Zorrovolpe

I'm not sure why Rishi Patel isn't getting a bowl as 6th bowler (or maybe 4th/5th). It's pretty obvious that spin is our strong suit, and he wouldn't be any worse than certain people who are *still* being given a bowl. Questions need to be asked about why the seamers are underperforming so badly / expensively.

Looks like there's a place for Ben Mike high up.the order (depending on Sol's health, perhaps as opener). Without his early impetus and runs we would have lost that.

Kelly needs to buck his ideas up, and fast; I don't know if Ajaz Patel is/could be contracted for T20, but I would rather have him in the side at the moment, than Kelly. There's Tattersall if we need somebody to amble along at (less than) a run a ball; an overseas batter should be taking more responsibility.

Bit worried about Ben Green's T20 batting and bowling and I hope this win gives him confidence.

4 minutes ago, Harpenden Fox said:

He’s not. He’s a very decent player. But he’s having a very poor tournament thus far 

Eskinazi certainly shouldn't be in the team for the next match. What on earth does he bring to a powerplay?  Scratching ones and twos and swiping aimlessly. He's a steady and valuable contributor to the four day side, but seems a fish out of water as a T20 opener.

2 minutes ago, CoventryFox said:

Agree with the first part but the second part is a bit harsh. What’s it like being a clairvoyant? 

No need for silly sarcasm.

Anyone who watches an opening spell from Ben Mike in a T20 can usually spot from the first few balls whether he's spraying it all over the place and being clouted to the boundary, or whether he's focused and "on it" that evening.

If the T20 team balance allowed it, I'd have Mike in as a middle order batsman to add some acceleration, and as 6th/7th bowler to "buy" a wicket around the 10-12th over if the game is slipping away from us.

7 minutes ago, CoventryFox said:

Benny Mike gets a bad rep on here but the guy is a match winner and has to play every T20 and 50’over game when fit. Just smashed 28 off 9 to propel us to 201/6 

I don't think anyone's questioning his batting potential; someone's just made the case for moving him up the order.

There's just frustration at his inability to bowl economically, and at his ability to lose you a T20 match if he has a bad first couple of overs. You can normally tell within minutes if this is going to happen.

21 minutes ago, Walshy5 said:

I really cannot think of any reason why we chose to bowl first.

Utter lunacy on a day like this, when there are likely to be the best batting conditions of the four days, and a chance to rack up some batting points.

I don't think anyone on this forum would say that the Leics bowling unit is stronger than its batting - do the coaches not recognise this?

If Leics had 500+ on the board first and then bowled, who knows what effect a bit of scoreboard pressure might have...?

Will we ever find out ?! 🙄

1 hour ago, Paninistickers said:

What happened to Weatherald?

The BBC report suggests cramp, and that he'll be back tomorrow. 🤞

Hopefully we can score enough to give Glam some awkward sessions on the final day - though I don't know if the wicket will be doing anything by then.

1 hour ago, HybridFox said:

Rehan'a going to the IPL!

 

Does anyone know how much of the season this rules him out for ? 

He's been somewhat underwhelming so far in the Championship, and I suspect he would have been pretty much undroppable given who he is. Wouldn't be too displeased with Tattersall replacing him as a batsman at this current point in time, given Rehan's lack of runs.

Had a really enjoyable afternoon at the football, watching a committed team make themselves almost mathematically safe from relegation. 

Obviously, it wasn't at the King Power.

It's been said before on these threads, but I'll reiterate it: if you've not moved over to non-league yet, now's the time (for your mental health if nothing else). 

All of us will always have a bond with LCFC but now is the time to step back and go to watch one of the Step 3 / 4 / 5 teams on your doorstep. 

£8 to see Loughborough Students today, lovely staff, comfy bar / cafe, and total commitment from the players. The Swansea goalflash on my phone raised little more than a sardonic chuckle. 

Give it a try, it's really worth it.

2 hours ago, TamuffFox said:

Totally agree...Hill was our top champ run scorer last season! Rishi needs the chop and replacing with Sol.

 

My team...and with this batting order...

Budinger, Weatherald, Ahmed, Eskinazi, Hill, Holland, Cox, Green, Ajaz, Scriven, Hull.

I would be surprised if either Lewis or Rishi were dropped after a single game (unless there's some serious issue) because it generally just doesn't happen if you take man management seriously.

That said, we can't be too indulgent, otherwise we could be looking at relegation even by mid-May.

At least we now have some top order competition (Budinger) and another middle order option (Tattersall), compared with previous years.

This is a query about tax / finance rather than "investments", but this seems the best thread for it. I'd really appreciate any thoughts about hiring (tax) accountants regarding income tax returns.

HMRC think that I should move from simple assessment to self assessment. I suspect that exceeding the 10K annual bank interest threshold has triggered this.

My tax return shouldn't be that complex. Income from a (very) part-time job until July '26, then early retirement and an occupational pension kicking in at that point. Other income will be interest from around a dozen different building societies. Nothing remotely complex like shares, foreign assets, etc.

I don't particularly want to try and do the return myself (I can see myself making errors / losing patience).

But then again, some people who use tax accountants complain about the sheer volume of information that they request; if you're spending so much time digging up info and figures for them, mightn't you be better off doing it yourself...? 🤔

Any advice much appreciated - many thanks. 👍

15 minutes ago, splinterdream said:

i see it this way........you've had a series of girlfriends, and because you're fairly ordinary, your girlfriends have always been a bit rough, some worse than others, but you're used to it as you know no better, so it's okay, but then this absolute stunner is into you, and you're on another planet and can't believe your luck, and think this is it for life, but outside forces ruin it, and it's over, and you're back to the rough girlfriends, but those girlfriends don't seem so attractive anymore, as you think you should be doing better, despite others telling you, you're a fairly ordinary fella, so should be happy with what you have.

 

so in short, we have seen it before, but this time it feels a lot worse

Ian Holloway would be proud of that analogy !

3 hours ago, Lionator said:

Encouraging start for us from Eskinazi, he at least has a high ceiling where he could be useful in Div.1

Really pleasing to see a big hundred at long last (other Leics batters please take note).

If we're to have a chance of staying up next season, we're going to need batsmen to adopt a different mindset and capitalize properly on their centuries.

Looks like a quality earcupper, so would fit in perfectly here.

I guess most of us would have accepted 7th place finishes in the white ball competitions in exchange for promotion in the four day game. But we've been fairly poor across the board since the end of June, culminating in today's dismal result, and that's a concern.

46 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

Get the spinners on !

Yes...  it's pretty obvious *who* should have the ball in his hand at this point. 

35 minutes ago, smudger63 said:

Not sure what's going on here.  Its almost like we were more intent on trying to stop them getting extra bowling points than trying to get extra batting points.  I mean how did we not get the 400 bonus point, which we only needed to go at 3 an over to get! Now we are going no where and losing wickets for next to nothing and have handed the initiative back to Derby,  Oh and Kimber needs binning! To think that both Cox and Scriven are out of the team, while he takes up one of their places is an absolute joke decision.

I never want to see Kimber in the XI for a four day game again. His whole demeanour suggested that he wasn't going to last more than ten minutes.

Regardless of the pitch, from a collective perspective, that's some of the most idiotic batting we've ever produced (and I include the era when Ned Eckersley was single handedly getting LCCC into three figures every innings).

1 hour ago, CrawlingFox said:

What a disappointing end to the t20 campaign.

 

Kimber as captain didn't really work, too many bowling changes especially which just didn't make sense. He's in the side to go slog city with the bat and he averaged 23 with 1 50 which was his high score at 51. At a good rate of 180 but he'd have wanted more than 250 odd runs

 

Budinger was leading run scorer with 378 at 27.5 and a s/r of 163. 3 50s though didn't go on past 56. Good work though and next season he should look to build on that with some bigger scores hopefully.

 

Rehan and Cox contributed very well also but Masood's contribution was modest for an o/s and Hill and Patel both had poor returns.

 

Nobody else really did much and I think we missed Ben Mike down at 6 or 7 going slog city.

 

Key for me is that our only score over 60 was Cox's 70*. Nobody else got out of the 50s. Next season we need better than that as really in this format it's those big knocks that can win you a game and take the pressure off others.

 

Bowling numbers are generally pretty excellent to be fair can't really criticise anyone. Wood and Walker took a bit of tap but your weakest bowler will always get targeted and everyone else had respectable numbers over the course.

 

We need to go for a Breetzke or a hitter of that ilk to partner Budinger up top next season. Something like:

 

O/S hitter

Budinger

Ahmed

Patel

Kimber

Cox

Mike

Trevaskis/Holland

O/S bowling A/R

Scriven

Hull

Not sure we need an overseas "hitter". As shown yesterday, we need(ed) an experienced head coming in at 3/4 to anchor an innings with an assertive 60-70. Basically what we hired Masood for, if he'd done his job properly. We seemed short of batting options this year (and still do). Bowling was inconsistent all year; difficult to think of anyone who had two good, consecutive T20 games. People like Salisbury started well but then seemed to be sussed out by the opposition, and discarded. Hull has not yet shown much evidence of being an economical bowler in any format, and should not be bowling at the death.

Looks like Ben Mike is back in the squad... looking forward to some tight, controlled, miserly bowling 🤞🙂.

Anyone know why Chris Wright doesn't seem to be an option for the Blast? I'd take four overs of nagging line and length over anything else right now, especially after yesterday.

Rishi P. really needs a score too.

Budinger was mesmerising this evening, a real.privilege to be there to witness that; not aimless slogging either, a magnificent range of shots. 

Slightly strange to basically win a game in the first 7 overs of each innings... and then largely lose their way each time. I was hoping that Kimber would make a score tonight to firm up his captaincy credentials, but hopefully that will come.

31 minutes ago, Sunbury Fox said:

What a session! Superb stuff!

 

Looking ahead to the T20 campaign, how do folk seeing us lining up, bearing in mind that Hull and Ahmed won't be available at the start of the campaign? Was thinking something like:

 

Patel

Budinger

Masood 

Kimber

Hill

Holland

Cox

Trevaskis

Van Beek

Mike 

Scriven

 

Looks spot on to me. Cannot remember a Leics side with that depth of batting.

Outstanding session 👋.

Given the weather forecast, I just hope we have enough time to put serious pressure on Lancs, and that they aren't saved by the rain as at Old Trafford.

Monday is not looking good and there's a shower around early this evening too.

So - assuming we get there - how soon should we declare after 350, with probably only 3 days' play available? While Harris is probably due a score in the 2nd innings, I don't see the rest of them causing much trouble.

Couldn't agree more over Kimber. He wouldn't have been an automatic pick (for me) in the T20 side, let alone as captain.

He seems to have enormous credit in the bank with the coaches, but as you say, his recent form has been dismal.

What is someone like Trevaskis going to make of this...? If people start to think that a meritocracy is being bypassed, that's damaging in any environment.

For me, this is the only worry in what's otherwise been an impressive start by the team this season.

21 minutes ago, LBTufty said:

Kimber needs to work out his game in the 2nds for a while, last 7 first-class scores read 0, 8, 2, 4, 5, 2 and 8. Game has fallen apart since being called up last summer for Birmingham Phoenix in the stupid Hundred.

Quite a good move to put Lancs in, if you look at the weather forecast.

Anyone batting first is likely to have the disruption of rain breaks, whereas whoever bats second is likely to see the best of the conditions (Saturday p.m. and Sunday).