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.

5 Kane Williamsons for 1 Ed Cowan

It's Saturday morning, and what better way to spend it than by reading 'This Is Bristol' a website to whom we are not entirely sure which newspaper it is actually affiliated with.....

Anyway, today sees an interesting article concerning the relative costs of overseas players, and in particular Ed Cowan.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Odds-Ed-Cowan-returning-Gloucestershire/story-16528681-detail/story.html

Firstly, whilst Ed Cowan looks a born bully of second division county attacks, Kane Williamson didn't look bad at the start of the season, averaging over 50. Williamson is also a young, exciting batsman whose potential is probably only really limited by the fact that he is a New Zealander. We'd be much happier to see Gloucester resign Williamson.

Secondly, if Kane Williamson comes at 20% of the cost of Ed Cowan, then how much have Glos ended up paying for Cowan's 6 game stint? Is this money that could have been better spent?

Humble pie never tasted so good

Gloucestershire beat Derbyshire by 7 wickets.

The Jessop Tavern View would like to apologise for the lack of posting on Gloucestershires glorious recent victory over run away division two leaders Derbyshire. We have slowly been chewing our way through a mountain of humble pie.

First we accuse Hamish Marshall of being washed up and more interested in maintaining his perm. He responds with two hundreds and a run of consistency we haven't seen since 2006. Then we question whether there is any talent in the Gloucester youngsters and, in particular, where are strike bowlers are. Liam Norwell, David Payne and the better Gidders then all respond with spells that impact the course of the match. Then we criticise the skipper of averaging only 18 and not pulling his weight. He sticks it to us with a match winning first innings hundred. Finally Jon Batty responded to our accusations of being shit by.....ok, ok, so Jon Batty is still very definitely rubbish.


Gloucestershire demolished a Derbyshire team who, until their trip to Nevil road, had been unbeaten this season. The bowling in particular was a welcome reminder of the talent we saw last season, but which had been sorely lacking this term. Picking four seamers and disposing with the services of Ed Young looks a far better bet. Relying on just three young bowlers to consistently provide the firepower is to put too much pressure on players still learning their way. With four seamers you take away some of this pressure and encourage the lads to be aggressive. Run in. Bowl hard. Look to take wickets. If you bowl crap then let someone else have a go. With four guys doing this you increase the chance of one of them having success. The result is bowling out the lead leaders for 95 just after lunch on day one. Whether this rotation of four seamers is viable when a spinner becomes a necessity remains to be seen. At the moment Kane Williamson is probably a better bowler than Ed Young, and thus provides spin cover. When Williamson heads off for international duty this might become more of a problem. (And speaking of Williamson, any news on who is replacement might be yet.....nope, thought not!)

The other pleasing thing about this victory was the way Gloucestershire closed it out. Heading towards the end of day two Derby were poised to fight back on 200 for 4, with two batsmen well set with fifties. In steps David Payne to remove Derby captain Wayne Madsen before the close. The following day the Gloucester dressing room must have known that chasing anything over 150 would be tough, especially given what happened in 2010 against the same opponents, and knowing that they only had 9 batsmen, with Chris Dent nursing a broken finger and Jon Batty opening. Will Gidman then took four quick wickets on day three and Glos only needed 84 to win. Despite losing our man Batty in the first over of the chase, Benny the Frenchman, and Williamson set up a comfortable finish.

So congratulations to the boys. And congratulations to the Jessop Tavern View. We like to think that our constant negativity and over the top criticism of good honest pros trying their best was a source of inspiration to the shire. We can picture our latest posts being pinned up on the dressing room wall by King John in order to fire the guys up. You're welcome.

At least we didn't die wondering

Yorkshire forfeit and 402 for 6 (Jaques 160, Ballance 121*) beat Gloucestershire 351 for 9 dec (Williamson 111, Bresnan 5-81, Patterson 4-77) and 48 for 0 dec by four wickets

So, we lost the game to Yorkshire on Saturday. By the end it was a bit of a rout, with both Phil Jaques and Gary Ballance having scored hundreds. Some fans may be disappointed that we even set Yorkshire a target, but let's be realistic, they scored 370 in a day to win, which is good going at Bristol, even against an inexperienced attack such as ours. There is no shame in losing to such a strong side as Yorkshire, who featured Adil Rashid coming in at number nine should they have needed him. Yorkshire were also under pressure, having been relegated last season and then failing to win in their opening 3 chanpionship matches.

Phil Jacques is a quality player, with 9 hundreds in 28 matches and a first class average approaching 50. Let's not forget he also scored 3 hundreds in his 11 tests for Australia. I'm not sure that facing an attack comprising Will Gidman, Ian Saxelby, debutant Graeme McCarter and Ed Young, plus various part timers, was the greatest challenge he's ever faced. As Alex Winter mentions in his Cricinfo report, taking wickets became particularly difficult on a pitch which made taking wickets with the old ball 'exceptionally difficult'. Gary Ballance's superb unbeaten hundred should not be overlooked either. Yorkshire needed someone else to contribute alongside Jaques and the Zimbabwean delivered in fine style, ending 121* with consecutive sixes off Ed Young.

Still, a lot to be positive about from a Glos perspective. Kane Williamson struck a superb hundred (his third in successive matches, including his match-saving century for New Zealand against South Africa) and looks in sublime touch already. Chris Dent again scored important first innings runs and Graeme McCarter performed very well for a 19 year old on championship debut. Even Hamish Marshall almost got a 50!

As Alex Gidman said after the game, things could be a lot worse for such a young and inexperienced side. At least we showed some spirit to set up a run chase and bowled with a lot of heart in trying to defend the target. No championship game for the 'Shire this week, but Northamptonshire away next week should be a tough challenge.

Video highlights from Day 4 below:

Game on in Bristol after captains collude

Yorkshire forfeit and 30 for 1 need 370 more runs to beat Gloucestershire 351 for 9 dec (Williamson 111, Bresnan 5-81, Patterson 4-77) and 48 for 0 dec


Normally when you read a headline like the above in relation to cricket, people start getting twitchy and wondering whether the likes of Salman Butt are involved. However in this case it was merely some enterprising captaincy from Alex Gidman and Yorkshire's Andy Gale. Declaration bowling, an innings forfeiture and a 'contrived' run chase- it all happened at Nevil Road yesterday as Glos and Yorks tried desperately to set up a result on Day 4.

The match was previously meandering towards a draw with Gloucestershire 299-9, having suffered a trademark collapse of 5-9 from 290-4. Instead of pushing for the final wicket however, Gale brought himself on along with Adam Lyth and they fed a selection of tasty pies in the direction of Ian Saxelby and debutant Graeme McCarter. The numbers 10 and 11 added 52 in just over 3 overs, before declaring and taking tea. Yorkshire then forfeited their first innings, before Glos crawled to 48-0 from 28 overs before declaring for a second time, to set Yorkshire a victory target of 400 from a minimum of 110 overs. The Jessop Tavern View are fans of positive cricket in all circumstances and we say 'tough luck' to those Glos supporters at the game reported to have grumbled about the contrived circumstances. What would they rather see, another tedious Day 4 peter out into an inevitable draw, or the opportunity for all three results?

The enterprising 'conspiracy' between Gidman and Gale left Glos 14 overs to have a crack at the Yorkshire batting lineup and Will Gidman duly obliged by having Joe Sayers caught behind by Coughtrie. If captain Gidders hadn't grassed Lyth at slip and Phil Jaques' inside edge had carried onto his stumps then Yorkshire could have been in a world of trouble overnight. As things stand, they managed to reach 30 without further loss of wickets. Day 4 could provide an interesting day's cricket, as a powerful Yorkshire batting lineup, led by Jaques, face off against Glos' inexperienced seam attack who were denied the chance to bowl against Kent in similar circumstances a few weeks back. The Jessop Tavern View thinks Alex Winter's Cricinfo report is perhaps too harsh on young Ed Young's slow left armers. We're not saying he's the new Monty Panesar or anything, buts let's see what impact he can have tomorrow before we write him off completely, eh Snowy?

Video highlights of Day 3 below:

Kane Williamson's arse

Gloucestershire fans have been given a taste of the future so far this season with not a single ball being bowled at Nevil Road until today.

Eventually the rain cleared enough for 50 overs to be bowled by probably the best attack in division 2. Given our slightly flaky batting so far this season, Glos fans might well have expected to see us in a similar position to Kent's 24 for 5, but no. Kane Williamson is finally finding his county championship mojo, and is now tucking in to the meek division 2 attacks and helping himself. Chris Dent also applied himself nicely to put Gloucestershire in a position from which they cannot lose this game.

There is not a lot else to say here, other than for us to direct you over to cricinfo for Alex Winter's excellent piece, blowing hot air up Kane Williamson's arse. Our only question is, has Williamson's excellence on the cricket field seen a slump in the quality of his pilates classes? Gym members, please get in touch.

Video highlights from Day 2 below:

Preview: Gloucestershire v Yorkshire

Jason Gillespie's Yorkshire gypsies bring their caravans to Nevil Road for an intriguing division two match-up that will teach us much about exactly what sort of season Gloucestershire fans can expect. Perhaps Kaiser Tom, and the rest of the Gloucestershire board will encourage Dizzy to leave his caravan after the match in order to piss off the locals into granting us our block of flats.

A few weeks ago Gloucestershire's squad looked threadbare, after a couple of early season injuries to David Payne and Dan 'The House'. However, the arrival of Benny and the Pilates instructor means there is suddenly some competition for places in the batting order. The bowling unit is still struggling to find a consistent attack. Whilst the better Gidders and Ian Saxelby (with 17 and 13 wickets respectively) have been excellent, the rest of the attack has struggled to keep things tight. Fourballs Fuller misses today's match, as does David Payne. Young Irishman Graeme McCarter is brought into the squad after taking wickets on debut at Lords on Monday. The Jessop Tavern View hopes he is now thrown into the 4 day team straight away, ahead of the Corporal and Paul Muchall.

Last week against Derby, Glos went into the game with four full time bowlers, and Will Gidman batting at 6. This weakened batting yielded one poor innings, and one excellent one. With the skipper sure to come back into the side it will be interesting to see how King John chooses to approach the match. Yorkshire's strength would appear to be in their international bowling attack, thus retaining all the batsmen and adding the skipper at the expense of a bowler would seem to make sense. Yet again, Glos can thank their lucky stars for the emergence of Will Gidman, and the balance that his genuine allrounder status brings to the squad. Kane Williamson came in last week and looked like the class act he is. Any man who makes proper runs against the Saffers in the test arena should be helping himself in division 2. Can O'Mish continue to claw his way back into form? Can Benny continue his fine start to his Gloucestershire career? Can Dent and Cockbain build on encouraging starts to their seasons and go on to threaten the 1000 run mark? It's still too early in the year for the skipper to be scoring runs.

Yorkshire will be without the services of Aussie quick Mitchell Starc, after he buggered up his visa. Clearly he should have said he was coming to teach Pilates. He now has to fly back to Oz to fill in the necessary forms (check out cricinfo's amusing step into the world of comedy picture captions). Yorkshire will still field an experienced international attack, with the likes of Sidebottom, Bresnan and Rashid all due to play. Yorkshires batting will also be depleted, with England Lions youngsters Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow both away to warm up the Windies. Whilst Yorkshire might not be at full strength, they still represent a considerable challenge. Glos have some how managed to play a game more than everyone else in division 2, and due to the rain, the table is currently very bunched. Thus, despite it being only early May, this is already a big game for Glos.

Pilates fans: Classes resume as of Thursday

Kane Williamson is back. Yes readers, the prodigal son, the man who averaged 36 for us last year has returned to Nevil Road in time to sit in the pavilion for the best part of 4 days, while occasionally nipping off to teach his daily Pilates class in the club gym.

Anyway, the forecast for our first home Championship game of the season is rubbish, so we're not sure a match preview has much value. For what it's worth, Glos are without David Payne (injured) and Paul Muchall (rested), so James 'fourball' Fuller and corporal David Wade come into the squad along with Williamson.

We quite often lose to Glamorgan in embarrassing fashion, so the Jessop Tavern View is minded to pray for rain and look for victories in May.

So we're not supposed to celebrate draws now?

Kent 150 (W Gidman 5-43) and 94 for 2 drew with Gloucestershire 255 and 257 for 7 dec.

The Jessop Tavern View was rather surprised to read some surprisingly downbeat match reports after rain curtailed the final day at Canterbury, with Kent on 94-2. This draw leaves the boys 3rd in the table with 33 points from our opening three fixtures of the season. In case you missed it before, all three matches were away from Nevil Road.

We're pretty happy with 33 points from three, considering that the first game was a comprehensive spanking from Essex inside three days. To recap, Gloucestershire dominated for much of the match and were unlucky to lose a frontline bowler as well as see rain take time out of the game. The pitch flattening out as the match wore on didn't help either.

The day began with Glos batting on from 191-3 and taking their second innings score up to 257-7. The skipper struck a six of Davies before falling LBW to Matt Coles and Ian Cockbain fell in the same manner. Hamish Marshall scored a much-needed 74, his highest score in the County Championship since July 2010 (that is a terrible statistic), before being run out by Brendan Nash. This knock will likely secure his place for the rest of the season, as the 'shire have a small squad, a fact noted by King John after the match. He cautioned that such a small and youthful squad can ill-afford injuries such as the side strain which could keep David Payne out for a few weeks.

Worryingly, the arrival of one man who could strengthen the squad, gym instructor Kane Williamson, may again be delayed by visa issues. There remains the possibility that he may not arrive in time for the Glamorgan game starting at Bristol on Thursday. You would have though the club's administrators would have learned their lesson from last year's visa debacle. We then realised that we are talking about Gloucestershire, a county who based their entire financial future on gaining planning permission for a massive block of flats which no-one (especially the local council) wanted.

Wanted: Promising, young New Zealander

Last week the club website announced the return of Kane Williamson is to return to the Nevil road gym staff....and, we presume, the Gloucestershire middle order. Whilst 800 odd runs from a test class batsman in division 2 was hardly a great return last year, the guy clearly has talent and his youth fits nicely with the rest of the team. We'd rather see a young international star than some journeyman Aussie of Saffer if nothing else.

What we failed to pick up on was the fact that he will clear off half way through to season to enjoy some Caribbean sun with New Zealand. But fear ye not for King John has had a word with his old contacts and young Kane will be replaced by and as yet unnamed future kiwi superstar...who will be decided on by the New Zealand cricket board. Presumably they are sat around a table as we speak, scratching their heads as to where they will find such a person......

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.

Chris Taylor takes Glos to tribunal... County reply by signing Dan Housego

What is going on over at Nevil Road this off season? From the blunt rejection by Bristol Council of the Shire's ground redevelopment plans, to the news that Chris Taylor is taking the county to an employment tribunal after failing to agree a new contract, it seems that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

We think it's bloody sad to see Taylor go after 12 years of service, particularly following his return to form with the bat last season. Surely Hamish Marshall is kissing his lucky four leaf clover after it turned out that his renegotiated deal wasn't dependant on the outcome of the planning application. You have to wonder why the club showed more loyalty to the Kiwi Irishman, whose form has dipped every season since his debut in 2006 over a loyal servant, coming off a good season and who has managed to land himself a coaching role in the England Lions setup. We're sure Tom Richardson has his reasons. It would be good to hear whether he thinks he made the right decision if Taylor wins at the tribunal.

The one potential bright spot is the signing of Dan Housego from Middlesex. Now, I've just read that sentence again and I realised it sounds insane. On the face of it, he's not great, averaging 31 in 8 appearances in 2011 (some may say this is the perfect average for a Gloucestershire number three). However, he was the top run-scorer in 2nd XI cricket last year (we know) and at 23, he has time on his side. He also began his career with the Glos academy, so the signing is a homecoming of sorts. He's pencilled in to bat at number three and it will be interesting to see how he fills the role occupied by much-hyped gym instructor, Kane Williamson last year. Williamson was a disappointing acquisition in our eyes and his form with the bat flattered to deceive. Sure, he scored a couple of hundreds and looked great in doing so, but he also had numerous failures, which isn't good enough for a batsman of his calibre playing in Division 2, a place where Geoffrey Boycott's grandma and her stick of rhubarb would cash in every time.

In other news, readers of the official site (all three of you) will have enjoyed Ed Young's posts from the Darren Lehmann Cricket Academy in Perth. Let's hope that the experiences gained while sunning himself in Oz while the rest of us freeze our arses off in the UK will stand him in good stead when the new season begins in April. I'm sure most of you are aware that we've re-signed Murali for T20 matches in 2012. For all the impact he had last year, The Jessop Tavern View wonders if Glos might have been better off saving their pennies. They may well need them now the ground redevelopments aren't going ahead.

Midseason report - Batting

With the neverending tedium of the T20 group stages finally drawing to a close we can now begin to look ahead to the rest of the season as Gloucestershire's youngsters try to build on their surprisingly strong start to the season. Let's not jinx things and mention promotion. We all know that we're just as capable of falling apart as building on early success. With 7 county championship games to play we thought that this was a good opportunity to cast aside the debacle disappointment of the T20 campaign and focus everyone's attention on what came before. First we'll take a look back at the batting.

Batting

Compared to last season this has been a massive improvement, but then again at this point last season we were still awaiting a Gloucestershire player to score a hundred in the county championship. This season 5 different players have hundreds to their names, but none of them have more than one. This pretty much sums up the batting in the first half of the season. Everyone has contributed reasonably well, but no one has dominated. Will Gidman has been the real surprise with 654 runs to his name at an average of 50.30. That's good enough to be the fifth heaviest run scorer in the division. I don't think anyone saw that coming when we signed up our skipper's kid brother from Durham.

The rest of the batting, to be brutally honest, reads exactly as it always does:

 
We've said this before, but why the hell do we think that an average of 30 odd is good enough in division 2 of the county championship? In particular Gidders, O'Mish and Williamson should all hang their heads. These are all guys who have been around international cricket to some extent. Two of these guys have test hundreds. How are they averaging in the mid 30's in division 2? It makes winning consistently so much harder when your top players don't put in big performances to win you games.

Right, that's the moaning out of the way. However, statistics never tell the full story. What the first half of this season has seen is that whenever an innings has been needed someone has produced one. The ability of the boys to scrap with the bat has been very encouraging. The days of capitulating meekly are hopefully behind us.

Dent - 221 runs, avg 31.
Still no hundreds for young Chris Dent, but still more than enough signs of promise to mean that this is not the major issue it could be. Still, if he gets to the end of the season without a hundred then some serious doubts will start to form in the young mans head. The Jessop Tavern View still isn't convinced he's an opener and feels he would be better served coming in down the order. However, the lack of another available opener means he'll likely be stuck there for the rest of the season.

O'Mish - 268 runs, avg 38.
Injury has meant that our converted Irishman has only played 4 games so these stats don't reflect very much. Bizarrely pushed up to fill the problematic openers slot O'Mish actually seems to have settled into this role pretty well considering he is a bit of a dasher. A strong second half of the season from O'Mish will be vital if Glos are to maintain their challenge.

Williamson - 371 runs, avg 33.
Visa problems and shift work in the club gym have meant that our overseas player has only managed 6 games so far. There have been signs of the talent. His hundred against Leicestershire showed the quality that the man has, but Gloucestershire-itis has meant he has not dominated on a consistent basis. He's a young man still learning the game so this is sort of to be expected. Like O'Mish, a strong second half of the season is needed.

Taylor - 600 runs, avg 35.
At the start of the season 'the kids' place was up for grabs, especially with Dent, Younger Gidders, Cockbain and Coughtrie all fighting with him for what looked like only 2 spots in the lineup. Injuries and Williamson's gym shifts gave him his chance and Taylor responded excellently. Only one hundred from seven times passed fifty is the only criticism. A better conversion rate and the kid would have been really flying.

Captain Marvel - 498 runs, avg 38.
His wonderful innings to win the game against Surrey is still fresh in our minds. Nearly 500 runs at 38 is respectable enough, but as we have written before, the man really should be in the upper echelons of batting in this division and not in the middle of the road. Come on skipper. Finish the season with 1200 runs at 50.

Cockbain - 403 runs, avg 28.
Not spectacular statistics, but for a young player who came from nowhere and was pressed into action as an emergency opener, we are very pleasantly surprised. His maiden hundred in the last county championship match against hundred can hopefully be the spring board for the rest of the season. How many chances he will get will be interesting, but competition for places is always very healthy.

Coughtrie - 275 runs, avg 17.
Like Cockbain, Coughtrie came from nowhere and was immediately pressed into opening the innings. The man was clearly not an opener and frequently looked like he couldn't hit the ball off the square, but he showed enough grit and resilience to hang around and this fortitude earned him the chance to show what he can do with the gloves and to hopefully end the tortuous Gloucesterhire career of Jon Batty.

The other Gidders - 654 runs, avg 50.
We've already waxed lyrically about the skippers younger bro. Like Taylor he probably should have more than the one hundred to his name, but from a guy who has batted in the lower middle order his signing has looked like a masterstroke. This is before we even mention his 22 wickets!

Batty - 179 runs, avg 17.
Started the season with the gloves and the opportunity to put behind him an abysmal 2010 season. All he has proved is that 2010 wasn't a blip. He's still got another year on his contract. The worst signing in Gloucestershire history?  

Sperm Donor - 405 runs, avg 31.
What makes the top orders stats so disappointing is the fact that the sperm donor has almost the same number of runs as most of them. Lewis has steadily improved his late order clubbing over the years, but clubbing is all that it is. It says a lot about the standard of bowling in the division that Lewis has 4 fifties to his name. If he is capable of consistent runs the top order should be feasting. However, Lewis late order heroics have made vital contributions this season. Is a maiden first class ton on the mans mind before retiring?


Selected others -
Both Saxelby and Payne have made handy contributions at times, and it is always useful to have tailenders who are not complete rabbits (although we can't help but feel that cricket is worse off with fewer complete rabbits around these days). Ed Young has shown he is more than capable with the bat, as has his spin bowling rival Jack Taylor. All in all, the lower order has done a good job.

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.

Grace Road: as flat as its name

Leicestershire 323 & 245-5 drew with Gloucestershire 504-9 dec. ( Leics 7pts, Glos 11pts)

Grace Road proved true to its name as Gloucestershire toiled hard but failed to dismiss Leics for a second time to claim victory. Still, the Jessop Tavern View feels an away draw is a good result and one that the county have struggled to achieve in the last few seasons, a fact mentioned by Alex Gidman after the match.

The batting performance was very encouraging, with Gidman scoring some much-needed runs and maximum batting points taken. Kane Williamson's century, while an excellent knock, was less of a surprise as he looks a class act. We expect it won't be the only hundred from him this season. We would go as far to say that he looks an excellent addition already and was arguably the best possible overseas player the county could have tempted to Nevil Road. Time for some rare praise for the Richardson-Bracewell combo, perhaps? Also of note, his Shoaib Malik-esque off spin took more wickets than Banerjee and Ed Young combined.


It is of course unfair to judge Ed Young on the 5 overs Gidman allowed him in the match. You have to wonder what the point of picking him was, unless it was purely to strengthen the batting. The point of Banerjee is less clear. You could argue he was playing to lure the opposition into a false sense of security, thus prompting and error. However, the amount of dross he bowls you wonder whether even this questionable strategy is worth pursuing. Mind you, he was 9 not out when we batted.

Anyway, a CB40 thriller v Notts on Wednesday, then Essex up next in the Championship on Sunday. Should be a good game. We might even preview them if we're feeling inspired!

Williamson proves himself more than just a good gym trainer

Day 1: Gloucestershire 177 - 3 v Leicestershire.

Imagine being a young, exciting overseas player signed by Gloucestershire. You are 20 years old. You are keen to pick up valuable experience in different conditions. You are given a sales pitch that presumably includes the names WG Grace, Wally Hammond and Mike Procter. You are sold. Then the club's bumbling administration fails to sort out your work visa (Does anyone actually know what happened here?) No problem you think. These things happen.

Then you turn up to discover that your teams best batsman is a guy called Gidman, not the captain, but his younger brother who bats 7. You are then asked to bat 3 behind 2 guys with less than 10 first class appearances between them, one of whom doesn't appear to have the ability to hit the ball off the square. In the nets you get to face the club's best spinner, Vikram Banerjee. It is therefore no wonder that Kane Williamson didn't hit the ground running. 40 odd runs in his first 2 county championship games wasn't cause for too much criticism in the Jessop Tavern's eyes, but another poor showing here would have increased the pressure on the young Kiwi star. But fear not. Kane Williamson can now confirm that he can do more than run a good Pilates class.


In a rain-interrupted match it is hard to gauge a score of 177 for 3. It is a score that is very delicately placed. If Williamson and Gidman go on tomorrow morning then Gloucestershire can hope to take advantage of bowling last on a strange early season pitch that has seen both sides include two spinners. Collapse like we have done recently and Gloucestershire will be desperately logging on to BBC weather for the latest forecasts over Grace Road. The pitch is pretty flat at the moment so even the captain should be able to cash in.

As an aside to today's play we would like to take the opportunity to praise Leicestershire for showing the correct approach to division 2 cricket. Filling their team with mostly young, up-and-coming players. Nathan Buck is 20. Matthew Boyce is 25. Josh Cobb is 20. Paul Dixey is 23. Claude Henderson is...! After taking a bit of stick for our criticism of Northants' approach to journeymen, results-based cricket it is good to see a side similarly investing in young English players.

Preview: Gloucestershire v Northants. County Championship.

Another week, another top of the table clash at Nevil road as Gloucestershire welcome Northants collection of journeymen. We hate to be overly negative so early in a preview but reading through Northants' teams this season really is a depressing statement on division 2 county cricket. Mal Loye, Stephen Peters, David Sales, Andrew Hall are the well known journeymen, but these are complimented by people like Jack Brooks, James Middbrook and Lee Daggert. Journeymen one and all. If county cricket is suppose to be a breeding ground for the England team (and the huge amount of money that the ECB gives to the counties surely justifies this argument) then exactly what do a team like Northants contribute? Alex Wakely. That is it. Now we are well aware that this is an argument that could very easily have been levied against Gloucestershire over the last 10 years. But this year is different with our youthful outlook, and we will use this moral leverage to shout our argument against sides such as Northants loud and proud.

Northants currently sit 2nd in the table, only 9 points ahead of Gloucestershire. Their two victories have both, bizarrely, come against Kent with draws against Surrey and Essex. They might be the second divisions most boring team but they also appear to be one of the divisions most balanced sides. A strong top order. Explosive middle order. Wiley seam attack. Only the spin department lets them down. Join the club.

This promises to be another tough test for the young Gloucestershire side, especially given O'Mish's absence with a broken hand. Fortunately 'the kid' has had an injection in his knee and will hopefully be able to continue his fine early season form. We would expect young Coughtrie to step up and open with Cockbain, like in the early season fixtures. Presumably Williamson will then bat 3. The intriguing point will be over where the skipper chooses to bat this time. We are predicting that he will walk out at number 9 and seek to relaunch his career as a medium pacer. With another injury to a batsmen this match will place the onus particularly on Williamson, the captain and Mr Batty. Whether these 3 can provide some runs will go along way to determining the result.

We predict that the bowling will be boosted to a four pronged seam attack with Norwell, Payne, Saxelby and the Sperm Donor. Worryingly David Payne has "a couple of niggles". This could mean either young Jack Taylor or even younger Craig Miles making stepping in.

At the start of the season you would have said injuries would be the major problem for a threadbare squad. Well here we are. So far players such as Cockbain and Coughtrie have put their hands up and got stuck in to the challenge. This week it would be nice to see a couple of the more senior players similarly get their hands dirty.

www. northantscricket.com - Having slagged off their team we are feeling a little guilty so will look to redress the balance a little bit with a few positive words about their website. Stepping around the fact that on the eve of the match they have no squad news or match preview at all, the website does have good squad information and, as a nice touch, has some sort of basic blog by a fan with a few contributions from the chief executive. How about it Tom?
6/10.

Glos suffer heavy defeat at hands of local rivals

Somerset 219-2 beat Gloucestershire 213 by 8 wickets

Gloucestershire slumped to a big defeat after failing to score enough to challenge the powerful batting line up of the Sabres. A total of 213 all out was always unlikely to be enough to contain a side containing the big bats of Trescothick, Kieswetter, Trego, Jos Buttler and various others who weren't even required to bat.

Having lost the toss and been put in to bat, the early departure of Ian Cockbain brought Kane Williamson to the crease. We have high hopes for the Kiwi youngster and he and Gidders senior put on 117 in 24 overs, before Kane was caught behind for 47. Gidman made 66 (he can bat after all) and the only other scores of note came from Richard Dawson (a nine ball 23, having come in at number 4 was at least better than his bowling) and Jon Batty with 30 not out as the tail capitulated to young Lewis Gregory.

The total never looked like enough and Tres and Kieswetter soon got stuck in to our bowling attack. The South African-born Englishman is a merciless butcher of mediocre seam bowling and he enjoyed himself today as he scored his second CB40 ton of the season and took his tally to 308 in four innings. Trescothick hit a composed 51, before the shame of a dismissal LBW to bowling coach Dawson and Nick Compton put on 84 with Kieswetter to get Somerset over the line with six overs still remaining.

The Jessop Tavern View feels we shouldn't be too harsh on a Glos side who only yesterday drew with Middlesex in the Championship, plus are suffering from injuries to Chris Dent and Hamish Marshall. The CB40 is a long and grinding tournament (some would add pointless) which uses a 40 over format not played at international level. We're not overly concerned at losing to last year's runners up away from home. After all, there are another 41 group games before the semi finals are played (disclaimer: our maths may not be entirely accurate here).

Next up for the boys, Northants at Bristol on Wednesday. A far more important game and one which we should focus on winning.

'The kid' bravely pulls Glos back into contention

Day 3: Gloucestershire 358 and 218 - 5 v Middlesex 406

How nice it is to be able to sit here and write about Gloucestershire being involved in a thoroughly absorbing game of good quality cricket. Gloucestershire fans can not complain about a lack of exciting games in recent seasons, but these have always been exciting for the wrong reasons. Bowling a side out for 40 in the first innings and then still losing might be an incredible game, but not exactly a good game of cricket.

Gloucestershire find themselves going into the fourth day with a genuine chance of not only saving a game that looked lost this afternoon, but perhaps of forcing a victory on a rapidly wearing Bristol pitch.

Today's third day see-sawed one way and then the other. First, Norwell and the ever reliable Sperm donor took the early wickets Gloucestershire had desperately needed. Then Ollie Raynor fought back with a crucial, quickfire fifty to swing momentum back towards the London side. Then Gloucestershire knocked off the first innings deficit without losing a wicket before crumbling to 128 for 5 with a lead of only 80. 'The kid' then hobbled out to join 'the better' Gidders and proceeded where he had left off in the first innings, batting Gloucestershire right back into the match. Speaking of Taylor and his bruises, the picture posted on Twitter by Scott Newman of his bruised knee was a cracker. One of the good things about cricket embracing the social new media revolution is that you get to enjoy snippets like this from inside the dressing room. Not always that insightful, but amusing to see that the pros get injuries through stupidity as well!

As early season top of the table clashes go this has been a wonderful advert for division 2 county cricket. A good honest, hard fought contest between what are two pretty average sides if we are being honest. From a Gloucestershire fan's point of view we're delighted with average.

It's an obvious point but whoever wins the first session tomorrow will have the best opportunity of victory. If Gloucestershire can bat till lunch we shouldn't be able to lose (although we would have found a way if the vintage of '08-'10 were playing) If Middlesex dismiss us with the lead around 200 then they should be able to get home.

The boys at Glos la la la have got a bit heavy this evening on debutant Kane Williamson and 'the other', captain, Gidders. It's a bit harsh to criticise Williamson. Bristol is a notoriously difficult place to bat, and whilst this pitch is not one of Nevil Road's worst, it is a bit early to criticise the man. Anyone can get out cheaply before they become set. Captain Gidders on the other hand seems to be really struggling. So overcome with positivity were we in the first innings that we let it slide that the skipper had hidden himself even further down the order at number 6. Gidman seems to be have a real crisis of identity as a batsman at the moment. Unsure as to whether he is a dominant, classy top order player. Or a man who eeks out dirty runs in the middle order. Hiding away at number 6 isn't the way to go. If O'Mish's injury is as bad as feared and he does miss several weeks, or even months, then Gidman really will have to step up to be counted and put himself in the firing line of that new ball again!

So tomorrow promises to be a fascinating day's cricket. The Jessop Tavern View is off early to bed in anticipation.

Preview: Gloucestershire v Middlesex. County Championship

'Now Kane makes Championship debut', screams the headline from our favourite official Gloucestershire website, a statement that seems to suggest that we should somehow be grateful that our overseas player is to play his first proper cricket match almost a month into the season. Whatever the reasons for the delay in his visa his debut is definitely nicely timed as Gloucestershire go head to head with division leaders Middlesex.

Perhaps what is best about Kane Williamson's debut is that he steps into a side hopefully as the final-ish piece in this seasons jigsaw (we are well aware that this is a jigsaw that is guaranteed to have more than just several pieces missing when we finally look back at it in September). Williamson will provide a welcome boost to a batting line up that has thus far done just enough. With O'Mish and young Cockbain opening, and then Williamson, Taylor and the original Gidders our top order is beginning to look reasonably strong. It will be severely tested by a Middlesex side that has already made both Essex and Surrey follow on and can boast of a seam attack featuring up a fired up Steve Finn looking to force his way back into the test team.

Perhaps encouragingly Middlesex's top order has yet to really fire this season. Worryingly Chris Rogers has often taken a shine to the sight of Gloucestershire bowlers wobbling in against him and his wicket will be the key one. Get Rogers earlier and we can hopefully get at what is a fairly young and inexperienced middle order with the comically named Dan Housego and equally daft Dawid Malan both in their early 20's along with wicketkeeper batsman John Simpson.

Gloucestershire have obviously been paying attention to the guys at Glos la la la and drop Vikram Banerjee from the squad. An all seam attack featuring Norwell, Payne, Saxelby and the old Sperm donor will have to get the job done.

It promises to be an interesting match up that will almost certainly be decided by how are batsmen fare against their bowlers. In past seasons this was just the sort of scenario that Glos fans dreaded, but surprisingly the Jessop Tavern View has decided to be positive and thinks that our kiwi's (shit, sorry, kiwi and Irishman...we must remember) will see us to victory.

Middlesex CCC website - Is it possible that the team from the home of cricket can produce a website almost as bad as Gloucestershire's own? We reckon it is, especially with the over use of pink. The rather promising 'Match Summary' banner for the game against Glos leads through to a completely empty page although we were greeted with some pictures of cheerleaders so not all bad. Still, we expect technological ineptitude out in the Shire, the London boys should be able to do better than this pretty piss poor effort. 2/10.