There would be almost zero return on the investment.

I'd be surpised if any county was making significant investment in developing outgrounds,

Has there ever been an innings where all the bowlers conceded the same amount of runs!!??

Very eventful day but poor quality pitch and some awful batting.

Need better pitches than what we've seen today if we want to produce quality players.

Who knows how tomorrow will go, here hoping for some partnerships and bat for the day..unlikely after today !

Exiled Bear wrote:

Highveld wrote:

One the subject of outgrounds, Rugby School has zero facilities for spectators, Nuneaton has even less facilities, the outfield at Stratford is not fit for first class or list a cricket and facilities and Cov & NW are not good.

Sadly there isn't a club, or school ground in the county that would be suitable to host a first class or list a game.

Maybe the club should invest some money in bringing one of them up to scratch

It’s also clearly not true. Both Griff and Cov had huge social clubs in addition to the pavilions. More facilities than Edgbaston has for county matches

There are always loads of risible excuses rolled out for why we don’t take games around the county. Basically the club and a few members don’t want to play outside Birmingham!

Lots of playing and missing which would indicate there is still plenty in the pitch. It all depends on what we can set them. 139 to knock off first so to make them chase 150 in the 4th innings, we need to get 288, have we got the right team to do that. Again, we had a side in trouble, this time 6 down and still they more than double the score.

I think we got a bit unlucky that they managed to build that score. Umpires screwed us badly.
Davies and Simpson were both out but not given multiple times early in their innings. If they’re out early as they should have been, they don’t bat those 20 overs between them. So De Caires and Higgins come in on a tougher pitch, newer ball etc. and they probably struggle the same way we did. It was clear it got easier to bat the older the ball got and as the pitch dried more through the day.

BristolBear wrote:

I think we got a bit unlucky that they managed to build that score. Umpires screwed us badly.
Davies and Simpson were both out but not given multiple times early in their innings. If they’re out early as they should have been, they don’t bat those 20 overs between them. So De Caires and Higgins come in on a tougher pitch, newer ball etc. and they probably struggle the same way we did. It was clear it got easier to bat the older the ball got and as the pitch dried more through the day.

This is a fair assessment.

Re. Outgrounds. I sometimes feel the idea is better than the reality. They often feel overcrowded and uncomfortable and the viewing is often terrible from your folding chair. The novelty quickly wears off with them. It's not nice using portoloos all day either.

Scarborough is good though.

Part of the charm of outground cricket was/is the slight discomfort/alternative views

Of course with the scarcity of fixtures these days that presents issues. When you had 8 or 9 home championship games per season (and more than that before my time) an outground or two of festival cricket was viable for all counties.

Sadly it is a sign of the reductive and closed minded attitude of some administrators in our game that want to remove the counties altogether and replace with big city entities. Festival cricket was an important part of the branding of the game and widening it's appeal beyond the obsessives and towards the curious. It's absence directly leads to poorer crowds at county matches in general and dwindling memberships everywhere bar Surrey and Somerset. It mirrors the disappearence of the game from free to air, from our state schools and from coffee machine banter in the workplace.

Festival county cricket through the peak summer months or this futuristic 'demonstration sport level' of cricket this lot are trying to shove down our throats? Your choice.

I think a bit of discomfort ain't so bad

.

Unfortunately, if you have a huge stadium which costs a lot to run, the question comes down to it being a bit more viable to have as many games as possible to watch in that stadium even if it does look like a strange argument if only 500-1000 people are dotted about at any one time. The better choice of food, beer and the selling of merchandise as well as parking charges, will be something that any accountant will tell any of the people at the club who make all the decisions. I for one wouldn't mind a trip out to an outground but again, it depends on venue, long-range weather forecast, the parking available and how long it will take to get there and back as well as my familiarity with the area. When I go to Edgbaston, I know where I can park, the alternatives if one area has no spaces and how long I need to get home if the schools are still open and if it is worth me leaving at a certain time if I know I will pick up rush-hour traffic. All the latter thing are unknown to me if I go to an outground.

If anyone wants to sample outground cricket, Warwickshire are playing a game, v Shopshire, at Shrewsbury CC on Saturday July 30th.

I remember there were very few facilities or seats, apart from the pavillion from when I umpired there, & even for a club game the car parking was very limited.

A very good day all things considered. Frustrating that on a pitch that is so hard to bat on, Rhodes and Mousley have given away their wickets after doing the hard work well.
With Barnard and Burgess still to come, plus maybe Brookes swinging hard. We’ve got plenty of batting to out a decent target on the board.

In regards to out ground cricket I just think some places do it better than others. Scarborough is excellent, I’ve really enjoyed Cheltenham, Arundel and the old Whitgift festival in the past. Liverpool, Guildford and Merchant Taylors are really rather poor.

But equally, there are some grounds where what’s put on for fans during CC matches is shocking. Old Trafford is very inhospitable, almost everything closed, stands closed. Bristol not much better in my experience. Whereas the Oval, Hove and Chelmsford are very pleasant with full access, plenty of amenities or easy to walk down the road to grab a bite at lunch or tea.

Tomorrow might be a bit iffy on the weather front but enough time left in the game to get a finish but feel that with conditions looking better, that 139 deficit might be the undoing of us.

BristolBear wrote:

In regards to out ground cricket I just think some places do it better than others. Scarborough is excellent, I’ve really enjoyed Cheltenham, Arundel and the old Whitgift festival in the past. Liverpool, Guildford and Merchant Taylors are really rather poor.

But equally, there are some grounds where what’s put on for fans during CC matches is shocking. Old Trafford is very inhospitable, almost everything closed, stands closed. Bristol not much better in my experience. Whereas the Oval, Hove and Chelmsford are very pleasant with full access, plenty of amenities or easy to walk down the road to grab a bite at lunch or tea.

Agree it's nigh on impossible to set one up from scratch. The legacy ones that have stood test of time are best. Colwyn Bay is sadly not used any longer. Agree about Hove and the Oval. I think Edgbaston is friendly and welcoming especially the personnel (it was good to see a few familiar Edgbaston based stewards up at Old Trafford helping out with their test match last week) who work there it can appear slightly drab in the background for a county match but I'd be happy to forgo one home fixture perhaps every other year to have use of an outground. Someone could spend a year setting it up and then repeat it the following year switching formats. They'd probably have to risk a One day Cup game first and then try a Championship game there the following year a bit like Yorkshire did when they set up their York fixture just before COVID

Edgbaston is quite a soul-less place to watch championship cricket. It's probably a better experience in the members area but that's not very inclusive for the ordinary fan.
I love outgrounds, they have more character and it feels like more of an occasion. I really wish the club would invest in a cricket festival in Warwickshire rather than being wedded to play everything in Birmingham. Gary Barwell needs a break too!

Unfortunately there isn't a suitable ground in the county that would be financially viable without a comercial backer to cover the costs.

There are some very good club cricket grounds in the county, but they do not have the space needed for the number of spectators, the catering and other facilities and parking needed for a First class or list A game.

Back to the match - there has apparently been quite a bit of discussion on at least one umpiring forum about the hit wicket decision against Toby Roland Jones. The consensus seems to be that he was wrongly given out because it is not out if the contact with the stumps occurs, as the Laws says, "after the striker has completed any action in receiving the delivery" . As I understand it, the only exceptions to this are if it happens when the striker is setting off for a run or is seeking to defend his wicket, neither of which seems to have been the case.
The suggestion is that both umpires were (understandably) following the flight of the ball and didn't see what happened and that, had there been DRS available, the decision would have been not out.
What do others (and especially our resident umpire Highveld) think?

There was a lot of dicussion in an online umpires group, which contains several national panel and interntional umpires. there was a slight concencus towards out, however a lot depends on the actual timing of the contact etc, and remember the umpires have one view of any incident, at full speed. It's easy to make decisions with multiple replays and angles.

KingofSpain wrote:

Edgbaston is quite a soul-less place to watch championship cricket. It's probably a better experience in the members area but that's not very inclusive for the ordinary fan.
I love outgrounds, they have more character and it feels like more of an occasion. I really wish the club would invest in a cricket festival in Warwickshire rather than being wedded to play everything in Birmingham. Gary Barwell needs a break too!

Yep there are loads of suitable venues on our county with lots of room and facilities.

It’s simply about overcoming the Edgbaston and Birmingham obsession. Portland Road hasn’t helped that!

Time to remember who we actually represent!

I saw and took part in a twitter discussion on it and that passage you quote, Gerry, was the crucial one. As interpret it TRJ was still wafting his bat around, overelaborately, when regaining normal position after his shot. So it is still his follow through and therefore he hadn't "completed any action in receiving the delivery". One thing we will probably never know now is if the ball was dead or not at this moment, ie hit the ground beyond the boundary. This is the subject of the next para in the rules, and neither camera has both in shot, understandably. Both umpires were watching the ball in flight. Personally I think moral out from the unnecessary, ostentatious even, bat waving after the shot ;-). But of course I am a Warks supporter.

GerryShedd wrote:

Back to the match - there has apparently been quite a bit of discussion on at least one umpiring forum about the hit wicket decision against Toby Roland Jones. The consensus seems to be that he was wrongly given out because it is not out if the contact with the stumps occurs, as the Laws says, "after the striker has completed any action in receiving the delivery" . As I understand it, the only exceptions to this are if it happens when the striker is setting off for a run or is seeking to defend his wicket, neither of which seems to have been the case.
The suggestion is that both umpires were (understandably) following the flight of the ball and didn't see what happened and that, had there been DRS available, the decision would have been not out.
What do others (and especially our resident umpire Highveld) think?