harpendenfox

If, come the end of December we have about 27 points from 20 games, and if we’ve had an injury or two amongst our wingers, i’d ne tempted to recall him and play him in the hope he becomes a starter for next season

Absolutely agree. It was seriously senseless play from someone so experienced.

Agree with your sentiments but the big challenge is the lack of decent batters in the country. If they’re decent their current county wouldn’t let them go. Fingers crossed we can find one or two. I do think Harry Dearden has made some progress this season but the question is can he score a ton or two next season. The lack of 100s, or even 50s, is extraordinary. The batting group needs to work on both technique and mindset. Even Coz, who we know can be a superb bat, looked stuck on the crease whenever I saw him bat

He did. The other new signing that is

Agreed regarding Zak. He clearly has potential, but 31 wickets over three seasons, the majority of which he has spent injured, has not helped us much. At least this allowed Ben Mike to make a pretty telling contribution in first two games. Nico and his team have to try and find a couple of decent players who are both good cricketers and potential leaders, as I think that is what we are lacking.

We also need some noise in the field. We go very quiet very quickly, Cozzy aside. A tough Yorkie is a good call. Except I see Leaning is from Bristol.... Looking at his stats he looks like someone who might benefit dropping into div 2 - although he might do that with Yorkshire.

Here's a little gem for the statto's amongst you. The highly rated Zak Chappell has 31 first class wickets for County spread over three years. Ben Mike now has 12 in just over a week....

I agree with you in that radical thinking may be needed, but the current location is in the heart of a heavily populated area, and we still struggle to get people through the gates. A few hundred for County games, around 3000 for T20 games, somewhat less for 50 over games. Of course our lack of success for several years doesn't help, but we know the city and county are into sport. It always frustrates me that a greater percentage of the 30k or so who attend City, and 25k or so who support Tigers, don't come to cricket. Is there a location you have in mind that you think would work better? It's an interesting idea

I love that you slipped Norman Leet in there!!

Ackerman, Cosgrove, Dexter should be a good division 2 top order. Cosgrove has had a catastrophic run of poor form but I would be reasonably confident he will return. Ackerman is one of the best in the league and Dexter simply needs to show more discipline outside off stump. Our inability to create opening partnerships is a big worry. Let’s hope we can find a new batter. Trouble is there is a lack of batsmen who can dig in across the country. on the plus side the bowling has progressed hugely and even without the excellent Ben Raine we look in decent shape, particularly if Zak can have a season when he is fully fit.

Same on Sports Reports. Interview with Jurgen, analysis of Liverpool, literally one sentence on us. Ok they are a top club and I would expect them to get the majority of the reportage, but I think we deserve a couple of comments!

that's a really horrible batting effort. The fact the nightwatchman can apply himself and bat for 3 hours shows it is not unplayable, and that our senior batsmen have massively underperformed. However we're not the only County side that appears unable to bat. Only Ackerman has registered a century in 4 day cricket this season. None from Horton, Cosgrove, Dexter and Eckersley in a combined total of about 65 innings. Our bowling has come on leaps and bounds this season, but the batting has regressed if anything. There's no point throwing loads of youngsters at it, but I would like to see Sam Evans given the last 4 County games to see if he can find his feet. Cozzy hasn't managed an innings of substance in weeks, so stand him down for a while, see if he can get some runs for the seconds. And somehow we need to find a decent batsman over the winter, but frankly from the England team down there is a shortage of batters who can dig in.

Could that be because he has simply purred about us for the full 90?! 😃

Get tough on these people. Immediate life ban and season ticket for Cov.

Dearden batted superbly this afternoon. Really mature innings and at one stage he and Ackers looked like they might make a match winning partnership. Sadly Ackers got a good one and Cosgrove and Eckersley contributed a grand total of 0. The game is completely in the balance.