The Jessop Tavern View rarely needs an excuse to put some meaningless cricket on the TV and while away a few hours, but up until now we haven't had the opportunity to watch the 'Big Bash' t20 competition from Australia.
However, with Sky conveniently airing endless live matches from Down Under over the Christmas period and the Shire having recently signed South Australia's Michael Klinger as captain for the 2013 season, we had the perfect opportunity to settle down in front of the box and enjoy some mindless slogging, all in the name of 'research'. And then spend three months thinking about writing this piece.
Conveniently, the official site has recently published a two part interview with Klinger where he talks a bit about his career so far, his IPL experiences and his motivations for joining Gloucestershire. One thing which we find slightly concerning in the interview and from looking at his career record is a clear preference for the shorter forms of the game. Klinger is coming to Bristol off the back of a mediocre Australian domestic season, where he's averaging just 19 from 9 first class matches with a highest score of just 56. (He'll fit right in with those figures). He's fared better in the one day arena, with 341 runs at 42, but reserves his best performances for the Big Bash, where he has a highest score of 71 and has a solid strike rate of 114.
So, what does all of this tell us about Klinger and his likely impact? Not much, really. The title of this article was a bit of a clue. What the Jessop Tavern View is worried about is that we've signed a captain whose best performances in recent years have been confined to the shorter form of the game. That's not a bad thing in itself, but Glos did finish bottom of Division Two of the County Championship last year and you would think that our 4 day performances are the most pressing issues facing the new skipper. We're probably over-analysing his 4 day performances, but in 11 first class appearances for Worcestershire in 2012, he scored 606 runs at 35 with just one hundred. The Jessop Tavern View is mildly concerned that we may not be getting our money's worth from a man, who at 32, may be better suited to T20 thrashes as opposed to constructing a long innings on English early season pitches.
Time will of course tell, and Klinger said all the right things in his interview with the official site- apart from the bit about being pleased to receive an email from Alex Gidman offering his help ahead of the new season. Those are the kinds of emails which need to go in his junk mail folder, or better yet, be deleted without reading.
Anyway, onwards and upwards with the first pre-season friendlies only 8 days away. It snowed here in London yesterday, so we're not imagining the players are exactly desperate to pull on the triple-layered sweaters. Even they are full of a bit more enthusiasm than us, wait until their cold hands feel the sting of the first booming cover drive from Marcus Trescothick down at Taunton in 10 days time...
A pair of long-suffering Gloucestershire County Cricket club fans attempt to put the world (and the Glos administration) to rights. Themes include: Is one England ODI a year a good model for financial success and ground redevelopments, whether a batting average of 35 in Division 2 of the County Championship is acceptable and why Glos continue to be rubbish.
Showing posts with label Worcestershire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worcestershire. Show all posts
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Thursday, 5 July 2012
The Hamish bandwagon is heading to Cardiff
t20: Gloucestershire beat Worcestershire by 7 wickets.
The Jessop Tavern View can picture the scene in the dressing room at Nevil road. Ed Cowan turns up. King John introduces him to the boys. Then O'Mish stands on his little soap box in one corner and reads from a piece of paper.
"Ed Cowan is a grinder. He averages 12 in t20 cricket. His highest score is 25. He's taking the place of a young aspiring Gloucestershire hopeful. He's a mercenary."
Cowan is left fuming. "I've only just arrived", he muses, "and already the press are on my back. Well fuck this. Somebody said I was signing for the county that WG, Hammond, Procter and Walsh use to play for. I thought this would be a proper professional cricket team. First they want me to teach pilates, and now this. Bollocks to it".
Seeing the expression on his face, captain O'Mish comes over. "Don't worry about it Ed", he states, leading Cowan across the dressing room to a large cork notice board on the other side of the room. "It's not the press who write this crap. It's two dicks who think they're big and clever. They just write a blog that's only read by their dad and some bloke who works in an ethnic handbag shop". Cowan scratches his head as if struggling to comprehend, then stammers, "These guys write about division two county cricket in their spare time. Christ! How pathetic can you be."
"We know" says rested captain Gidders walking over. "Look Ed. They're basically pillocks, but we've taken to using the shit they write to fire us up. They kept banging on about how Mish didn't have a hundred in 3 years. Now he's a run machine. They said we didn't have any strike bowlers. Then we ran through top of the table Derbyshire. Now they say signing you is a mistake. Just stick it to them Ed. Just stick it to them."
A few hours later Ed and O'Mish are stood in front of the notice board with a beer and broad grins on their faces. The two of them have contributed a partnership of 142 to help Glos chase down a total of 159 with two overs to spare. "Strewth, those guys really are dicks", Ed murmurs to no one in particular. Mish nods sagely. "But they're propelling us to glory Ed. They're propelling us to glory my boy".
The Jessop Tavern View can picture the scene in the dressing room at Nevil road. Ed Cowan turns up. King John introduces him to the boys. Then O'Mish stands on his little soap box in one corner and reads from a piece of paper.
"Ed Cowan is a grinder. He averages 12 in t20 cricket. His highest score is 25. He's taking the place of a young aspiring Gloucestershire hopeful. He's a mercenary."
Cowan is left fuming. "I've only just arrived", he muses, "and already the press are on my back. Well fuck this. Somebody said I was signing for the county that WG, Hammond, Procter and Walsh use to play for. I thought this would be a proper professional cricket team. First they want me to teach pilates, and now this. Bollocks to it".
Seeing the expression on his face, captain O'Mish comes over. "Don't worry about it Ed", he states, leading Cowan across the dressing room to a large cork notice board on the other side of the room. "It's not the press who write this crap. It's two dicks who think they're big and clever. They just write a blog that's only read by their dad and some bloke who works in an ethnic handbag shop". Cowan scratches his head as if struggling to comprehend, then stammers, "These guys write about division two county cricket in their spare time. Christ! How pathetic can you be."
"We know" says rested captain Gidders walking over. "Look Ed. They're basically pillocks, but we've taken to using the shit they write to fire us up. They kept banging on about how Mish didn't have a hundred in 3 years. Now he's a run machine. They said we didn't have any strike bowlers. Then we ran through top of the table Derbyshire. Now they say signing you is a mistake. Just stick it to them Ed. Just stick it to them."
A few hours later Ed and O'Mish are stood in front of the notice board with a beer and broad grins on their faces. The two of them have contributed a partnership of 142 to help Glos chase down a total of 159 with two overs to spare. "Strewth, those guys really are dicks", Ed murmurs to no one in particular. Mish nods sagely. "But they're propelling us to glory Ed. They're propelling us to glory my boy".
Monday, 11 June 2012
Will Gidman rekindles the glory years
CB40 result: Glos beat Worcs by 109 runs.
Whisper this quietly, but Glos might be on the verge of becoming a decent one day side. No, quieter than that. Plus we did say, 'on' the verge of becoming a good one day outfit. There's no telling how long that verge stretches into the distance.
Yesterday Gloucestershire dismantled Worcestershire at New Road. We still don't know why Will Gidman is opening the batting, but yesterday he came good and got the team off to a solid start with 76 runs from 98 balls. Big brother then helped out with a rapid fire fifty to post a respectable total of 238 from the ridiculous 40 overs.
This is hardly a spectacular total. It's not mouth watering. It doesn't win a game by itself. But it is very competitive. It's also exactly the sort of total Glos use to post regularly back in the glory days of King John's first trip on the Gloucestershire haycart. It's the sort of total that good, tight early bowling makes look very good. Now unfortunately this Gloucester team doesn't have a Harv and Smudger to send down the first 10 overs whilst barely conceding a run, but yesterday Will Gidman did a bloody good impression. Heck, even muck flinging James Fuller did a good job. David Payne also continued his good form since returning from injury. After 10 overs, Worcestershire were 25 for 5. Game over.
Gloucestershire now lie third in the imaginatively titled Group A, five points behind surprising leaders Holland, but with three games in hand. The tournament now moves aside for the t20 circus, resuming again in a month's time when everyone will have forgotten what is happening and the competition will have lost all impetus. Seriously, would it be that difficult to play all the group matches before the t20. Then have a break, and have the knockout stage of the competition in the second half of the season? Why do you want to stop a competition in its tracks, and then try and resume it again. The structure of the CB40 competition leads itself very logically to playing group games first, then a break, then the excitement of the knockout rounds. Maybe that's just us. Or maybe we are just cricket administration geniuses and nobody else has the Jessop Tavern View's clarity of vision. Somehow we doubt this last point is true.
Anyway, getting back to Glos. A lot of credit needs to go to....and take a big gulp here....King John and the coaching staff. The comparisons with the magnificent one day side of a decade ago are there for all to see. Intelligent batting that sets competitive totals. Disciplined bowling that keeps the pressure on the opposition. Wonderful fielding. Ok, so the quality isn't quite the same. For Boo-Boo, read captain Gidders. For Kimbo, read Hamish Marshall. For smudger, read David Payne. For Snape and Ball, read Taylor and Young. For Jack, read (and this one is painful) Jon Batty. You see what we mean. Still, the blueprint is the same, and the real secret of Gloucester's success 10 years ago was the team ethos. The team was always better than merely the sum of its parts.
So lets hope this can continue. It will certainly be interesting to watch how the boys go in the t20.
Whisper this quietly, but Glos might be on the verge of becoming a decent one day side. No, quieter than that. Plus we did say, 'on' the verge of becoming a good one day outfit. There's no telling how long that verge stretches into the distance.
Yesterday Gloucestershire dismantled Worcestershire at New Road. We still don't know why Will Gidman is opening the batting, but yesterday he came good and got the team off to a solid start with 76 runs from 98 balls. Big brother then helped out with a rapid fire fifty to post a respectable total of 238 from the ridiculous 40 overs.
This is hardly a spectacular total. It's not mouth watering. It doesn't win a game by itself. But it is very competitive. It's also exactly the sort of total Glos use to post regularly back in the glory days of King John's first trip on the Gloucestershire haycart. It's the sort of total that good, tight early bowling makes look very good. Now unfortunately this Gloucester team doesn't have a Harv and Smudger to send down the first 10 overs whilst barely conceding a run, but yesterday Will Gidman did a bloody good impression. Heck, even muck flinging James Fuller did a good job. David Payne also continued his good form since returning from injury. After 10 overs, Worcestershire were 25 for 5. Game over.
Gloucestershire now lie third in the imaginatively titled Group A, five points behind surprising leaders Holland, but with three games in hand. The tournament now moves aside for the t20 circus, resuming again in a month's time when everyone will have forgotten what is happening and the competition will have lost all impetus. Seriously, would it be that difficult to play all the group matches before the t20. Then have a break, and have the knockout stage of the competition in the second half of the season? Why do you want to stop a competition in its tracks, and then try and resume it again. The structure of the CB40 competition leads itself very logically to playing group games first, then a break, then the excitement of the knockout rounds. Maybe that's just us. Or maybe we are just cricket administration geniuses and nobody else has the Jessop Tavern View's clarity of vision. Somehow we doubt this last point is true.
Anyway, getting back to Glos. A lot of credit needs to go to....and take a big gulp here....King John and the coaching staff. The comparisons with the magnificent one day side of a decade ago are there for all to see. Intelligent batting that sets competitive totals. Disciplined bowling that keeps the pressure on the opposition. Wonderful fielding. Ok, so the quality isn't quite the same. For Boo-Boo, read captain Gidders. For Kimbo, read Hamish Marshall. For smudger, read David Payne. For Snape and Ball, read Taylor and Young. For Jack, read (and this one is painful) Jon Batty. You see what we mean. Still, the blueprint is the same, and the real secret of Gloucester's success 10 years ago was the team ethos. The team was always better than merely the sum of its parts.
So lets hope this can continue. It will certainly be interesting to watch how the boys go in the t20.
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