The sun is out in Worcester now, but there wont be much to bask in in the Middlesex dressing room at tea. Certainly the Worcestershire decision to put Middlesex in after a morning lost to the weather has paid dividends, with the board reading 64 for six, the wickets shared equally among Joe Leach, Jack Shantry and their West Indies paceman Shannon Gabriel. There has been some movement off the pitch was has been enough, with wickets down to some good bowling – nothing extravagant, just what, inevitably, will be called good areas – to exploit it.
Gabriel is playing his second match for the county following his Caribbean Premier League stint for the St Lucia Zouks, the tenth West Indian to play championship cricket for Worcestershire and it was he who found himself on a hattrick with the wickets of Sam Robson, well caught at third slip, and then the unfortunate Dawid Malan, who lost his middle stump to his first ball, his third successive duck following a first ball-third ball pair against Yorkshire in the last match. Shantry nipped in with the wickets of Neil Dexter and James Franklin,both also for ducks, and then Leach returned to have the diligent Nick Compton caught behind for 19 with his first ball.
Second placed Middlesex will be hoping that the movement continues when they bowl, or with Nottinghamshire, third in the table, going well against Hampshire, they might be looking at a reduction of their potential prize money from £169,000 to £88,000. Worth knucking down for.
Play is off for the day at The Oval. It’s quite clear now, but the outfield is sodden so we’ll try again tomorrow....
Hello again. Think we’re cruising towards a call-off. Still raining very lightly, so a recent inspection proved inconclusive. Will be another when it stops.
I see Steve Magoffin’s been amongst it at Headingley, and Billy Root’s in at Trent Bridge. Blow for blow between Hampshire and Sussex at the mo, which suits Sussex very nicely indeed.
Nothing to report here. Seems I was being optimistic last time round. Sussex have their bowling point though, so things are on the move at the bottom of the table...
A complete session lost to the weather at New Road, so there are 64 overs to be bowled. Worcestershire, unsurprisingly, put Middlesex in to bat, and have had immediate success as Paul Stirling,having driven the previous delivery delightfully through extra cover,popped the next up to be caught at point to give Joe Leach a first wicket.
The ground has recovered well from its drenching, for there was a time where the teams would long have decamped elsewhere.
There is a nice gathering of old Middlesex, enough to chew the fat later on no doubt, with Ian Gould umpiring and Gus Fraser here as director of cricket or England selector depending on which hat he chooses to put on. Andy Flower is here as well although he was from the Eastern Saxons.
You know what? We might just get some blooming cricket here. The rain has stopped, and the groundstaff – led by the indomitable Lee – are clearing up. Maybe a 1.30 or 2pm start if we get lucky.
In the relegation battle, Notts have found their feet, while Yorkshire are now two down. At Taunton, Tres has another blooming 50, but Tom Cooper is out.
In other news, myself and a few colleagues decided to engage in a bit of cricket ourselves. We started off with the man from BBC Northampton bowling to Mr ESPNcricinfo, before a solid knock from the Guardian was ended by The Cricket Paper’s correspondent. Onlookers (there weren’t any) agreed that the standard was arguably minor counties level, but stumps had to be called when Network Rail – who are having a conference here – came out to tell us we were being too noisy. My chirps from short leg are quite loud, in fairness.
“Full disclosure,” as they tend to say these days. By the time I remembered the early starts in September it was too late to do anything about it. Not that it would have made any difference to have rushed to Worcester. The car park is a paddling lake, and there are puddles on the middle. No play has been possible as yet and an early lunch will be taken at 12.30 with an inspection at 1.10. But the rain has cleared and although there are shower clouds around, it is a bit brighter. On the middle the groundstaff have begun the mopping up and some covers have been removed. It might be quite a while though if there is to be play. The sopper is ploughing around with a bow wave like Masefield’s “dirty British coaster with the salt-caked smokestack, butting through the channel in the mad March days”.
The match itself will not resolve any issues. Middlesex are second in the table while Worcestershire, who played out an amazing match here last year to gain promotion –Shantry’s Match – have gone straight back down the snake. No Eoin Morgan for Middlesex either because although he has fully recovered from the clump on the head sustained in the recent ODI series, he has been symptom – free of concussion for less than the required week for him to be able to resume playing.
No play before lunch here - shock. There are nine very hardy fans in the OCS Stand off to my right. Nutters.
Realised that in my last update, my fat fingers told you Somerset were nine down. They’re not, but Tom Abell - who was awarded breakthrough player of the year this morning - is out, and they are one down. Notts are still three down (so a point already for Hants), and Yorkshire haven’t lost any more. In div 2, looks like Mark Footitt’s having fun...
Nothing going at The Oval, but there is a bit of movement in the relegation battle, with both Sussex, and particularly Hampshire, making early inroads. Sussex have got Adam Lyth out, and Yorkshire are 23 for one, but Notts are 39 for three! Fidel has the lot, which is always exciting. Hampshire need all the points they can get, and that’s one hell of a start. In the third game, at Taunton, they’re underway and Somerset are 30 for one having chosen to bat. Tres going well again.
Updated
Sometimes you just know you’re in for a wet one. Sometimes, you just know that this will be you most important resource. Today, it was immediately, glaringly, unavoidably obvious that the cricket match I was going to watch would be delayed, and perhaps worse washed out, by – as is the standard cricketing patois – “a bit of weather.”
It was so patently obvious because I was woken at half seven this morning, not by the sound of my godforsaken alarm, but by the heavy and constant clap of rain against my window. And that was just a mile and a half down the road from the ground to which I was headed, The Oval.
True to from, we have a delayed start for Surrey’s title push against Northamptonshire. There are puddles on The Oval’s outfield, which drains famously well. Take from that what you will. It’s still raining a bit (although not as heavily), and we’d be doing well to get play before early afternoon. When we do eventually start, the poor Surrey lads will be looking to make amends for their choke – I think we can call it that, can’t we? – in the Royal London Final on Saturday, which was a quite amazing game to cover.
We’re not the only ones who can boast a delay. There are inspections in a couple of the dead rubbers. There’s one at 10.30 at Worcester (who play Middlesex), where it’s great to have Mike Selvey back on the blog, and one at 10.15 at Bristol, where Gloucestershire – 50 over Champions of England and Wales – await Glamorgan. The match at Chelmsford between Essex and Lancashire has also been delayed, with no inspection planned, which does the Lankys no favours in their attempts to stymie Surrey’s title push.
The last of the real intrigue, I suppose, is at the foot of Division One. Somerset need seven points to guarantee survival, but their match at Taunton against Warwickshire has also been delayed by rain. Sussex need nine points, and have invited the Champions to bat at Headingley, while Hampshire have asked Nottinghamshire – boasting one Billy Root – to do the same at Trent Bridge. Hampshire need Yorkshire to win before they can think about staying up. Interestingly, Sussex have picked left-arm seamer Chris Liddle to replace opening bat Luke Wells, which will require a reshuffle. They’re going for it.
Enjoy the last round of the cricket. You’ll miss it, you know.
Morning all,
Today we have Will Macpherson at The Oval for Surrey v Northamptonshire and Mike Selvey at New Road for Worcestershire v Middlesex. While waiting for their updates, why not read Gary Naylor’s weekly blog on all things county cricket:
