The wheels come off the Gloucestershire promotion bandwagon

Glamorgan 526 for 9 dec (Lloyd 119, Marsh 111) and 85 for 4 beat Gloucestershire 236 (de Lange 5-62) and 372 (Bracey 120*, Higgins 61, Worrall 50, Carey 4-105) by six wickets
Scorecard

The procession towards promotion is off. The champions elect have stumbled. The wheels are off the bandwagon before it even started rolling. Gloucestershire’s winning start to the season came unstuck in round 2 of the county championship as the lack of batting application and a re-injured Liam Norwell enabled Glamorgan to win despite some plucky fight from the Shire.

Being asked to bat first on a cloudless first day in Bristol should have offered Gloucestershire’s new-look top order the opportunity to shine. Instead a lack of application from the main men left the lower order with a repair job that proved too much to come back from. Captain Dent would have loved to have stamped his authority on this side with an early season big score, instead he again struggled here and has only posted double figures once in his four knocks this season. If not quite a concern just yet, but certainly something he will want to put right soon. We suspect that the experiment with Benny at the top of the order will flatter to deceive as long as it is persisted with. 

From 86 for 5 on the first morning, a final first innings total of 236 can be viewed as a small victory. Ryan Higgins enhanced his repuation with a decent knock of 43 to go with his five-for last week. The Gourmet Burger and overseas pro Dan Worrall also contributed late on to at least give the bowlers something to play with.

Day 2 thus represented an interesting opportunity for this bowler heavy Gloucestershire squad. Last week the theory of loading your squad with seamers proved dividends. This week less so. Not helped by Liam Norwell re-tweaking his hamstring after only 9 overs, the attack plugged away manfully, and never really lost complete control.

This said, Glamorgan did declare on 526 for 9, so nobody covered themselves in glory. We are not going to go so far as to call Shaun Marsh a ‘test quality’ batsman, but any many who can score a test hundred is certainly too good for division 2 county cricket. His 111 on debut enabled David Lloyd to pile on the misery with a hundred of his own. Declaring with a lead of 290 and 4 sessions to bat, the Shire’s under pressure batsmen would have it all to do.

And so it seemed. Day 3 ended with Glos reduced to 133 for 5, with only young James Bracey and Ryan Higgins providing any sort of resistance. Defeat seemed inevitable. Scoring at a brisk rate on the final morning Ryan Higgins backed up his first innings batting effort with a maiden first class fifty before falling for 61. Bracey was soon joined at the crease by Dan Worrall with Glos still trailing by 85 runs. Dan Worrall had a first class batting average of 9. No career fifties. Definitely time for Glamorgan to start the coach. Amazingly though Glos continued to fight. First Worrall added 50 runs in quick time. Then Matt Taylor also hung around to add 77 for the 9th wicket. Suddenly, Glos had not only made Glamorgan bat again, but they had a total that meant time was now an issue for Glamorgan. Sadly it was not to be. Glos were dismissed for 362. Glamorgan had 21 overs to score 83. A fair challenge 30 years ago. Not so much today. Glamorgan eventually winning by 6 wickets.

The stand-out performer for the Shire was James Bracey who has cemented himself into the number 4 position and confirmed the potential he showed at the end of last year. His old fashioned hundred took 274 balls and almost saved the game. A solitary contribution from someone else in the top 6 would have got Glos off the hook.

So a mixed bag for the Shire. The bowling went from fire and brimstone to pop-gun. This said, they did lose key strike man Liam Norwell and so battled on as a depleted unit. Why Norwell was rushed back into a bowling unit who had just decimated Kent the previous week now looks questionable. Such is the advantage of hindsight. The batting of Bracey makes it appear that the Shire may have unearthed a real talent. The rest of the top 6 looks in need of runs to build confidence.

Can anyone tell us what the Gourmet Burger is bringing to the side? He bats at 8 and despite us being a bowler light, he only bowls 7 overs that go at 6 an over? We presume that the old classic excuses that “He’s good in the dressing room” or “Looks good in the nets” are being trotted out. We just see little use for him when we are so light in batting. If you need extra overs from someone then surely Benny does this job? Will coach Dawson replace him with a batsman? Move Jack Taylor down to his more natural number 7 position. Higgins at 8. We still get 3 main seamers and Van Buuren’s spin. Solved. Easy.

The promotion bandwagon is up and running

Gloucestershire 110 (Roderick 51, Stevens 3-19) and 108 for 5 (Howell 52*) beat Kent 64 (Taylor 4-20, Miles 3-11) and 153 (Bell-Drummond 61, Higgins 5-22) by five wickets
Scorecard

Crucial fifties from former skipper Gareth Roderick and newly-minted opener Benny Howell, saw Gloucestershire defeat Kent in a low-scoring game completed in under three days, despite the loss of day 1 to a wet outfield following heavy rain.

This was a wild game, with many crazy statistics, including Glos winning despite not scoring over 110 in either innings, only three individual scores above 50 and 17(!) LBWs from 35 wickets, all in under 3 full days of cricket.

Day 1 at Canterbury was lost to a wet outfield and Gloucestershire were always likely to bowl first, given the overhead conditions. A four man attack without Liam Norwell, who was rested after a pre-season injury, meant debutant Ryan Higgins provided seam backup to Worrall, Miles and Matt Taylor. We also had Benny and Gourmet-Burger in reserve, although as events transpired they were in selected the team as batsmen only.

Glos ripped into Kent in favourable bowling conditions on Day 2, reducing them to 29-6 on the way to 64 all out. Matt Taylor showed why the shire's seam attack is potentially one of the division's best, removing Bell-Drummond, captain Joe Denly, the dangerous Stevens and former Jessop Tavern favourite Will Gidman on the way to 4-20, He was ably supported by Miles with 3-11 as Kent were skittled in 18.5 overs.

By the close of play, the match was halfway done, with Glos handily ahead at 110-8. Despite numerous low scores, largely brought about by the seamer-friendly conditions, Glos managed to close with a lead of 46, thanks to a gritty half century from keeper Roderick. This was the knock of the match, a fact acknowledged by coach Richard Dawson who rated it worth a hundred in any other game.

Day Three began in familiar fashion, with Glos dismissed in the first over of the day without adding to our overnight total. This left u with some work to do, as batting conditions improved somewhat on Sunday morning and the dangerous Bell-Drummond got going. He struck 10 fours and a six in a rapid 61 as Kent moved ahead of Glos for the loss of Dixon. Joe Denly arrived and looked to have been caught for a golden by KNB, but refused to walk and was reprieved by the umpire. The crucial moment of the innings was yet another LBW, as Higgins snared a well-set Bell-Drummond bang in front with the score on 75 and the lead just 29.

Kent slipped to 89-5, before recovering at the hands of Gidman, who put on 43 with Rouse before nicking off to Roderick for Miles' solitary wicket of the innings. Higgins showed real potential with the ball, nipping it around at a handy pace to take his maiden first class five-fer as Kent were dismissed for 153.

This left us 108 to win and with conditions still tricky, new skipper Dent was castled by a jaffa from Kiwi Matt Henry bringing Roderick in again with over a hundred still required. The two saw us through to an early close due to bad light at 61-1.

This left a nervous Monday morning for those sitting in the office listening on the BBC. We questioned Benny's move to opener in our season preview last week, but were delighted to see the Frenchman score a crucial fifty of his own as Glos won by 5 wickets. Benny's positivity, hitting 9 boundaries and facing only 90 balls, was a welcome counterpoint to the uncertainty shown at the other end, with 4 wickets falling in knocking off the 47 runs needed. Jack Taylor's second poor dismissal of the match, leaving a straight one from the wily Stevens to be plumb LBW was a bit concerning, given that the vice-captain's runs will be needed given he's set to bat at in the top 6 this season.

So, what does this all mean, ahead of tomorrow's home opener versus Glamorgan? Clearly the boys have a quality seam bowling attack, as evidenced by bowling Kent out cheaply twice, despite being without last year's leading wicket-taker Liam Norwell. Taylor bowled well on D1 and Worrall is clearly going to be a factor in Division 2, having taken 4-55 on his Shire debut. Higgins was a pleasant surprise and if he can function as a 4th or 5th seamer alongside the established attack then we could have a really handy attack this year.

The batting remains a bit of a concern. We said on Twitter that a lot of the dismissals in the first innings were down to playing across the line or missing straight deliveries. We may have been a bit harsh, as listening to 'Pasty' during his BBC commentary stint, he claimed most of the LBWs were due to late movement rather than poor choice of shot, aside from Roderick who admitted he made a mistake in the first innings. We'll give the boys the benefit of the doubt for this one, but with an equally handy Glamorgan pace attack rolling into Bristol tomorrow, we will need to see improvements if the Shire are to continue their momentum into the first home game of the year.

Still, a first win in the opening game of the season since the heady days of 2011 is not to be sniffed at. Let's hope that another good performance can help the Jessop Tavern View recapture some of the heady optimism of 2011, our first season blogging here. We can't promise you 25 posts in April like our first year of blogging, but more wins like this will certainly inspire us to fire up the laptops more often!

2018 Preview: Part 2 - Green tops for Nevil Road

Our 2018 season preview concludes with a look at the bowling. Young pups Norwell, Payne, Miles and Matt Taylor should surely form a tasty, locally-reared quartet of a pace attack. Throw in the intriguing overseas signing of Dan Worrall and the Shire really should be a dangerous proposition with the ball.

Presumably the groundsman at Nevil Road is going to allow the short mower to go rust in 2018 as there doesn’t appear a spin option worthy of the name. The sight of opposition players scratching their heads, wondering where the strip is on a lush, grassy Bristol square should become a familiar sight in 2018.

Dan Worrall (Career average: 29.61 with 136 wickets in 35 fc matches at a strike rate of 55.94 and 5 five wicket hauls; One day average: 39.21 with 28 wickets in 24 matches)

Worrall represents something of a throwback signing. An overseas player, here for the entire season, which we reckon can only be a good thing. His career stats aren’t anything too exciting, but he has clearly shown enough signs of talent back in Oz to have found international recognition in the ODI setup.

He is coming off the back of a successful 17/18 Sheffield Shield season where his 34 wickets meant that only 5 men took more first class wickets down under this winter. All of this does point towards a shrewd signing by the Shire. However, we have seen one too many Shabbir Ahmed’s over the years to know that for every Courtney Walsh there is an Ashley Noffke!

Liam Norwell (Career stats: 248 wickets @ 26.89, including 10 5 wicket hauls and 3 10 wicket matches)

In 2017 Norwell took 59 wickets at 18.11, including 5 five-fors and twice he took 10 wickets in a match. We were about to write that this was a career year for the ginger paceman. But it wasn’t particularly. In 2015 he took 68 wickets. In 2016 he took 44. For the last 3 seasons he has been one of divisions two’s prime strike men.

Fitness issues dogged the early part of his career, but hopefully the decent strength in depth in the seam bowling department this year will mean his workload can be properly managed and 2018 will see him develop further....and then inevitably bugger off to Somerset next year!

Craig Miles (Career stats: 199 wickets @ 28.26, including 11 five wicket hauls and one 10 wicket match)

Come back the 2015-16 version of Craig Miles! Admittedly, the Jessop Tavern can never type Miles’ name without picturing 78 year old Azhar Mahmood dispatching a final ball bouncer over deep square leg for the 6 that was needed to win the match in a T20 blast match, but that version of Craig Miles at least had some spunk. Was 2017 just a blip?

The lack of news provided to long distance fans means that we are never entirely sure how injuries play out in the distant, unreported, galaxy that is division 2 of the county championship. Whatever the issues in 2017 the Shire will be hoping that the still only 23 year old can return to the sort of form that saw him take 50 wickets in consecutive seasons, and earn a call up to the England Lions.

David Payne (Career stats: 198 wickets @ 32.96, with 3 five wicket hauls. In List A cricket he averages 22.76)

David Payne will sit out the first part of the season recovering from recent ankle surgery. His quick recovery will be vital to the Shire’s success when the white ball cricket gets underway. In recent seasons the limited overs stuff has been Payne’s chance to come to the fore.

His championship work often goes unnoticed. His awkward left arm pace providing a nice counterpunch to the more orthodox angles of Norwell and Miles. His 28 first class wickets in 2017 might not look spectacular, but are the perfect ballast for other guys to work around. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Matt Taylor (Career stats: 67 wickets @ 41.83)

David Payne’s injury represents an opportunity for the only remaining bowling version of the Taylor brothers to stake a claim to become more than the squad bowler he has been since making his debut in 2013. At only 23, time is still on his side to develop on the potential that has been glimpsed at times.

However, a bowling average that has never dipped below 40 in first class cricket (and in List A it actually sits around 50!) does not lie and it will be a big step up for Taylor to be a regular contributor. Injuries and the need to rotate the seamers will give him his chance. Hopefully he will have the talent to grasp it.

Chris Liddle (Career stats: 46 wickets @ 48.41....ouch! In List A he has 97 wickets @ 26.60)

Liddle was a strange signing last year. The 34 year old journeyman arrived as a white ball specialist, yet found himself in the 4 day team for a greater number of games than expected. His contribution in the Royal London Cup was a very handy 18 wickets, but in the T20 Blast he made less of an impact with only 6 wickets in the competition despite playing every game. What his role will be in 2018 is unclear. Presumably a return to being a white ball cricketer.

Tom Smith (Career Stats: 74 wickets @ 49.20 in first class cricket; 55 wickets @ 39.63 in List A and 106 wickets @ 22.43 in T20)

Let's whizz through this quick. Glos won’t be spinning any webs in 2018. Smith has been a solid pro for the Shire since his arrival from Middlesex. However, his best moments have been reserved for the short form of the game and he represents nothing more than a man who can get through some overs waiting for the new ball.

Miles Hammond (Career stats: 1 wicket @ 196.00 in 3 matches)

The only other spinner listed on the Gloucestershire first XI page of the website (so not necessarily the only other spin option!) the 22 year old from Cheltenham has a long way to go. His 3 games actually came back in 2013, although he is a former England U-19 international.

Potentially the most interesting thing to watch with regards to Hammond in 2018 is whether his profile exists on the Glos website due to lazy updating by whoever runs the site or whether he is actually a legitimate member of the squad. We know where our money is.

Overview
So there we go. The 2018 season can officially get underway. The boys start with an away trip to Kent, so all is left is to wish them well and to hope that it's nice and overcast on Friday morning for our seamers to run through them before the sun shines for the rest of the match.

Good luck to all of the boys for this season. Our enthusiasm is high at the moment so let's see if you can keep us blogging through to September!

2018 Season Preview - 1,000 runs anyone?

The Jessop Tavern is back! Blink and you may well miss us. The Jessop Tavern’s enthusiasm is quickly drained and a recent recap of our blogging history indicates that we are very much fair weather bloggers. The Shire’s success each year is very much monitored in when our last post was for that season. In 2017 it was May. Enough said.

So what can Gloucestershire fans expect in 2018? Wisden reckon we are set for an 8th place finish in the championship and a quarter final appearance in the T20 Blast. What they reckon the odds are for Alfred the Gorilla making it. A hat-trick of finals day mascot race wins is unknown. Would that be success for Glos? Clearly it isn’t too much to aspire to, but then what should Gloucestershire’s aim be for this season? We’d settle for being competitive in the championship until September, with an entertaining cup run in either the T20 or 50 over competition. With Bristol missing out on one of the forthcoming franchises for the new T20 competition cricket in the west country will face uncertain times. An inspiring 2018 campaign would go some way to looking to the future with more hope.

Batting
We will write this season preview in two parts, with the batting first. On paper, the batting looks thin. Very thin. No batsman in the squad passed 1,000 runs in 2017. For what feels like the better part of a decade Glos have recruited an overseas batsman to bolster the weakest part of their squad. Williamson, Klinger, Handscomb and Bancroft have all done this job, with varying degrees of success.

In 2018 coach Richard Dawson has gone for a bowling overseas player, Dan Worrall. What impact this has on the Shire’s ability to score enough runs remains to be seen. The boys shouldn’t have too much trouble taking 20 wickets. Worrall, Norwell, Miles and Payne look a handy attack if they can all be fit. Whether they spend the bulk of the summer grumbling about batsmen failing to do their job will be the critical aspect of the 2018 campaign.

Chris Dent (Career average: 38.07; 2017 average: 44.45 with 2 hundreds)
New club captain for 2018, Chris Dent has all the tools to be a plunderer of division 2 runs (as well as a fine one day player). Will the captaincy inspire him? Time will tell. It is hard to knock Dent’s output over the last 5 years. He has hit 1,000 runs in 3 of those 5 years and scored 11 hundreds. However, he failed to crack what should be an automatic thousand runs in a season in 2017 and his conversion rate of 2 hundreds for 10 times going passed 50 is the real source of frustration for fans.

Dent has never been the main man in the Gloucestershire batting, mainly due to Klinger and others being present. In 2018 he will be the key wicket for teams, along with being a first-time captain. Its a big ask for Dent in 2018 and one he will need to be up to if Glos are to have an even semi-respectable season.

Benny Howell (Career average 28.29; 2017 average: 68.00 with 1 hundred in 2 matches)Is Benny the answer at the top of the order? We vaguely remember Benny arriving at the Shire in 2011 as this French opening batsman which prompted us to imagine a bloke who stood square-on the bowler and tried flicking all balls over his head to the boundary. Sadly this wasn’t the case, although Benny’s batting has been of the boundary hitting variety, usually some lower order biffing, and mainly in one day cricket.

Of course, Benny has turned himself into one of the county circuit's best one day bowlers, but opening the batting in the championship? At the end of the season Benny did hit a very fine 163 against Glamorgan. But is that enough to build a batting line-up around? This was only his second first-class hundred, and an average that has never gone above 30 in each of his 6 full seasons at the club means this is a risk to rely on his runs.

James Bracey (Career average: 41.41; 2017 average: 41.41 with one hundred in 9 matches)Is Bracey our new hero? The 20 year old left-handed keeper batsman appeared on the scene in 2017 and took to first-class cricket immediately. 3 fifties and a maiden hundred (in the same match that Benny scored his ton) is a solid return for a young man coming into the team. Whether building your batting lineup around an end of season performance against Glamorgan is a policy for success remains to be seen. However, Bracey is the future and let's hope he can push on and develop this year.

George Hankins (Career average 26.42; 2017: 26.23 with no hundreds in 12 matches)Hankins made his debut in 2016 and seemed to grow into that season with his maiden hundred coming at the tail end of that campaign. 2017 was, therefore, a disappointing ‘growing’ season for the 21 year old, with no hundreds and just the 4 fifties.

The Shire seemed determined to provide him with experience in all formats, although how much Hankins enjoyed his 7 T20 matches, where he scored 17 runs at an average of 5, is in doubt. It is hard to know which way he will develop as a cricketer in 2018. Glimpses of potential are well and good, but in a side that looks pretty thin in the batting department, it is hard to believe that this is the ideal environment in which to grow.

Graeme Van Buuren (Career average: 46.28; 2017 average: 22.33 with no hundreds in 8 matches)Arriving from South African on his pet hamster's passport in 2016, Van Buuren immediately looked a very handy pick-up. 2 hundreds in his 7 games in 2016 at an average of 45 seemed to herald a very useful middle order player. Injury then ravaged his 2017 campaign, so not too much should be read into last year's stats. So can Van Buuren bounce back? Along with captain Dent he represents the experienced heart of the batting, so he will need to find his best form early if Glos are to put up a fight.

Gareth Roderick (Career average: 38.79; 2017 average: 33.58 with no hundreds in 9 matches)Another South African import whose 2017 season was ruined by injury. Former club captain Roderick has struggled in recent seasons to back-up the impressive start he made to his Gloucestershire career. 2 hundreds and an average of 44 in his debut season of 2013 was built upon by an average of 58 in 2014 before his season was ruined by injury. Since then Roderick has never averaged above 33, nor scored more than one hundred or gone over 800 runs. Again, more will be needed from a player with the ability to score runs at this level.

Jack Taylor (Career average: 32.89; 2017 average: 41.00 with 2 hundreds in 15 matches)Crowd favourite, and new vice-captain, Jack Taylor will have all of 2018 to focus on his batting after his season-long bowling suspension. Whether Taylor ever goes back to bowling will be interesting. That Steve Smith bloke seems to have done ok having ditched the lollypop spin bowling to focus on scoring runs with an unorthodox technique!

Where Glos choose to unleash Taylor’s unique batting talents will be a test of coach Dawson’s improvisation. The feeling that Taylor is better utilised as a match-changing lower order biffer is hard to refute, and he may find number 7 his ideal position. Whether that is too low for a guy in the team solely for his batting will be the question? Modern cricket is all about momentum and innovation, and using Taylor in this way will allow him to play his natural game that has brought great success over the last few years.

Will Tavare (Career average: 31.63; 2017 average: 31.29 with 2 hundreds in 11 matches)2017 was hardly a vintage year for Tavare, and the feeling exists that his place in the pecking order has gone to the likes of Bracey and Hankins. You suspect that Tavare will get his chance again and it will be up to him to take it. This is a man who in 2014 topped 1,000 runs with 4 hundreds. Even last year, which was hardly his best, he managed two hundreds, as many as Chris Dent.

Ian Cockbain (Career average: 30.15; 2017 average: 27.00 in just 1 match)
Jessop Tavern View favourite and T20 specialist Ian Cockbain will presumably be overlooked for the championship games and instead will be utilised as a one day specialist. His T20 epiphany in 2016 resulted in a more modest return in 2017 (252 runs at 25 in the T20 Blast) but in the 50 over game Cockbain was the only real bright point for Glos with his maiden one day century and an average of 59 across the 7 matches.

Kieran Noema-Barnett (Career average: 27.05; 2017 average: 22.38 with no hundreds in 11 matches, bowling: 23 wickets at 32.04)The gourmet burger should really be a Jessop Tavern favourite. A sort of Jackson Thompson cricketer. A Mike Gatting style of buffet eater who was sponsored by a gourmet burger restaurant, what’s not to like? Well, his figures for starters. No not his figure. And no, not those types of starters. 

We just struggle to see what he brings to a team. In 2017 we saw far more of Noema-Barnett with the ball in hand than is good for any side. We saw it as a sign of how much the Shire were struggling, and the same will bne the same in 2018. This said, there is still time for him to turn this around. Adopting the big man with big bat and big biffing would be the place to start. Less of the Jesse Ryder opening the bolwing sort of stuff, and more of the Jesse Ryder in nightclub toilets would be the other way to go.

Ryan Higgins (Career average: 24.71 in 5 matches; 2017 average: 18.42. Bowling; 12 career wickets at 23.41)It’s hard to know anything at all about this winter’s 'big' signing. The Zimbabwe-born man signed from Middlesex and has such a limited first-class record that it's hard to try and make sense of what Glos fans might expect from him.