GerryShedd
Super Moderator
Not sure if any other team has lost four wickets in the same over of a T20 match and gone on to win it.
Whilst delighted for the win, sad to see Olly Stone only managing to bowl three balls before leaving the field.
Quite a match and quite a win!
Good luck to Olly. He's not yet 30 so could still have a good career ahead of him.
I should have remembered David and Jason Ratcliffe - I saw Jason only recently.
Also there were fathers and sons AJW Croom and Leslie Croom plus Charles and Fred Taylor.
I think that Jimmy and James Ord were grandfather and grandson.
Jason Ratcliffe may be the only example amongst all of them where the son was a better player than the father.
Yorkshire have taken Dom Bess back for the Blast. But I guess it is possible that if they don't qualify for the quarter finals, he could come back to the Bears.
The signing of Dominic Drakes has caused me to wonder how many fathers and sons have played for Warwickshire.
I can think of the Smiths (Mike and Neil), the Maddys and, from further back, the Santalls and the Quaifes. I'm probably missing a few more so feel free to remind me!
In 1922, Willie Quaife and son Bernard played for Warwickshire at Derby while Billy Bestwick and son Robert represented the hosts.
That wasn't a name that I had expected but it may be a good signing:
https://edgbaston.com/news/bears-sign-dominic-drakes-for-blast-run-in/
A pity that they haven't quite spelt his dad's first name correctly - should surely be "Vasbert".
All-female ground staff preparing the pitch:
https://edgbaston.com/news/herstory-all-women-ground-staff-prepare-edgbaston-ashes-wicket/
I can hear a few voices saying: "Shouldn't they be concentrating on preparing the teas?"
Injury update from Robinson:
“Danny Briggs is out for a while and could be four to six weeks. We don’t know if Sam Hain will be fit for the weekend, but he should be ready for the quarter-final and Kent.
“We’re having to manage Jacob Bethell’s workload and get him to a quieter spot in the field with the stress fracture he’s got in the back, which limits his practice and restricts him from bowling. Craig Miles is six to eight weeks away and we’re hoping Liam Norwell will be fit for the final run-in of four championship games."
So not much positive news there, then, especially with Hasan being on his way out.
The comments about Jacob Bethell in the field make his catch against Yorkshire seem all the more remarkable.
Yorkshire coach Ottis Gibson says: "With regards to Bessy, he's still our player. When I told him he wasn't going to play this game, he asked to go on loan. But when his loan period finishes, he'll come back to us. He's been brilliant in the Blast [and] he is available for Friday night [against Lancashire]."
So we won't get Bess in the formula where he might be most useful. Let's hope that Danny Briggs is back soon.
Thanks, Highveld. It's good to know that the next generation coming through is ethnically diverse. Let's hope that at least some of them come through to the top level in the next few years.
Nearly 18,000 tickets sold so far:
https://edgbaston.com/news/edgbaston-breaks-ticket-sales-record-for-womens-ashes/
Ed Pollock hasn't had too much success as a Pear - he could do with playing an important innings here.
I get the impression that Alex Thomson has settled in well at Derbyshire and is often taking useful wickets.
Dan Mousley attended Bablake School in Coventry which is a private school.
I agree with much of the above.
I hope that there will be increased focus on those initiatives that genuinely support inclusion in cricket, like Chance to Shine which does fantastic work in schools. Warwickshire's Issy Wong is the first cricketer who started on a Chance to Shine scheme to play for England.
To be fair, the ECB puts about £2.5m into Chance to Shine each year but it needs a lot more than that to continue its work, let alone to expand it.
Chris Woakes' knee problem lurks in the background. We none of us know just how fit he really is but I can understand (up to a point) why they have preferred Tongue who is younger and presumably (now) fully recovered from his injury problem.
I agree that Chris should probably retire from Test cricket rather than suffer the indignity of not being picked. I hope that, if he did so, he would come back to Warwickshire and serve his time out here rather than travel the world as a T20 specialist, though that might be easier on the knee and more lucrative.
So - Moeen and Chris Woakes out of the team for Lord's - an all-seam attack with Joe Root as spinning back-up.
Since Chris Woakes doesn't get into the England team at Lord's, I can't see him getting in elsewhere unless there are more injuries:
https://wisden.com/series-stories/ashes-2023/ashes-2023-england-announce-xi-second-test-lords-eng-vs-aus-2
He clearly has ability; but I think that, in his early days, he was flattered by the spin-friendly conditions that existed then at Taunton.
I'm not sure how much the pitch deteriorated between days one and two at Chelmsford; but that was possibly a factor in the different results achieved by Bess and Harmer.
I think he may be more of an asset in the T20 games, where he is not much of a wicket-taker but bowls very economically, so a good substitute for Danny Briggs.