It's worth remembering that we're still county Champions and many of the personnel, on and off the field, who made that happen are still at the club. What we don't have, in my opinion, is a top drawer overseas player.
It's worth remembering that we're still county Champions and many of the personnel, on and off the field, who made that happen are still at the club. What we don't have, in my opinion, is a top drawer overseas player.
We also didn’t have a top drawer overseas player last year, we had a motley collection who came in and contributed very little.
We did have Yates scoring runs, Miles taking wickets and Norwell fit and healthy. We also had Bresnan who seemed to offer some ‘character’ and some sort of Yorkshire determination.
Indeed, so it's not that there are coaching or management problems - it's just that we have players who simply aren't having as good a season this year. It happens.
The current championship averages
they go a long way to showing the problems this season.
Allowing a specialist batsman 7 games while averagig under 13 shows an acceptance of mediocraty that shouldn't be accepted in a side aiming to win trophies.
I think the departure of Bresnan has had a bigger impact than we thought. As a character and leader he really was hugely valuable, but he also chimed in with wickets and runs at key times.
The other thing to me seems to be a huge change in priority this year.
T20 seems to have been given the most importance, clear to see by the way players are managed, the signings, the selections, and that really does seem to have alienated some players as I’ve said in the contracts thread, and caused a bit of a split.
But I do think the bowling currently is a bigger issue than the batting. OHD averages 20 with the ball, the next best is McAndrew at over 40! And it just gets worse from there. So whilst we aren’t scoring as many runs as other sides, I suspect often it’s more to do with us allowing them more runs, than it is us not scoring as many as we should.
Spot on, BristolBear, agree with all of that.
I agree about the bowling. Last year, I thought that Danny Briggs was at least a half-decent replacement for Jeetan but at the Aegeas Bowl on Tuesday, it seemed to me exactly the kind of day and pitch when Jeetan would have steadily worked his way through the Hampshire batting order and ended up with five for 60 or so, whereas Briggs had 1-87. What Jeetan would have done is just speculation, of course.
Some astute comments and observations. This year has been very disappointing on many levels - the mindset seems to be so negative in the four day game, with draws seen as successes, perhaps a reflection of a collective lack of confidence. The coach, as others have said, is conspicuously absent and quiet, unlike last year, and again as others have said, our bowling is shocking. Craig Miles averages nearly 75, Danny Briggs looks a shadow of what he did last year and Henry Brookes seems to be going backwards at alarming speed. Why and how has this happened, so soon after winning the Championship? All very sad and disappointing to see. You can only hope that things turn around quickly, that we stave off relegation and that if we can attract a top drawer OSP (for a change!) and with the arrival of a couple of new faces from our rivals down the M5, things will look a lot better next year.
That Davies drop just about summed up his signing. Gets in an argument with the crowd, lots of noise and attention but minimal actual performance.
Need to hear from Robinson, Farbrace and Rhodes after this. It’s the same old people performing, and we’ve just seen what happens when we rely too heavily on a few. No Hain and Burgess gets a Jaffa early in the first innings and we’re under par. OHD gets a 5er but minimal help elsewhere and Hampshire score about 100 more than they really should have, considering they were 250-7 and scored 360.
Did Davies get in an argument with our or their supporters?
Solbear wrote:
Some astute comments and observations. This year has been very disappointing on many levels - the mindset seems to be so negative in the four day game, with draws seen as successes, perhaps a reflection of a collective lack of confidence. The coach, as others have said, is conspicuously absent and quiet, unlike last year, and again as others have said, our bowling is shocking. Craig Miles averages nearly 75, Danny Briggs looks a shadow of what he did last year and Henry Brookes seems to be going backwards at alarming speed. Why and how has this happened, so soon after winning the Championship? All very sad and disappointing to see. You can only hope that things turn around quickly, that we stave off relegation and that if we can attract a top drawer OSP (for a change!) and with the arrival of a couple of new faces from our rivals down the M5, things will look a lot better next year.
Agree with all that Sol. And you are the first to have uttered the 'R' word. I think relegation is unlikely, but possible. Even if we manage to avoid it, the Management have a lot of questions to answer. It has been a chaotic season, all the priorities seem to be wrong and this seemingly 'hands off' approach by Farbrace and Robinson hasn't helped. We never hear anything about the input of Trott, Mason, Frost and Westwood - do they even work for us anymore?! It really is a shambles!
'The only good banker, is the Lickey Banker!'
Streetly_Bear wrote:
Did Davies get in an argument with our or their supporters?
I made the assumption it was their supporters.
He’d clearly responded to something they said after he dropped it. I’d assumed it would be their supporters giving him some stick about an easy drop. Responding to it got a very audible “oooh” from the supporters and just seemed to attract more comments.
I’d like to think he would be smart enough to not have a go at his own supporters.
That’s good, the last thing we need right now is players falling out with fans.
He hasn’t had a good start to his Warwickshire career but the club has invested a lot of money and time on him. We need him to come good. I’m sure he, and the rest of the team, is as frustrated by the way things are going as we are.
Some good comments here. Overall I think we were fortunate last year. Woakes came back at a crucial time, Norwell was fit and taking wickets and Miles and Briggs were both playing at their best. That hasn't happened this year. The strategy has been the same. Bat slow and be hard to beat, then pick up wins when the bowling comes together.
I developed the thought at the start of the year that the bowling had become poor but it seems its throughout the side, there are weaknesses all the way through. I don't think better coaching will automatically fix this - so hard to correct.
Finally, replacing Bresnan. Interesting as I virtually never see games and can't see the galvanising effect he had. My view is his retirement was partially due to the racism at Yorkshire. If he does get implicated there it becomes our problem if he is still employed by Warwickshire - for several reasons. Have to see how that ends.
If Norwell, Stone and Woakes were fit and firing, that would make a huge difference; but I suspect that the chances of that happening for all three at the same time ever again are remote. We do have the prospect of Ed Barnard next year - 250 first class wickets at just under 30 so far in his career, plus a batting average of 34.
Yes encouraging that Barnard is coming. I do get Will Gidman vibes from him though i.e an all rounder who did particularly well in Div 2 but will struggle to make the step up. Gidman was Botham-esque for Gloucestershire in Div 2 but really struggled at Notts. Fingers crossed Barnard can be a better acquisition.
Absolutely agree with those points about Norwell, Stone, Woakes and Barnard; who I really hope can flourish when he gets here. Was surprised to see that, in terms of bowling bonus points, we're third highest in the division. Some have played a game (or 2) less but we're on 21 points behind Hants on 24 and Lancs on 22. Kent are struggling with 11 from 8 games, let's hope they don't improve on that when we meet next week!
In terms of the points, I don’t necessarily think it’s about the ability to take first innings wickets more the strike rate and average. So teams do eventually get out to us, but not until they’ve scored at 4 an over and put a score of 400 plus on the board.
Then come second innings when this year the pitches have seemed to flatten out, we struggle to take wickets and can’t stem the flow of runs. The Lancashire match being a perfect example. Factor in Briggs has been poor this season, and hasn’t been a threat in the second innings, and it’s easy to see why we struggle to get 20 wickets.
It’s that we’re allowing a disproportionate amount of runs, at a high run rate, meaning our batsmen not only need to score more, but take time out the game as well.
Mark Robinson told the BBC:
"When you lose four wickets as quick as we did on day one you get nailed. They are a good team though and are relentless.
"The young lads have learned some lessons. George Garrett has seen the next level. And every game Dan Mousley or Chris Benjamin play adds to their experience.
"We have got to keep fronting up. For a day and a half, we were better. It wasn't enough to win but I don't want to sugarcoat or be misleading.
"We don't have the depth of last year. We have been depleted. That isn't an excuse it is a reality. We had Liam Norwell, Tim Bresnan, Olly Stone and Chris Woakes - and the club hasn't filled those shoes yet."
For someone who has previously spoken great sense, that quote is a true shocker.
The club knew Woakes, Stone and Bresnan were not going to be around. Woakes was either going to be with England or injured, Stones injury was well known early and Bresnan retired. Plus everyone knows Norwell is notoriously injury prone. So why did the club spend absurd money on Davies, Brathwaite, Stirling, McAndrew, Bethell’s unnecessary extension, and the insane price they’re paying Lintott for one format (a full contract compared to the white ball only being offered to Hose & Stone)? Why not bring in some high quality and consistent performing players and overseas who play multiple formats? It really does seem like the county get taken for a ride when it comes to overseas and the money they often pay new signings of late.