Uneven split goes back to 2016 when they sought to make more room in the schedule for rest/other formats so created an 8-10 split. In 2018 the counties voted to go to a 10-8 split from 2020 season onwards so only Notts were relegated and 3 promoted. 10 teams is thought to be a better representation of the fringe England talent pool than the 8 we had. I remember the Worcester chairman talking this change up as it would likely help their (at the time) yo-yo county have more chance of stabilizing in Div 1.

Equal divisions of 9 and 9 which we had from 1999 to 2015 was the best format if we have to have divisions as it meant 16 matches (8 home 8 away) but it always meant 1 team in each division had a week off every round of matches which made scheduling other formats and rest periods tricky. It'll be interesting to see the fixtures when they come out in the next few weeks and which 5 teams we end up having to play twice and which 4 teams we only play once. Will fixtures be based on seedings? If so will they take into account our 2019 standings when we finished 7th or 2021 when we won it?

Personally I quite liked the conference format that we've had as it potentially meant the chance to visit different counties/grounds each season if they stuck with it and mixed the groups up each season.

However the idea of it only being around for another season seemed trite so I'm glad they've gone straight back to 2 divisions even though 11 counties voted in favour of either continuing the conferences for 1 more season or using 2021 placings to determine the make up of the 2022 divisions.

Middlesex (not quite sure why?) and Notts (more understandable) are fuming about the decision today but personally I think it is the correct one. Northants are likely to struggle big time next season but I reckon Gloucestershire may do quite well.

According to Richard Gibson in the Daily Mail he'll be around in Oz

Alex Lees is to be recalled to the England Lions set-up more than six years since his last involvement, while another left-handed opener in Warwickshire's Rob Yates will also be asked to travel to Australia along with his county colleague Dom Sibley, who was dropped from the Test team during the home series against India.

Championship player of the year - Burgess
Young player of the year - Yates
T20 player of the year - Lintott
Overall player of the year - Miles/Briggs/Yates/Rhodes/Burgess

Batsman of the year - Yates
Bowler of the year - Miles
Fielder of the year - Bresnan
Moment of the year - OHD striking two fours to get an extra batting point versus Notts first game spectators were allowed back in
Clanger of the year - Folding to 100 all out after skittling Hants for 80
“Turning point” of the year - Briggs securing the extra batting point versus Somerset to keep belief which took us through the last 2 days

Neil Snowball was on at lunchtime. Seems as though next season will be very similar to this season save for perhaps 1 or 2 more Championship matches in June and July as opposed to the measly 2 we had this season. Suggested the 50 over cup would still definitely be played during the Hundred so no change there - so no proper cricket in that 5 week period tail late July into late August. He will hardly have helped membership sales with what he suggested. Fixtures out early November he suggested. As if...

Vote today will be to approve this and 2 divisions in 2023 or throw it out and go straight to 2 divisions next season

Saw it mentioned on twitter that the Bob Willis Trophy should become a mini-tournament with small groups and a final during the hundred. Three-day matches first class cricket with no baring on the Championship. Would mean YET ANOTHER competition but would provide first class cricket at the height of summer which Root has called for. Questionable how competitive it would be however and where would that leave the 50 over competiton? All played in April with semis and a final late May?

Would be over the moon to see Norwell go away this winter and Yates get a go next summer. We do have players to come back and the way we won the championship as a team effort suggests we'd cope with their loss better than we might expect especially with Davies to come in, the Brookes brothers, Bethell and Mousely next season too

paulbear wrote:

At 2pm yesterday I was discussing with one of the stewards, how we had probably blown it. He was as grumpy as me. Just before I left the ground, I saw him and another steward having photos with the trophy. What a day.

Was it JT and the lady at the main gates? Hope so. Great characters. Hopefully this win and the stories from yesterday will help reverse a long term decline in the membership I have reason to believe we are down to something like 4000 which from the heady 1990's days when we had the biggest membership in the country and the largest away followings is some drop. Great day yesterday. I shall watch a replay of the YouTube of the 6 hours of play on Xmas Day this year

Woakes, Bairstow, Malan available for Leeds on Sunday perhaps?

Would be a bit weird if both us and Notts win our last 2 matches meaning Notts win the championship and then we complete a treble over Notts by beating them again at Lord's in the BWT Final. Think I'd take that from this point mind would be something to take out of the season

Hain was a tad unlucky with his decision. There was a noise as it passed the bat but he didn't look happy. Burgess one of a trio out fishing at wide ones along with Benjamin trying to get on with it and Miles. All three will be disappointed to get out in that fashion. The others you'd have to say were got out by good bowling. Barker has run through much more seasoned top orders for yonks and I thought Abbas in particular was the standout bowler of the day tight accurate and persistently threatening. It just seemed to jar somewhat with the overhead balmy conditions you'd have been able to comprehend such a day had it been a misly April in Southampton

Thought they dug in pretty well, Avoided exposing the tail to Saqeeb with the newish ball

Now have the opportunity to bat Lancs out the game get to 400 + and finish Day 2 350 ahead would make it very difficult for Lancs to manufacture a win. Be interesting to see how Holder goes with the new ball later

https://beingoutsidecricket.com/2021/08/29/lies-damn-lies-and-the-hundred/

An excellent analysis of the event I can't even remember who won it now and it's only been a week

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/29/enough-already-sport-needs-to-slow-down-and-rein-in-its-endless-lust-for-growth

it would be nice if, just once, the people who run these sports could take a step back from their commercial backgrounds and see our favourite sport as the rest of us see it – something to be enjoyed by whoever likes it at the time, something that doesn’t need to be loved by everyone or to be “mainstream” in every nation. A game that was invented for leisure, pleasure and recreation, not a product to be sold and marketed incessantly, to bolster a bottom line and justify its executives’ bonuses.

See they're banging on about blocks again.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/vitality-blast-2021-luke-wright-advocates-staging-blast-in-a-block-as-quarter-finals-loom-after-five-week-hiatus-1274451
Luke Wright cricinfo article and the ECB seem to be hinting at it next season with the T20 and Finals Day all in one block. Trouble with blocks for T20/Hundred is the more you put things in blocks the more prime time cricket season is left fallow for all but the 8 or 4 teams lucky enough to be involved. Even those lucky few have to wait their turn to get 3 hours play after the sun's gone down. Abysmal state of affairs.

Need somehow to bring back full fixture lists for the 18 counties each week and if any are involved in latter stages of cups the affected fixtures get pushed back to a catch-up week in late September.

I just looked at the calendar for 2022 between April 10th and September 24th

I found plenty of room for 16 county championship fixtures spread across 18 fixture weeks running Monday to Thursday

I also found plenty of slots early season for some white ball cricket at the weekend, perhaps primarily played on Friday's or Sunday's with a few counties opting to play Saturday's. I can't for the life of me see any reason why the counties couldn't play alternate red and white ball cricket throughout most of the season so there is an even balance of both formats throughout. Then you'd not get completely blank July and August like we're experiencing now.

Even with 18 county championship focused weeks there is still room in the schedule for 6 weeks of rest / other formats.

These 6 weeks of rest could be used to prioritise some white ball cricket - May 1st to 8th counties could play 3 50 over matches, then June 5th to 18th I scoped out a 2 week solid block for the T20's where counties could play 5 or 6 matches and a spare week at either the start or the end of August where they could fit in play off's or semi finals or whatever. The rest of June and July should be county championship Mon-Thurs then T20's on Friday's and Sunday's.

And with all the room I've found in the schedule for the three formats I haven't even had to start April 3rd nor had to go on to early October either. You hear a lot about how tricky it is for the fixture schedulers but if they get the players to accept switching red to white ball cricket early, middle and late season rather than having these obscene 5 or 6 week blocks of one single format then it becomes far simpler.

It is certainly NOT an impossibly short window of time when you consider they now start early April and drag it out to early October.

Forecast weather was quite poor for a couple of the games but the forecast proved incorrect and they got full days play in. Getting locals to go to these games has obviously proved tricky. I noticed the PA chap at the end on Friday mentioned the next game at Edgbaston was today's 16.4 match. Does the PA bloke (or perhaps the DJ?) big up Warwickshire's next home fixture at the 16.4 matches? I wonder if the spectators who turn up to these shortened formats even know Bears are playing RLODC matches at the moment it seems to have gone so far under the radar at least with the County Championship matches there'd be 1,000-1,500 in the ground on most days but these RLODC matches have seen attendances of 900 ish, 750 and Friday couldn't have been any more than 600. Like I say they deserve a decent crowd Thursday whatever the result at the Oval tomorrow

Exeeded my expectations today yet again. Great team performance. Had the lad not copped it on the chin could've been a bit closer but I doubt it'd have affected the result. Promising young side. I kinda expected the Leicester and Derbyshire wins but wasn't sure about today. Two tough games next week but there's no reason why they can't win at least one of them. Hopefully a decent crowd next Thursday for the game against fancied Somerset. Weather should be more settled by then and the youngsters deserve a couple of thousand in there for that. Get along members

ajones1328 wrote:

Prime summer and it just feels like a huge anti climax..

Real shame

Agree with this particularly the first couple of hours our bowling looked so pedestrian it wasn't their fault of course love Yates appetite but when you have him opening the bowling you wonder what the hell has happened to this game of ours. Did very well to keep their score down towards the end they looked set for 350-360. Began quite well too with the bat but you knew there was a collapse around the corner our first XI is prone to that so our 2nds/3rds mix and match side we have at the moment would also struggle to reset and rebuild. Shame again for Yates now needs to focus on not panicking when he gets to 100 and not get too fixated by the match situation and chuck his wicket away of course would help if he had some experienced heads around him out there but once Rhodes had gone that was a big turning point. Credit to Notts very professional job done with the ball in those middle overs slowing the score and forcing our youngsters to panic/go big

I think we'll get a couple of wins in this group hopefully starting Tuesday at Derby but I had a feeling a couple of weeks ago we'd really struggle in this format this year which continues our patchy at best record in white ball cricket now going back several years. In a way I don't mind them using these games to rest the senior bowlers for later in the season although it's mostly been enforced rest. The likes of OHD, Brezzie, Miles etc... could get us close to 3rd spot if available all group stage but probably good to have them rested for T20 QF and Division One duties and accept we're going to be 5th to 7th at best

Yorkshire guaranteed a home quarter final but will play it at Chester le Street owing to their pitch issues

Wouldn't be a bad shout. I know people scoff at his suggestion but he played a vital role in the win at Trent Bridge and by late August will be more in tune with English conditions and would be handy to have around on late summer spinning tracks like Taunton or Old Trafford