A great point

Very disappointing.

Don't really want to be grading/ranking our defeats but this hurts more than the Essex for me.

Got to be one of our worst defeats. We were in control for pretty much the whole game apart from the first and last sessions. Got to ask how we allowed them to score over 400 on the final day.

Awful from us..........we should never have declared overnight with our inability to bowl teams out.

At what point do the club admit that Robinson is not up to the job & Davies not up to being captain?

If we do not make changes now, we will be in the 2nd division next season

Well, we went into the game with 8 batsmen and only 3 proper bowlers, one of them who is completely out of form. So what did we really expect? We were still in the game at tea, but afterwards the bowling tactics were so poor, just bowling straight balls to Abell and Banton allowing them easy singles and giving them a base to build their victory on. OHD was the only bowler to try and vary his bowling, but why did he end up bowling 4 less overs than Woakes? Poor captaincy, poor tactics and now 0 wins out of 9 and failing to bowl any team out twice - it's embarrassing.

They clearly had a plan to declare overnight, problem is Hain batted for his average, there was no intent, no cohesive plan, everyone played differently.
So we ended up 60-70 runs light, and they declared anyway.
On a flat, slow pitch, with 3 front line bowlers, surely they’re smart enough to know they need to commit to early to the draw if Somerset look in a good position. But they didn’t. They spent so long pretending they could win, they let themselves lose.

Just a season of sleepwalking. No coherent tactics, awful decision making, weak inept coach, poor tactician as a captain, squad built on injury prone bowlers.

There’s 4 players in the championship who all things considered, can be relied on to deliver, Hain, Burgess, Barnard and OHD. That’s a joke.

We've certainly missed Rushworth and Hassan Ali in the Championship. Woakes is clearly out of form, you could argue Miles would've been a better option - at least he was taking some wickets. I suppose not playing again in the Championship until 22nd August (Somerset at home!) is a good thing as it gives chance to reset and hopefully our injured bowlers are fit to return.

I love Woakes but he's lucky to get picked for England nowadays. As for Davies, promoted well above his ability to be a championship captain although I do think he's decent enought for the one dayers. My choice would be Barnard.

The whole cosy coaching set up needs a complete re boot too, hopefully not starting in Div 2 although that looks very possible.

ExiledBrummie wrote:

I love Woakes but he's lucky to get picked for England nowadays. As for Davies, promoted well above his ability to be a championship captain although I do think he's decent enought for the one dayers. My choice would be Barnard.

The whole cosy coaching set up needs a complete re boot too, hopefully not starting in Div 2 although that looks very possible.

I agree that Woakes is lucky to have been selected for the upcoming Test series, but he was player of the series in the Ashes only last summer. The lack of cricket for him in the last six months has been detrimental for sure.

Bizarrely I'm not too disappointed with this, perhaps mainly because the declaration meant we were at least trying to go for the win. We couldn't break Soms down with the ball today because the bowlers are injured and otherwise quite old. We knew this already. We also already knew raw firepower with the bat is something we don't have tons of. So we're left with long term trends again that we aren't going to fix mid-season.

Bizarrely I'm not too disappointed with this, perhaps mainly because the declaration meant we were at least trying to go for the win. We couldn't break Soms down with the ball today because the bowlers are injured and otherwise quite old. We knew this already. We also already knew raw firepower with the bat is something we don't have tons of. So we're left with long term trends again that we aren't going to fix mid-season.

BristolBear wrote:

They clearly had a plan to declare overnight, problem is Hain batted for his average, there was no intent, no cohesive plan, everyone played differently.
So we ended up 60-70 runs light, and they declared anyway.
On a flat, slow pitch, with 3 front line bowlers, surely they’re smart enough to know they need to commit to early to the draw if Somerset look in a good position. But they didn’t. They spent so long pretending they could win, they let themselves lose.

Just a season of sleepwalking. No coherent tactics, awful decision making, weak inept coach, poor tactician as a captain, squad built on injury prone bowlers.

There’s 4 players in the championship who all things considered, can be relied on to deliver, Hain, Burgess, Barnard and OHD. That’s a joke.

Listening to Robinson's post match interviews are like Groundhog Day. A new one, though, is him saying we tried to entertain. Has he forgotten how Hain and Rhodes ground the game to a halt yesterday and we lost all momentum? The bloke is deluded.

We cannot take 20 wickets and haven't batted well enough under pressure.

Frost is still the batting coach and has failed to improve a single player. The bowling coach who's name I can't recall, hasn't exactly had a positive impact either.

Larsen the sporting director needs to stop hiding and start making the necessary tough decisions with the coaching and playing staff because this decline is terminal.

Anyway, back to the white ball and we go again on Friday!

The most disappointing thing was yesterday and piddling along with slow scoring that given the situation of the game, wasn't necessary. The pitch, although slow, was not full of demons as Somerset showed today so no excuse for yesterdays batting and to lose a game where we were in control for all but Sunday morning is awful and demoralising. Any pace we have, is the same and no frontline spinner looks naive at best. Now alas, we are the only team with a win in the CC Div 1.

I don't think you can blame the batting this year. We have more batting bonus points than any other Div 1 side and many of the top order have big runs under their belt. Sure, Bethell and Mousley need to do better but with the number of players we have who are 30 or under and the lads coming through the age groups, the batting looks in good shape for now and future years.
What we can't do is bowl people out. We looked under strength at the start of the year and knew that we had a number of "fragile" seamers. Losing Hasan Ali to international call ups didn't help and the fact that Chris Woakes could only take one wicket in 71 overs makes you glad that England are paying his wages. But the lack of a wicket taking spinner (Danny Briggs is a good bloke but has never been much of a red ball player) and absence of decent cover for the seamers was a bad error and lies with management. Crossed fingers that we can eke out enough draws to stay up this year but serious bowling recruitment for 2025 needs to start now.

I pretty well agree with UrsaMinor's assessment. The number of injuries to bowlers has been a big factor; but that seems to be par for the course.
Chris Woakes has taken 1-220, horrendous bowling figures for a man of his pedigree. I know he is a bit rusty; but compare with Jummy Anderson - 8-64 in his only match.
I'm not in the "sack them all" club but for sure questions need to be asked and answered by the coaching staff.

It’s as we’ve said multiple times. Injuries are only unlucky if your squad is built properly.
But if you build a bowling attack around 2 men in their late 30’s coming to the end of their careers, arguably the most injury prone player in the clubs history, Miles is hardly a fitness guarantee, an unproven rookie 22 year old overseas, and an England player who barely plays except to find fitness and form, and our bowling recruits are all white ball only. It’s hard to act surprised when we get injuries and perform poorly because the cupboard is bare.

I look at this squad and I think Barnard, Burgess, Hain and Hannon-Dalby are reliable top quality players.
Too many others are inconsistent, unreliable, too injury prone, unproven, or just not good enough at all.

What "due dilligence" procedures are followed with overseas signings? We seem to have two players, from the same source, who have spent significantly more time unavailable that on the field. In the case of Jamal, it seems he arrived with an injury that was not disclosed or indeed discovered in a pre signing medical.

The last few years of overseas recruitment do appear to be based on what ever "bargain basement" players were on offer from a favoured agent.

There is also the problem of Robinson rewarding mediocrity, giving full county caps, contracts and positions of responsibility to his favoured players. long term contracts have been awarded to players whose performance did not justify a contract extension.

Booth and Bethell both have a lot of potential, but need to be given the time to deveop and grow as players, for sustainable success, in all forms of the fgame we have to deveop our own players.

Highveld wrote:

What "due dilligence" procedures are followed with overseas signings? We seem to have two players, from the same source, who have spent significantly more time unavailable that on the field. In the case of Jamal, it seems he arrived with an injury that was not disclosed or indeed discovered in a pre signing medical.

The last few years of overseas recruitment do appear to be based on what ever "bargain basement" players were on offer from a favoured agent.

There is also the problem of Robinson rewarding mediocrity, giving full county caps, contracts and positions of responsibility to his favoured players. long term contracts have been awarded to players whose performance did not justify a contract extension.

Booth and Bethell both have a lot of potential, but need to be given the time to deveop and grow as players, for sustainable success, in all forms of the fgame we have to deveop our own players.

The overseas thing is very frustrating when you see the quality and reliability of other sides signings - Harmer, Lyon, Elgar, Roach, Abbott, Abbass to name some.