Season review

Bloody hell. You turn your back for a couple of months, move house, quit your job and then this happens! Bottom of the league. Rock bottom. Of division 2! There are school teams who wouldn't finish bottom of division 2. State school teams at that. How did this happen. Too make matters worse, captain Gidders has resigned the captaincy. Our inspirational leader, gone. Can it get any worse? The next thing you'll be telling us is that Jon Batty has retired....

So that is another season over. The Jessop Tavern View is finding all this hard to take in. No, not the fact that Gloucestershire are rubbish, but the fact that we now officially write a blog for the worst cricket team in the land. Worse than Northants. Worse than Leicestershire. worse than bloody Glamorgan. Still, at least we'll have that block of flats.

As much as it is easy to make cheap jokes, and hell, Gloucestershire provide about as many cheap jokes as you could ever want, but actually this hasn't been that bad a season.

Ok, so the table never lies, but just 5 more points and we would have been looking at mid-table mediocrity, which is, after all, what we strive for. Considering the ridiculously truncated season thanks to climate change it would be unfair to criticise such a young group of players.

However, its not unfair to criticise Captain Gidman. 528 runs at an average of 25. In division 2 of the county championship. Gracefully, Gidman has fallen on his sword and passed over the poisoned chalice of captaincy to someone else for next season in an attempt to regain his form. Let's hope so.

So, for simplicity's sake, we shall attempt to break this season down into positives and negatives.

Positives.

Ian Cockbain - 764 runs at 34 in a season when no division 2 batsman surpassed 1000 runs in the championship. That's more runs than Joe Root (averages count for nothing, before people complain)

38 - James Fuller leapt to prominence in the second half of the season. Ok, so this was primarily because he went for an improbable 38 in one manic t20 over, but after this his performances started to match his potential. In the championship he ended up with 24 championship wickets at an average of 27. In the one dayers he also demonstrated serious ability to be a decent lower order batter. Also got into trouble for intentional beamers in a 2nd XI game. Nice work.

The rest of the pace bowlers - Will Gidman backed up his career year from 2011 with 44 wickets despite missing 1/3 of the season. Ian Saxelby took 35 wickets despite missing games. Norwell and Payne provided good support with 20 odd wickets apiece. Throw in Fuller into this mix and the pace men had a good year and certainly show the promise to be worth persevering with.

O'Mish - Welcome back to something near his best. 822 runs put him near the top of division 2 run makers. An average of 37 with only one hundred suggest he still loves to get in and then throw it away wastefully. Still, a welcome return to form.

One day form - Admittedly it messed up our championship form, but it was nice to have some one day cricket to get excited about watching again. 

The Bristol town planning council - Eventually decided to let us develop the ground. Bugger knows if this really was the best thing for gloucestershire cricket. But since no one at the cricket club had a Plan B should it not have gone ahead we guess it was a good thing.

Jon Batty - For retiring. 885 runs in three seasons. Thanks for the memories.

Negatives

Alex Gidman - See above.

Ed Young/Spin bowling in general - Probably now a one day specialist as failed to build upon a decent t20 campaign by converting this into the championship. Seemed to lack the control to even tie up an end. And we thought Vikram Banerjee was bad.

Richard Coughtrie - We presume that King John has made a decision that Coughtrie doesn't have the ability for this level. Surely there was no other reason for Batty keeping wicket. The enthusiasm with which the club website announced the signing of two young wicketkeepers suggests we'll have a new stumper next year.

Paul Muchall - What? Why? Who? How? Goodbye. Please.

Anthony Ireland - For the love of God, please do not re-sign this man. Crap once. Crap always.

Murali - How many shirts did he really sell?

New Zealand Cricket - For taking Kane Williamson away and for replacing him with Rob Nicol.

The Official Club website - If Gloucestershire can feel hard done by at having to endure a winter as the worst cricket team in the land then the official club website can have no complaints at being head and shoulders the worst club website in the entire championship. In this day and age it seems incredible that the club cannot have a serious website. The lack of squad news was infuriating. Is it that hard to get someone to update this stuff?

So there we have it. Another season over. Thanks to the surprisingly large number of people who read this over the season. Apologies for the lack of interest in the closing month. We blame the re-signing of Anthony Ireland for us losing interest. Finally, if anyone wants a slightly expensive sounding 'world chic' handbag, then we'd highly recommend checking out www.danaqa.com.

Glos showed backbone whilst being hammered

So, what do we make of Tuesday's rather comprehensive beating in the slightly less harsh light of two days past?

The Jessop Tavern View has never shied away from criticising the boys and managing to get pumped for 230 with your three seamers going for 12, 16 and 19 runs an over seems a ripe old opportunity to sharpen the claws. However, unlike Nasser Hussain, the Jessop Tavern will resist making cheap and easy points.

Despite the Scott Styris mauling (a 37 ball hundred) Glos held their composure and produced a spirited run chase. In fact the run chased showed quite how much character and cricketing nouse there is in this young side. Needing 12 an over to win, after 4 overs Glos had galloped to 18 for 1 at which point you would have banked on the panic really setting in and the boys rolling over to die. But not a chance. Marshall, Housego and even Gidders all looked up for the fight, and all seemed to realise that if one of them could go on and score a hundred then the game wasn't completely up. Sadly none of them did go on and equal Styris' contribution, but the lack of panic indicated a side able to think clearly under enormous pressure. Housego in particular looked a quality player, and some of his play on the off side was sumptuous. We hope that 'The House' will now get a decent run in the side in all forms of the game.

If the batting restored some pride, then what to make of the bowlers. Well, firstly they are young. Saxelby is 23, Fuller 22 and Norwell 20. This was, for each of them, a first time in a big match environment. Let's not forget, they started brilliantly....for two overs. Considering the impressive start by Saxelby and Fuller's opening overs the introduction of Norwell for the third over was probably a mistake, and certainly signalled the start of Matt Prior's onslaught.

We moaned yesterday about Sky tv's pundits reckoning that Murali should have been introduced earlier, but it is unlikely that this would have had much effect. Sussex had clearly decided that the seamers were the ones who would have to go, and that Ed Young and Murali would be played out at 6 an over. The introduction of the spinners earlier in the piece would have been unlikely to have changed this tactic. Sussex would simply have bided their time knowing that the young seamers would have to come back later in the piece.

Reading Alex Winter on cricinfo, he too is obviously disappointed with Murali's contribution. He took 0 for 25 from 4 overs. Compared to Scott Styris then its obvious who got better value for money from their overseas player. During his 2 years at Gloucestershire Murali has taken 17 wickets at an average of practically 30 and an economy rate of about 6.5. In comparison, Carl Greenidge took 27 wickets at the same average with and economy rate of 8. We'll leave it at that, and won't mention that Murali has also been keeping someone like Jack Taylor out of the side.

Now, in defence of Murali, his signing clearly had very little to do with cricket, no matter how much Kaiser Tom and King John talk about him passing on his experience. His signing was a desperate attempt by Gloucestershire to sign someone who would flog some extra tickets. It's not exactly the first time that Gloucestershire can be accused of putting money ahead of cricket. Exactly how many extra tickets the 'Murali effect' had is difficult to gauge.

And before we leave the whole Murali discussion, we should point out that it was his failure to fairly simply run out Styris when he first came to the crease that basically cost Glos the game.

As much as this probably sounds like we are joining in the Murali bashing, we don't blame Murali. Yes, he's hardly proved to be a great signing, but during his two years the team have clearly improved in this format of the game and we're sure Murali has contributed to this. Lets hope that Glos can maybe add a little bit of firepower to the batting and that the young seamers learn from the experience. Like we have already said, we were actually pretty impressed with the character the boys showed, and the intelligence and refusal to panic when chasing such a huge total. On the day we were beaten by a very good, experienced, t20 team.

Glos now have to pick themselves up for two huge CB40 games over the next four days. First, against the Netherlands, then against Lancashire. At this stage of the competition nothing less than wins will do, and hell, the Jessop Tavern View would much rather have a trip to Lords than Cardiff.

Nasser Hussain: Tool

The Jessop Tavern View is too tired to give its usual thoughtful and insightful comments on Gloucestershires performance. How we are not too tired to say this. Nasser Hussain is a tool. A total and utter tool.

In trying to make the point that Murali should have bowled earlier when Prior was making hay, Hussain suggested that Murali was hiding away from 'Matty'.

Firstly, don't you hate it when commentators get all cosy and friendly when referring to players. Yes, he plays for England, and yes, clearly Hussain doesn't watch anything other than international cricket, but please Sky, stop it.

Secondly, and most importantly, Hussain's point was complete and utter tripe. So what if Murali had come on two overs earlier. He and Ed Young did a very good job of bringing Glos back into the contest. Had Scott Styris not rediscovered his World Cup form from 2003 then Glos would have given themselves a shot. It didn't matter where Murali, or Young for that matter, had bowled. The fact of the matter was that the young seamers went round the park. That would have happened wherever Murali had bowled. Prior smacked Saxelby, Norwell and Fuller round. Then Styris and Goodwin did later on. Hussain's point stank of lazy analysis. Pick on the famous player in a team. Then make a vaguely controversial point which has at its basis the sort of thought process that the bloke in the bar who only ever watches cricket when Freddie is batting. It's the sort of point my Mum would make. The opposition are doing well so bring on the only bowler that you have heard of to save the day. Lazy, rubbish punditry. Hussain has similar hair to Alan Shearer, and similar insight into the game. Tool.

With that off our chests, the Jessop Tavern View will return tomorrow when it has worked out exactly how James Fuller managed to go for 38 off one over. Only Gloucestershire.

Chris Taylor takes Glos to tribunal... County reply by signing Dan Housego

What is going on over at Nevil Road this off season? From the blunt rejection by Bristol Council of the Shire's ground redevelopment plans, to the news that Chris Taylor is taking the county to an employment tribunal after failing to agree a new contract, it seems that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

We think it's bloody sad to see Taylor go after 12 years of service, particularly following his return to form with the bat last season. Surely Hamish Marshall is kissing his lucky four leaf clover after it turned out that his renegotiated deal wasn't dependant on the outcome of the planning application. You have to wonder why the club showed more loyalty to the Kiwi Irishman, whose form has dipped every season since his debut in 2006 over a loyal servant, coming off a good season and who has managed to land himself a coaching role in the England Lions setup. We're sure Tom Richardson has his reasons. It would be good to hear whether he thinks he made the right decision if Taylor wins at the tribunal.

The one potential bright spot is the signing of Dan Housego from Middlesex. Now, I've just read that sentence again and I realised it sounds insane. On the face of it, he's not great, averaging 31 in 8 appearances in 2011 (some may say this is the perfect average for a Gloucestershire number three). However, he was the top run-scorer in 2nd XI cricket last year (we know) and at 23, he has time on his side. He also began his career with the Glos academy, so the signing is a homecoming of sorts. He's pencilled in to bat at number three and it will be interesting to see how he fills the role occupied by much-hyped gym instructor, Kane Williamson last year. Williamson was a disappointing acquisition in our eyes and his form with the bat flattered to deceive. Sure, he scored a couple of hundreds and looked great in doing so, but he also had numerous failures, which isn't good enough for a batsman of his calibre playing in Division 2, a place where Geoffrey Boycott's grandma and her stick of rhubarb would cash in every time.

In other news, readers of the official site (all three of you) will have enjoyed Ed Young's posts from the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy in Perth. Let's hope that the experiences gained while sunning himself in Oz while the rest of us freeze our arses off in the UK will stand him in good stead when the new season begins in April. I'm sure most of you are aware that we've re-signed Murali for T20 matches in 2012. For all the impact he had last year, The Jessop Tavern View wonders if Glos might have been better off saving their pennies. They may well need them now the ground redevelopments aren't going ahead.

Who cares about KP, Glos finally win a Twenty20 game!

Gloucestershire 168 for 6 (Cockbain 78, Dernbach 3-27) beat Surrey 122 (Pietersen 30, Payne 3-20) by 10 runs

The Jessop Tavern View would like to apologise to its fans for the recent lack of posts. Glos' terrible start to the T20 campaign, coupled with a work trip abroad rather dampened our enthusiasm for writing about the Shire.

Anyway, now we are back and we were delighted to see that the boys managed to win a game. Even if it was against perennial under-achievers Surrey. All that investment in Murali looks to be paying off. 1 win out of 5 so far is surely the kind of return Chief Executive Tom Richardson was looking for when he persuaded the great man to rock up at Nevil Road for a couple of years of 4 over spells.

The good thing about games versus Surrey, is that due to their inconsistency, there always the chance of a victory. Not only that; they are somewhat more tech-savvy than the Shire. Thus we get to provide you with video highlights of the match to accompany our prescient analysis. You can find this at the bottom of the post.

Glos lost the toss and were sent in to bat by Grabber Hamilton-Brown. A typically average powerplay saw the boys teetering at 31-3, with O'Mish, O'Brien and Williamson already dismissed. Amazingly, the boys managed to steady the ship and recovered to 85, before Gidders the elder was caught slogging for 28. Even more amazingly, we then cut loose, with Ian Cockbain displaying hitherto unknown powers of aggression to strike 5 sixes in a violent 78 from just 45 balls. He was well-supported by Tiny Taylor (32*) as Glos reached an excellent 168-6.


Despite Archdeacon Meadow featuring some tiny boundaries (even the Jessop Tavern View has struck a couple there, as well as an unfortunate golden duck), we made immediate inroads into their powerful but inconsistent batting lineup.Williamson opened the bowling and dismissed RH-B in the first over as well as having KP brilliantly caught on the boundary by a diving Cockbain. Will this be the cue for 'King' John Bracewell topick him for some T20?

David Payne chipped in with 3-20, including Davies, who gave him so much tap in the opening game and the dangerous Tom Maynard. Richard Coughtrie impressed with the gloves, stumping two batsmen and again keeping tidily. Surely Jon Batty's Glos career is virtually over at this point? Oh yeah, Murali bowled tidily and took 2-28. You kind of expect that kind of performance as a minimum from your marquee overseas signing though.

A thumping win then and one the boys will hope to repeat on Wednesday night v Kent at their Beckenham out ground. The Jessop Tavern View has played there as well and it's a bit of a road. Let's hope for some fireworks from the boys to get the T20 campaign back on track before the break for Championship action at the weekend.

Davies dominant as outclassed Glos take a kicking

Gloucestershire 155/8; Surrey 156/2 

Surrey won by 8 wickets (with 19 balls remaining)

Gloucestershire's Twenty 20 campaign got off to a disappointing start as they were well beaten by a powerful Surrey side at the Oval. The Jessop Tavern View was there to witness the Glos debut of Murali and was hoping for a good performance from the boys. Sadly this was not to be the case, as having been put in to bat, the Shire struggled to a below par 155-8. They then saw a superb 92 from England keeper-batsman Steve Davies take Surrey to a comfortable victory with 19 balls still to be bowled.

This was the first opportunity for the Jessop Tavern View to see many of Glos' youngsters and new signings play live. Kevin O'Brien strode out to open with the skipper and struck a big six down the ground on the way to 24, before being caught at the second attempt by Zander de Bruyn on the square leg boundary. A disaapointing shot to a poor ball from 'Viscount' Linley. Gidman himself looked ill at ease against the pace of Dirk Nannes and both he and Taylor both departed to the T20 specialist. Kane Williamson again looked classy for his 32, but was run out in a comedy mix up with Will Gidman. I had to take this from a description by my friend, as the incident occured while I was stuck in a tremendous queue at the bar.

This smacked of poor planning from Surrey and I wasn't the only one stuck in line complaining about the lack of available bars. Perhaps they were not expecting so many of us to turn up, but you would think they would want us to buy more drinks instead of wasting 25 minutes in the bloody queue and then deciding not to go back for another drink later on. Rant over.

Will Gidman and Ed Young launched a fightback, putting on 45 to take Glos up to what we thought was a defendable total. Overall it was still an average batting performance, with momentum regularly being lost through wickets and an inability to get after Nannes and Linley.

The Surrey innings got off to a flying start, with Grabber Hamilton-Brown and Davies taking 68 off the 6 powerplay overs. The Gloucestershire seamers were meat and drink to two players who aren't big fans of running. Lewis and Payne both sprayed the ball around and were punished. I don't see the point of playing Payne, a wicket-taker, but also young and erratic, in T20 matches, especially those played on flat tracks like the Oval. Another spinner would have been a better option. Murali was also disappointing, bowling too short in his first two overs, which disappeared for 25, included a big six over long on from Davies.

We should give credit to the Surrey batsmen. They batted aggressively and never allowed the Shire's bowlers to settle. Steve Davies was especially impressive. He struck the ball with great authority and placement in his 92 not out. In short, he looked a top class player. We would have him as England's ODI keeper and opening bat over Kieswetter.

Glos will need to play a lot better against Essex at Chelmsford tonight, otherwise this year's campaign could be off to a nightmare start.

Twenty 20: Time for the butchers of Surrey v Murali

Friends Life Twenty20 preview: Surrey v Glos

The Jessop Tavern is conducting a social experiment this Thursday at the Oval. Thanks to a sweet ticket deal obtained from popular website Groupon, we will actually be present at the game to watch Murali, Kevin O'Brien and Kane Williamson take on the flat track bullies of Surrey. If you are also attending the game, perhaps you would like to come say hello to one half of the Jessop Tavern View? We know that there are a few of you who of you read the blog, so if you fancy a pint and a natter about the trials and tribulations of being a Glos/county cricket supporter, send me a tweet @tgwill.

Right, on to the match preview for what could be an interesting game. Gloucestershire have, frankly, been pretty awful in T20 in recent seasons. Last year was a particular nadir, as we lost 11 group games and finished bottom of the South Group with just 10 points. However, we are feeling a bit more optimistic about this year's competition, not least because of the high profile signing of legendary rubber-wristed Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan. He may be 39 years old, he may be a bit of a mercenary these days, he may have been taken apart by the Spear in the 2007 T20 semis but we reckon he is still pretty handy when he only has to bowl 4 overs. Plus, just look at that grin in today's interview on the official site. If ever there was a man who can smell some cheap county wickets, Murali is that man.

Glos fans can also look forward to a sighting of the Butcher of Bangalore, Kevin O'Brien, in his natural T20 habitat. We are also interested to see how young Kane Williamson gets on in the shortest format. His highest score in 10 domestic T20s is just 30, but we would expect him to improve on that during this tournament. Where better to start than on the flat, hard Oval deck against a pacey attack?

Thanks to our new friends at the Surrey Cricket Blog, we know that Surrey have a batting line up to fear. However, with the absence of Tremlett and Jade Dernbach on England test duty, there's rather less fast bowling to be worried about. That said, Surrey have replaced one Aussie T20 signing with another (and arguably a superior one than the original at that.) Shaun Tait's patchwork quilt of a body decided that even 4 over spells were going to be too much for him, so they picked up former Dutchman and Cricketwithballs favourite Dirk Nannes. Like I said, a clear improvement and someone to be very wary of at the start of the innings.

Anyway, let's hope for a big Thursday night crowd and some entertainment to get the Twenty20 season off to a good start. Chief Executive Tom Richardson will certainly be hoping so, as rumour has it even the big money acquisition of Murali has failed to have much impact on ticket sales for the Shire's home games.

Honours even after late wickets spoil good start for Glos

Gloucestershire 292-9 v Kent

Gloucestershire spoiled a promising start by losing 9 wickets in the last two sessions, having seen a rare century opening partnership to begin the day. We were delighted to find that the Times, despite living behind a paywall, had sent a correspondent to Canterbury and spent the day enjoying their updates from the ground. Their man focused on the terrible state of the famous St Lawrence ground as the county attempt to redevelop, despite barely having a pot to piss in. They certainly don't have the pots of cash generated by the mighty Nevil Road gym to fund expensive Twenty20 signings like Murali.

We preferred to focus on how Hamish Marshall was performing on his Championship return from an epic wedding-fest in New Zealand. Having predicted a breezy 40 in our last post, we were delighted to see him move past that score and progress to a fluent 72. Less pleasing was his usual dismissal when well set, LBW playing slightly across the line to an Azhar Mahmood delivery. By this point Azhar had also removed Ian Cockbain for 34 and bowled Richard Coughtrie for a duck as he tried to leave the ball. Chris 'the Child' Taylor also managed a 50, scoring 71 before failing to see out the day after being bowled by Cook with the second ball of a new spell. The Gidman brothers failed, along with Jon Batty and we were again indebted to budding all rounder Jon Lewis who again batted in bucolic fashion for 26 before being caught behind off Cook. Ian Saxelby also batted well for 28, although we don't really want to see such a reliance on the lower middle order to shore up the innings after more recognised batsmen have disappointed.

It sounded a fairly grinding day's play, with both the slow rate of scoring and the builder's tools making a contribution. It would be nice to sneak above 300 tomorrow, but more important will be for the seam attack to make early inroads. We're not as disappointed as the reliably negative Glos la la la blog, but a better effort is needed tomorrow.