A wife would never joke about something as important as cricket.

Cannot see any reason to bowl first. Even if the overhead condition are telling you to bowl and the pitch looks a little green, it doesn't always mean anything. We could be staring at 500+ tomorrow. Rhode4s did this at Taunton, not sure if it was last season but they made loads and we lost. Perhaps Rhodes has a touch of the 'Grant Elliott's', "we'll have a bowl" mentality.

With Brookes, the talk was always about his 'Potential'. How long does potential last because it seems to me he has moved backwards to the point that surely the management will say, "What have we got to do to get him to be consistent and an automatic choice". Even if you kept him for just 50 over games and T20, his economy rate does not justify it.

Strange to win the toss and bowl at The Oval. We will see if it has been a good decision. We did alright here last year, up to the point when the umpires decided to get it over with and move the game on and give us a few 'Shockers'.

I remember his debut v Northamptonshire in the 2004 CC. I watched all 4 days and he took 7-80 and 6-78 as well as getting 61 in his only innings. What a debut, has there ever been a better one.

I always get the feeling that unless fringe players have really been establishing themselves, it is difficult to see them making contributions in important games. Lintott looks too high at 8 unless it is the end of an innings with a few big shots at the end but could anyone see Bethell or Brookes building an innings of 70-80 to get us near a score good enough to defend as they hadn't really done it previously. As soon as we were 5 down I could not see a way back and here we are, 'The Early Peakers' do it again and can we seriously blame management.

As if it wasn't bad enough for Barker to start the rot setting in, but to have a second rate spinner like Dawson taking 7 is just poor in the extreme. And before anyone comes on here to say how good Dawson is, just put it this way, if he was a good bowler, he would have replaced Leach in the Test squad instead of Moeen Ali. Glad I didn't take a 'Sickie'.

Andy, I wouldn't say we are 'Poachers', that would seem to be exclusively the preserve of Notts. What we did over the years is get players who were either unhappy where they were or or felt that they would get less chances of first team cricket. One way or another, this fits Chopra, Clarke, Rhodes, Ambrose, OHD, Wright and Sibley and I have maybe missed out others

Cannot see the point in keeping Woakes away from a game of cricket as he could be rusty when he does finally bowl. I sometimes wonder if the ECB ever think of saying to a player, "Do you think it might be beneficial for you to play a bit before '*@&^%%' or do you need to rest". Players know what suits them and some may think a game or 2 might actually be the best thing before an international ODI or T20.

18 runs from 19 balls for the Worcestershire lower order, just like Hampshire, having players who can get late boundaries is a godsend in these games. A lot of tailenders try to smash the hell out of it and end up missing the ball. Just getting something on it and running is best as you know that at some stage with a few wickets in hand, you will get a boundary. So we have one of our 'Bogey' teams and The Pears will be kicking themselves. Time we laid to waste the bad form against this lot and hope we can brush them aside.

Looking at both sides, they look weak. if you consider that the later Hampshire batsmen from 6-11 have managed 44 runs from 64 balls. Worcestershire have Leach at 7 so no one would be too fearful of sides like that. There is a trophy here at stake, we must play the best side we can. I hate it when the ECB say that players who have hardly played, should be rested, they are cricketers, they should play cricket. At this stage, not playing players for whatever reason in stupid and has no baring on future games unless they get injured and you cannot 'Rest' players because they might get injured.

At some stage, we will have to beat Hampshire at some stage. As a side, they do appear to have more than their fair share of luck and are not that good. Player for player we can more than match them.

BosworthBear, I totally agree as it is the keepers choice to do this but Lancashire did it last year in the T20 final and were told the ball was dead as soon as the keeper removed the bails despite the fact that after the first run, the batsman had made his ground at the keepers end. It is a daft rule and Lancashire were still trying to argue their point to the umpire whilst Hampshire were celebrating. I think the umpires got it wrong seeing as you can still take a run after an attempted stumping has been ruled not out and the stumps are broken. I think we should have been able to do it also in the 2012 final v Hampshire (Why is it always them involved in controversial cup wins) when Hampshire's keeper chose to break the stumps with Carter still in his ground. Either way, I still wonder why Durham didn't play with the same sort of intensity in their other games, they might be in a better position. I think they were lucky on the 4th ball of the last over, that looked too high both from my view at the side of the pitch and looking at it again on You Tube.

Home semi really looks odds on now, not that home fixtures appear to give us any sort of advantage as we have seen in T20 and other knockout formats over the years. Surprised at Northants slow start and Vasconcelos and Gay took up almost half the balls (28) in making 16 but some of the bowling was really accurate so well done to them for not getting panicky and spraying it everywhere.

If we had Woakes, Moeen, Hasan, Hain and Mousely, you would be putting our name on the trophy already.

'Poor', you are being kind, it was atrocious. It's not as if the bowler was leaping about like a salmon wildly appealing. I would be ashamed as a bowler, to even ask for that.

Glad I didn't decide to go which seems strange after a thrashing like that but take into account, petrol, ticket and parking plus a very one-sided game and it seems like an anti-climax although I am very chuffed. When our neighbours are bad, they are very bad.

Great start to this tournament. We need to go to another final. You do start to get withdrawal symptoms after a while.

Whatever reason for the defeat, it was a bit of a shock as Middlesex have so far had a dreadful season but I suppose by that measure, they were due a good game somewhere along the line but just a pity it was us. Not impressed after watching the first 2 days and after 20-6 when I arrived, it would take a real turnaround to comeback from that. Surrey are a bit like we were in 1994, Lara apart, no one could see why we did so well as we appeared to have journeymen as opposed to stars. On paper, Surrey do not look as strong as other sides but their bowling doesn't seem to require players taking 5 wicket hauls as everyone seems to chip in. Hampshire's first 3 are better but their whole team lacks batting. I now hope that we don't go into a spell where everyone looks tired and fed up and just wants the season to disappear.

Tomorrow might be a bit iffy on the weather front but enough time left in the game to get a finish but feel that with conditions looking better, that 139 deficit might be the undoing of us.