastair Cook, aka ‘Chef’ called time on a long and distinguished professional career. That enabled the nickname to passed on to a new and worthy recipient, right arm fast medium bowler Sam Cook, previously known as ‘Little Chef’. While Cook’s partner in destruction, Jamie Porter, is probably too old for an England call up (a casualty of Broad and Anderson’s long domination of England seam bowling) Cook at 26 is well and truly still in the picture, and his 6-14 today against Nottinghamshire to secure one of the few outright wins of this opening round (Porter 3-43, and Essex third seamer Shane Snater 1-23) may just have placed him where he belongs on England’s radar. Those six wickets mean he currently has 275 first class wickets at 19.48 a piece after 75 matches. Full scorecard here.
A RUN GLUT AT LORD’S
I mentioned Sam Northeast’s new ground record 335* in a total of 620-3 declared in an earlier post. Well in proof that was more the pitch than him I provide the fact that not only did Glamorgan not win, they actually conceded a first innings lead to Middlesex, who racked up 655. Ryan Higgins, normally considered a ‘bowling all rounder’ – a crafty right arm medium pacer and a good (but hardly great) middle order batter contributed 221 to the north London cause, while number 10 Tom Helm managed 64. Shrewd observers will realize why I have rated Kashif Ali’s twin tons above the huge scores from this match. Though it was, as Patrick Murphy described the absurd Bombay v Maharashtra game that saw 2376 scored across the four innings, a “meaningless fiesta for Frindalls” a full scorecard is here.
OTHER NOTES
Somerset fared well against Kent, with James Rew scoring a fluent 50 as they took a big first innings lead, though Kent comfortably drew the game. When weather is making itself felt in English cricket Old Trafford rarely escapes, and indeed the Lancashire v Surrey match was heavily effected – Surrey dismissed the hosts for 202, and reached 15-0 in reply but that was the full extent of play over the four days.
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