Tag: Will Rhodes

County Championship Day Two

A look at goings on in the county championship with the main focus on the west midlands derby. Also a bumper photo gallery with a very special feature image.

The county championship season is into its second day, and most matches have now had some action. I continue to follow the west midlands derby, which shows every sign of being a classic game. Elsewhere, Sam Northeast is cashing in on the feebleness of Middlesex’s bowling – he now has the highest ever first class score at Lord’s, having surpassed Graham Gooch’s 333 for England v India in 1990.

WARWICKSHIRE V WORCESTERSHIRE

Warwickshire fought their way back into things in the later stages of yesterday, and by the close Worcestershire were 316-7 after 93 overs (bad light curtailed play with three overs not bowled, but we were by then half an hour past the scheduled close due to the preponderance of seam bowling on display. This morning Worcestershire advance their score to 360, a fine effort for a side sent into bat. Veteran seamer Joe Leach took a wicket for Worcestershire, but Warwickshire are going nicely at 94-1, skipper Alex Davies on a solid 32*, Will Rhodes a punchier 33*, with Rob Yates out for 26. Yates was once on England’s radar after a superb breakthrough season, but he has done little recently, and a score of 26 with a few nice strokes is not really what is required of an opener in first class cricket. Alex Davies has gone while I was preparing this post for publication – a good started wasted through a poor shot. Will Rhodes is still there, and Ed Barnard has joined him, and got underway with a six.

ELSEWHERE

Lancashire v Surrey saw no play at all yesterday, but they have managed to make a start today – Lancashire are 61-1 in the 24th over. The wicket, that of failed England opener Keaton Jennings, has gone to Dan Lawrence via a return catch. Somerset have five Kent wickets down so far, but Harry Finch and Joey Evison are offering resistance for Kent. Lewis Gregory has three wickets to his credit. The county of my birth, Gloucestershire are involved in one of two fixtures not to have had any play on the first two days (day two washouts already confirmed in both cases), the Derbyshire ground staff, like their Durham counterparts for the match against Northamptonshire being unable to render the surface playable. Glamorgan have decided that 620-3, with Northeast 335*, is enough for them and have declared.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a bumper photo gallery for you (don’t forget to click on images to view them at a larger size)…

Mama duck escorts the youngsters.
Four bees in a single shot – this is the original before any sort of editing…
…this is cropped but not otherwise edited…
…and this is cropped and edited…
…while this is an even closer crop focussing on the three ‘loose’ bees…
…and this focuses on the bee of a different species that as already picked a flowers.

Warwickshire Complete Red Ball Double

An account of Warwickshire completing the red ball double by adding the Bob Willis Trophy to the County Championship.

At 11:40AM today, just 1 hour and ten minutes into the fourth of five scheduled days, and with weather interruptions shortening two of the previous three days Warwickshire completed victory over Lancashire by the crushing margin of an innings and 199 runs to add the Bob Willis Trophy to this years County Championship. This post looks back at the match.

A 440 RUN LEAD

On day 1 Lancashire were rolled for 78 (and it might have been worse – at low water mark they were 12-6) and Warwickshire replied with 120-0 (see here). On day two Warwickshire steam rollered on, leaving 400 behind them as Rob Yates (for the fifth time this season) and Will Rhodes (for the first time of the season) each topped three figures. The sole bright spot for Lancashire lay in the bowling of Parkinson who emerged from the carnage with figures of 3-71. On day three, which through a combination of work and major weather interventions I missed the whole of, Warwickshire extended their innings to 518, Parkinson claiming a fourth wicket along the way. His figures in FC cricket are now 102 wickets at 23.35, comfortably the cheapest average of any current English spinner have 100 or more FC wickets. While Leach has an unquestionable claim on the no1 spinners position for the Ashes, Parkinson should also be in the party, along with Liam Patterson-White of Nottinghamshire. Lancashire then stumbled to 171-6 in their second innings.

THE LAST RITES

There was some overnight rain in London, but these days Thomas Lord’s third ground is one of the best draining cricket venues in the world, and play started bang on time. Although the Lancashire batters provided a little entertainment there was never any doubt about the eventual result. In the end it was Liam Norwell who had the distinction of claiming the final wicket, Tom Bailey top edging an attempted pull and Michael Burgess doing well get under the catch. It was his third wicket of the innings, a distinction he shared with left arm tweaker Danny Briggs, while Miles, Johal the debutant and Bresnan each had one wicket. Balderson scored 65 for Lancashire. The first Bob Willis Trophy final between Somerset and Essex last year was drawn, with the trophy going to Essex for being ahead on first innings. This year, Warwickshire, for whom ‘big Bob‘ played for many years became the first county to win this match outright, and they did so mightily impressively.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…