A view outside the Shire: Tymal Mills

Everyone knows that the good people of the West Country are parochial folk. We don't like venturing too far from home. We aren't often concerned about the goings on any further than the end of our road. But the Jessop Tavern is about breaking boundaries, forging ahead into untried territories, so for the first time in 6 years, a piece about something outside the Shire.

Tymal Mills. Congenital back condition. 90mph speed merchant. T20 only. England call up.

At the start of the month Tymal Mills was given his first call up to the England T20 squad. Mills had been touted for England before. Before the last ashes tour he was mentioned as the English equivalent of Mitchell Johnson, despite having only played a handful of first class matches. Such is the desire for fast bowlers who can top 90 mph consistently. Last year Mills had to call time on his first class career at the tender age of 23 due to his back condition. Since then he has set his sights on forging a career in T20 cricket, with a doctor's note tucked firmly in his pocket should Andrew Strauss start tutting once again.

Mills has essentially become cricket's Ledley King. He plays one T20 a week and bowls a few 5 over spells in the nets. If bowling is all about rhythm and getting overs in you then Mills is a very modern anti-tradition practitioner. How workable this is as a way of managing his body could have interesting implications for the old boy coaching manuals.

So it was with interest that the Jessop Tavern took its seat at Arundel and watched Mills get to work. Over the years we have seen plenty of young tearaway quicks. The Jessop Tavern has fond memories of an entertaining West Indies A game at Cheltenham many moons ago that featured a small, fiery kid called Tino Best. Tino roared in, had a follow through that ended past the stumps at the batsman's end and literally terrorised every Gloucestershire batsman who faced him. Tim Hancock took to 'giving himself room' outside leg stump every ball. Quite a long way outside leg stump as well.

So how quick was Mills? Well, disappointingly slow if we are honest. Even on a sluggish wicket you would expect him to still generate enough pace through the air to get the crowd oohhing and aahhhing. Not really. Mills did seem to have a steady diet of slower balls, bowled in a few different ways. All of which the Jessop Tavern was picking from its seat at backward square leg. There were wides. There were byes. There was Benny launching him over the hospitality tents. Twice.

In short the Jessop Tavern was left slightly disappointed by England's latest T20 discovery. Less Mitchell Johnson, a bit more Jade Dernbach, but with less hair.

The Jessop Tavern is now heading back indoors having taken its first foray into looking at the outside world. Deep breaths. It'll be fine.

O'Mish inspires impressive win against Sussex

The Tavern getting to know the locals

T20 Blast: Glos beat Sussex by 11 runs.

After the previous day's wash-out against Hampshire Glos travelled along the south coast to beautiful Arundel to take on flashy Sussex-by-the-sea.

As 6,000 people discovered that one entrance to a cricket ground isn't the greatest idea, the Jessop Tavern took the time to have a catch-up with Sid the Shark and discuss the game ahead. The pace of Tymal Mills versus the superhuman run scoring of Michael Klinger? Sid gave a giant thumbs up to the idea that Klinger would fancy Mills' extra pace.

Sussex won the toss and soon had the big breakthrough. Ajmal Shazad, came back from the unknown, to trap Maxy Klinger LBW in only the second over. It was Sussex's only success for the next 13 overs as O'Mish and Ian Cockbain put together a magnificent 120 partnership for the second wicket. It was magnificent in lots of ways, primarily for the fact that the pitch appeared to not be the easiest to get started on, and took every batsman a little while to get the boundaries flowing. 

O'Mish was imperious, and his 90 from 55 balls was an exhibition in clean, clinical T20 hitting. Not obviously destructive, but working the ball intelligently and knowing which balls were his to hit. Cockbain intelligently played second fiddle. Giving O'Mish as much strike as possible.

After both were out the Glos innings then stuttered as the boundaries dried up as the new men found it harder to get going. That is until Benny the batsman strode to the wicket. At this point the Shire were in danger of posting a total that would fall short of the 180-190 that looked necessary. Benny is not a man who worries too much about getting his eye in and he launched several towering sixes to make sure that Glos posted a competitive total.

The bowling unit were soon under the cosh as Luke Wright helped himself to some typically lusty leg side blows. Wright looked a million dollars for his 71 from 47 balls, and as wickets continued falling at the other end he very quickly became the key to victory for Sussex. Fortunately Wright has made a career of looking a million dollars in only very short patches and on 71 he again swung agriculturally and found Andrew Tye at cow-corner off Benny the bowler. After Wright departed Sussex never really looked like pulling off the chase.

So Glos now have 3 victories in a row and are joint top of the South group for the T20 Blast (technically second on net average) The most pleasing thing is that they are now fully revived from their one day cup-induced slump. The team looks well balanced. Graeme Van Buuren was brought in to add additional spin options. Matt Taylor and David Payne have become very intelligent one day bowlers. Andrew Tye looks a tidy overseas signing. Benny and Gournet-Burger have brought variety. All of the bowlers look like they know exactly what their role is in the side and these roles are very clearly matching up with their skill-sets. A lot of credit goes to the coaching staff.

There is still a lot of cricket left in this season, but Glos are well placed now to be competitive for the rest of the year.

Video highlights:

Fire up the promotion bandwagon

Day1: Glos 300 for 3 (Housego 124*, Marshall 120*)




Somebody get on the phone to the builders at Nevil Road and tell them we're going to need a bigger trophy room. It's 2013 and the Shire's youngsters are heading for fame and glory. Promotion is as good as done and the only question is exactly how many double decker buses the boys need for the victory parade.

Removing the hyperbole; Gloucestershire started the 2013 season in frankly extraordinary fashion. Put in to bat by Essex the boys got off to a solid enough start before three wickets fell before lunch leaving Glos delicately poised at 71 for 3. Dan Housego, who endured something of a working over by veteran chugger David Masters when he first arrived at the crease, then proceeded to steady the ship with an innings of tremendous responsibility and poise. Hamish O'Marshall, coming in at what looks a more comfortable number 5 position added the acceleration and Gloucestershire's 2013 campaign was off and running.

O'Marshall hundreds are something like London buses. You wait three years for one, and then two come along....in successive seasons! More tellingly, Gloucestershire scored only 7 hundreds between them last season. After day 1 of the new season they already have two. O'Marshall, like older Gidders, has too much quality not to be scoring big runs regularly in division two and let's hope this is the start of a big season for the wee Irish man. Dan Housego, on the other hand, showed glimpses of quality last season, but never really put together a run of scores. Let's similarly hope that this is the start of his breakthrough year.

Essex went for the quick pairing of Maurice Chambers and Tymal Mills, neither of whom managed to impress the BBC Essex crew. New signing Saj Mahmood didn't make the cut after apparently being overbowled in pre-season. You really do know you've fallen a long way if you go from being an England sprayer to someone who was so overbowled in pre-season that they still got sent away to turn their arm over for the second XI. Exactly why England Lion Reece Topley isn't playing we can't tell you. Until Glos have a bowl its hard to tell precisely how poorly Essex bowled. You'd like to think that in early April Gloucestershire's seamers would find something more than the Essex attack managed.