Posted by You may have thought that we’d forgotten about our weekly County Championship round-up, what with there having been a Test match and all. However, you didn’t count on the nagging feeling of guilt that jolted our memory. In truth, our subsconscious is largely just a complex web woven from different strands of guilt, but we’ve learnt to distinguish between them over the years.
Pleasingly, the Championship top three comprises the same teams as last week, albeit in a different order. It’s almost like the table’s taking shape.
1st – Middlesex
Middlesex beat Somerset by nine wickets, despite 6-95 from Jamie Overton in the first innings. Tim Murtagh was the difference here, taking 10 wickets in the match. Jos Buttler made 85 after Somerset had fallen to 35-5 in their second innings, but he needs to bat further up the order if he’s to even be considered for Test cricket.
2nd – Yorkshire
Yorkshire are only three points behind Middlesex after beating Warwickshire by an innings and 139 runs. Adil Rashid made an unbeaten hundred and currently averages 200 in the Championship. Liam Plunkett (remember him) took 5-32.
3rd – Durham
Last week we vaguely promised that we’d cover Surrey v Durham this week and at school they taught us that you have to keep your vague promises, even when you don’t really mean them and no-one actually cares. Durham beat Surrey with two of their spinners performing well. Ryan Buckley took 5-80 in the first innings and Scott Borthwick took 6-70 in the second. In between, Gareth Batty took 5-80 for Surrey. It’s also worth noting that Stuart Meaker took one wicket in the match and went at five an over. We actually quite like Stuart Meaker, but it’s sometimes worth drawing attention to days like this because a player’s England credentials can be overhyped after their better performances which can skew perceptions.
The next chapter
We hate this bit now that our unfamiliarity with calendars and dates has been exposed. We think that Durham will host Middlesex this week and that Yorkshire won’t play until next week.
Sussex is now the dark horse team, having played one match fewer than everyone else but once you take that into account they are right up the top in the mix. They play Somerset this week.
Middlesex play Durham, Sussex and Yorkshire between now and 14 June, to complete our first half of the CC season. I’ll have a much better feel for our real prospects this season once we have played those three strong teams.
Your calendar problem could be easily solved by clicking on the fixtures tab on the Cricinfo front page, but I don’t suppose logic comes into it; you have now developed an irrational fear of the first class cricket fixture list, KC.
Does anyone have a good name for KC’s novel phobia? Phobias need names, they really do.
The Cricinfo fixtures list is what we use. It’s hard to read when you struggle with dates and calendars though.
Fixphobia?
*embarrassed kingcorrecting face* erm – isn’t Steve Borthwick a rugby player – though to be fair the way Surrey are playing this season a lock could bowl 6 of their players out quite easily….
You’re right. Surrey are quite bad at cricket.
Also the Borthwick thing – now corrected.
It is traditional for fixture lists to be based on dates and calendars and stuff.
But perhaps it is time that the ECB/MCC/ICC and their imperialist lapdogs move on from these old-fashioned fixture listing methods.
In any case, if KC’s fear of fixture lists really is a psychological illness (it really does need a name, then it would unquestionably be so), then surely KC has rights under the disability discrimination act to have fixtures presented to him in a less frightening manner.
I feel a campaign coming on.
Didomiphobia. That’s the disability.
Sounds terrible and much in need of solace. Well deserving of a campaign. With huge amounts of charitable funds pouring in to support the worthy cause.
Fixturematosis ?
Nasty, Uncle Bert. And incurable. Euthanasia might be the only realistic way to ease the poor creature from suffering.
Calenditis?
Some more confirmation this week that Somerseet really are terrible.