And also encouraging that both of our openers already have centuries this season.

Just tuned in to the live stream for the first time. Nice to see that the score banner is much improved on last season, good stuff from the club.

Good to see all the new signings chipping in so far.

Presumably Rhodes had a substantial say in who was going to be vice captain? In which case we can probably assume that he approves.

This summer's Ashes series is looking like it should be a good one.

Meanwhile, India continue to serve up horrible turning pitches, which is definitely not in the best interests of Test cricket. At least this one was rated "poor"...

GerryShedd wrote:

I agree with Andy that it's ok to hail this as a good signing, though if he under-performs, we will have egg on our faces.
As for Stirling, I won't mention who said that he would be a good signing because I don't want to embarrass Exiled Bear.

To be fair, I don’t think I was the only one that thought he was a good signing after he played his first match for us!!

Agreed, really happy with this one.

kevandmac wrote:

Thank you EB.
Just a thought but is it easy enough to build a like button for posts? I ofter find myself wanting to agree with people but have no further comments to add.

This is definitely something that I'd like to add, and there's a plugin for it, but I had problems getting it to work last time I tried. I'll try again at some point though

Apologies for the downtime over the last few days - the server on which the forum runs crashed and some of the files got corrupted, so I've had to restore some from a backup that I had. I don't think we've lost any posts though. I still need to fix one or two things behind the scenes, so the forum should be considered at risk of further (hopefully short) downtime over the next week or so.

If you notice that something is broken, please let me know.

At least it didn't happen during the cricket season!!

Thanks for this. I thought it seemed like a good set of accounts but was waiting for your analysis to confirm it!

A few rule changes for the new season:

• Batting bonus points will now be scored at 250, 300, 350, 400 and 450 in the first 110 overs (no change to bowling points)

• A draw will go back to being worth 5 points rather than 8

• A kookaburra ball will be used in two rounds of matches

I think changing the points for a draw makes sense. I don’t think we’ll benefit much from the batting points change if previous seasons are anything to go by!!

Some of you may have noticed that when using the "Quote this post" button underneath a post a lot of undesired, unintelligible text appeared in the quick reply box at the bottom of the topic, instead of the text of the post that you actually wanted to reply to. I've now fixed this, so you can use the "Quote this post" button in addition to the "Full reply" button when quoting someone's post (you will need to add an extra empty line after the quoted post, though). Enjoy!

More reciprocal arrangements announced, including some in Australia!

https://edgbaston.com/news/extended-reciprocal-membership-arrangements-announced-for-2023/

BristolBear wrote:

I think Giles burned his bridges with leaving twice, so understandable scepticism there. Plus they’ve had Farbace leave now, so as stated in the article they want a long term appointment, hoping that it’ll lead to greater consistency and prolonged success instead of the rollercoaster of the last decade.

But I wonder, is part of the problem for an appointment the fact that Robinson is a famously difficult man to work with? It’s been shown in previous roles that he has success in a short space of time, but then players and coaches do tire of his approach. We’ve seen it already within the coaching staff, Farbrace, and some players, clearly disliking his approach and leaving or falling out with him.

Also is a long term appointment viable anymore? With so many opportunities at an increasing number of franchises, plus more international sides now, will you get DoC’s and top coaches willing to stay for 10 years?

Is there much hard evidence that Robinson is hard to work with? I can’t recall seeing much, if anything, beyond rumours.

To be fair, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone refer to it as the County Ground, Edgbaston.

Given our luck with overseas players recently I wouldn't be surprised if he got a call-up!

There must be some benefit for Derbyshire. Will they get some percentage of gate takings?

It’s even more inconvenient for Lancashire fans! I like the idea but I feel that it would make more sense for us to play both games if we’re going to do a double header.

Highveld wrote:

This must have been agreed ages ago, as Sam, & his agent are both currently in Sydney, for his agents wedding.

Is his agent Josh Poysden?

I also think this is a good signing. He’s experienced, proven at the level and doesn’t seem to have a track record of injury, all things we’ve been crying out for.

As mad says, he is definitely not in favour of the Strauss review recommendations. He was a guest on the County Cricket Natters podcast on 25th September and spoke about it a bit on that (there was also a mention of yours truly and this forum in the discussion of our match against Gloucestershire).

The discussion starts about 29 minutes in:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/county-cricket-natters/id1552562603?i=1000580557268