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Honestly, you take the trouble to inform people how things stand in the County Championship and the damn thing only goes and gets itself decided five minutes later.
Essex won their match by an innings and let’s not bother getting too mathematical about what Lancashire would need to do to to draw out what is clearly inevitable. Let’s face it. Essex are going to win.
After the first round of matches, we said we couldn’t see them winning many games this year. “They don’t seem to have enough bowlers,” was our reasoning.
After two matches, we revised this view. “At some point Essex’s wafer thin attack is going to be too knackered to achieve anything. We’re adamant about this.”
By the end of May, we were saying: “We may have to stop thinking of Essex as being inked in for relegation what with their currently being top of the table and all.”
They’ve pretty much stayed there every since.
We still think they’ve got a wafer thin attack, but it is apparently a very robust wafer and rather more effective than we knew.
Jamie Porter was the big surprise to us – he has taken 64 wickets at 17.85. Simon Harmer has also done way better than expected and has picked up 63 wickets at 20.19.
Lancashire will doubtless be wishing that they’d managed to retain the services of The Great Neil Wagner as he is Essex’s next highest wicket-taker with 24 (albeit at 41.37). His locum, Mohammad Amir, took 14 wickets in three matches at 13.50.
Who else? Um, Ravi Bopara has 12 wickets at 40, some fella called Samuel Cook took six wickets – as did Matthew Quinn and Aaron Beard – while a bunch of people have taken three.
It’s hard to avoid the feeling that Essex have won the County Championship with half a bowling attack.
The moral of the story is that if you’re going to rely on two bowlers, make sure they’re bloody effective and just hope to hell that neither of them gets injured.
Two people called Cook taking wickets for Essex and neither of them was Alastair?
Aghast.
Erm, Matthew Quinn.
More disappointed now.
Edited the article. Cheers Mike.
If it’s a robust wafer, is it a Tunnock’s?
Champions by virtue of September’s finest, Somerset, hammering Lancs. What a wafer Essex to win it.
We bow to your superior wafer knowledge, A P Webster.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS6666666666666666666666666666
LARNDAAAAAN!!!!
I presume this is a reference to Monkey Dust.
If so: top referencing, everyone.
Did Aaron Beard beard his six wickets?
In other news…
…this week’s cricketer spotted in Cricket Badger is a BOGOF and a bit of a classic in every way.
You can sign up to get the thing here: http://www.sportsbadger.com/
We think you should sign up – even when we adopt an unbiased point of view.
So if Essex have won already, that means that they’re out of it and the rest of the season is effectively a competition for second place. A competition that Lancashire is winning comfortably. It is in essence another type of county competition, the only difference being it is without Essex.
Now what would you call a “championship” played among “counties”? Yes, it’s a County Championship. It doesn’t matter that one county is missing, it’s still a county championship. Because of the stupid way Essex have run their season, Lancs are now top of the County Championship, and indeed favourites to win.
We’re going to win the County Championship, KC! The only thing that can go wrong is if we win next week against Middlesex, thus making the remainder of the season effectively a contest for third, or as it should now properly be called, second.
Big if in that last sentence, Bert.
Big. If.
Anyone else think it’s an awful shame we aren’t going to be seeing more of Kumar Sangakarra.
7 hundreds and 2 fifties from 8 matches this season. What a player.
I think the opposition have seen more than enough of Sangakkara this season. Spare them a thought.