Highveld wrote:

Sorry, I would have thought you knew the ground anyway?

PS please check your inbox
For some reason, I can't access my inbox. Will keep trying though it also says no new messages.

Highveld wrote:

From what I remember, there is nothing apart from housing near the Taunton Vale ground, and the onsite bar is closed during the game.

Josh Thomas was probably travelling to their first team game, he's been playing in the first team most of the season, and is a very good player.

Oh, Highveld, you've only gone and spoilt my little joke.
(Admittedly, it was a VERY little joke.)

It would have been a tall order anyway (23 off seven balls) but the Somerset innings came to a premature end with the last two batters "absent".
Maybe "We won't be needed. Let's slip off down to the pub next door."

Interesting interview with Jake on The Cricketer website. Highlights:
Jake Lintott is hoping that a loan spell at Kent can reinvigorate his career after admitting to finding "the last couple of years tricky" at Warwickshire.
" I found myself out of the Warwickshire team and found my role very different to when I was first at the club.
"One thing I found harder at Warwickshire is that with the amount of cricket played at Edgbaston, T20 games have just been pushed closer to the edge of the pitch. Albeit they say the South Group is smaller grounds, when you think about it, you're going to play in the middle at Kent because the Blast games are the priority."

Well, maybe. Jeetan went for 7.26 an over in 2019 and 8.51 in 2020, his last season in the Blast.

Re his finger injury:
"An ECB release stated that Bethell will now be under the supervision of the England Men’s medical team so that his availability for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s starting on June 4 can be determined. "

Not wishing to get obsessed with this one defeat but, having watched the highlights, my thoughts on the main dismissals are:
Davis - poor shot execution
Hain - good ball
Webster - dreadful shot
Barnard - soft shot
Yates - leg side strangle but he'd played some wild shots earlier
Thompson - rash shot
Woakes - run out mix-up
Jani - missed a straight ball
After that, I gave up!
As for Thompson, he had a dreadful game with bat and ball so he was certainly one of the bad guys on the night. But tomorrow is another day.

The report on the Club site gives the batters a free pass by suggesting that the Gloucestershire bowlers exploited helpful conditions. Sitting as I was behind the bowler's arm, I didn't see a lot in the pitch, other than it had some pace and bounce. The Cricinfo report, whilst giving credit to the bowlers, talks about "injudicious shot selection". That's a bit nearer the truth, though still rather kind. If I go for a walk today, I must take care not to step in a pile of injudiciousness.

Up until the half way point, I was enjoying sitting with a group of Gloucestershire supporters. Afterwards, not so much so.
Even allowing for the fact that T20 is a bit of a hit or miss exercise, this was one of the worst batting performances that I can ever remember..

When it’s all going wrong, it just needs a daft run out!

In an interview with George Dobell, Usman Tariq says:
"The thing is, I've been tested twice. And I was cleared within one week. No one told me, 'You had better go and change your action.' Nothing. I just went and played within one week.
"So, I'm okay. I'm happy to be here. And if there is some kind of doubt from the umpires, I guess we have the best equipment here in the UK. I will just get tested again."

Interesting profile here, focusing on his unusual action:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/may/21/cricket-usman-tariq-warwickshire-pakistan-t20-blast

A really nice obituary here:
https://acscricket.com/?page_id=12162

As marketing initiatives go, this one seems to me slightly (well) batty:
https://edgbaston.com/news/stratford-upon-avon-becomes-batford-upon-avon-as-bears-take-over-for-blast-off/?_gl=1*ghmd9n*_up*MQ..*_ga*MzY5MzA1NjUuMTc3OTM5MTM4OQ..*_ga_ZHXWMN2QK2*czE3NzkzOTEzODgkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzkzOTEzODgkajYwJGwwJGgw*_ga_NE7BBXK3VR*czE3NzkzOTEzODkkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzkzOTEzODkkajYwJGwwJGgw

George Dobell wrote:
"Woakes has, in coach Ian Westwood's words, "the symptoms" of a hernia and is going to require careful management."

Geoffrey Boycott, not one for doling out praise, says in today's Telegraph of MJK:
"My former skipper, who has died aged 92, had a great sense of humour, no edge and was never officious. He was just a good man, a good gentle guy and you wanted him to do well."

He was an amazing captain of both Warwickshire and England. Also, he was an incredible short leg fielder who stood (no helmets in those days) amazingly close to the bat and took some stunning catches.
Yes, he was also a really nice guy. I played a couple of matches against him and one match with him and he was a total gentleman. One of my best moments in cricket is when I played in a match against Moreton-in-Marsh and batted with MJK. He was totally out of practice and scratched around for very few runs and got out before I did. My wish was that we could have added (say)120 with MJK making 100 of them and me scraping the rest. But it wasn't to be.

Guardian obituary here:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/may/18/mjk-smith-obituary

News is coming through of the death of M.J.K. Smith, a giant of Warwickshire cricket. He was my cricketing hero as I grew up.

Here's a quiz question for what may or may not turn out to be a rainy day:
When Ethan Bamber scored a hundred against Essex last year, he became the fourth Warwickshire batter to register a County Championship century as what we are now required to call a nightwatcher(!). Can you name the other three?