Glos season preview 2012. Disclaimer: we know nothing

The Jessop Tavern View has this week been pondering what to put in this season's preview. Given that the county has lost several players from last year's 4th-placed squad and the only replacement of note has been perennial 2nd XI championship 'star' Dan Housego, we don't really have that much to say. Neither do the media by the looks of it, as so far we have only rated a paragraph or so in both the Guardian and Telegraph season previews.

County cricket has not been at the forefront of our minds recently, at least until we spotted Surrey captain Rory Hamilton-Brown on our run home from work yesterday. For those of you wondering what county players get up to in pre-season, we can exclusively reveal that he was carrying two takeaway pizzas from Pizza Express and a can of Coke! Presumably a Chris Adams-approved pre-match meal.

Anyway, on to matters at Nevil Road. Can fans of the Shire harbour any hope of promotion this year or are we doomed to yet another season of toil near the base of Division Two? To be honest, we don't have a clue!

Batting:

The departure of 2011's leading run-scorer Chris Taylor in fairly shameful circumstances has left a potentially gaping hole in the Glos middle order. The addition of Dan Housego from Middlesex has left us with one big question, how do you pronounce his name? Is it How-sego or House-go? A tricky dilemma for those of us who have barely seen him play. Commenters please feel free to put us right. We will see if his reputation as 'the best player in the 2nd XI championship' can help replace the Child's 1137 runs.

No sooner have we written this then a glance at Cricinfo confirms the slightly more exciting news that we've re-signed Kane Williamson as overseas for the first half of the season! Let's hope Kane can continue his form from the recent test series against South Africa (where he scored a match-saving hundred in the third test) as opposed to last year's Glos form (831 runs at 36.13). His is still only 21 and according to King John has improved in all forms of the game for New Zealand in the past few months. Goodness knows we could use some improvement in limited overs cricket, so let's hope so.

In other batting news, we're hoping from another solid season from captain Alex Gidman, although 1000 championship runs has to be the bare minimum requirement these days. The same should be said of Chris Dent, who can no longer rely on the tag of 'promising youngster' as justification for not converting attractive 50s into 100s.

Worryingly Hamish Marshall has been named vice-captain. Let's hope he's not doing too much mentoring of Housego and the youngsters, otherwise we could be seeing a lot more quick-fire 30s and 40s from the batsmen, before departing LBW to an ugly swipe. Even more worryingly, Jon Batty is still on the books. Notwithstanding the stacks of catches he took in his first season when we had Gemaal Hussain, Kirb and Lewis on the books, surely his signing has been an unmitigated disaster? Here's hoping we're not relying on him for key runs this season.

All-rounders:

It has also been announced that we have signed the lesser-known Muchall brother, all-rounder Paul, from Durham after a pre-season trial. Here's hoping he can recreate the success of the last all-rounder with limited first class experience signed from Durham.

Speaking of Will Gidman, if he can produced 80% of last season's 1006 runs and 51 wickets then Glos fans will be more than happy. We hope you will be, anyway.

Bowling:

For the first time in around 15 years, the seam attack will not be led by Jon Lewis. His departure for the bowler's paradise at The Oval has left a lack of real experience among the promising seam attack. The emergence last year of the better Gidders, David Payne and Liam Norwell, plus the return to fitness of Ian Saxelby has left us with a raw but promising core of quick bowlers. We're also hoping to see more of tearaway Kiwi quick James Fuller, who tore through a team of  Oxford students in a recent pre-season game at The Parks.

The two young spinners, Ed Young and Jack Taylor are both relatively inexperienced, having made their debuts in the last couple of years. Young spent the winter honing his tan skills at the Darren Lehmann academy in Perth and hopefully has returned having picked Lehmann's brain on more than just how to put away an enormous volume of alcohol and still be able to play the next day. On a bright note, the departure of Vikram Banerjee has improved the overall quality of our spin options immeasurably.

Predictions:

Here at the Jessop Tavern View we are not noted for our optimism. With an inexperienced squad shorn of two stalwarts of proven quality in Taylor and Lewis we foresee a season of struggle. The best we can hope for is a repeat of 4th or 5th place and a good run in one of the interminable one day competitions. We fear that 6th or 7th may be more realistic though. Here's looking forward to how it goes.

Sperm donor leaves Glos after 17 years

So the second exodus has begun. Jon Lewis will be filling up those test tubes in a London clinic next season. Sperm banks in the Bristol area will need to find a new regular donor.

It is not a surprise that Lewis has left given the circumstances surrounding the inability of the club to discuss new contracts until September. As an experienced, proven pro, Lewis was inevitably going to be the first to be snapped up.

Losing such a long standing player as Lewis is obviously disappointing, and his guaranteed 50 wickets a year will definitely be difficult to replace. Yet we at the Jessop Tavern View don't feel like this is too damaging to the squad. By the looks of the young bowlers who have come through this year, the bowling in the academy is stronger than the batting. Alongside Saxelby, Payne and Will Gidman, who have become championship regulars, we also have Liam Norwell who took wickets in the early part of the season before picking up a back injury. Add to this list James Fuller who has looked like he has potential in the few one day outings he has had. There is also young Matt Taylor who made his debut during the Cheltenham fortnight. Whilst none of these kids are yet in Lewis' class, they also aren't 36 years old, nor will they be wanting the sort of money that Lewis would. It would have been nice to have had Lewis' experience for another year at least, but our trusting to youth should be praised in this case.

Our attention now switches to the batsmen. Will Taylor and O'Mish follow Lewis out of the extra large Gloucestershire exit door? The difference here is that there have been less signs of young batsmen coming through. Chris Dent and Ian Cockbain look like proper batsmen, but other than these two we haven't seen any other youngsters being thrown in to the now meaningless CB40 games. There is a feeling that both Jack Taylor and Ed Young look more like batsmen than allrounders, and the club may also be thinking that these guys could fill in the middle order. The question is, do we feel that we are getting value for money from Taylor and O'Mish? Taylor has been a pretty inconsistent championship performer over the years. Marshall has only passed 1000 runs once in five and a half seasons. Taylor has passed 1000 runs twice in 10 seasons. Are these the sort of statistics we should be desperate to keep hold off?

We wait to see what happens. The only thing we know for certain is this is a complete mess.

Glos exodus: An alternative view

The Jessop Tavern View wrote recently about the potential loss of senior players Hamish Marshall, Chris Taylor and Jon Lewis. This situation could prove disruptive for a youthful Gloucestershire squad seeking promotion to Division 1 for the first time in years, but in the interest of balance, we would like to offer an different view on the situation.

Marshall, Taylor and Lewis are good pros and all three would be missed to varying degrees. You only have to rewind to the end of last season though, and a similar situation was occurring. At the time, the departures of the majority of our fast bowling attack seemed like a devastating blow which signalled the county's lack of ambition and, possibly more pertinently, money. Thinking about this with the benefit of hindsight however, the only player who has been a real loss to Gloucestershire is Steve Kirby. Gemaal Hussain has disappointed for Somerset, having failed to recreate last season's form on the flat pitches at Taunton. He is not currently in their Championship side. One could argue that at this point in his career, he is a prime example of a 'one season wonder'. William Porterfield scored his career-best 175 for us towards the end of 2010. He flattered to deceive throughout his Glos career though, and hasn't exactly been brilliant for Warwickshire so far, with 465 runs at 29. The less said about Anthony Ireland the better.

The point of this post was to look dispassionately at the potential departure of some of our senior players. It is worth suggesting that when John Bracewell was reappointed as coach towards the end of last season, he took a good hard look at personnel and contracts and made some tough decisions. Kirby, Hussain, Anthony Ireland and William Porterfield were out of contract at the end of 2010 and all had been subject to 28 day approaches by other counties. Bracewell and the Glos management may have taken a decision that it was worth losing these senior, but pricier, players in the hope of bringing through youth from the academy and elsewhere.

On to the case of Lewis, Taylor and Marshall. Jon Lewis has been a superb servant to Gloucestershire, but at almost 36 years old, will he take wickets on Division 1 pitches. Chris Taylor has had a good season, but it's his first one for a while. He's 34 and doesn't have many years left either. Hamish Marshall is a bit of a mystery.. In his first season in England he was top class, with 5 hundreds and 1200 runs. However, that was in 2006 and since then he has scored progressively fewer runs each season. This year, although limited to 5 Championship matches by family weddings and injuries, he has scored only 305 runs at 38 and is without a hundred. This is not the kind of record that makes an impoverished county desperate to offer you a new contract.

This is really the point with all three of the players above. You have to wonder whether any of them are up to Division 1 standard. They're good, but not great, and all are getting on a bit. It would be a great shame to see the back of Lewis, who has anchored the young seam bowling attack admirably, but at some point you have to say goodbye to even the longest-serving pros.

In summary then, perhaps the rumoured exodus of Glos players is not all bad. Fingers crossed that the new, younger generation of players have enough talent to deliver should we get promoted to Division 1. It will be a steep learning curve, but this season's performance have shown that the youngsters don't lack for fight.

Midseason report - Bowling

Apologies for the delay in to the second part of our mid season review. Some unexpected hill walking opportunities in the Scottish Highlands were to blame.

So, the bowlers.



This was the one area that Gloucestershire fans thought we would really struggle. Losing quality performers such as Steve Kirby and Gemaal Hussain and jokers such as Anthony Ireland left us Glos fans scratching our heads, wondering where the wickets would come from. With the Sperm donor not getting any younger and Ian Saxelby missing most of 2010 we were told that a bunch of academy kids would fill the 100 odd wickets that Kirby et al had taken last year. Our back-up seamers over the last decade reads like a who's-who of shit county cricket players. Whether we ever fielded an attack that included Carl Greenidge, Mark Hardinges and Will Rudge we are uncertain, but just the thought sends the coldest of shivers down our spine.

So who were these academy kids? Well first to declare himself was Liam Norwell who took 6 for 46 in the first innings of his first class debut. Sadly for the 19 year old paceman he has been denied the chance to really build on this due to a stress fracture in his back. However, 12 wickets in his first 3 matches was more than enough to ease the fears of the Gloucestershire faithful. David Payne's impact was similarly explosive, taking 5 for 76 in the second innings of the opening round win against Derbyshire. Payne has perhaps not quite lived up to this beginning, but 17 wickets at 39 is a solid enough showing from a teenager. It is to be hoped that both these kids can develop into the bowlers Gloucestershire need.

The Sperm donor continues to roll along, perhaps not quite as destructive as he used to be, but his skills are still more than enough for this standard of cricket and his experience is vital to bringing the kids through.

The two real stand-outs from the first half of the season have been Ian Saxelby and Will Gidman. Saxelby showed lots of promise in 2009 before being ruled out of most of the 2010 season with a shoulder injury. This season he has simply picked up on all the promise he showed 2 years ago, taking 35 wickets at 25. 'The other' Gidman has filled the roll of the allrounder that is so vital to a balanced side. His 27 wickets have come at an average of 22.

The discovery of Will Gidman as a genuine allrounder would allow Gloucestershire the luxury of playing a spinner without altering the make-up of the team to much. Sadly Glos do have a spinner really worthy of the name. Thankfully, Vikram Banerjee seems to have been cast into the long grass and will probably be next seen again playing in that wonderful 'development' side the Unicorns. The spinners role seems to now be a straight fight between two more youngsters, Ed Young and Jack Taylor. Young was given the first opportunity at Grace Road, but the sight of Kane Williamson bowling 20 odd overs on the final day as Young twiddled his thumbs in the outfield summed up his contribution. Jack Taylor was given his chance to stake a claim in the previous championship match against Middlesex and had a starring role in the t20 win against Somerset. Both of these kids can bat, but whether one of them can turn themselves into a genuine, top quality spinner remains to be seen.

An honourable mention should also be made to Craig Miles who, at 16 years of age, made a very respectable start to his first class career as a late injury replacement for Liam Norwell.

There have been very few sightings of 'reputedly quick' New Zealander James Fuller, or Lance Corporal David Wade who must be wondering whether a second tour of Afghanistan was all that bad an idea having now sampled the delights of the second XI county circuit.

All in all the bowling department has been a resounding success. There seems to be a little bit of competition for places, and the youngsters who have come in have genuinely looked quite handy. If one of either Ed Young or Jack Taylor could make a strong case to be the recognised spin option over the second half of the season then the Jessop Tavern View would declare itself chuffed to bits with the bowling department.

Ed Young hits half century as Glos recover after the rain

Day 2 close: Essex, 25-0, trail Gloucestershire 255, by 230 runs

The rain in Bristol falls mainly on Nevil Road. At least we have a good drainage system. Having seen 72 overs lost yesterday and a slow day's play on Day 1, The Jessop Tavern View has decided we will limit ourselves to a recap of events so far in the match.

Gloucestershire recovered well from the depth of 159-8 on Day 1, to reach 229-8 at the close of Day 1 and extended this to 255 all out yesterday. Notable performers came from three youngsters; Richard Coughtrie, Kane Williamson and former spin bowler and now batsman, Ed Young. Coughtrie belied his image as a man who could score 20 in 3 hours and then get out, by scoring 45 in over 3 hours and then getting out. This was a shame, as he had shown remarkable restraint on a day when the slip cordon was always interested, especially when the Division's leading wicket-taker David Masters was bowling. Kane Williamson again looked a class above the rest of the batting, as he struck 8 fours in an attractive 50, before immediately nicking Bopara to Foster, who took a stunning one-handed catch. This will have pleased Bopara, who now considers himself a bowling allrounder and will be hoping to replace the injured Jimmy Anderson for the Lords Test on Friday.

The third knock of note came from Ed Young, who struck his maiden first-class fifty. Young put on 70 with Jon Lewis, who again proved that a good technique is often overrated compared with a good eye and determination to stick around in seam-friendly conditions.

The Gidman brothers both failed, disproving the Jessop Tavern View's theory that one of the two will always be in good form, while the other disappoints. Alex Gidman again fell LBW attempting to work to leg. You would think that fresh off a big hundred in our last game and facing Reece Topley, a young left armer already gaining some column inches, he would have been wary of the inswinger early on in his innings. He was not, played all around it and was palpably LBW.

It was encouraging to see Chris Dent return to the side after his broken finger, but less pleasing to see him down at number 7. Having gone through this palaver last season, surely it is time for him to be given a consistent run at the top of the order? While credit is due to Coughtrie for opening for the majority of the season so far, you would think that we should aim to open with Dent and Cockbain where possible, if only for the fact that Dent already has a season of first class experience under his belt.

If the rain hold off today, it will be interesting to see if we can make inroads into the Essex batting lineup and make a match of it.

Solid Gloucestershire poised for victory over Kent

Kent 208 and 52 for 2 need 239 runs v Gloucestershire 206 and 292

Another good day's play has left Glos in a great position to win the match tomorrow. Kent needed to score 291 to win and at 52 for 2 with Joe Denly out of the match with a fractured thumb, the 'Shire would appear favourites unless it pours with rain or we suffer an implosion and bowl a load of dross. The dismissal of Sam Northeast, who took 10 off Jon Lewis' opening over, with the last ball of the day before the rain came was a big bonus. The pressure will be on the comedy backlift of Van Jaarsveld and 'old iron gloves' Geraint Jones in the morning with the ball still only 19 overs old.

We're not sure what to say about the Glos batting performance. It wasn't exactly a surprise to see us continue to lose wickets in clusters. Nor were we shocked to see Gidders make a start, then depart caught for 20, after a shot described by Cricinfo as an 'ugly smear' at Arsenal's Adam Ball. The club website led with the headline 'Saxelby shows his all-round qualities' which just goes to show that you can gloss over the lack of top order runs in a wide variety of ways. Will Gidman appears to have more appetite for sticking around than his brother, as he managed to bat for 79 balls for his 34. Perhaps we could swap them in the order if the skipper continues to throw his wicket away when basically set?

This kind of innings is fairly typical for the 'Shire and us hard-bitten supporters take a perverse pleasure in the boys making it harder then really necessary to get the win. It would almost be disappointing for us to rack up a huge total and then skittle the opposition for an easy win.

Roll on the second victory of the season!

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.

Glos begin CB40 season with 3 wicket win over Glamorgan

Gloucestershire 198 for 7 (Gidman 63, Harris 3-39) beat Glamorgan 197 for 8 (Walters 79, Lewis 4-41) by three wickets
 
Gloucestershire secured a relatively comfortable win over Glamorgan to get their CB40 campaign off to a solid start. Having bowled well to restrict Glamorgan to 198-7, Glos were always favourites after the skipper and O'Mish put on 117 for the second wicket. Gidman scored 63 and Marshall 55, before both perished to shots that Gidman described as ones 'Hamish and I will not want to remember', which led to the traditional mini-collapse to 146-5. However, young spinning all-rounder Ed Young guided the boys to victory with a composed 32 not out.

The successful chase followed a tight bowling performance, with Lewis and tearaway Kiwi paceman James Fuller reducing Glamorgan to 21-3, before Surrey reject Stuart Walters, along with Ben Wright and keeper Mark Wallace, helped drag the Dragons up to a reasonable total. Ed Young also bowled well, taking 1-24 from his 8 overs of slow left arm. Richard Dawson bowled 4 overs for 20, but that's to be expected from a man more used to putting the cones out at training these days.

This has already been pointed out by the Glos la la la blog, but it is worth emphasising- Glamorgan have not generally been a factor in this competition in recent years and this was a game Glos needed to win. Better teams will need to be overcome to get through Group C into the semi finals. The competition format, which sees only the three group winners, plus the best runner up qualifiying, means that consistent results are needed, otherwise your campaign can be over long before the interminable group matches are finished. Come to think of it, it sounds exactly like what the domestic Twenty20 competition has become.

Gloucestershire travel to Canterbury today to play Kent in the Championship. An important game having suffered a hiding from Glamorgan in our last CC match in Cardiff. No significant changes expected, with O'Mish stepping in to replace the injured Chris Dent. The Jessop Tavern View predicts a flashy 40, before a loose shot leads to his downfall. We're happy for you to prove us wrong, Hamish...

Familiar batting frailties undermine Glos bowling effort

Day 1: Glamorgan 202 v Gloucestershire 76 - 5. Oh dear.

Fifteen wickets falling on the opening day of a County Championship match? Time to call in the ECB pitch inspectors? No, just crap batting on a typical first day of a match involving Gloucestershire.

Glamorgan had already won the toss and lost their first wicket by the time I fired up Glos Cricket Radio. It's always encouraging when the opposition win the toss and bat, then end up 26-4! We managed to reduce them to 54-6 and for a moment were looking like bowling them out for a double figure score. However, a partnership of 138 in 22 overs between Ben Wright and former 'Colombian marching powder' fan Graham Wagg put them back on track. We eventually bowled them out for 202, with Ian Saxelby's shoulder remaining in its socket for long enough for him to take a career-best 5-53. Jon Lewis also took 3-40, all LBW and was the only bowler to go at less than 3.5 per over.

This looked rather a good score as the Gloucestershire innings got under way and we were swiftly reduced to 49-4 by some good seam bowling from James Harris and Adam Shantry. Chris Dent has yet to bat, cue speculation in the comments of the Guardian County live blog that we were messing around with the batting order and not showing faith in Chris Dent, despite opening with him last week. It turned out that he dislocated his little finger on his right hand, plus has a double fracture to the finger and will be out for several weeks. This is a blow and we could well be following on tomorrow without his runs. The innings closed with the 'Shire in big trouble at 76-5 with Gidders MKII and Saxelby at the crease.

Hard work will be required tomorrow to avoid a sizeable first innings deficit and a likely pumping from a Glamorgan side out to avenge a stuffing from Leicestershire last week. The only plus point for my co-blogger, who enquired after the score earlier this evening, was that Crofty is not playing and thus cannot spin us to defeat in the second innings.