< 1 minute readIt’s the last round of the County Championship and three teams could win it: Middlesex, Yorkshire and Somerset. We rather like the ‘there’s been a bonus point at Taunton which changes EVERYTHING!’ chaos of a close finish in this competition, but if you don’t enjoy the baffled-surprise emotion quite as
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County cricket’s spin ecosystem
2 minute readIn recent years there has been much talk about how county cricket hasn’t been producing spin bowlers. A corollary of this is that county batsmen have been facing less spin. With just a bit of a nudge, the latter becomes something that can be exploited. This year in the County
Continue readingJonathan Trott and no ice age
< 1 minute readA lot of you will have assumed that England’s domestic 50-over competition had been and gone. The group stages barely outlasted July and the semi-finals took place three weeks ago. The final, however, was scheduled for the arse end of the season, long after anyone could remember what preceded it.
Continue readingThe County Championship state of play a few crucial minutes before the end of the second day
2 minute readWe could wait until the end of the day’s play before giving the latest round of County Championship matches a mid-point once-over, but why wait? Whatever we write will be out of date soon enough anyway. Might as well allow it to become so almost instantly. Keep on Keaton on
Continue readingWhat is the point in the County Championship?
2 minute readWas it a batting point or a bowling point? Was it one arising from a win, or did it come about through a draw? The dream scenario would be for it to have come about thanks to a penalty for a slow over rate, but neither Middlesex nor Yorkshire has
Continue readingCity-based T20 and the art of forcing windows
3 minute readIndependent websites are meant to provide a rapid response to news stories, telling the world how things should be based on an unshakeable sense of what is right and what is wrong. However, we long ago concluded that when it came to stories about what might happen to the structure
Continue readingYorkshire bear down on Middlesex
2 minute readBefore the latest round of County Championship matches, Yorkshire were five points adrift of Middlesex. NOW THEY’RE ONLY FOUR POINTS BEHIND. Truly, it was the definitive week of this year’s competition. Eight teams were in action and the points accrued ranged from 8 to 11 as everyone drew. Nottinghamshire were
Continue readingLast week’s County Championship news… today!
< 1 minute readSuppose we should try and catch up. We’d left it so long we were thinking about doing a double round-up after the matches taking place at the minute, but then we thought about how long that article would end up being and decided we had to do some nettle grasping.
Continue readingWhat Jason Gillespie taught us as Yorkshire coach
< 1 minute readJason Gillespie’s leaving Yorkshire at the end of the season. Disappointingly, he never picked up the accent. We always thought that Gillespie would make a terrible coach on the grounds that he did a really bad job of explaining his nickname in a TV interview in about 2003. He has
Continue readingWhat are they feeding them in Northamptonshire?
< 1 minute readIt must be very calorifically dense. Earlier in the year, we pointed out that Rory Kleinveldt’s nickname could never be Kleinsvelte, but the South African doesn’t appear to be an outlier. He plays in a muscular-yet-flabby team that appears to be getting most its protein from pork belly and fried
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