Hampshire have already won their game!!

Right, it's annoying if you're at the ground but in the grand scheme of things irrelevant now Hampshire have won, I guess knocking over four hungover lower order batsmen can be done fairly quickly.

Couldn't ask for better weather for cricket at the end of September.

Hands shaken. No play 'possible'. Nice early finish for the players.

So that's it, another season gone. Not too bad a win/loss ration in all formats though the ability to not win knockout one-day games in very annoying, lots of hard work undone by one game.

Is it just a coincidence that no play possible comes after Hampshire game finished? A bit like Blues or Villa not playing their final game of the season when neither side get an advantage from the result.

We're definitely trending in the right direction. No one won more cricket matches than us or Hampshire this season. We won home to Essex and away to Hampshire, we've not done that for a while, we can beat good sides. I honestly don't think we're too far away. I looked at Surrey in 2022 season and thought 'wow what a team...' i didn't really get that vibe from them this year. The knockout defeats are frustrating of course but I think we're really lucky to be following a county that is generally able to compete well across formats with tje prospect of it getting even better. Some of our younger batters have had a great learning season and showed some real promise. Barnard looks an excellent addition despite some of the mental criticism of him not that long ago, Rushworth has done very well too. The recruitment has been good, the academy seems to be working better now, there are some really excellent prospects aged around 16/17 (think the cupboard might be bare with regards the seam bowling prospects though?), Rhodes and Briggs came good at the end of the season (I thought back in spring Briggs was one senior we might have looked to ease out for a younger player), OHD incredible again, for a team in transition this all bodes very well.

We've done a bit better than I thought we might.

Talking to management after the game, they felt the umpires just wanted to go home early.

If that's the case a formal complaint should be made by the club

To become true contenders in the championship, a massive improvement in the quality of the opening batsmen is needed. It is not fair on the rest of the side that the mediocrity delivered this season is accepted, and even worse rewarded with full county caps.

ajones1328 wrote:

Talking to management after the game, they felt the umpires just wanted to go home early.

If that's the case a formal complaint should be made by the club

Totally agree.

Highveld wrote:

To become true contenders in the championship, a massive improvement in the quality of the opening batsmen is needed. It is not fair on the rest of the side that the mediocrity delivered this season is accepted, and even worse rewarded with full county caps.

I mean Rob Yates has a higher season average than Rory Burns, Alastair Cook, Nick Browne and Fletcha Middleton who all play for counties that finished above us. He alone had more centuries than Burns and Sibley combined. He also averaged more than Lammonby, Dickson, Hameed, Slater, Stoneman, Gay, Wells etc all regular openers.

He can do better for sure but he's not a glaring weakness. He's clearly one of the better openers in County cricket.

Ben Slater might go above him this evening to be fair.

Think Yates did fine however, I'd expect the younger lads to improve next season with a bit of consistency particularly Mousley

Problem with Yates is it’s either feast or famine.
He doesn’t get a 30 or 40, and see off the new ball.
If he doesn’t get a decent score it’s typically single figures in 3 or 4 overs. He hasn’t quite mastered the battling part of opening, protecting the middle order.
He’s been the best of the top 3, but the top 3 hasn’t looked good for most of the season. Until recently Rhodes has been poor, Davies has been really poor other than that first match. Too often they all fail.

If we'd been offered 4th at the start of the season, I think most of us would have taken it. Great performances from Rushworth and OH-D. If Hasan Ali had been available all season, we would have had a ferocious seam offering. Overall, this season was at the upper end of my expectations.