A poor day and the bowling looks uninspiring and flat apart from Ollie and Danny. An awful start to our innings and with the weather looking better than it was first broadcast to be, it could be a horrible couple of days if we don't get stuck in with the bat.

Very cold although I have been colder - Mainly in my youthful stupidity in wearing just a thin jacket over a t-shirt. A fair
bit of short stuff was put away with relish and a major surprise to see Burns get out right before lunch. Went into the club shop at lunch to mainly keep warm and was surprised by the lack of anything other than loads of shirts and the usual array of caps. I suggested to the club about getting some old scorecards printed up and sold. To produce them would be peanuts (Ex-printer typing) and they could be from past games like last seasons title clincher v Somerset back to the 1972 title clincher v Derbyshire where 'Big Bob' took 8-44. Other similar cards v Hamp 1994, 1997 Refuge v Glouc and assorted Test matches, etc. About 5p to produce, if that and selling them for £1. No harm in trying but loads of shirts which no one seemed to want isn't going to draw people in other than to get through the shop to watch the cricket. Back to the game, the pitch looks a bit dead, a typical cold pitch for a cold day and I just hope we make it look like a good strip to bat on also. Good to see Ollie bowl well and he looks happy to be back. It's the first game, not going to make any predictions either way

When he got in the England side, he was a real asset and at number 8 or 9 was a member of such a massively powerful team and I do think they ditched him too early. When he came to us, I was excited but his bowling was on a downward curve but he was a good number 7 and I think as a batsman (Yes, I am still going to use that term) he would have been ideal to bowl a few overs without real potency. Cannot help but think that the 'Rafiq Incident' had some sort of bearing on his decision. What a way to go though after that last match v Somerset.

At least we do have some cricket on Saturdays which is good news seeing as a few years ago they seemed to start virtually every game on a Sunday even if the T20 games were weeks away which made no sense. Also, having looked at the official site, it looks as though the T20 side will be called 'Bears' and the 'Birmingham', dropped. It would make sense seeing as we now have a team called Birmingham, in The Hundred.

Malc wrote:

paulbear wrote:

We must now only play on Friday. I was very down after the Hampshire game and the way England played so weakly v India but in the space of a few weeks the season had a strong finish. I hope all our players have a really good winter for lifting me/us up and that day last week was a fantastic occasion only tainted slightly by so few people in the ground.

Hi Paul. I sent you a direct message last week. Did you receive it?

Yes. Malc I did get your message and replied to it also and it was one of the first things I though of as I stood in the queue for a beer during the tea break last Friday (Somerset 7 down). What a difference a few weeks makes. You were optimistic whereas I just wanted the season to end. Your comment cheered me up and makes my pessimistic paragraph look pretty ridiculous now (Thank God). Bless you for doing that and I may see you next season during our defence of our title.

We must now only play on Friday. I was very down after the Hampshire game and the way England played so weakly v India but in the space of a few weeks the season had a strong finish. I hope all our players have a really good winter for lifting me/us up and that day last week was a fantastic occasion only tainted slightly by so few people in the ground.

Just looked at the 'Met Office' site and it doesn't look too bad for the next 3 days. Would be terrible to dominate and not get a win but we should have runs galore to play with.

coolerking wrote:

That was like the first day of the Boxing Day test in 2010, only better.

I know exactly what you mean, a superb day to be a supporter of the 2021 county champions. If there is anyone there at Lords today who could pick me up a scorecard at any point, I would be most grateful, would obviously compensate you and tell my Mum how good a person you are.

Not bothered that they came off for bad light, start again tomorrow, have a good look at the long range forecast and work accordingly. It makes those ridiculous 'celebrations by Lancs on the Thursday after their game, look really stupid. Over the last month, Somerset have not managed to bat well twice in any game and Lancs were hanging onto the hope that the Somerset of the last 4 years would turn up on the last day. Nice to hammer home why we won the CC and whoever had the decision of getting Norwell/Miles from Gloucestershire, did a great job. One downside from a selfish point of view, does anyone else get the feeling that England will want to get their hands on Norwell and Yates. I am always pleased when our players get international recognition but it also means we will barely see them.

Always hated the Birmingham Bears T20 name and would love us to return to the name Warwickshire even if it does have Bears after it. Seems stupid to have 2 Birmingham sides. It is county cricket after all and if they want towns/cities/boroughs, they can save it for The Hundred and other assorted tosh.

More satisfying to sink both Lancs and Hampshire who both did plenty to mess up our 2011 campaign. It may be 10 years ago but the frustration on that last day never leaves you and then Hampshire beat us in the 2012 final when we were going for the double and it left a damp feeling to the end of the season as it was the very last game. I phoned up today to see if they will be selling any finished scorecards like the ones they sell at Lord's after finals. No one is really that accommodating at our club when it comes to this sort of thing. I phoned up the Lord's shop after the 2019 World Cup Final to ask about programmes and scorecards and they went out of their way to help me and sent me an e-mail about how much they would cost.

Sounds like a good idea. Even the attendance yesterday was poor but then again, I have said it for years, why put the final day of CC cricket during weekdays. You could easily have a Thursday start and finish on a Sunday. Also, no school children get to ever see a CC title decider if they wanted to and I didn't even any children there yesterday pulling a 'Sickie', blimey, the youth of today, no rebellion.

From what I have seen on various sites, the answer is no.

We needed a perfect day ad we got it. Quite surprised at the declaration but we needed plenty of overs and so glad that 'Bad' Somerset turned up for the 2nd innings and not 'Good' 1st innings Somerset. Great atmosphere but with the usual 'Children at school' scenario at this time of the year, the crowd was not as big as it could have been but we still made plenty of noise. Thoroughly deserved if you consider injuries and no really decent overseas pro. Great to see the trophy presented at the end but a pity they didn't let us poor onto the pitch with a 15 minute delay to let the players leave first. Got a picture with Sam Hain and the trophy. He was so accommodating and letting everyone who wanted to, have a picture, lovely bloke. This is a monumental achievement if you consider the team we had 2016-17 which needed refreshing and needed young, new blood. Lancashire will be miffed but no more so than we were in 2011. In 2011 we had a poor performance v Hampshire at home followed by a good one away at Yorkshire, just like this season. Somerset lost to Lancs on the last day and Hampshire stopped us at the Rose Bowl from being champs. Strange how all those sides should feature in this drama again. Just goes to show that never giving up is a key element in any success. 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.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! x Infinity.

Yes, we don't want to come up short and have them 8-9 down not having bowled enough overs. Whilst watching yesterday, I was thinking that it is 96 overs MINUIMUM. That means you can bowl more if you 'shift yer' bum' and try and get more overs in. Lancashire did it plenty in 2011 with their 2 spinners. Talking of which, I would rather have seen them get the title than Hampshire though I am still miffed about 2011. Lancashire look a proper side whereas Hampshire have just 2 bowlers and rely on a few batsmen. Their spin options might have cost them yesterday, Dawson is never a problem and never seems to bowl a side out even if it's turning sideways. Briggs might have some work to do today and who would bet against him after Wednesday's heroics.

The last session, 36 overs with no break enabled us to just swing it all over the park with nothing to lose. Some of the shots that Rhodes hit were some of the most nonchalant I have ever seen, one of his 6's, he hit it the blink of an eye and didn't even look at it and was marking his guard before it landed. A sharp contrast to after lunch when we just seemed to lose interest. Did the players think that Hampshire had it in the bag. There was always a chance that Lancashire would chase it well if it was below 200. We did seem to waste 20 odd overs just going through the motions and bowling to Leach (Seriously, he faced 140 balls ) rather than letting him have it, tailender or not, he was just taking the **. I hope we come out all guns blazing and do not meander at 5 an over. 24 overs of trying to hit everything out of sight even at 6 an over would give us 300 to bowl at in 70 overs. It might actually be better if Rhodes does not tell the others what target he is looking at, I have known sides do that and it leads to batsmen not feeling the need to try and score quicker because they are "Up with the rate". It's in our hands and I really hope the pitch can do something for us but it looks so dull, I feel it may win in the end.

Lancashire have won so it's on if we can somehow get the declaration right and get something out of this bland pitch then you never know. COYB.

Amazing. If Notts win, then it's no use us trying for 2nd place so we will have to 'Go for it'.

I usually love GD articles but trying to compare Pakistan coming here last year and the Covid complications is totally different if you consider that New Zealand have pulled out - So why would England go after another Test nation are getting out of the country.