Also, Norwell this Norwell that etc, it's been so long now since he played any cricket its almost impossible to say whether he'd be any good or not at this point.

Underperforming academy too re. bowlers.

Truth is we've relied so heavily on recruitment for seam bowlers for such a long time now because we've had such a lack of seam bowling talent coming through our own pathway. And recruiting from other counties and overseas is so tricky, sometimes we've got it right, sometimes we've got it wrong.

Craig Miles, don't mean to pick on him, he's bowled ever so well on day 2 at the Oval but goodness me he's had some poor games for us and he's definitely had plenty of chances. Into his 6th season with us now, doubt a locally developed academy lad would have been given such an amount of opportunity.

Bowling coach situation hasn't helped either. That was such a huge blow when Pop Welch left, just look at what he did with OHD. Imagine what he might have done with Brookes, Garrett or Johal?

I maintain it was weird that we let Brookes, Garrett and Johal all walk during the same off season with the majority of our other seamers being over (well over) 30 years old. Not saying any of those 3 would have made a difference here but were looking rather short pretty quickly at the moment...

Re. squad make up. Olly Stone should still be here, even if he only plays 4 or 5 red ball games a season our chances of winning 2 or 3 of those games increase immeasurably because of him. We're crying out for somebody with a bit of pace (is Che Simmons worth a look here?). We let him walk because we only offered him a white ball only deal.

Talking of recruitment and white ball only Moeen Ali, Garton and Gleeson will all be on serious money. Money that i don't think would be sanctioned on the 4day side somehow. Since start of 2022 the messaging from the club has been clear: Blast is priority.

Comes back to the naked truth though that we don't have any seamers coming through the academy to bolster the squad. Most other counties have homegrown seamer(s) in there XI, were always scratching around and trying to poach from other counties. Would imagine we'll be bringing in somebody on loan this week...

I'm not gonna begrudge a lad celebrating his 5fer!

Streetly_Bear wrote:

Agreed, Surrey simply have a better squad than us.

We are missing some key bowlers for various reasons and our 5 for bowler in the match got injured.

I do think it’s a big season for Bethall and Mousley, we really need them to step up and contribute more regularly.

Yeah was thinking when he got out Mousley could be under a little bit of pressure if he doesn't get a score in the next 2 games.

Really good bowler, he's overpowered us here, what a signing. Not a lot to say about this other than that fact that there are levels and Surrey are a good few levels above us.

We badly, badly need a few of our injured bowlers back. At 11.30am this morning we're right in the game, no Miles at first change killed us though and the runs Smith and Abbott added put us right under pressure.

Big session coming up now...

The Miles injury really hurt us in that session.

Surrey do this time and again, such a strong lower order. Jamie Smith is a tremendous player.

BristolBear wrote:

The completely independent stream commentators are always the worst.
The ones that just use the BBC commentators at least try to be balanced. They’re still biased but can’t be so overt.
The Lancashire and Surrey stream commentaries are horrendously one eyed.

Somerset are the worst for this, total disgrace, this Surrey stream is nowhere near that bad.

People seem to like/rate Norcross, I've never been keen, he is chocolate. And is Charlie Reynolds a geezer or a bird? I can't tell. Needs to show us where they piss from. Dan Whiting was good as ever though, great lad.

Anyway, glad to see us get a few at the end, we fought hard but it still looked like getting away from us. Miles was good, 5 good wickets, some great deliveries, he swung the ball. Bethell was probably a little better than the figures suggest, needs a bit more guile though. Will come the more he bowls. Jamal bowled some decent deliveries, really need a tune out of yer overseas when the chips are down though.

The wicket of Roach was surreal, absolute stunner from Yates, great celebrations with blokes running everywhere and then Miles rolling his ankle. Hope he's OK.

Chris Woakes is at the IPL until next week, he's been there since March. He hasn't played at all though thus far.

April/May last season he was playing for us to be fair.

Fought hard today on a tricky pitch up against a very good attack, Surrey weren't loose, it was high quality cricket. Just shows if one guy can get in and everyone else can chip in a side can still get up to decent totals. Does anybody know what Ed Barnard's red ball average for Warwickshire is? He don't get 'daddy hundreds but he very rarely misses out or has a sustained bad run of form as far as I can tell. Bet he's in the high 30's.

Pretty good crowd today, members end was busy and vibrant.

Not selected in the 1st t20 v Ireland.

Yes Burgess got a shocking LBW in the same innings. Thought Mousley decision today was a bit iffy too, looked high in real time.

Not unreasonable to expect a tune out of Jamal, particularlyunder the circumstances. Here as an overseas, probably on decent dough, we're short on bowlers, give us a performance.

Might come in for Briggs...

Absolutely horrific. Nothing sadder than a young person dying.

We've 3 4day games between the expected end of his IPL stint and the 1st Test, surely he'll feature for us in at least 1?

He looked good yesterday and today, compact and tighter, not as loose as he's done in the past. Just shows what a run of games can do I guess.

Yes he's pretty much said himself he won't be involved in overseas Tests anymore. Not making the T20 squad is pretty big though, if that transpires his IPL assignment will end on May 19th as its looking unlikely that his team will make the eliminator phase and fingers crossed he'll be back with us, needing games, and with a point to prove. Right? Right?!