This is extremely poor PR and no way to treat the Membership, who are all reasonable people and will understand if given some sort of explanation. I object to being "fobbed off" with a mere "unavailable". I ran a professional sports team back in the day, with a large fan base and healthy attendances of between 5k and 10k depending on the opposition, if we had just said to our fans a player was "unavailable" there would have been a huge backlash. If a professional is "unavailable" there has to be a good personal reason, which we would all understand if we were given some sort of a clue ......... "unavailable" is simply not acceptable, we deserve to be treated better than that, "mushrooms" just does not come into it.

Andy wrote:

I remember that, transpired he had a bost up with Dougie Brown didn't he?

My mind went to this first of all with “unavailable”. But usually, like with Clarke, things of that ilk don’t stay quiet, there’s always rumours and talk. They always get discovered by other players or local beat writers.
Whereas total radio silence on this one.

67/7, pathetic. Bethell was deemed a better pick than Lamb and Burgess? He was like a rabbit in the headlights.

Chris Benjamin was undefeated for Durham with 82. Of course, he hits form under proper management and coaching! The decision making at Warwickshire is a joke. Sack the lot!

Durham are hardly a case for proper management and coaching, they have just released their Head Coach and sit firmly in the mid table of Division 2 having also struggled badly in white ball competitions.

That being said I am glad that Benjamin has scored some runs, didn't Bethell also score some runs for Gloucester (the irony) earlier this season on loan?

If we have an analyst I hope they are telling our bowlers to replicate exactly what Price has done!

This could all be completely academic couldn't it?

If one of us and Gloucestershire (or even both but unlikely) stay up, they will finish 7th or 8th - which would then mean not finishing in the top 6 and presumably not being in Strauss's 'elite division'

Mikkyk wrote:

This could all be completely academic couldn't it?

If one of us and Gloucestershire (or even both but unlikely) stay up, they will finish 7th or 8th - which would then mean not finishing in the top 6 and presumably not being in Strauss's 'elite division'

I think, if they are approved, the changes are coming in from 2024. So you’d need to finish in the top 6 of Div 1 next year to be in that top division.

We've batted poorly but there have been some shockers from the umpires here.

• Yadav didn't look to have hit it
• Davies was either outside the line if it hit leg (boot) first or hit it first
• Brookes was nowhere near that one and umpire took ages

Think there was another one someone was unhappy with as well

Terrible umpiring again, every innings we're seeing some utter howlers.

Certainly a lot of head shaking from Yadav Davies and Brookes. Perhaps the umpire wants to get home early!

147 LEAD - Can we win it from here?

Yadev should be facing a dissent charge for his reaction.

We need to stop trying to blame the umpires for the poor performance of the players.

Remember we are only seeing a long distance TV shot, not from a great angle. The umpire is their on the field with a different view, lus he's able to hear any contact, and judge if the contact was with a bat or a pad.

Current averages https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/averages/batting_bowling_by_team.html?id=14444;team=1479;type=tournament

Interesting to see that, in less innings, Henry Brookes has scored more runs and has a better average than Yates.

Of course the umpires have a better view then we have. However, the immediate reaction of players to being given out says a lot. As umpires will not change their decision they can't be cheating in their reaction.

I thought Yadavs was a poor decision, but he’ll get disciplined for his reaction.
Thought Yates reaction was more annoyance at himself as I couldn’t see too much wrong with it.
Davies’ was a bizarre one because it looked like he really misjudged the line and length. The way he set up to play it looked very awkward. I personally thought it hit his boot before the bat, and that’s one of those where you’re probably disappointed to get out to it; but reversed you’d be just as annoyed if it wasn’t given. So I’m not sure there can be too much moaning. We’ve had much worse ones this year, but it is clear players are becoming increasingly unhappy at the standard of umpiring.

27-3 Could we, could we?

27-3 Could we, could we?

30-4. If there was ever a start needed to win this game, that was it!

Dissent from Gloucs batsman this time. Slow mo on You Tube indicates it came off his arm and not glove. Still it goes someway to evening it up!

A real pity that Siraj didn't play in this game, for whatever strange reason. Still a couple more wickets and there's still hope......