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.

Who needs more than three bowlers?

Day 2: Glamorgan 64 for 6 v Gloucestershire


After the disappointing defeat to Lancashire in the CB40 on monday night Glos were presumably delighted to finally not be appearing on tv with the return of proper cricket.

Apparently this is the first time Gloucestershire and Glamorgan have actually managed to play any cricket against each other this season, with all 3 previous matches being complete washouts. Not that we weren't far off another washout today, with only 27 overs possible in the afternoon. Still, this was enough time for Glos to reduce Glamorgan to 64 for 6 and hopefully set up the win that will keep the boys vaguely interested in the promotion chase.

The Jessop Tavern View is praising some heavenly body for the return of Richard Coughtrie, and thus common sense, to the four day side. Coughtrie might not be brilliant, but we'd rather see a crap youngster than Jon Batty keeping wicket. We are ok with Batty keeping in the one dayers, but haven't seen any value in him keeping Coughtrie out of the championship side. Let's hope that the young keeper is allowed to develop his batting down the order, and isn't pressed into action further up the batting lineup which proved his undoing at the start of the season. Frankly, Coughtrie is probably always going to be a very limited batsman. But with seven batsmen selected for this match, he shouldn't be too exposed.

Jack Taylor also makes a welcome return to the team. Ed Young hasn't really showed the progress that Gloucester fans would have liked to have seen from his time eating pies and drinking beer at Darren Lehman's academy down under, and it's about time Taylor were given his opportunity. His two wickets  from 6 overs on a turning first day pitch was a very good return.

Bizarrely, King John has decided that seven batsmen, and thus only three full time bowlers are the way forward. We are not entirely convinced, especially since one of those bowlers, Jack Taylor, hasn't played a championship game since August last year. However, with Glamorgan already 6 down, and the pitch inspector checking himself in to the local Premier Inn in order to come back and have another look tomorrow, seven batsmen looks a very clever move.

Sadly the forecast is not exactly promising for the rest of the game and so a result may well prove beyond either side.

Day 1 video highlights below:

Six for Sax

Ian Saxelby is a guy we don't talk that much about. We're not exactly sure why, although it could be something to do with ginger hair. Since acquiring Saxelby in 2008 he has quietly gone about the business of becoming a very handy county performer. He also missed the entire 2010 season after dislocating his shoulder climbing out of a swimming pool. The Jessop Tavern View is a fan of comedy injuries.

Last season Saxelby took 40 wickets at an average of 31 in the county championship. This season he has taken 26 wickets at 26. Hardly mind blowing stuff, but solid, reliable stats. Fill your team with players like this and you are well on your way to having a good side.

Yesterday Saxelby took career best figures of 6 for 48 to help Glos bowl out Leicestershire for 162 on day 2 of their championship match.

The Jessop Tavern View was chuffed to bits with this performance as it kept up to date with goings on via the ECB phone app. We were less chuffed to bits when the app then malfunctioned dramatically as Glos began their reply by indicating that Jon Batty was opening the batting for us. After shaking the damn phone to bits trying to correct what was surely an error, we resigned ourselves to looking on Cricinfo instead to confirm that this was in fact not an error, but instead a horrible nightmare return to the 2010 season.

We know that Rob Nicol has not arrived yet, and that Chris Dent is injured, but honestly! It's bad enough the man is in the side at all, let alone opening the batting. Now since the Jessop Tavern View very rarely gets to actually watch Glos in action we can only presume that Batty is keeping like an absolute God at the moment. I'm sure that the club would spout something about experience behind the stumps to help the young bowlers. Nobody ever realises that experience is only useful if you are any good. Experience from rubbish players isn't good, it's rubbish. Perhaps King John is a big fan of Bull Durham, and sees Batty as the Kevin Costner figure. Sadly Batty doesn't have Kev's home run power from that film, nor, we presume, is he shagging Susan Sarandon.

On a more serious point, do Glos have any young batsmen knocking at the door? We've been very impressed with the young bowlers who have been developed, plus we know that guys like Craig  Miles and Graeme McCarter are also waiting in the wings. But are there any batsmen? The necessity to sign Benny and The House suggest not.

With only two days left in this match there is still plenty of time for Glos to win. Whether the weather permits enough play will be another matter.

Cowan cashes in

We knew Ed Cowan was a good signing. We said he was test class. We said he'd have a point to prove to the Aussie selectors. Hell, all Aussies score runs in county championship. It's as certain as day turning into night. Let's not consider the fact that Cowan will basically have ended up being signed for that solitary t20 innings against Worcestershire. It's money well spent to help an Aussie get a feel for English conditions. After all, they'd do the same for us!

Anyway, the rain has ruined the first championship match at this years Cheltenham festival but not before Ed Cowan had the chance to prove to English fans that he'll be much less fun to watch in the ashes than Phil Hughes. Cowan's 103 occupied 268 balls, all be it in trying conditions. Cowan has already indicated that he would fancy playing for Glos in the future, presuming when the Aussie selectors work out that he's a 30 year old grinder averaging less than 30 in test cricket. Judging by his merciless plunder so far, we'd welcome him back!

HOM continues to look back to his imperious 2006 form. Those 5 years have been worth the wait.

Dan Housego took his opportunity to prove he is very much in the mix with a stubborn 60.

All in all, from what little play has been possible, its been all positives.

The downside is that Will Gidman was unavailable for selection due to a side injury. Much like Yoga, the better Gidders offers Glos fantastic flexibility and balance by being able to bat at 6 and open the bowling. If this injury rules him out for any length of time then it will be interesting to see how King John chooses to shuffle his pack. Ed Young has been picked for this match, and offers depth to the batting if not much of a spin threat. With Jon Batty still in the side Glos are already playing with only 10 batsmen. 9 and a half if we accept that the skipper never really fancies it when the ball moves around. As for Chris Dent? Well God himself is sat wondering what has happened to his finger injury. Is it too much to ask that when the official website posts team news (almost an hour into play on the first morning of a game) that they include a little bit of an injury update to players who would normally have been selected? What's that you say? It is too much. Fair enough.

Day 1 highlights:



Day 2 highlights:

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.

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.