Let's. Play. Darts.....again

As devoted Gloucestershire fans we are sure that you all picked up on our inability to hear the news that Jack Taylor had been banned from bowling at the end of last week. In fairness, we weren't alone. Even the official Glos Cricket website stated that Taylor had had "two quiet games" in the two T20 wins against Middlesex and Kent.

Sadly though Taylor has indeed been banned. having had his action reported a few weeks back the independent bowling analysis discovered his action to have greater than the permitted 15 degrees of flex. This is the second time this has happened in young Taylor's career and really couldn't have come at a worse time for a player who had become a cornerstone of Gloucestershire's team in all formats.

In 2013 when this occurred the Jessop Tavern was heard scoffing into its cup of tea that if he had an illegal action how come he wasn't giving it a comedy tweak. If you are going to be done for chucking you might as well be done whilst hilariously turning your doosra square. However, that was 2013. Taylor came back and bowled steadily in limited overs games all of last season. Admittedly with an 'unusual action', but one that clearly was good enough to get through a season.

So why has this occurred now, and who is to blame? Is it a coincidence that Taylor's sudden up turn in form, particularly in the championship where he has 14 wickets, has occurred at a time when his action has once again come under scrutiny? Having come through this once we presume that Jack is at least well accustomed to remodelling his action.

In the meantime it will be interesting to see what Gloucestershire choose to do. Taylor has been in prolific, match altering form with the bat and it is to be hoped that Glos and Taylor use this time to develop him into a batsman of significant substance. Didn't that Steve Smith bloke use to be primarily considered a bowler who could bat? Here is hoping that whilst working on that action Taylor continues to use that 15 degrees of flex to continue pumping second division bowling attacks around various county grounds.

Is this T20 cricket?

The Jessop Tavern is sufficiently enthused about the current form of the Shire that they decided it would be childish to bitch and moan about the T20 Blast in match reports of us winning and looking good. So instead we will do it here.

Our thoughts on the T20 Blast have been fairly well known for sometime. We acknowledge that until city franchises are created the competition will never really take-off, but why oh why do the ECB seem to be so determined to do everything they can to make the competition as unattractive as possible. Thursday night cricket? If this were a TV game it might make sense. But nope. You have Brendan McCullum, one of the games biggest stars making his first appearance. Nothing. What about having England one day captain. Doesn't make a difference.

It might be a little bit of weak argument to complain about the weather, but given that both Gloucestershire's recent games were played in the cold and damp, and with the umpires wearing gloves, you have to wonder why we are playing these games at the start of the summer. The Jessop Tavern is well aware that July or August hardly guarantees good weather but at least in these months you could say you are just unlucky if it is a bad summer for the weather.

And so from T20 cricket Gloucestershire now see-saw back and forth between the T20 Blast and the Royal London Cup for the rest of June. That excellent championship form goes out of the window. That is fair enough. Ring fencing periods so that teams can solely play another format is absolutely fine. But why mix and match the two competitions? In the space of two weeks Glos will play Middlesex and Glamorgan twice. Once each in the T20 and once each in the Royal London Cup. Bizarre. Why coulnd't we just have one competition at a time? Allow that competition to conclude, and then stage the next one day competition later in the summer. Bang that T20 Blast tournament out in three weeks. Allow counties to have their big stars play the whole competition.

The Jessop Tavern was contemplating a trip to London and looked up some Surrey fixtures for when they are down in the big smoke. Great. A Friday night game against Somerset. Some Friday beers and some Gayle force lessons in chatting up women. Nope. Gayle won't be playing for Somerset at that point.  he is only contracted for 6 matches before he jets off to the Caribbean where the sun will definitely be shining on the Caribbean Premier League.

The Caribbean Premier League, by the way, has 6 franchises and runs for a smidge over a month. End of June till the first week of August. That means the IPL ends at the tail end of May, leaving a month in June before the CPL begins. Or alternatively, and preferably, the whole of August for the T20 Blast to position itself.

The Jessop tavern is pretty sure that it isn't actually that easy to redraw the T20 Blast competition. However, it would be nice to feel like something is being done instead of having championship matches lead into T20 then leading into Royal London cup fixtures. Oh, and no more Thursday night matches unless they fulfil part of a structured fixture list. Please.

Glos pick themselves up with a super win over Worcestershire

Gloucestershire (364-6 dec and 320-5) beat Worcestershire (439 and 239) by 5 wickets.

The crazy scheduling of English county cricket allowed Gloucestershire to warm up for their up and coming T20 games by blasting 320 from 57 overs in a little over two sessions. In particular, Maxy Klinger and Jack Taylor finished the job with a partnership of 179 in 24 overs. By itself that would be a fairly handy T20 score. Gloucestershire's run chase perfectly illustrated the wonderful cross-over of skills and mentality from T20 to 4 day cricket. Those who view the long and short forms of the game as separate entities should sit back and enjoy such matches.

A see-saw match eventually ended up going Gloucestershire's way after an impressively gutsy declaration from first year skipper Gareth Roderick. On day 1 Glos had actually reduced Worcestershire to 35 for 5 and the fact that Worcestershire then managed to add 400 for their final 5 wickets will be a concern to the coach Dawson. Miles and Shaw both proved expensive, with Miles in particular managing to get flogged for over 7 an over, a distinctly T20 figure that is less welcome in the longer format. Despite the late order butchering by the Worcestershire tail enders the Jessop tavern was encouraged to see a far more exciting and attacking bowling line-up take to the field. The impressive lower order batting of Jack taylor and Craig Miles, backed up by David Payne and Liam Norwell finally allowed Glos to have the confidence to ditch the bits and pieces role of Gourmet-Burger and Benny Howell. Instead Taylor was promoted to bat at 7 and Miles was given the important role of contributing runs at number 8. Both decisions would be fully vindicated.

In reply to Worcestershire's first innings total Glos put themselves into a strong position thanks mainly to a magnificent 172 from Graeme 'Jacques' Van Buuren in only his second match for the Shire. Having made a match winning contribution with the ball in his first game, the new Jacques looks like a very handy signing. He was also ably assisted by runs from the skipper at the top of the order, and then an unbroken stand of 134 with new number 8 Craig Miles. Miles making an important 60 not out to justify his promotion. This sudden maturity of the bowling unit into being a very handy lower order batting combination has been one of the real stand out finds for the Shire in 2016. Full praise to the guys and the coaching team for this transformation.

Poised at 364 for 6 at lunch on day 3 the game was still in the balance. Given that this is still only the second month of the season logic would dictate that Glos attempt to bat themselves into a position where only they could win. The Jessop Tavern certainly thought so. Get the scores level by tea. Then have a bit of a blast with what batting remains in the hope of building a lead of 50 plus. From that position you then hope you can run through the opposition setting up a short run chase late on the fourth day. Given the relative solid position in the table that is certainly the way you would have expected Glos to go at lunch on day 3. It is thus to their enormous credit that Roderick and the coaches decided to declare whilst still 75 runs behind. The declaration showed an enormous statement of confidence in the bowlers to get the job done and showcased that Gloucestershire are serious about pushing for promotion in the championship.

The plan worked magnificently. Craig Miles went from Jekyll to Hyde and ran in hard to take 5 for 54. Liam Norwell backed him up with 4 for 70 and Glos were suddenly chasing a fairly daunting 315 to win on a miserable overcast afternoon. Roderick and the new Jacques got the show on the road with enterprising knocks of 30 and 42 respectively, but when George Hankins was LBW with the scoreboard reading 141 for 5 Gloucestershire gutsy declaration looked poised to backfire. Again, logic would say that requiring another 174 runs, and with only the tail for support, Glos would look to shut up shop. Worcestershire would certainly have hoped so. Maxy Klinger and Jack Taylor thought otherwise. 179 runs and only 24 over later it was all done and dusted. Klinger blasted Brett D'Oliveria for another 6 and walked off undefeated on 102 from 141 balls. At the other end Jack Taylor presumably looked a bit disappointed that the fun had to end. Taylor ending up on 107 from only 72 balls. Such was the extent of the destruction that 10 overs were still left to be bowled.

It has been a fun last month for Gloucestershire fans. A dramatic late afternoon bowling display to beat Glamorgan was then followed by the disappointment of not being able to take 7 wickets to defeat Northants on the final day of play. And now this victory. In that time Glos have ditched the conservative and welcomed in an aggressive new lineup. They discovered the new Jacques Kallis as well as seen the second coming of Lock and Laker, with our spin twins tweaking Glos to victory against Glamorgan. Oh, and Maxy Klinger has returned, walking off the plane and strutting around like it is 2015 with back to back hundreds. In 3 innings Klinger has 250 runs at an average of 125.

Incredibly, as the T20 Blast ruins everyone's fun with another round of matches, Gloucestershire now sit second in the table. Is the fun just getting started?

Day 4 highlights:

Day 3 highlights:

Day 2 highlights:

Day 1 highlights:

Glos waste golden opportunity to build momentum

Glos (418 first innings) drew with Northants (176 and 399-8)

Gloucestershire wasted a glorious opportunity to put the pedal to the floor and really accelerate their division 2 challenge with a disappointing draw against a stubborn Northamptonshire at the Brightside ground.

After basically bowling Glamorgan out in a single session on day 4 to win their previous championship match, Glos would have fancied needing only 7 Northants wickets on the final day to take a second successive 4 day match. Instead the combined efforts of Payne, Miles, Shaw, Gourmet Burger and the reincarnation of Jim Laker and Tony Lock (that will be Van Buuren and Taylor) could only manage 5 wickets as the pitch flattened out and died and Northants dug in deep to salvage an impressive draw.

After bowling Northants out for 176 and then racking up 418 in their first innings this definitely goes down as a missed opportunity for Glos. Given a day and a bit to bowl a team out you would expect to win 9 times out 10. Given the spectacular win the bowlers produced from out of thin air against Glamorgan it would be petty to criticise too much.

Instead Glos fans can sit back and enjoy not only the second coming of Lock and Laker, but the return of Maxy Klinger. Such are the expectations on Klinger after last summer that despite a 6 week break from the game the official Glos website described his innings of 140 as not "hitting the heights".

The Jessop Tavern View were happy enough. At the top of the innings Chris Dent also consolidated his reputation as a feast or famine opener with a well constructed 93. Dent has now gone passed 500 runs for the summer. An opener's life will always be such that big scores will follow low scores. Such is life against the new ball.

Despite this missed opportunity, the future looks particularly rosy at the Brightside ground. Or bright, some might say.

Day 4 highlights:

Day 3 highlights:

Day 2 highlights:

Day 1 highlights:

Glos lose opening match of a competition that seems to begger belief in its lack of any structure

T20 Blast: Sussex 242 for 5 (Taylor 93*) beat Gloucestershire 83 for 1 (Klinger 42*) by 1 run (D/L method) 
Scorecard
Gloucestershire were cruelly denied in their opening T20 Blast match against Sussex as rain brought to a halt a potentially thrilling run chase with Glos 1 run behind the Duckworth-Lewis target.

In fairness, after Sussex racked up 242 in their 20 overs, with Kiwi Ross Taylor butchering 93 from 48 deliveries, they were firm favourites to take the spoils. Chris Liddle marked his Glos debut with 2 uninspired overs that went for 35. David Payne also struggled going for 15 runs an over. Tom Smith and Jack Taylor kept some measure of control, but the tiny boundary on one side made boundary hitting only a mistimed, toe of the bat prod away.

The good news for Glos was that Michael Klinger looks to still be batting like it's 2015. His 42 runs came off only 24 balls and you suspect that with him still at the crease Sussex would have been delighted by the rain.

And so Glos get off to a losing start, albeit in entertaining and dynamic fashion.It is now back to 4 day cricket for the next few weeks. The less said about this the better.

Actually, no. What is the point of having a cricket blog if you can't moan about absurdities. The T20 Blast should be English cricket's premier way of attracting new fans to the domestic game, and in turn creating a strong grassroots infrastructure to feed into the national team. England have just enjoyed a fantastic last 12 months of one day cricket, culminating in a hugely exciting and newsworthy loss in the final of the World T20 just a few weeks ago.

So therefore why do we have the T20 Blast being launched during an England test match? In May. With only 1 England player from the World T20 final on display over the opening weekend. With the IPL still blazing away in India. And with many teams playing their opening match of the competition and then going immediately back to 4 day cricket for 2 weeks. How is any of this conducive to putting together an exciting competition that captures a little bit of the excitement of other far more successful competitions around the world?

The T20 Blast will likely never become as big an event as say the Big Blast until the bullet is finally bitten and city franchises are created. But couldn't we at least try? Why couldn't we ring fence a period in the summer for the competition? Why couldn't we do this in July and August when the weather is better and kids are on holiday, along with the IPL having finished.

Would it be too hard to make sure that the England boys are also partially available, particularly at the start of the competition in order to attract attention? The test team contains only 4 of the lads who played in the World T20 final. It always feels like such a wasted opportunity. Every year. Oh well.

Video highlights

New spin twins bring unlikely first victory to the Brightside Ground

Gloucestershire (21pts) 262 and 336 (Bancroft 70, Roderick 67, Marshall 58, Hogan 4-68) beat Glamorgan (6pts) 330 (Lloyd 99, Bragg 70, Wagg 55 ret hurt) and 143 (Taylor 4-16, van Buuren 3-15) by 125 runs
Scorecard

A rather incredible afternoon at the Brightside ground saw Gloucestershire's spinners (yes, you read that right, Gloucestershire spinners!) run through Glamorgan on a 4th day pitch to bring victory from what looked like impending defeat. So sure was the Jessop Tavern that defeat was on the way that they had begun their rain dance. Needing less than 200 in 60 odd overs, and with all wickets in hand, Glamorgan proceed to unravel when faced by Gloucestershire's latest spin twins, Jack Taylor and Graeme van Buuren.

So, 5 matches into the new season, and with their first win of the season under their belt, Gloucestershire sit 4th in Division 2, even on points with 3rd placed Leicestershire, and only 3 points behind 2nd place Kent.

The victory against Glamorgan was a true team effort. From the very first morning when Gloucestershire were reduced to 5 for 85 and then 8 for 169 the Shire were always second favourites. The fact that they even managed to stay in the game on the first day was testament to 19 year old George Hankins' first first class 50 and then a stand of 90 for the 9th wicket between Craig Miles and David Payne. Not for the first time this season did Gloucestershire's lower order come to their rescue and keep them in a game.

Some welcome wickets for Craig Miles, including the delivery that forced the unfortunate Graham Wagg to retire hurt, then allowed Glos to stay in the game by bowling Glamorgan out for a lead of just 70 odd. A borderline lead that gave Glos hope but put Glamorgan in the driving seat.

On the day that Michael Klinger arrived for the summer, stand-in Aussie Cameron Bancroft final found his feet with a well constructed 70. He was ably joined by the in form O'Mish and the gritty Gareth Roderick, who despite making 67 seemingly still seems to be searching for his best form. However, with Michael Hogan running in from one end Glamorgan were frequently taking wickets and by reducing Glos to 271 for 8 they really were in the driving seat.

Cue Craig Miles. Again. Miles made 39 not out whilst enabling Glos to add 65 for the final 2 wickets, crucial runs that pushed Glamorgan's run chase above 250. Miles, Payne and Centurion Norwell have all performed heroics with the bat for Gloucestershire this season and with the explosive Jack Taylor at number 8, Glos have the making of a very stout rearguard and full credit should go to the young bowling unit for developing their games to such a level.

In their run chase Glamorgan looked comfortable at 87 without loss, and although requiring 3 an over on a slightly sluggish pitch, a draw would really have been the best Glos could have hoped for midway through the afternoon.

Enter Graeme van Buuren, part-time left arm spinner, albeit with a first class bowling average of 25 (but with only 68 wickets in 53 games). In fact, van Buuren is a statistical curiosity. He averages 50 with the bat in his 53 games which makes him look like the second coming of Jacques Kallis. Presumably this says more about the standard of first class cricket in South Africa, although here's hoping he backs these stats up as Glos will have picked up a very handy player)

We digress. van Buuren, who had fired in leg stump darts in the first innings, removed Glamorgan's top 3 for just 11 runs being added. In his 10 overs he ended up with 3 for 15, before taking his cap and handing over to Jack Taylor to finish the job. Taylor duly obliged by running through Glamorgan's bottom order to win the match for the Shire. Glamorgan went from 87 without loss in the 22nd over, to 143 all out in the 48th. A collapse not uncommon at the Brightside Ground, but with Gloucestershire batsmen usually the ones walking back to the pavilion.

And so this most unlikely of wins suddenly sets Gloucestershire up quite nicely. The squad seems to be taking shape. Klinger is back. van Buuren could be an excellent signing. O'Mish has 2 hundreds and almost 500 runs to sit 4th in the division 2 run charts. Chris Dent isn't too far behind with 444 runs. Craig Miles has returned. The lower order can all score runs.

Most excitingly, Jack Taylor has developed into a very dynamic, match-changing, 4 day player to complement his already proven prowess in the shorter forms of the game. Taylor has 387 runs at an average of 48, and 12 wickets at an average of 28. All in the county championship. A far cry from the last few years when he has struggled with his action and not looked close to the 4 day team. The coaching team are clearly doing something right!

Now it is on to the T20 Blast. But only for Friday. Then back to 4 day cricket next week. Oh English cricket. Will the nonsense ever end.

Day 1 highlights

Day 2 highlights

Day 3 highlights

Day 4 highlights

Taylor resilience epitomises Gloucestershire spirit

Photo from the Gloucestershire official site

Gloucestershire (10 pts) 337 (Marshall 112, Taylor 52) and 211 for 8 (Taylor 46*) drew with Kent (12pts) 478 for 8 dec (Northeast 189, Latham 90, Stevens 54)
Scorecard

Gloucestershire clearly aren't the most talented team in Division Two. We don't have a great bowling attack and our batting remains flaky at times. However, we're invariably a tight unit in the field, have great spirit in the squad and we routinely battle hard from less than promising situations.

The Kent game began in such a fashion, with a nightmare early start seeing us slip to 14-4 after 17 overs of parsimonious Kent seam bowling. In the past we could easily have subsided to 150 all out from here, but a gritty ton from O'Mish (his second in consecutive matches) rescued the innings and enabled us to recover to 296-9 at the close. The last wicket pair of Payne and Shaw extended this to 337 on the second day, a thoroughly respectable effort in the circumstances.

We also have some really talented younger players who are starting to deliver. Chris Dent has a quiet match after his previous good run of form, but Jack Taylor continued his good form with the bat with two important knocks in this match. After Kent racked up an imposing 478-5 in response to Glos' total, the boys were in a world of trouble on Day 4 as we slumped to 158-8 after Miles was bowled by the wily Darren Stevens. Taylor's response was not to shut up shopm in the hope of seeing us to the close, but to play his shots in trademark fashion. His unbeaten 46 saw us safely past Kent's total to the close. The innings even impressed the watching BBC commentary team who described it thus:

'Gloucestershire really do have a terrific young talent in Jack Taylor. Predominantly an off-spinner, the 24-year-old knows how to hold a bat as well as he launches Darren Stevens for six before hitting Mitch Claydon for three fours in an over.'

Well-deserved praise for Jack, who despite going for nearly 6 an over from his 16 overs with the ball, also  managed a handy fifty in the first innings in partnership with Marshall. While we clearly still lack the ability to bowl decent sides out we are gritty and hard to beat. The bowling attack will surely improve as Miles reaches match fitness and you can imagine a full strength seam attack with Norwell and Payne joining Miles as being capable of causing problems on more favourable surfaces.

Cameron Bancroft's poor form remains a concern however. He's averaging just 16.71 from 7 completed knocks with a high score of 41. The limited amount of footage we've seen on YouTube seems to show a mix of bad luck and poor shot selection. He's obviously new to county cricket and English early season pitches, but plenty of other people are scoring runs around the country and you really need your overseas player to make a difference in Division 2. So far he's not looked up to the job as an opener and the sooner that Klinger arrives the better.

Glamorgan up next at Bristol in the battle of two teams still looking for their first win.

Day 1 highlights

Day 2 highlights

Day 3 highlights

Day 4 highlights