Didn't know Blakemore was Staffordshire, thought he'd been with Warwickshire since u11's or so. Anyway glad to see him getting an opportunity, from what I've seen of him (which is admittedly not too much) he seems to be fairly tall with a decent action and has a bit of pace. Think he's only 17 too. One to watch.

Worcestershire's day you'd have thought, probably just about edged it? Hopefully finish them off quickly tomorrow, they definitely bat deeper than we do I'd say, Tom Taylor's an extremely useful no. 9, he normally bat's a bit higher and Virdi made 42 v Essex in the last game we could really do without things getting away from us.

Obviously playing in a struggling side and will be encountering some flat pitches but he's making a decent go of things down at Kent at seems.

I feel like Ed Barnard's bowling would be cannon fodder in T20 cricket to be honest, has no change up deliveries, no yorker etc hence he doesn't bowl at the death in the ODC. I've never really championed him for the Blast side personally. His T20 career record is extremely mediocre at best. Case for him as a batter only of course, I'd have rather Kai Smith in Benjamin's role though. And I'm a huge Ed Barnard fan.

Re. contracts and player recruitment/retention etc, we let Olly Stone (currently playing back to back Tests for England) walk but signed Moeen Ali, Gleeson and Garton...who the hell signed off on this stuff?!

Streetly_Bear wrote:

Good rational points Andy, I agree with pretty much all of what you say.

I’m not sure about the length of the contracts for those you propose releasing though, if they are multi year deals then it would be expensive to jettison them all.

No I agree mate, more just trying to highlight the fact that we've released guys who maybe had potential and given 3 or 4 year deals to some of those others who I mentioned. We've always been a weirdly run club when it comes to contracts etc. I should have been clearer.

Right, I hate the fact we're called Birmingham Bears, always have done, but it's not the reason we keep losing Blast 1/4 finals for goodness sake.

People seem to be inferring that Alex Davies should no longer be at the club...clearly those people don't follow us in the county championship...I'd still back him in the role as captain and let him grow. I admit I've not always been a fan either.

Ultimately we have too many mercenaries in our Blast side, and it's crept up year on year, Garton, Gleeson, Moeen, the overseas players, Foulkes bowled ok last night but he ain't a player. Our Blast XI differs far too much from our XI in other formats. It would appear to affect team chemistry and harmony.

More specifically on players, Sam Hain doesn't look right, hasn't looked right all season, even when he's done well. He's body language looks off, somethings up.

I think Mousley will end up batting 7 or 8 despite the decent contributions he has made this campaign. Just looks increasingly like a bits and pieces cricketer. The Hundred does him no good at all.

Lintott, great lad but low key he's had a bit of a poor campaign, he's gone for quite a few.

Felt sorry for Benjamin last night, he tried, he really did, but he just ain't got the quality overall. Looks a very good club player clinging on at pro level.

Garton, loads of natural ability, but mentally that guy is weak, just doesn't have the stomach for it. With a bowling action like that when it goes wrong it really does wrong.

I'd do away with Moeen, Garton and Gleeson, they all offer something but probably quite enough and if you ain't on a full contract I don't think you should be here at all.

A word on D. Briggs, he did so much of the heavy lifting this campaign. Credit where its due.

It's in the mind no though, right from Garton slinging them 6 waist high no ball wides down you thought "here we go..." and playing out the first over of the chase as a maiden you felt the nerves ramp up in the crowd, a lot of sideways glances.

Fair play to Gloucs, they've not had it easy on or off the pitch for a few seasons, but the bulk of their squad has been together a good while now and because of that they have excellent team spirit and perfect role definition. Every single one of their players did something good last night and made a difference.

Robbo, I'm not one for a sacking, but it's hard to see how he survives this let's be honest.

FWIW, great crowd last night.

Where's Zaman Akhtar and Ajeet Singh Dale for Gloucs?

The_Lickey_Banker wrote:

He's had a cracking season for Worcester - with the bat and the ball (3 for 34 off 12 overs today, against a strong Essex lineup), in both red and white ball. Another example of one we let go too soon, or didn't give enough first team chances to?

Both.

I think after a iffy start he's grown into the season quite well and seems to be impacting games more and more. He's certainly playing a lot more than I thought he might have. He looks a canny bowler. We know he's an incredible fielder.

Seam bowling all rounders don't grow on trees.

We've let a fair few homegrown lads go the last 2 winters. We're not a really a county who seems to back academy developed players as much as other counties do. We only ever seem to have 2 or 3 homegrown lads in our XI, most other counties have 5 or 6 minimum. Yorkshire had 10 in their side last week.

Lamb, Brookes, Brookes, Garrett, Johal, no great shakes you may say but 24 year old OHD wasn't pulling up many trees either and whilst all these lads got released dross like Benjamin and Miles remained on the books.

We seem to have an over reliance on recruiting/poaching from elsewhere as opposed to putting time into players we already have.

We're always scratching around for seam bowlers because we don't have a steady pipeline of homegrown seamers already coming through our academy, it magnifies our injury list.

Finch one looked an absolute shocker goodness me

sdobbs wrote:

The kookaburra's back in the game we really need to win....

My thoughts exactly, playing the weakest team in the division (once) with the ball that doesn't really lend itself to result cricket...

Feels like Kent have had injury problems for about 3 years now.

Has been named in the England Test XI.

Obviously not a Warwickshire player anymore but I feel very proud of him, he must have felt miles away from this at one point. He must have fought so hard.

No reason why Moeen shouldn't be available, if fit. Can maybe see Woakes being available, totally understand why he might not be though. Not that I'd agree with him not being available.

To not have Bethell and Mousley available would be absolutely dire for us though, both have been so instrumental in so many of our Blast wins. Mousley with the ball has such a unique skillet in that format, nobody really does what he does. As a lifelong Bears fan he'll be completely shattered to be missing out.

That article seemed to get them the call up!

4 of those wickets were absolute gifts I'd say. It became very apparent on day 1 we were on a low and slow type of surface, just not a good cricket wicket. Edgbaston can be a bit like that sometimes, its not a dig at Barwell. Who can forget that deck last year for the Ashes?!

Somerset commentary most biased on the circuit, so biased it's almost crude.

Not surprised to read that about the Overton's dad either, the South West can be a bit like that.

We've played well here against a good side but the 3rd innings has been our achilles heel all season long. We bowled ever so well yesterday I thought, Barnard was so accurate. I note Rushworth didn't bowl after tea and spent some time off the field, wonder if he felt a twinge? What a ball ton get Umeed though.

Yates catch to dismiss Leach was outstanding, don't think the live stream would have done it justice, I was sat in the Hollies pretty much in line with the slips, that ball was shifting. Incredible grab.

Fair play to Aldridge but him and Rew were a bit lucky I thought, Rae bowled a good spell at Rew after lunch. Definitely looks as though he can be bounced out.

Unbearable ain't he

Finished the day on top I'd say. Glad we picked the extra batter, particularly as we may not get many runs from our 9, 10 and 11. Bethell is starting to look a cut above and Burgess really is the man for a crisis, time and again he does this for us, he's my player of the season. Good innings from Yates too who did the hard work early on when it nipped about a bit.

Slow pitch not a great amount of carry. Sort of fancy us to bowl well on it though, no reasoning behind it just a hunch!

Not sure what to make of Mousley in this format and I've been a big supporter of his for a while...

Hamza reaching, not quite at the pitch of the ball. Stuck in the pitch a touch? Yates, touch unlucky, ball there to be hit, didnt quite get up. The odd one is keeping a bit low, he'll be disappointed though. Barnard played at one that he could have left, particularly 2nd ball.

It is a bit of a slow pitch. Somerset have bowled well in patches. Next session clearly important.