Streaker-gate!

Cheltenham cricket festival streaker Daniel Butcher has stirred up something of a controversy following his highly amusing late afternoon streak during the third day of Gloucestershires recent victory over Worcestershire. Allegations have emerged that the Jessop Tavern Views hero, Alex Gidman, challenged Mr Butcher to streak with the grand sum of a £100 bet. County cricket doesn't get juicier than this.

Emerging from one of the marquees, Mr Butcher made a slightly undignified naked clamber over the advertising hoardings before embarking on a rather serene jog to the middle of the old college ground. Some what bemused, Mr Butcher had time to have a look round and take it all in before security made a belated appearance and chased him off to the pavilion.

Unbeknownst to those watching his naked antics was that Mr Butcher gave Alex Gidman a sly little wink as he trotted passed the slip cordon. Presumably the rest of the Gloucestershire boys thought this was pretty normal. Gidman did after all go to Wycliffe College where passing the soap in the showers is not only a hobby but an actual subject. As it turns out Mr Butcher also attended Wycliffe at the same time as Gidders and this is where they became "firm friends", to quote Butcher, or where "I have no recollection of ever meeting Mr Butcher", according to Gidman.

The Gloucestershire Echo decided to run a comedy piece at the weekend detailing how Gidders had apparently bet his old school friend £100 that he wouldn't streaker during the festival. In a fitting end to the story Mr Butcher revealed how he has given the money to a cancer charity in support of his Dad who is fighting the illness. All very heart warming.

But no. Enter big bad Kaiser Tom Richardson to quash any such fun. "Alex Gidman categorically states that he made no such suggestion to his old mucker Daniel Butcher about carrying out a streak" lambasted Richardson, who was evidently so angered by the possibility that such a story might inject a bit of character back into county cricket that he put a gun to Gidman's head and made him also issue an official statement 'categorically' denying the allegation. "The only thing myself and Mr Butcher have in common is a similar waist line and a love of pies", Gidman thoughtfully didn't add.

So there we go. Never before have Gloucestershire been moved to issue so many statements during one Cheltenham festival. A week previously Kaiser Tom was on his soapbox, round the back of the ice cream van at the chapel end preaching an apology about the state of the t20 pitch for the match against Warwickshire (no similar apology was issued for an identical pitch and scorecard for the following weeks game against Glamorgan which Glos managed to win) Now Tom is ranting about a charity streak. It is unconfirmed as yet, that when Mr Butcher was being led away Kaiser Tom was seen offering him a discount on a flat in Bristol.

Show us the money!

YB40: Glos beat Unicorns by 29 runs.

Lets by honest, despite the inconsistencies of their championship form, the Gloucestershire money men will be delighted with today's win over the mighty Unicorns that take Glos to the top of Group C in the YB40.

It wasn't exactly a commanding victory against very meek opponents, but 50s from captain Klinger, Benny Howell and a pissed off Ian Cockbain were more than enough for even Gloucestershires porous bowling attack.

We'd like to know what Ian Cockbain thinks of his demotion to 2nd XI cricket this season. Having had something approaching a break through season in 2012 (764 runs at 34) Cockbain now finds himself behind Benny and Dan Housego in the championship side. Whilst individually, each batsman in the championship has contributed at some point this season, the lineup has failed to gel together and produce runs as a unit. Cockbain's little cameo of 52 from 30 balls today will hopefully be a timely reminder of his credentials.

With Somerset losing today against Leicestershire, Glos now sit on top of Group C. Kaiser Tom Richardson is probably, as we speak, sat with a calculator, sun visor and a fag hanging out of the corner of his mouth working out how many more flats we can build if we win a one day competition.

Bring out the cheque book....

This is the moment we have all been waiting for. Having secured planning permission for the ground redevelopment Kaiser Tom is now sat in his office with the cheque book open desperately trying to find a biro that works and some top international stars who won't laugh at him when he invites them to play some cricket at Nevil road. Gloucestershire are poised to be the Man City of the county championship. This is it. Hold on tight.

With Rob Nicol not arriving for a few weeks, Gloucestershire have decided not to trust in the youngsters we have talked up, and have instead decided to go down the mercenary route and sign Aussie test grinder Ed Cowan. At the start of the season we looked as if we might go down the route of signing no overseas players. Now, with the signing of Ed Cowan for a 6 game stint, Glos have signed their third overseas superstar.

We don't have any real problem with Cowan himself. He's an Aussie, so he'll be professional and will love the opportunity to pick up some experience of sitting in the pavilion watching the rain fall on the covers. We just don't really see the point. Cowan will play in the 3 crucial t20 matches this week (despite a career average of 12 in this format of the game and a top score of 25) He will then play a championship game and a couple of 40 over games, during which we expect Cowan to stand around looking confused as to why anyone plays a 40 over competition. What are we hoping to achieve from signing him? All he will do is take the place of a youngster who could have been given the opportunity to put in some performances and create some pressure for places before Rob Nicol arrives. Presumably Cowan, O'Mish and Gidders are all guaranteed their spots in the top order. This leaves a maximum of 3 places for the likes of Benny, Cockbain, Dent, and The House. Hell, lets hope that we haven't completely given up on Richard Coughtrie. Whilst we're at it, couldn't someone like Ed Young or Jack Taylor have been given a go batting at 6 or 7. Why couldn't Jon Batty have done a job?!!!!!!! Whether Dent is fit at the moment we can't remember.

Put basically, Ed Cowan will take the place of one of these youngsters. A mercenary overseas player keeping out a young aspiring English player. One of the youngsters who is a full time squad member. One of the youngsters who presumably are desperate to have a chance to get in the first team and prove their worth. We've been full of praise for Gloucestershire's decision to trust in youth. Opportunity missed.

The artist formerly known as Kaiser Tom

Kaiser Tom needs our support! And knowing the Jessop Tavern View's love of fine art, the Kaiser has dusted off his paintbrushes, dug out his easel, and whipped up a few artists impressions of what Nevil road could look like. Hideous. The ground proposal, that is. The Jessop Tavern View is quite a fan of the art.

The new proposal is more environmentally friendly with exciting additions such as dual flush toilets, restricted flow taps and solar panels sure to ease the concerns of local residents who objected to the shear bloody size of the buildings. 

Frankly this proposal has gone on for so long that we are now actually fully behind it, if for no other reason than at least we can draw a line under the whole thing and move on....in whichever direction that may be.

So if you want to back the campaign, then get yourselves across to the club website and send a message to Bristol city council. The new proposal will be heard on May 30th.

Minor county cricket, here we come....

Sat here watching the first morning of the 'desert-ed' test in Dubai the Jessop Tavern View is feeling inspired again. There's nothing like a little bit of mystery spin with your corn flakes to get the cricket juices flowing. It also seems like quite a pertinent time to climb back into the blogging saddle. Watching cricket, in a town where no one really cares for the game, and in a nicely developed ground that is full to bursting with empty seats....it's what Nevil Road could have been if it weren't for those pesky politicians.

Ah yes, Gloucestershire's ground redevelopment proposal has been turned down and the Jessop Tavern View is now cursing the couple of minutes it wasted sending a begging email to the planning committee asking them to let the oversized, rowdy student flats (with no parking) to be built. Ok ok. So they weren't student flats in the final proposal, but the damn proposal went through so many changes we might have been applying to build a leper colony for all we know.

Last Wednesday, Bristol City council turned down the proposal in a narrow vote of 6 to 4. Kaiser Tom was predictably, "bitterly disappointed", presumably because he will actually now have to come up with a feasible solution to financing Gloucestershire cricket rather than relying on the dream that was a solitary international fixture every year.

The Kaiser commented.“This decision means that the International cricket programme in Bristol now stops and will be lost forever.  Furthermore, our overall future in Bristol is also in doubt.  It is no secret that Gloucester would be very keen to have us.  The funding from the development will be lost and the City risks losing what could be its only sports stadium. We need to consider our options, but time is running out.” 

Now the Jessop Tavern knows very little about the goings on in the boardroom of Gloucestershire County Cricket club. We're are imagining lots of cups of tea, some nice sandwiches, and then some editing of the poster for international fixture. Exactly how 'keen' Gloucester are to having county cricket is difficult to guage. We're a little skeptical.The story is that we would go and play at the old Wagon Ground, where we played between 1923 and 1992, and where Wally hammond was scored 317 out of a total of 400. Now the Jessop Tavern doesn't really remember these glory days, but we do wondering exactly where the money would come from in order to build the infrastructure needed for this site to host professional (well, sort of..) cricket.

So what happens next? There is talk of an appeal, but surely this is wasted effort. You have to love how Gloucestershire's official line is that there was "extensive public consultation" over the planning application, so extensive in fact that local residents formed a very well organised campaign group, Howzat. Clearly the club listened hard to what the locals wanted. Howzat explain why the proposal was turned down.



So based on this, its unlikely that any appeal would be able to address the 3 principal reasons for turning down the proposal in the first place. We are no experts, but who the hell for a seven story building was going to fit into the local area.....especially without enough car parking!

So where does the club go from here? What does this mean for the conditional contracts offered to Chris Taylor and Hamish O'Marshall. Who will replace Marshall's 401 runs? Is minor county cricket an inevitability? Would Jon Batty score any runs at this level?

Is it time for Gloucestershire to take a serious look at themsleves and reconsider exactly what sort of cricket club they are? I guess the curse of having such a large, and reasonably developed ground is that it has left Gloucestershire some what in limbo. A club that, in reality, are too small for their ground. Having a ground that has the potential to hold international cricket meant that increasingly over the last few years the principal focus of Gloucestershire cricket club was to provide for an international fixture at Bristol, in much the same way that county cricket provides for Test cricket. The only reason the cricket club existed was so that an international match could be held.

Now that will have to change. With no international matches set for the future Gloucestershire county cricket club will have to think about....well, cricket. It won't be an easy transition. But wouldn't it be nice to see the club move to a nice small, intimate ground that had a bit of personality, and to see a group of youngsters try to earn their spurs. It surely sounds better than more years watching Jon Batty and O'Mish running around Nevil Road.