A great innings from Jacob Bethell!
There's an article in the Telegraph today about his childhood in Barbados, how his appetite for practice was insatiable - he would get his mother to bowl to him at 5.00 am.
My own very short direct experience with him confirms that dedication. I went to the pre-season media day in 2022 - the day when the players get photographed and are available for interview. The interviews took place on the practice ground where the players were in the nets. Three of us (George Dobell, me and one other) asked to interview Jacob Bethell who was in the nets batting. Whereas everyone else called for interview came over straight away, the message back from Jacob was that he was busy batting and would get to us afterwards.
When he did eventually come over, he was very charming and helpful - but batting came first!

According to an article in The Telegraph, when Jacob Bethell applied to go to Rugby School, he needed three references. One was provided by Sir Garry Sobers and a second by Sir Everton Weekes. The article doesn't say who provided the third but I suspect that it didn't matter too much.

Yes and a Happy New Year to all Bears fans everywhere!

As always, many thanks, EB, for keeping this Forum going. Long may it continue!

I'm glad that the Club reached out to you for your opinion, even though they didn't go with every amendment that you suggested.
If it's not confidential, who was it in the Club that contacted you?

Let's hope that he can score some runs in a "proper" Test match at Sydney. He played a key knock at the MCG but it was more like a white ball innings.

I agree that it's asking too much of him to come in without match practice at this stage of the series. I think he is more resilient as a character than some who have been put in that situation so my guess is he will survive.

Rob Key is getting a bit of a roasting after what seems to have been a disastrous press conference. Most telling is the ridicule in this article from Barney Ronay:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/23/ashes-autopsy-english-cricket-meets-spinal-tap-rob-key-ecb
I particularly like:
" The England and Wales Cricket Board has mistakenly hired a broadcaster. It has confused cause and effect, presentation and delivery. The Honey Monster has been put in charge of global puffed rice production."

Underlying all this is the fact that longer form (red ball) cricket is the poor relation in England, played at the front end and back end of the season. It's not the best set up for producing Test match players.
Sadly, that's not going to change.

https://edgbaston.com/news/warwickshire-bears-behind-county-lines-2/?_gl=1*1fno31u*_up*MQ..*_ga*ODY2NzI3MDMwLjE3NjYzNDA5Mjk.*_ga_NE7BBXK3VR*czE3NjYzNDA5MjgkbzEkZzAkdDE3NjYzNDA5MjgkajYwJGwwJGgw*_ga_ZHXWMN2QK2*czE3NjYzNDA5MjgkbzEkZzAkdDE3NjYzNDA5MjgkajYwJGwwJGgw
I'm not sure who wrote this but it is quite a detailed attempt to give the history of both the county of Warwickshire and the cricket club.
I think the writer (or sub-editor) should maybe have avoided the use of the term "county lines" in the heading because it has other connotations.

Latest on the re-build:
https://edgbaston.com/news/stand-demolition-paves-way-for-next-stage-of-edgbaston-masterplan/
I see that the Club has now decided that the recently demolished stands were opened in 1958. I think that's a year or two early. But maybe the Club has looked up chapter and verse; and it really doesn't matter.

Nice work if you can get it:
"The Cricketer understands that the left-hander will earn £350,000 from being retained as one of Phoenix's pre-auction signings."

Pleased for Michael Rae - as I said after seeing him in 2024, a wholehearted trier.
As for Zak Foulkes - yes, he did play for us, though not in 2004!

Add to the above:
Chair of the Board
and
Senior Partnership Sales Manager

There seem to have been a lot of jobs advertised at WCCC in the last couple of weeks - eight of them at latest count with a variety of titles:
Lead Graphic Designer
Digital Products Manage
Cricket Employability Senior Officer
Cricket & Social Impact Officer
Financial Accountant
Accounts & Payroll Executive
Finance Business Partner
Cricket Cities Community Coach
I'm not sure how many of these are replacements and how many are new posts, but that seems like a lot of vacancies. And still no news of the Head of Media who supposedly was due to start in October.

Yes, very sad.

There's a fairly long article in The Cricketer about the change of name, with plenty of quotes from Stuart Cain. I won't break the paywall by quoting it in detail but it is summed up by Cain saying:
"We are Warwickshire, so why not just call us Warwickshire?"

Has joined Gloucestershire.

I think that the adoption of the Birmingham name was largely motivated by the large sum of money owed to Birmingham City Council. For the same reason, the City end of the ground suddenly acquired the Birmingham name.
I also recall that when I went to the launch night for the Birmingham name, the Club Chairman told me that attendances would go up because of the use of Birmingham in the team title.

The less said the better about the first Test.