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.

Still a chance but very slim. We will see if we are serious about trying to win when our openers come out. If Sibley is one of them then we are not serious about trying to win. I am not being nasty but just being realistic. Oh for a Neil Carter in our side who might like to try and speed things up. Send Briggs in early or even Norwell. Have we a target in mind? There are 132 overs left in the game, we could bat for perhaps 65 and try and score 270 and set Somerset 250 in around 65-67. Who knows.

Has no one told them that with the way things are going, it looks like Lancs could win which means we could still be champions if we win. It looks as though despite being a bland/dull pitch, we have thrown the towel in. Cannot believe that Leach and Davey have batted for 214 balls, Leach is now out but *** hell, we must be better than this.

Typical of Somerset to produce a sort of batting performance. Certainly better than their last 3 games. I really do not want a Rose Bowl 2011 moment when we struggled to get wickets when we had it in the bag. Tomorrow is edge of the seat stuff.

A bit disappointed later on. I thought that with 5 down we could sneak 1, maybe 2 before the close. It would be heartbreaking to have got that magic 4 batting point, only to fail to get a full set of bowling points. We need the sort of start that Somerset got this morning. I would sooner we lost by setting them a total that they chased successfully rather than miss out because we couldn't get 9 wickets in 110 overs. We are all assuming that Hampshire will win of course but who knows, a couple of good 50's could still swing it for Lancs but I would sooner be in Hampshire's position.

Exiled Bear wrote:

Think that’s a bit harsh on Sibley as the first hour was very challenging, the ball was moving around all over the place.

I agree that the ball was doing all sorts of things during the first hour and to get through to lunch only 1 down was a great effort but he didn't appear to even look to score quicker once it was obvious that the pitch was good for batting and this put greater pressure on the middle order. With Hain having made no runs v Yorkshire, the last thing he wanted was to have to make runs and at a good rate just to get us in the position we are in now.

Let us hope he celebrates tomorrow first thing with some quick runs.

I think we will get the 67 in 14 overs as Haim and Lamb (Both were great) were upping the rate without even trying but I hope they start from ball 1 tomorrow or they could get bogged down and need 20 off 2 overs or something stupid. The pitch at Liverpool looks a result pitch if the scores suggest correctly and Lancs look in trouble already, I do not want us to blow this whole scenario by 0.5 of a point. Having said that, we need Somerset to bat like they have recently in the CC because the pitch looks bland and lifeless. I we do get the 4 batting point, then it won't be thanks to Dom. I am not one of his usual detractors but he has faced better bowling at Test level than that and didn't look to try anything to up the scoring rate. It would seem as though tomorrow will be as important a day in the CC as we have had all season.

I would sooner be champions rather than win a trophy which seems a bit unnecessary to me. Champion county is the ultimate prize and if you consider that Essex won it last year on a first innings lead, it shows that winning it is not that important.

Should be plenty of bowling options especially if Yates plays as well but we must get a decent score to try and catch up with Hampshire's lead. I'm hoping for a low scoring game at Liverpool but if someone wins there, we have to win and get some good batting points. We have to match Lancs and hope they win but I have confidence that we will win also. I've a feeling that all games will produce a result and the weather looks dry for all 4 days.