Glos v Essex: Let the games begin....

New season. Same useless Gloucestershire website.

Gloucestershire take on Essex today in the first day of the 2013 season. Unsurprisingly Gloucestershire name an all seam attack, with Jack Taylor being let out.

More surprising is the debut of 18 year old wicket keeper Cameron Herring. Naturally there is no official word on this decision. Nor, is there much information regarding young Cameron's potential. Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised.

Ian Cockbain has also been left out, with Benny Howell filling the 6th batsman spot. Again, no explanation. Considering that Cockbain demonstrated genuine potential last season this is another surprising omission.

Presumably these decisions will be explained by the club.......oh, if only.

If anyone feels so inclined, please feel free to tweet the officially Glos twitter account (@Gloscricket) and ask them about these selectorial decisions. Just don't hold your breath for an answer.

Season preview: The only way is up, up, up.....

We're sure we are not the only ones, but with the weather still freezing, we're not exactly in the mood for the start of the county championship. still, we are nothing if not professional so we'll grit our teeth, fire up the heating, and have a think about what we might expect from Gloucestershire this year.

We still feel that last year's wooden spoon wasn't quite as terrible as it would appear on paper, and that there were definitely enough positives, or perhaps more accurately, glimpses of positives, for us to move towards the 2013 season with a little bit of optimism.

The only major new signing has been the appointment of Aussie Michael Klinger as captain. Klinger doesn't exactly come in on a wave of great form, his 330 runs at an average of 19 during the recent Australian season is a slight worry. His one day average of 42 suggests his preferred format, and also points towards where Gloucestershire's focus is for this season. Still, he represents an experienced new face, and whilst he isn't in the class of Kane Williamson he fills the troublesome openers berth.

Other than that, what would represent success for Gloucestershire?

Promotion will of course be talked about, and whilst this is a fairly obvious goal it would be nice if Gloucestershire could at least be in the mix come the final month of the season. The squad looks painfully thin, and only an injury free season would really allow the Shire to seriously push for promotion. As already mentioned, the signing of Michael Klinger probably means that our main focus will be on the one day competitions. Last year saw the green shoots of recovery in both the t20 and the 50 over competition. The signing of t20 specialist Dan Christian will provide the batting firepower that has been lacking in the past few years.

On paper, Gloucestershire's strength would appear to be in the batting. Klinger, older Gidman and O'Mish should all be targeting 1,000 runs. Chris Dent, Dan Housego and Ian Cockbain will all be looking to break away from their 'promising' tags and really put down a marker that they are real players of substance. Last year only one Gloucestershire batsman posted more than a solitary hundred. That man was Kane Williamson.

The bowling again appears to be a worry. The continual injury woes of Ian Saxelby puts into doubt exactly where the wickets will come from. Saxelby and Will Gidman have been consistent performers for Glos over the last two seasons. They are backed up by Liam Norwell, David Payne and James '38' Fuller. All three of them have shown promise. The question is, can one of these make the next step and become a 40 wicket a season bowler? One of them will need to. We are going to ignore the spin option. Let's just say that the Nevil Road groundsman won't be digging out the short blade on the mower and he can leave the rake at the back of the shed.

Who keeps wicket is anyone's guess. Richard Coughtrie's lack of runs seemed to see him fall from favour at the end of last season. The door is therefore wide open for youngsters Cameron Herring and Gareth Roderick. Lets just praise the Lord that it won't be Jon Batty.

King John has repeatedly made clear that it is no longer acceptable for the team to hide behind the 'inexperienced' tag. Whilst this remains a young squad, all of the youngsters now have a good two seasons behind them. If these young guns are to be the future of Gloucestershire cricket then it is time for them to stand up and be counted.

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:

Preview: Kent v Gloucestershire

The Jessop Tavern View is so enthused by last weeks thrilling victory over promotion favourites Hampshire, that they are writing this post from the middle of a Sinai desert sandstorm, and with the evening call to prayer reminding us that its only an hour until the champions league semi final kicks off.

Gloucester's strength in depth this season is vindicated by the addition of Benny Howell from obscurity to batting at 3. Now Benny did plunder a 2nd XI double hundred last week, but has only one first class appearance to his name, a credible 70 odd last season for Hampshire. Frankly we are most concerned about the fact that his name is Benny (apparently he was born in France, so let's pretend its Benny in a french accent). According to the club website Benny will bat at 3 against Kent. Full marks to O'Mish (a former test number 3) for stepping up and at least allowing Benny to ease himself in.

Typical the Glos website doesn't have any other team news for us. Just that Benny will replace 'the house', who has a shoulder problem. We'll just presume its the same team except for this one change. It will be interesting to see whether we keep faith with tearaway boundary pepperer, James Fuller, after his round the houses performance last week.

This is Glos' 3rd straight away game, and they come up against a Kent team who have started the season well. A 'winning' draw against Yorkshire, and a thumping of Northants. The addition of veteran Gloucester basher Michael Powell adds steel to the middle order, and young pace man Matt Coles bringing jest to their bowling. That said, we did beat them home and away last season, so lets home for more of the same and the boys can finally head home with two wins under their belts.

Finally, can we please repeat our plea for poor Richard Coughtie to be relieved of the opening slot and Ian Cockbain given a crack. Unless King John is intending for gym instructor Kane Williamson to open when he finally frees himself from his Pilates classes then we see no point in continuing with Coughtrie at the top of the order.

Right, the Jessop Tavern View is off to the Cleopatra coffee shop for a Nescafe and some manic Bedouins cheering for Barcelona.

A bit of fight....and a bit of rain. A blueprint for our season

Day 1; Glos 195 for 4 v Hampshire

Having been skittled twice last week the last thing that Gloucestershire wanted was to lose the toss on a cold, damp south coast morning, and walk out to bat on a green top. But that is exactly what happened to Chris Dent and Richard Coughtrie who faced the unenviable task of trying to kick start Gloucestershires season.


Coughtrie at least got off the mark for the season, following his pair against Essex, but the 'House' managed to be out twice in his short innings to leave Gloucestershire reeling at 22 for 2. Experienced pros Gidders and O'Mish seemed to have summed up the situation and decided that their feeble technique against the moving ball meant there was no point in trying to hang around and so they might as well as have a dash. In fairness this now appears to be both of their default settings and a perfect example of players deciding that they will do their run scoring when the sun comes out, thank you very much. Both got in. Both had a dash. Both perished LBW playing across the line. The Jessop Tavern is going to copy and paste these last few sentences somewhere as we can't be arsed to have to type it out for every game.

Thankfully the Gloucestershire youngsters have completely disregarded the example set by their senior pros, as both Chris Dent and Ian Cockbain got their heads down and saved Gloucstershire with gritty run-an-over half centuries. In our preview for this match yesterday, we asked that the boys at least show a bit of fight, and we couldn't have asked for any more than the unbeaten hundred partnership these two produced before the rain came. Long may it continue. The rain that is. Despite a commendable level of application shown today, the Jessop Tavern View still reckons that a wet and miserable summer is Glos' best bet this season.

In an amusing aside, we were glad to see that we aren't the only ones who struggle to think of things to write about when covering division 2 county cricket. Cricinfo reported that Hampshire's new sponsors have done away with the Shane Warne suite, whilst the Shaun Udal suite survives. Interesting stuff.

Preview: Hampshire v Gloucestershire

We're only a week into the season and already tomorrow's county championship game with Hampshire has the feel of a real make or break game for the young Gloucestershire squad. The basis of last year's surprising success was the impressive start the team got off to. Early wins help build a confidence in the young guns that never seemed to leave them for the remainder of the season. Worryingly, this season's difficult start, with 3 away fixtures on the trot, could have the very opposite effect of draining any left-over self confidence.

Almost the entire Gloucestershire squad faces the 'difficult second season' syndrome as they make the transition from being unknown quantities last year, to facing up to teams that have a year's worth of footage with which to analyse all the niggling weaknesses, such as Richard Coughtrie's inability to hit the ball off the square! The good players have the ability to adapt and build on their games. The Hamish Marshall players don't.

Last week's drubbing by Essex doesn't bode well. But lets not get down on the boys before we even get to May. What do we want to see over the next 2 and a bit days against Hampshire? Well primarily just a bit of fight. When you're a young player we can forgive shiteness, but at least show a bit of fight. This was by far the most impressive aspect of last season and also by far the most disappointing aspect of the dismantling by Essex.

David Payne returns to the squad and, according to the skipper, is likely to start. It'll be interesting to see if the batting order gets rejigged. We like Richard Coughtrie, but watching such a limited player at the top of the order is more disappointing than yet another pleasant 30 odd from Chris Dent. The Jessop Tavern seems to remember Ian Cockbain also opened at some point last year, yet now seems to be hidden at number 6. Likewise Hamish O'Mish also opened last year before he forgot that the perhaps of the wooden thing in his hands was to hit the ball with it. Whilst we appreciate that O'Mish has only just returned, we see no reason why Cockbain be stuck down at 6. Put Cockbain up top, then move 'the better' Gidders up to 6, with Coughtrie at 7. Christ, this selection stuff is easy!

Hampshire have overseas feline Simon Katich available having passed through quarantine, and England's latest pie thrower Danny Briggs to choose from. They also have a ridiculous website address that has nothing to do with Hampshire cricket and everything to do with their sponsors. Irrelevant, we know. But hell if you were sat here at approaching midnight writing a match preview for second division county championship cricket, then you too would find amusement in such irrelevant triviality!

APR Gidman: An apology

Day 3: Gloucestershire 261 and 161 - 5 beat Surrey 225 and 195 by 4 wickets.

Points: Gloucestershire 21, Surrey 4.


It wasn't meant to be like this. The Jessop Tavern View thought it was being all big and clever by reckoning the 30 odd extra runs Glos had given away cheaply on days 1 and 2 were going to be the difference. At 54 for 5 this afternoon, we thought that even when the boys crumbled to defeat, we could at least console ourselves by writing a smug post this evening. Instead we are going to have to eat some serious humble pie as a result of captain marvellous batting us practically single-handedly to an absolutely fantastic win.


Now it's fair to say that the Jessop Tavern View has not been too positive about our glorious skipper. 'Flat track bully', 'cowardly hiding down the order' and 'unfulfilled talent' have all been used to describe our born leader of men. Well hands up. Today Alex 'by far the better' Gidman proved us completely wrong. When the going got tough our skipper rolled up his sleeves and said, "don't worry lads, I'll sort this out". It's exactly the sort of innings not seen from a Gloucestershire batsman in quite some time.

Mark Church, of BBC London, described the pitch as a typical 1980's 3 day pitch. Gidman described it as a deliberate seamers wicket (something he ruefully admitted that Glos have often produced to their detriment). Whatever the state of the pitch, it has produced a fantastic game of cricket.

Gloucestershire decided to make the game even more interesting by bizarrely keeping Ian Saxelby out of the attack until 45 minutes into the day's play. By this point Surrey had battled to 179 for 5 and looked poised to set Gloucestershire something in excess of 200 to chase. Within about half an hour of being introduced into the attack Saxelby had blown through Surrey's tail and finished with career best figures of 6 for 69, and 10 for 142 in the match. The only slight criticism of Saxelby's performance is that he went at almost 5 an over. Splitting hairs really.

I don't think we were the only Glos supporters who looked at 160 to win and shuddered. So often in the recent past have the bowlers worked hard to set up this scenario only for the batsmen to throw it away. At 54 for 5 a few of the older heads in the dressing room must have been thinking 'here we go again'. But as we have seen all season, this young Gloucestershire side is made of tougher stuff and the main story of the season has been our refreshing ability to fight our way out of difficult situations. As brilliantly as captain marvel played, he couldn't have done it without the support of two of the young guns, as first Coughtrie and then Ed Young helped Gidders lead us to glory.

The boys are now third in the table after half the season. Next up in the championship we face second placed Middlesex. So the Jessop Tavern View does get a smug feeling after all. But smug because, for the first time in ages, we feel we are supporting a decent team. Oh, and Alex, if you happen to read this. We're sorry...but only if you go on and average 50 for the season!

Who cares about KP, Glos finally win a Twenty20 game!

Gloucestershire 168 for 6 (Cockbain 78, Dernbach 3-27) beat Surrey 122 (Pietersen 30, Payne 3-20) by 10 runs

The Jessop Tavern View would like to apologise to its fans for the recent lack of posts. Glos' terrible start to the T20 campaign, coupled with a work trip abroad rather dampened our enthusiasm for writing about the Shire.

Anyway, now we are back and we were delighted to see that the boys managed to win a game. Even if it was against perennial under-achievers Surrey. All that investment in Murali looks to be paying off. 1 win out of 5 so far is surely the kind of return Chief Executive Tom Richardson was looking for when he persuaded the great man to rock up at Nevil Road for a couple of years of 4 over spells.

The good thing about games versus Surrey, is that due to their inconsistency, there always the chance of a victory. Not only that; they are somewhat more tech-savvy than the Shire. Thus we get to provide you with video highlights of the match to accompany our prescient analysis. You can find this at the bottom of the post.

Glos lost the toss and were sent in to bat by Grabber Hamilton-Brown. A typically average powerplay saw the boys teetering at 31-3, with O'Mish, O'Brien and Williamson already dismissed. Amazingly, the boys managed to steady the ship and recovered to 85, before Gidders the elder was caught slogging for 28. Even more amazingly, we then cut loose, with Ian Cockbain displaying hitherto unknown powers of aggression to strike 5 sixes in a violent 78 from just 45 balls. He was well-supported by Tiny Taylor (32*) as Glos reached an excellent 168-6.


Despite Archdeacon Meadow featuring some tiny boundaries (even the Jessop Tavern View has struck a couple there, as well as an unfortunate golden duck), we made immediate inroads into their powerful but inconsistent batting lineup.Williamson opened the bowling and dismissed RH-B in the first over as well as having KP brilliantly caught on the boundary by a diving Cockbain. Will this be the cue for 'King' John Bracewell topick him for some T20?

David Payne chipped in with 3-20, including Davies, who gave him so much tap in the opening game and the dangerous Tom Maynard. Richard Coughtrie impressed with the gloves, stumping two batsmen and again keeping tidily. Surely Jon Batty's Glos career is virtually over at this point? Oh yeah, Murali bowled tidily and took 2-28. You kind of expect that kind of performance as a minimum from your marquee overseas signing though.

A thumping win then and one the boys will hope to repeat on Wednesday night v Kent at their Beckenham out ground. The Jessop Tavern View has played there as well and it's a bit of a road. Let's hope for some fireworks from the boys to get the T20 campaign back on track before the break for Championship action at the weekend.

We hate to say we told you so

Day 4: Glamorgan 202 & 370 for 9 dec beat Gloucestershire 183 and 195 by 189 runs.

Points: Glamorgan 20, Glos 3.

Well, we did say that batting 4 sessions to save a match would be difficult....

It's hard to know exactly what to make of this defeat. Obviously it is extremely disappointing to have got ourselves into a position this morning from which we probably should have got the draw. However, there isn't too much shame in being blown away by the second new ball and some very sharp fielding from Glamorgan (the run out of Coughtrie, backing up too far at the non strikers end, was brilliant work). Then again we did lose our final 6 wickets for 31. But the top order did show some fight and we were handicapped by having one of our batsmen unable to bat. But the pitch was pretty lifeless and Glamorgan's Charlie Wagg was pretty much unable to bowl in the entire match. You see what I mean. It is hard to know exactly what to make of this particular loss. Although, having said that, perhaps I am just comparing this defeat to that suffered in Cardiff last year.

Again we have seen enough from the youngsters (Saxelby's 5 for, Cockbain again showing genuine potential) to feel that the investment in youth this season could well be worth it. We need to make sure that we give these kids enough time and a consistent run in the team. We also need to factor in that, as much as the batting display here was inadequate, we do have O'Mish and Williamson to come in to this team and add quality to the batting. Just a cheeky question, but if Taylor continues his form from the second innings, what happens to the skipper when it comes to making room for the two kiwis? (sorry, Irishman and a kiwi)

The Jessop Tavern View therefore remains upbeat. The kids are alright, and heck, at least we're not Somerset!

Uphill task for Gloucestershire to avoid defeat

Day 3: Gloucestershire 188 and 42 for 0 (Cockbain 33*, Coughtrie 7*) v Glamorgan 202 and 370 for 9 dec. (Rees 68, Allenby 63, Gidman 3-49)

I'm sure some of you reading this will think my headline unduly negative after a reasonable performance so far from the boys. I prefer to think of it as realistic. The equation is simple, bat for the whole day and save the game. The pitch is flat and the bowling attack not terrifying. However, as the Glos la la la blog points out, we failed miserably to do this last year and only just managed it the year before.

This is the kind of position where a good side will come away with a comfortable draw, or even a win if they have a Sehwag or a Spearman to create some fireworks. I fear that Richard Coughtrie is not that man. 7 not out from 69 balls faced reminds you of the little kid at school who had a good technique but was so weak he could barely get if off the square. At least he is still there. Encouraging signs though from Ian Cockbain, who showed some scouse grit to end the day 33 not out. Do we have enough batting? I fear not, especially with Dent injured. The ball is already 25 overs old however, and if the openers could bat through the majority of the first session then who knows?

The x-factor may well be vastly experienced left-arm spinner Dean Cosker. I can't see him being as toothless as Vikram Banerjee proved today. His 8 overs so far in the second innings have seen 7 maidens. He also managed 26 not out with the bat, which doesn't say much about the Glos bowling efforts, but the pitch is said to be pretty lifeless.

By the end of tomorrow we will have learnt quite a bit more about this Gloucestershire side. Regardless as to how flat the pitch, and to how straight forward the guys at Glos la la la seem to think it should be, batting out 4 sessions, with victory unlikely, is psychologically a difficult thing to do, especially with only 10 men. It will be another test of the character of this side. Just as encouraging as the various promising performances from the young guns has been the sign of some fight in the Gloucester ranks. The sort of fight that means that you don't just roll over and be bowled out for 162. The sort of fight that hasn't been seen in a Gloucestershire side in many a long year. It's the one thing that us fans can't stand. Losing is one thing. Going down without a fight is another thing altogther.

All to play for tomorrow then. Fingers crossed for some grit and application, as opposed to a flurry of strokes and all over by lunch.

The teletext roller coaster

Day 2: Glamorgan 202 & 185 - 3 v Gloucestershire 188

As somebody who does not work in front of a computer, or use a modern mobile phone, following the Shire during the week is all about taking whatever opportunities come your way to grab the latest score. I can usually rely on a few text messages throughout the day, more if we are winning or doing despicably badly. Other than that my main source of score updates is teletext. I'm sure we have all been there. Sat watching the screen update for hours on end to track how are team are doing. The tension as a close game reaches its conclusion is only heightened by watching the game on teletext. Yesterday's topsy turvy second day of play at Cardiff provided a roller coaster of emotions transmitted via the wonderful teletext.

With such a young team days like yesterday are going to be all too frequent. In fact days like yesterday and the day before. Winning positions will quickly be squandered. Fightbacks will be wastefully thrown away.

Yesterday's fightback saw the Sperm donor continued his late career charge into allrounder territory (hey, this is only division 2!) and Banerjee made a very handy contribution to get us back in the game. Glos la la la described Banerjee's knock as his 'second greatest first class innings' which begs the question of what the guys writing the blog get up to in their spare time. Do they really have a list of Vikram Banerjee's top ten first class knocks? Something tells me that there are county cricket supporters who might have.

Trailing by 14 runs we are now basically in a one innings game. Disappointingly the bowling was unable to fire and runs flowed to such an extent that by the end of the days play it seems that only a proper collapse can give Gloucestershire a chance. I wouldn't fancy us chasing more than 250 with 10 men. That said, the great thing about the low quality of county cricket is that collapses of this nature are almost common enough to be the norm!

We shouldn't get too down on Norwell and Saxelby. They will be well aware that they need to become more economical. That it is not always possible to bowl wicket taking deliveries and sometimes line and length and drying up the runs is what is needed. Translating this to the middle will be the difficult part, but lets give them time.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Chris Dent has had a double fracture and dislocation to his little finger. This raises the question of who will open the batting for the 6 weeks (minimum) that he will be out. Will Coughtrie be trusted? Could O'Mish or Williamson (when he is not instructing in the gym)? Or could, and take a deep breath everyone, Jon Batty return up the order? If this last scenario should occur it will again raise the question from last year as to whether Glos would be better off opening with only one batsman?

Alternatively, does anyone know Kadreary's number?

Day 1: Glos 224-6 v Derbyshire: The split personalities necessary of a Gloucestershire fan

I was tempted to write this post earlier on this afternoon. The score had just become 65-5 and I had fired of the obligatory whining text to a fellow Glos fan that simply stated, All out for a 100? I thought I had seen it all before (in fairness I have seen it all before, and not just the once) I thought I knew what was coming next. The only difference this time was that last years bowling attack wasn't even there to offer us even a glimmer of a way out. This was terminal. All my worst fears being thrown in my face just after lunch on the first day of the season. I couldn't bear it anymore. I even stopped watching the Glos cricket radio webcam. Oh how little faith.

In some ways I wish I had written this post earlier. You might as well be made to eat your words early on in the season and make sure that, just in case anyone actually did value your opinion, they don't anymore. But I didn't write that post and so I can now write to congratulate the boys on putting up more of a fight with bat in hand than they did all of last season put together. As a fan it is all you can ask for. Even if you are rubbish, at least get stuck in. And that is exactly what they did.

Whoever Richard Coughtrie is might not be able to middle the ball, but at least he stuck it out.

According to Glos la la la Jon Batty played his best innings in a Gloucestershire shirt and has already scored about a seventh of the total number of runs he managed last year!

And Will Gidman managed to show enough to suggest that it might be Alex that ends up as the Edward Grace of the family (disappointingly there don't appear to be many cricketing examples of good brother, crap brother...unless you count the Hollioake's, but then which of them was good?)

So all in all an encouraging day. If we remove the blinkers for a second then its clear that the top order lacks class, but with Williamson and O'Mish to presumably step in to that batting line up we shouldn't be too down on our showing before lunch. What disappointed so much last season was the continuously shoddy batting performance that showed a lack of anyone willing to apply themselves properly. Today we had two innings of great application. It's a start.

Exactly what sort of score we'll need is anyones guess as I haven't a clue what our attack is like! Anything above 300 should put us in the game.