Kent RLODC Relentless
By Farmer White et al
April 21 2019
Tom Banton and Craig Overton have 'decent' days at the start of the Somerset Royal London One Day Cup as the side take a weakened Kent apart in pretty ruthless fashion. Farmer gives us the long view.
Royal London One-Day Cup. Somerset v Kent. 19th April 2019. Taunton.
Toss. Kent. Elected to field.
Relentless
“Kent didn’t really turn up did they?” said the person with me as Davey caught Milnes to give Craig Overton his fifth wicket, Somerset their tenth and the match by 264 runs. It was true in both senses of the phrase. Firstly, in the literal sense, five key Kent players were unavailable for various reasons. Secondly, in the sporting sense, the Kent team that did enter the field of play, at least when it came out to bat, did not appear to perform. The truth of it though was not that Kent didn’t ‘turn up’, but that Somerset did not permit them to play. It was an utterly uncompromising Somerset performance cast in the mould of the Championship victory over Nottinghamshire the previous weekend. Somerset simply overpowered Kent.
We turned up about 20 minutes before the start. The car park we used was half empty and so we ambled along to the ground feeling secure in the knowledge there would be plenty of space in the Somerset Stand. Until we walked through the Brian Rose Gates. A quick look at the top of the Somerset Pavilion, my usual match day residence, revealed not a spare seat visible from that angle. Similarly, the Marcus Trescothick, Sir Ian Botham and Colin Atkinson Stands looked to be fully occupied. Some empty seats could be seen in the Ondaatje Stand which faced us. Looking along the length of the Somerset Stand the rows of spectators seemed endless. A walk along the front of the stand revealed a goodly number of pairs of seats but I do not recall ever seeing the Somerset Stand so full other than at a T20 match. We were fortunate enough to find a pair of seats on the end of a row, high up and square to the centre of the wicket. Perfect viewing unless you particularly want to be behind the arm.
As Somerset started their innings there was little hint of what was to come. Azhar and Banton felt their way through the first three overs. A ‘watchful’ start as used to be said in the days when, even in one-day cricket, the ball was red and the Somerset players’ clothes were white rather than the other way around. There was some playing and missing suggestive of a moving ball I thought. Then, suddenly, Azhar was forced to jab down and pull his bat towards his legs as the ball crashed into his stumps. A review of a replay suggests the ball, coming across him from the left-arm pace of Klaassen, swung in late and straightened onto the stumps. Somerset 7 for 1 and Kent with the initiative.
Not for long. Having presumably seen enough to gauge the conditions the 20-year-old Tom Banton immediately began to set the match on a course from which it barely wavered from there until the final crushing victory nearly six hours later. There was still evidence of the ball moving from the occasional piece of playing and missing but Banton seemed to have its measure. His first boundary was clipped off his legs behind square. The next two were driven, one with such force between extra cover and mid-off to where the old Stragglers bar once stood that someone said, “He looks like he can play.” The comment could have as well come from those who used to frequent that bar in days gone by. A square cut fizzed to the boundary in direct line with my seat. As one stroke followed another the whip-crack sound as the ball left the bat spoke of powerful clean stroke play perfectly timed; the thud on the boundary boards of perfect placement.
Peter Trego spoke up for the older generation among Somerset players by raising a huge cheer with a trademark six into the Somerset Stand. The score had reached 43 for 1 from nine overs. The slightly tense mumble in the crowd that had followed Azhar’s wicket had given way to an anticipatory buzz. If there were anxieties still picking at the stomach that this might not go on Banton did his best to drive them away with an immediate cover drive off Klaassman to the Somerset Stand followed by a hook to the Colin Atkinson boundary.
Kent changed the bowling but they could not change the batting. Banton drove Milnes to the Colin Atkinson boundary in his first over. A top edged pull towards the Caddick Pavilion looped high but fell wide of the fielder who, in trying to get to it, fell over to a pantomime “hooray” from parts of the burgeoning and increasingly buoyant crowd. It might have been, for Kent, a portent of all that was to come. What immediately came was a reverse sweep from Banton, unlike the traditional reverse sweep, played down and fine to the Trescothick Stand boundary. A single followed and he had 50 from 44 balls. The applause was instantaneous and prolonged. It seemed to reflect my own feeling that this was not a fifty scored by a youngster chancing his arm. This was a fifty played with consciously controlled stroke play which promised much more to come, in this innings and in many more innings beyond that. It felt like Banton had arrived. Somerset were 78 for 1 in the 14th over and the Taunton buzz was in full flow.
Trego had played a supportive role punctuated by the occasional boundary. A lofted drive to the Colin Atkinson boundary off Milnes just before he was out was ferocious. He was bowled trying to push or defend a ball from Stevens, evidence perhaps that there was still some movement. In the next over Milnes bowled a leg side wide. “Kent have bowled a lot of wides,” someone said, perhaps further evidence of movement. Hildreth joined Banton and, keeping Somerset’s momentum going, almost immediately pulled Milnes forward of square towards the Somerset Stand. The ball just cleared the rope to huge cheers. Momentum lifts or depresses a crowd depending on its direction.
People were now bubbling and I looked around me. I was struck not just by the number of people but by who had come to watch the cricket. Totally different from a Championship crowd. I didn’t count but there was far more of a gender balance than the predominantly male Championship crowd. Ages ranged from children to retirement age with large numbers of late teens and twenty-somethings. Not all the attention was on the cricket and a fair amount of alcohol travelled up and down the stairs but the general focus was on the cricket. Many of those of an age rarely seen at Championship games were wearing membership lanyards and I wondered if the T20/50 over membership was bringing new blood to the crowds for 50 over cricket in a way in which the previous T20 seven match pass did not.
It was not just the Somerset batting which took the attention. Kent’s fielding, the trip apart, was electric as the fielders tried to stem the flow. The score would have been higher than the 101 for 2 brought up by four leg byes from Banton without it. “Great fielding,” someone shouted as the fielder dived full length to take a vicious Hildreth cut on the bounce. A running, diving save just cut off a Banton cover drive before it could cross the boundary.
Yet it was an uneven struggle. Banton launched a fusilade of sixes. A lofted drive into the Garner Gates gap and a scoop over the Gimblett’s Hill boundary, both against Milnes, were followed by another drive over the distant covers store boundary off Qayyum’s slow left arm. Podmore replaced Milnes. Banton pulled square, the fielder ran, dived and slid along the boundary beneath our seats, his outstretched hand deflected the ball which shot upwards, looped over his body as he slid through and just evaded his other hand as it grabbed at thin air. It was a tremendous effort to prevent a boundary but it simply illustrated the way the match was going and a huge cheer erupted from the Somerset Stand. A single brought up Banton’s century. The ground stood as one and cheered and applauded. Indeed, this young man can play I concluded. Somerset 156 for 2. Banton 100. Hildreth 17 and nearly 26 overs still to play.
As far as Banton was concerned that was virtually it. A steepling six landed half way up the Somerset Stand but the next attempt landed in the long-suffering Milnes’ hands. Banton 107. The two top edges apart, it had been a chanceless and virtually faultless innings. Hildreth followed, caught from another steepling attempt at a six, for 23. 176 for 4.
Now the middle and lower order set about building on the tremendous foundations Banton had laid. Abell, van de Merwe and Bess all played cameos. As one was out, so another came and pushed the score on. It was relentless and the momentum Banton had unleashed was driven forward even harder by Gregory, and then, finally, in the first half of a decisive two-pronged contribution from Craig Overton, who bestrode the end of the Somerset innings and the start of the Kent one like a colossus.
Gregory batted in the destructive mode he has developed in T20 and which he sometimes deploys to give a Championship innings a crucial surge. He cut and pulled the ball hard and fast. One drive past extra cover to the old Stragglers’ area flew so fast along the ground that none of the ghosts that reside there would have been able to discern the colour of the ball. It was a stroke that could scarcely have been bettered with any colour of ball in any age. A pull, in front of square, cleared the long Caddick Pavilion boundary and another, driven high, bounced from the seating on the Colin Atkinson Pavilion terrace. Where the boundary could not be reached the placement of ones and twos was relentless as he and Abell hurried the scoreboard along.
I took breath between overs to glance along the Somerset Stand. A picture of sunlit holiday joy stretched out in both directions along the packed and serried ranks of kaleidoscopically-dressed spectators dotted about with white wyvern hats to match my own. Into and beyond the Trescothick Stand in one direction and around to the truly packed Somerset Pavilion in the other the joyous throng stretched. And what cricket they had been watching.
With the score on 249 with 12 overs to go Abell was out for 28 to a brilliant catch by Blake, stretching diagonally upwards from short cover. Qayyum the bowler. An even better catch, if that were possible, by Blake reaching even further in the next over, removed Gregory for 51 off the persistent Podmore. Somerset were 251 for 6 with still 11 overs to go and for the first time since Azhar’s dismissal a faint doubt clawed. Kent were still fighting hard in the field as Blake’s two catches showed and a charge for 11 overs with just the last four wickets was still needed if Somerset were to post a commanding total.
And now we saw what, in spite of Banton’s glorious hundred, was perhaps the defining performance of the match. Craig Overton, with van der Merwe and Bess, took Somerset to the heights beyond 350 and reduced Kent to 26 for 4. It was a performance on which the match pivoted and it pivoted violently. In his innings Overton seemed to cut and pull for four and drive for six. His first six, off Qayyum, was caught perfectly on the terrace of one of the second-tier boxes of the Somerset Pavilion. His second went straight over the Sir Ian Botham Stand and into the Tone. The third was caught, this time by a fielder right on the Trescothick Stand boundary but his foot went over the rope before he had released his throw back onto the playing area and he signalled ‘six’ to the umpire. The fourth went between the Sir Ian Botham Stand and the Trescothick Stand as it joined one of its predecessors in the Tone. In all Overton made 66 not out from 36 balls and took Somerset to 358 for 8.
Any doubts about the size of Somerset’s total fed by the propensity of 50 over matches to produce mammoth scores were soon dispelled. There is something of an aura around Somerset’s bowling this year. It seems to constitute more than the sum of its parts. And each of its parts are more than capable of cutting a swathe. Here it was Overton who cut the swathe. He struck with the first ball of the second over. Dickson caught, straightforwardly, by Banton. Then Renshaw, who had been warmly applauded to the wicket, took ten rather edgy runs from Davey as he appeared to be trying to play the sort of hard-driving innings he had played for Somerset in 2018. When he tried to guide Overton fine, he edged to Hildreth at slip. Crawley edged Davey to Banton and then Robinson seemed to check a shot off Overton and Gregory took the catch at square leg. 26 for 4. It was not just Overton’s three wickets. There was something about his bowling, in this match with the new ball, which had conviction about it. He constantly pressurised and severely tested the batsmen. It brought constant expectation of a wicket.
Now Rouse and Blake tried to shore up the Kent innings through some careful defence with the result that the required run rate, which had started at just over seven an over, rose past eight and started to climb towards nine whilst the DLS par score had risen into the stratosphere. Kent were caught in the classic one-day trap when early wickets are lost. You can feel tension rising in a cricket match when the score is not rising fast enough to suit the purposes of the batting side. The buzz in the crowd becomes subdued, the concentration on the cricket harder as people sense that something has to give, one way or the other.
The drop in volume was noticeable where we were. We had long since concluded we were in the noisiest part of the Somerset Stand. Perhaps everyone in the Somerset Stand concluded the same for it is a noisy stand on white-ball days. The level of alcohol consumption in a couple of groups around us doubtless had something to do with that. Including a small group in our row. Their cheering was loud and not always coherent but it seemed to come in all the right places. The frequency with which they had to pass us to enter and leave the stand increased as the afternoon wore on but it mostly came between overs, always with a polite request and increasingly with an apology. I was dripped on but once and only one drop. I suppose carrying four pints in the fingers of one hand is a bit of a challenge when more than that have probably passed your lips.
Blake tried to break the stranglehold. Twice in an over he took four runs from Groenewald, a cut backward of square and a straight drive just wide of the bowler. When he tried to pull Groenewald, the ball took the top edge, steepled and was caught by Banton, pretty much at the place from where it had left the bat. When, two overs later, Groenewald broke through Rouse’s defence Kent were 64 for 6, nearly 300 runs behind and the match was to all intents and purposes over. A run out, a wicket, caught and bowled, to van de Merwe, two in an over to Overton and it was. Kent 94 all out. It was as decisive a victory as could be imagined and was finished in a similar manner to the Championship match against Nottinghamshire.
As we descended the steps to the walkway at the back of the Somerset Stand I noticed the photograph of Brian Close looking up at me. I think he might have recognised the hard, relentless cricket Somerset are playing this year. He would have known too the need to pursue it, as relentlessly, all the way to the end of the season.
Result. Somerset 358 for 9 (50.0 overs) (T. Banton 107, C Overton 66*, L Gregory 51). Kent 94 (27.0/50.0 overs) (C. Overton 5-18). Somerset won by 264 runs. Somerset 2 points. Kent 0 points.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:21:23:38:35 by Grockle.
Would I be right in thinking that there are likely to be three changes compared to the red ball side currently in action at Trent Bridge? Namely:
Peter Trego
Roelof Van Der Merve
Tom Banton
Instead of:
Marcus Trescothick
Two gentlemen named Jack
That could/would give us a team of something like:
Banton
Davies
Trego
Azhar (not sure of his place in batting order relative to Hildreth?)
Hildreth
Abell
Bartlett
Gregory
Van Der Merwe
Craig Overton
Davey
5 seamers (including Tom) and Roelof? Lots of batting.
Then, probably, TG and Jamie Overton (if fit) to rotate in for Josh and Craig? (whilst we ride the hot-hand in Lewis?). Maybe the flying Dutchman to get the odd outing, too?
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:19:23:34:22 by Grockle.
[www.espncricinfo.com]
And not a single List A game since 2016, CJM?
Having said that, he did play some T20 for them last year, but no 50 over games for three years.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:13:10:16:27 by AGod.
Whilst Somerset is also blessed with a broad selection of bowling options, the 'wiley senior pro' section of the filing cabinet had a little more space-Tim Groenewald and Pete Trego the only ones here (and Roela I guess, but a spinner).
Just saying that although I'm sure Somerset didn't make Jack any 50 over promises, I doubt if they'd have told him he wouldn't be adding to his list A stats either.
Dont see a need often for 2 spinners.
Watch this space for the next 3 week future of Jack & Dom. Rvdm sure to be the spinner if we only opt for 1.
I'm going.....
Azhar Davies Tregs Hildy TomA TomB
Lewis RVDM Craig Jamie Timmy G
Quite happy with a rotation of our 7 seamers, we have 8 group games in 19 days with a possible 9 in 22 if we need a 2nd/3rd play off.
The ost important thing by far is our chosen 4 quicks for the HUGE next champo game v Surrey are fully fit and firing for May 14.
Davies, Ali, Tregs, Hildy, Banton, Abell, Gregory, RVDM, C Ove, J Ove, Brooks
Think we’ll rotate our seamers during this competition. Timmy G, Meerkat and Davey all waiting in the wings.
4 seamers in April, RVDM as main spin option with Ali for occasional part time leg spin if needed plus Abell and Tregs as backup seam options. Gives us plenty of bowling options.
It isn't for Somerset to find him a place. It's for him to make one his own
Lewis RVDM Craig Jamie Timmy
Team from: Banton, Byrom, Trego, Rouse, van der Merwe, Green, Lammonby, Bess, J. Overton, Groenewald, Gilchrist, Sale.
Middlesex, who have included at least six current Ist XI championship players, lost wicket to Jamie Overton in the first over.
A partnership is building.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:17:15:03:44 by Mike TA1.
Seven wickets for 42 for Ben Green, Pete Trego did not bowl.
We might struggle to get the target of 280.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:17:17:55:12 by Loyal of Lhasa.
Very friendly folk at Radlett CC.
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
LoL
Seventy-eight Seasons a Somerset Supporter
So 100's for Byrom and Banton
7 wickets for Green
Trego and Van der Merwe surely selected.
Hildreth and Abell middle order backbone?
Davis or Banton to keep?
Jamie or Craig?
Any room for Ali in the side?
Leachy /max or Bess ?
Groenswald.Brooks ,or neither
Nice selection problems for Friday.
B
ack to cricket (!) having read a post informing me there was a live stream I tuned in just in time to see Mr. Banton take 20 from an over from Barber( I think) including a reversed 4 and 6. Maybe his time is coming. I was hugely impressed with his performance in the junior wc albeit against 18 yo's.
Great to see Banton is such explosive form.
Shame about Surrey.
Onwards and upwards.
Strangely, no remotely close matches in today's games - and all won by the side batting first. I share the general sympathy for Surrey - Worcs' game was another that might have been expected to be one-sided the other way.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:17:21:50:11 by mikeindex.
Surely Banton is a cast-iron selection for Friday now, and on the back of Green`s useful batting last season as well as his seven wickets today, I would take a punt on him and not play a spinner this early in the season.
But the match v Essex on Friday the 26th Which is being shown on Sky start time will be 1.p.m. also time shown on fixture list on club site.
I assume they've fixed the problem with the family/Ondaatje stands?
The way we're playing it's time to put the idea to rest of Kent as our unlucky team
Bumper crowd expected.
Loads of guest passes will be in action.....
Quicker to list who isnt in.....
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:18:15:11:30 by wsm fan.
George Bartlett and Tom Banton named among the batters.
Squad; Abell, Ali, Banton, Bartlett, Bess, Brooks, Davey, Davies, Gregory, Groenewald, Hildreth, Leach, C.Overton, Trego and van der Merwe.
Kent will be without Australian-born fast bowler Grant Stewart, injured playing for the Seconds on Monday, but may include former Somerset all-rounder Calum Haggett.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:18:15:17:51 by cricketjerry-mouse.
Is Jamie still not fully fit or is he deemed unsuitable for the 50-over format?
Order will probably be very flexible after Banton and Trego dependant on state of game.
Very strong Batting line up with Cove at 9 or 10 if Van De Merve plays
Kent from: Kuhn (c), Blake, Crawley, Dickson, Qayyum, Klaassen, Milnes, Podmore, Renshaw, Riley, Robinson, Rouse and Stevens. Batting appears somewhat reliant on imports Kuhn and Renshaw.
More Likely Cove , Gregory , plus 2 from 4 of what's left.
If Bess plays Cove would still be at 10!!!
Azhar looked pretty rusty in his brief stay to put it mildly, but some wonderful shots from T.B. who is using his height to great advantage.
Lovely atmosphere at the ground. Can’t help feeling a bit sad that the ECB are about to destroy the competition and with it the enjoyment of thousands of fans.
Grizzly
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:19:11:57:17 by Grockle.
Thought I should be here when we win the Championship. Unless of course we’ve wrapped it up long before then !
Grizzzly
Tom Banton can open for me in white ball cricket if anyone wants to know. He seemed to be in another game to the rest. Such confident murder at times. He looks taller and less 'timid'.
Anyone think though that it might be an option to change Ali and Hildreth around and have James opening with Tom?
Storming century for a Somerset man with a future I think. Steve..... I'd score some runs in the CC1 - It isn't Jos you have to worry about.
Lewis also going from strength to strength in his season with a 50 in his first white ball game.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:19:13:34:57 by Grockle.
Nice innings by Craig as well.
Will it be enough ? It ought to be and in times past it would be a cakewalk, but who knows these days.
A lot will depend on a certain M Renshaw methinks.
Grizzzly
(Spot the paraphrase anyone?)
MoM will be close - unless Rouse or Evergreen Stevens does a Roley.
Stevens of course batted at 3 for Leics in their title-winning days and was regarded as a devastating one-day batsman.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:19:16:26:36 by mikeindex.
Really encouraging stuff and Tom Banton was a revelation.
That will do wonders for our run rate, should that become a factor as the competition progresses.
Grizzzly
Either way, severely weakened batting opposition (also minus Denly and Billings), or not, that was about as comprehensive a dismantlement as one could ever see in white ball cricket!
Conventional wisdom is that only one man - Jofra Archer - has any price at forcing his way into the world cup squad, but I wonder if Gregory and Craig Overton reject that conventional wisdom.. Lewis batted very well and Craig played like a man possessed.
Great to see Banton do so well. Since he carried his form from Radlett to Taunton, perhaps we should have picked Eddie too?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:19:18:33:52 by AGod.
But with our guys playing like men possessed...
Great win, big crowd who were buzzing with our all round performance, now onto Cardiff on Sunday.
After including Dom in the side I would have liked to have seen him turn a few over, as
his opportunities to make the team could be limited.
I wonder what your average Kent supporter thinks about all this.
He plays his club cricket in the Midlands, though, so Somerset will need to keep on the ball.
Somerset v Kent.
Azhar Ali hasn't got going so far this season and today was the same.
A very good day for Tom Banton, 4 runs to his name.
It's no wonder he raised his bat on reaching his 100.
I think we all know where James Hildreth hit this ball, looking at where they are both looking.
It looked like it was going to be an easy catch for Matt Milnes but he almost didn't catch It'
I don't think Harry Podmore would have been happy if he dropped it.
It would have been hard to choose the man of the match after seeing this six hit into the river by Craig Overton and his five wickets. Tom Banton I would think is MOM with his 100 and three catches behind the stumps.
This run brings up Craig Overton's 50.
One of Tom Banton catches when Alex Blake top edged the ball off Tim Groenwald.
The same person Tim Groenwald but this time after he run-out Darren Stevens.
You can't keep Roelof van der Merve out of it for very long, after he c&b Harry Podmore.
A good win on a hot sunny day with a crowd of 5038 watching plus about 50 stewards. (what a shame we need them)
Kent must have realised (as our own management did as well it seems) that this version put on today in front of the largest crowd of this season (bet it is beaten by later games) had to operate at the sacrifice of some of their better players in order for them to experience (on the bench for most of it) the 'true' nature of successful cricket for the masses in the 21st century thousands of miles from their present live fanbase.
I bet the Somerset management were unhappy today that they could not make the same sacrifices with some of their best players so that youth players could use this mere shadow of a competition as the development exercise it is to become.
The game could have been more equal for what fans would have turned up. Somerset would have had the opportunity to show what a 50 over game is to become in the great new 'future' of cricket..
Praise the glorious ECB - they know what they are doing. Although funnily enough Mr Cornish seemed to be playing away from the hymn sheet in his BBC interview and seemed happy at the game and the crowd. Can't have it both ways sir. If you aren't going to fight for the game enjoy these last days before they are gone forever.... along with your profits. It seems this is the 'job of his dreams'. What a shame there seems no effort being made to maintain it into the next decade.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:19:22:05:57 by Grockle.
That is what this squad/team is becoming - ruthless. It really could be our year, if this squad of talented players can all be kept happy with the inevitable rotations that will take place.
If the ECB has its way I just wonder if we will ever see this type of talent coming through at 'unfashionable' counties ever again.
That has to be one of the most clinical performances I've seen in a while. Was good to see two bowlers who haven't played in the championship matches just slotting into the attack and taking wickets. Lewis Gregory has 18 wickets in the CC yet virtually rested with the ball today. The batting was good but scarily still room for improvement.
Happy days 😊
not sure much blame can placed on Andrew Cornish's feet, a certain former Chairman and former C.E.O should take most of the flack from Members on the mess that the ECB have created.
But I know you have rightly voiced your feeling many times on the matter very strongly on Twitter, with negative response from the ex Chairman.
He (A.N) has spent a lot of twitter postings on demanding a re-vote on Brexit because he felt people did not know what they were voting for (that's his opinion) and yet Somerset Members were NOT given the chance to vote on the proposals the ECB were putting forward.
I will always feel both their tenures at the Club were spoilt by their action at that time.
i did not give Mr Lavendar that 'get out of jail free' card when Mr Nash was Chair. I see less reason to give Mr Cornish such leeway given his colleague's condition
My understanding is that our Chair is extremely unwell and wheelchair bound (and I'm sure I post for all wishing him well and that he returns to good health). He may have to stand down because of this
This is a decision made by Somerset. I'm not particularly interested who is told to declare it. I know who is on the radio representing the club and who seems pretty understandably unable to function as a club official at the moment.
'Somerset' a member's club have taken MAJOR decisions without referring them for guidance to their membership The representatives of that club cannot, as I say, have it both ways and Mr Cornish's comments yesterday with Anthony said he liked one thing while his organisation's actions were allowing the governing body to destroy what he likes with his cooperation.
I don't like that. I'm sure you don't like that. It seems the only issue is who to blame. If you get a moment Roger please tell me who you think that is because it can't be Andy Nash any more because he hasn't been here for s while now.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:20:12:47:44 by Grockle.
I think Charles Clark was Vice Chairman at the time, and not sure of his opinion.
Malcolm Derry as Treasurer at the time would also have been involved in talks.
But surely the Chairman and the CEO at the time must take responsibility for firstly not giving the Members the chance to vote, and then taking the decision to go along with the ECB, because they felt it was in the interest of the Club and Cricket long term.
I just hope they prove to be be right, but I have my doubts.
I'm not a member but I took offence at the patronising/pro ECB marketing nature of 'Q&A' sessions around the first decision when our officials thought they could get short term gain and believed they would not lose out in the medium term.
Yes they had some sort of promise which the ECB supposedly reneged on but the excuse of voting 'for the good of the game as a whole' was a) not their job or b) amazingly niaive at best and something personal at its worst.
Given the position as it arrived with the new officials, I could have been happy with an abstention OR a positive vote with member consultation on the second round. More patronising of the membership and a decision pretty baldly based on 'take the money' was not the way to go.
I do think the county's are (Mueller reference: f***d) and the nature of cricket in Taunton needs some very important economic conversation given the 2020 sitiation.
It certainly isn't the time to go on the radio and go on about how 'glorious' it all is and how dreams have come true. The world has changed and cosily ignoring it is not the position required.
The massive planning to manage our transition into a strong cricket unit over the last decade may very well come to fruition at the same time as the ECB takes away from the county the opportunities to use it. That wasn't my dream and it is certainly not 'glorious'.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:20:17:48:16 by Grockle.
You can now find my report on the Kent RLODC on my website through this link:
[farmerwhite.co.uk]
It is the first post down after the sticky at the top and is headed 'Relentless'.
It is also here:
Relentless
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:21:16:05:05 by Grockle.
Yesterday, when they lost after just 40 overs to Sussex, they had to include three players already carrying injuries - Matt Renshaw, who suffered back spasms throughout his century knock, Darren Stevens, who had to leave the field when he aggravated a side strain, and local lad (yes he was born in Sussex) Fred Klaassen.
Already unavailable through injury were temporary captain Heino Kuhn, Calum Haggett, Grant Stewart, Ivan Thomas and Mitch Claydon; at the IPL Sam Billings and Joe Denly; and for family reasons Daniel Bell-Drummond.
Sussex, who Somerset play at Brighton on Wednesday, have one injury problem - Ollie Robinson, the championship`s second leading wicket-taker last summer, is out with a left shoulder injury.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:04:22:11:09:49 by cricketjerry-mouse.