V Yorkshire april 19th-22nd

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Middlesex has named an unchanged squad of fourteen, expect Brookes to replace one of the other three seamers in line with our rotation policy.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Middlesex wins the toss again and chooses to field again. Team is unchanged.

[Andrew]

All going well for you chaps so far. It would appear as if the ball is finally winning out today at HQ and a lot of the other games.

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

Middlesex wins the toss again and chooses to field again. Team is unchanged.


Clearly the right decision this time ... so far! Can it really be [all] down to the Duke's ball?

I saw that Vaughan was strongly supporting Key earlier this week in lauding the praises of the Kookaburra - and extolling it as just what county cricket needs. They clearly only want runs, not wickets. Discuss ...

[David Uren]

Clearly the right decision this time ... so far! Can it really be [all] down to the Duke's ball?

I saw that Vaughan was strongly supporting Key earlier this week in lauding the praises of the Kookaburra - and extolling it as just what county cricket needs. They clearly only want runs, not wickets. Discuss ...

A major part of the argument in favour of the Kookaburra ball (“K”) was to neuter the plethora of mediocre fast medium seamers in county attacks and make spin bowling more viable in county attacks, thereby easing the acute shortage of quality spinners in English cricket. HOWEVER the impact of the K has been so acute that the reverse could happen. Quality seamers capable of performing well in Tests, at least in English conditions (think Matt Potts for example) would become much scarcer. And surely it would be madness to replace the Duke ball with K in English Tests - that would hugely reduce Home advantage.
I’m looking forward to my first visit of the season to Lord’s tomorrow to watch a fairly even contest between bat and ball. Were it another 500 plays 500 with the K I probably wouldn’t bother.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Wekk played lads,' top of the table' !

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

Great result, Middlesex - well played. Onward and Upward!

[adelaide]

Good stuff, once we were with the Dukes ball on a wicket which gave a reasonable amount of assistance. We can look samey when the pitch is flat but let's see how it goes now.

Apart from the result, it was good to see the pitch having enough pace in it to encourage driving. Some lovely shots by both sides, particularly straight. The Kookaburra matches seemed to see most of the runs scored square or behind square and that added to the tedium.

In a way the second innings by Fernandes was a more significant achievement than his ton at Northampton as there was real challenge on a helpful pitch from Coad and Thompson. He and Holden got through the main period of danger and thankfully there wasn't much in the Yorkshire bowling behind the openers.

County supporters usually moan when their England players are not allowed to play but when they do and fail those same supporters moan that the players don't care about their county and should not be selected above fully committed players. Root and particularly Brook failed but this idea that a failure emans a lack of commitment really does seem a bit football.

[Jim Panzee]

Good stuff, once we were with the Dukes ball on a wicket which gave a reasonable amount of assistance. We can look samey when the pitch is flat but let's see how it goes now.

Apart from the result, it was good to see the pitch having enough pace in it to encourage driving. Some lovely shots by both sides, particularly straight. The Kookaburra matches seemed to see most of the runs scored square or behind square and that added to the tedium.

In a way the second innings by Fernandes was a more significant achievement than his ton at Northampton as there was real challenge on a helpful pitch from Coad and Thompson. He and Holden got through the main period of danger and thankfully there wasn't much in the Yorkshire bowling behind the openers.

County supporters usually moan when their England players are not allowed to play but when they do and fail those same supporters moan that the players don't care about their county and should not be selected above fully committed players. Root and particularly Brook failed but this idea that a failure emans a lack of commitment really does seem a bit football.

Yes that is a good point about Fernandes, it was a very different challenge for him and he stood up well.

Besides getting the first victory under our belt it was pleasing it felt a proper team effort, with most players contributing rather than relying solely on 1 or 2- and nice to beat a Yorkshire side that had their test players playing

[John Fitzgerald]

I am very pleased with the win but in terms of bowling this was a weaker Yorkshire side. Two of their main seamers were out and a third broke down on Sunday.

Nevertheless we can only play who the opposition put up. It was really good to see Fernandes bat well in testing conditions.

[adelaide]

Did Edwards break down? I got the impression that his captain just didn't trust him to bowl in that situation. I thought he bowled pretty well on the evening of day one to be fair but that was in the gloom with plenty of assistance. The consensus on the White Rose Forum is that he is well below country standard.

The point is also made on that forum that the reason Fisher and Milnes were out was because they had been bowled into the ground in the two Kookaburra matches. I don't know whether they were more heavily bowled than our seamers but they do have previous for injuries. We also played five seamers in the first match but got away with four at Northampton.

The historical thread on the White Rose Forum is well worth a look by the way.

[David Uren]

Did Edwards break down? I got the impression that his captain just didn't trust him to bowl in that situation. I thought he bowled pretty well on the evening of day one to be fair but that was in the gloom with plenty of assistance. The consensus on the White Rose Forum is that he is well below country standard.

The Yorkshire members behind me on Saturday repeatedly referred to Edwards as "Metal Mickey" which amused me. However, I was thankful none of our bowlers justified similar disparagement.

[James Jacob]

I've heard reports that a Yorkshire member was ejected from the long room for chanting 'Leeds' loudly during play. Can anyone confirm this (source is a facebook group)?

yours

James

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

Resolutely opposed, as I shall always remain, to the use of aliases and subterfuges, even I could not fail to be amused by the moniker adopted by the author of #9!

[adelaide]

I'd like to think it is his real name, Fingers.

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

I'd like to think it is his real name, Fingers.



Not a prayer ... surely ... ?

[Jim Panzee]

You could say it's an apellation (sic) :)

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

You could say it's an apellation (sic) :)


Have you got a copy of "Bertha Venation" by Larry Ashmead, containing hundreds of other amusing names of real people (pub; 2007/Profile Books). I don't see you included - maybe the next issue!

[adelaide]

Have you got a copy of "Bertha Venation" by Larry Ashmead, containing hundreds of other amusing names of real people (pub; 2007/Profile Books). I don't see you included - maybe the next issue!

Nominative determinism is quite a thing. That is why K G Forecast became a statistician. Really. On the other hand Peter Bowler was a batsman.

It did occur to me watching the other day that a surprisingly high proportion of wicketkeepers in recent years have had the surname Davies. Steven, Alex, Ryan, Jack. I think Glamorgan had one years ago but that's hardly surprising down there.

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

Nominative determinism is quite a thing. That is why K G Forecast became a statistician. Really. On the other hand Peter Bowler was a batsman.

It did occur to me watching the other day that a surprisingly high proportion of wicketkeepers in recent years have had the surname Davies. Steven, Alex, Ryan, Jack. I think Glamorgan had one years ago but that's hardly surprising down there.


I normally prefer being mononymous - along with, eg, Aristotle, Madonna, Prince, Adele, Plato, Socrates et al... but if applied here, I would be breaking my own cardinal rule .. !

[Jim Panzee]

Have you got a copy of "Bertha Venation" by Larry Ashmead, containing hundreds of other amusing names of real people (pub; 2007/Profile Books). I don't see you included - maybe the next issue!

I'd like to think the ex-Aussie goalkeeper, Norman Conquest was in there

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

I'd like to think the ex-Aussie goalkeeper, Norman Conquest was in there

Most irritatingly there is no index ... and I don't have the inclination, at present, to read 152 pages.

As it happens, my friend Patrick Kidd, often includes in The Times Diary, names that somehow fit jobs etc.

[adelaide]

I'd like to think the ex-Aussie goalkeeper, Norman Conquest was in there

Reminds me of the meeting when a minister (quite deliberately) replied to a contribution by his French counterpart by saying that we were all indebted to Norman Wisdom. I hope that one is true. What definitely is true - I was at one meeting where the lead UK rep threw in cricketing metaphors to confuse the translators. Later on when a question was answered, the guy translating into English threw in "he's tickled that one down to fine leg". Thankfully it was before the days of cliches like "executing his skills" and DLS maximums.

[Max Sawyer]

My late mother had a childhood friend Ida Down. Had she been a boy, her family had decided upon Hans Down.

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

My late mother had a childhood friend Ida Down. Had she been a boy, her family had decided upon Hans Down.


Not Bunker?