Now that OHD has demonstrated his ability with the kookaburra ball, will England want to take him to Australia? (wink)

I'll swap them Bethell and Mousley for Chris Woakes. Is that a deal?

Just take the draw. We don't want to end up losing this like we did the reverse fixture at Taunton.

I've got two glasses, one of which is topped off nicely whilst the other is down to the dregs. If we win one or both of the Blast and the One Day Cup, Edgbaston Entertainment Venue could reasonably feel rather pleased with itself. If we go a whole year without winning a County Championship game, Warwickshire County CRICKET Club will have dismally failed.

Imagine where we might be if we had any fit bowlers...

I thought the conventional wisdom in matches that are likely to be rain affected was that the team winning the toss should field. Any ideas as to why Glamorgan want to bat?

I hope they include some car parking. Street parking in Ashley Down was difficult when I was at University 50 years ago and continues to get worse.

In an example of the commentator's curse, that stat was used by Andy Saltzmann on TMS today when Chris Woakes was on 62. He was immediately out.
Hamza Shaikh maybe?

Well said, paulbear. I think Rhodes' all round contribution will not be at all easy to replace. He's been having a good season and has several more left in him.
Thanks for your efforts, Will, and good luck.

I'd probably cut the kid some slack. As a republican atheist, the words of God save the King have never meant a lot to me (apart from the bit about crushing rebellious Scots, but we don't get to sing that any more). In my bolshie youth, I might well have not sung along as a silent protest against a rather naff anthem but it would not have signified any lack of patriotic feeling.
These days, I am happy to mouth along to it as I know people get wound up about not singing.

Correct. I remember one incident in that series when England were well ahead in a 50 over game but in danger of being rained off without reaching the minimum overs. A catch came to Best who deliberately grassed it and chucked the ball back to the bowler to get the over finished. I don't think the bowler was too chuffed but it won the game.
County level cricket didn't really happen for Best and he eventually quit with a back injury, I believe.

One for people with long memories:
Which Warwickshire player captained England U19 against Sri Lanka U19 in 2010?

If his current form doesn't improve, I'm not sure Chris Woakes would make OUR squad.

Lancs and Northants play each other in their final game so they can't both catch us.

Same here, Terry. The first time I watched the Bears, Horner and Ibadulla opened the batting. A few years later, when Bob Barber arrived, it was by no means unusual to see that numbers 1 and 2 in the batting order were bowling together.
Always a really popular player, he'll be missed.

Don't worry. There's still Benjamin to come.

I don't think you can blame the batting this year. We have more batting bonus points than any other Div 1 side and many of the top order have big runs under their belt. Sure, Bethell and Mousley need to do better but with the number of players we have who are 30 or under and the lads coming through the age groups, the batting looks in good shape for now and future years.
What we can't do is bowl people out. We looked under strength at the start of the year and knew that we had a number of "fragile" seamers. Losing Hasan Ali to international call ups didn't help and the fact that Chris Woakes could only take one wicket in 71 overs makes you glad that England are paying his wages. But the lack of a wicket taking spinner (Danny Briggs is a good bloke but has never been much of a red ball player) and absence of decent cover for the seamers was a bad error and lies with management. Crossed fingers that we can eke out enough draws to stay up this year but serious bowling recruitment for 2025 needs to start now.

We ought to be able to stop them from scoring at 5 an over for a prolonged period. For once, they're using the whole ground at Taunton so there isn't a short square boundary. There are no fielding restrictions so we can have long on and long off back, together with a third man and fine leg. There is nothing in the rules to stop us "hiding" the ball outside off stump.
Might be worth letting them think they can do it, though. Draw remains favourite but if we could persuade Abell and Banton to hole out, it would be game on.

Somerset should be more interested in the win points than we are. Perhaps someone thought we could tempt them to offer up some buffet bowling?
Bit unambitious anyway.

Somerset should be more interested in the win points than we are. Perhaps someone thought we could tempt them to offer up some buffet bowling?
Bit unambitious anyway.