From 76/2 to 126 all out - well done - let's hope we can build a good first innings lead

That catch was as good as anything by Piper - real top draw. 24/2 and we actually won the toss.!

Highveld wrote:

Good poinys from both @BristolBears & @Coolerking.

If I have time I'll look at other counties players. The main point hower is the neither of our openers are really doing any better than last season and are the main area of the team that needs improvement. The side has a great middle order, an excellent keeper and one of the best bowling attacks, it would be a shame to miss out on success due to the consistant failures of the openers.

An average of 30 is, in most places, considered to be the minimum acceptable for a specialist batsman, to be perfroming c30% below hat ism't acceptable. so to be over 60% below is totally unacceptable and should be raising questions about the players place in the side.

My recollection of last season is that match after match Sam Hain was effectively an opening batsman as 2 and 3 wickets fell very early on. This season we have seen at least one of the openers getting a decent score apart from the Surrey game

An excellent win especially considering the amount of time lost due to weather.Increasingly the Surrey game is looking like a blip, just one of those games when it all goes wrong.

I said we should have declared overnight - as a result of batting on the wicket has gone dead when the 9th wicket went down!!!! Well that's my theory anyway!!!!!

As you say only a matter of time surely

I can only see Hants batting out a draw as worst case scenario. To win we have to get 10 wickets and I would start doing that at 11.

I think they should declare overnight and get them on a possibly damp wicket. If we take 10 wickets we should win.

paulbear wrote:

Saturday, from what I have just seen, is the dodgy day and Sunday might see more play. Important tomorrow that we bat long and score at a good lick and get a good lead. If we could bat all day tomorrow, it might be that only Sunday gives us a chance to win.

From the weather forecast I saw I think it will be simple to bat all day tomorrow - I don't think there will be many overs bowled. I just hope the forecasters are wrong.

paulbear wrote:

That's the way Gerry, give it some of that Viking spirit.

Gerry I'd take my own if I was you. Have you seen the price of Norweigen spirit?

paulbear wrote:

Why is this awful competition still referred to as 'The Hundred' and not 'The-elephant-in-the-room-that-has-to-have-free-tickets-given-away-to-get-people-to-watch-and-has-lost-almost-£60M-in-2-seasons-with-games-that-no-one-remembers-balls-up'. It does just roll off the tongue.

That has to be the best and most accurate title for that competition. Now,Paul, perhaps you could tell us how you really feel !!!!

paulbear wrote:

Why is this awful competition still referred to as 'The Hundred' and not 'The-elephant-in-the-room-that-has-to-have-free-tickets-given-away-to-get-people-to-watch-and-has-lost-almost-£60M-in-2-seasons-with-games-that-no-one-remembers-balls-up'. It does just roll off the tongue.

That has to be the best and most accurate title for that competition. Now,Paul, perhaps you could tell us how you really feel !!!!

UrsaMinor wrote:

At least the departure of the numpties that dreamed up The Hundred allows the ECB to admit that they got it wrong. The article, though, suggests that there is still no clear thinking about how to make money (sorry, how to run a cricket season) in future. I wonder if the ECB could be persuaded to work towards a two division County Championship with 9 teams in each division, all-play-all, and just one hit-and-giggle competition. It sounds sensible to me.

Your final sentence explains why we won't see 2 division CC and 1 one day competition !

Only one batsman has made a decent score, which indicates tricky conditions, so to single one batsman out is very unfair IMO. He scored more than Hain by the way.

Is it not time for the club to look at producing a digital membership "card" that members can print off at home - or have a QR on their phone? It would reduce the postage costs and make it easier to get the non-digital ones out to those that prefer it that way.

I remember the moaning when we kept playing them in the cup games in the 90s. Do we care about them moaning when we win? Of course not !!!

Excellent win. From only watching on TV I am seeing a much happier looking squad compared to last year. The celebrations when the 10th wicket went down was superb. Just a few weeks ago some members were talking about avoiding relegation. These early games will surely have talk of top 2 spot

Highveld wrote:

All part of the challenge of proper red ball cricket, the result is totally unpredictable and a side can recover from a bad position.

It's what makes red ball cricket and why it will always be superior to the one day format. Having said that it is still frustrating!!!

Why can't we get the tail enders out? A great performance about to get spoilt by the last 3 wickets. So frustrating.

Just been and had a look at the fixture list on WCCC web site. The T20 team is titled Bears with no mention of the second city. Hopefully that will be permanent.

Also noticed women's game are merged in with the men's game. One thing they must be careful with is calling the women's T20 team Bears Women. Can't afford any predictive spelling errors there !!

Not sure I agree with awarding points for 450 runs - will it encourage more "slog" batting when we could do with batsmen being encourage to "build" an innings for the benefit of the test match team