Andy wrote:

Booth
Gotcha cheers! I like the cut of his jib and hope he's available next year especially with the lower order biffing

I’d like to think I contributed to Ali Martin’s piece with criticism of Observer and Guardian coverage of all the hype over Somerset. I did explain to him how lazy it was! He argued back but I suspect realised their lack of objectivity recently. Cricket media coverage is as poor as I can remember at the moment. Awful piece by Scyld Berry in yesterday’s Telegraph and similar today by Will Macpherson!

One thing I hope is and I know the commercial difficulties etc... and I do think the club chair, board, and CEO already do have the best interests of the club at heart but that they now realise even more how important it is not to allow the county championship to in any way be further undermined or reduced at any point in the short to medium future.

At ECB meetings Warwickshire should now (if they weren't already) be on similar page to Surrey, Somerset who voiced opposition to any more cuts over the last 3 or 4 seasons

We've landed on a structure that seems to fit okayish. Sure I personally would prefer more CC matches to watch that's natural but we can't have everything. And next year 2 of these final 6 fixtures are being moved into June/July so that's welcome I don't think folks mind alterations of this nature so much

On the Hain debate, I get that he hasn’t always done full justice to his talents; but I still think he’s been unlucky.
A decade ago, I thought that the future of England’s batting lay with the (almost biblical) pairing of Hain and Abell. I was wrong in both respects (though I’m told that Abell has knocked up a decent score this weekend).

I wonder how George’s relationship with WCCC is now. He doesn’t seem to like the current hierarchy and write that scathing piece which ironically may have sparked our amazing recent form. Noticeable he’s been at Taunton this week!

GerryShedd wrote:

On the Hain debate, I get that he hasn’t always done full justice to his talents; but I still think he’s been unlucky.
A decade ago, I thought that the future of England’s batting lay with the (almost biblical) pairing of Hain and Abell. I was wrong in both respects (though I’m told that Abell has knocked up a decent score this weekend).

I was listening to a commentary the other week against Essex and whoever it was on commentary effectively suggested they’d heard pretty concretely that around the time of Hain’s rise England selectors more or less had to pick between Root and Hain.

Hard to argue with the outcome but I do echo the sentiments shared earlier that he definitely deserved more of a go in One Day cricket. When you see this England ODI team they struggle so much for the tempo of a One Day innings and Hain is the master of it.

Not seen many newspapers today but I think the Express might have given us about 3 square inches and The Times despite taking a whole week to get through managed to find (probably reluctantly) a whole half page with a picture of Woakes and Bamber holding the trophy. I think we had a whole page in 2021 so we could be lucky to get mentioned next time we win it. The sooner this country can stop over-obsessing about football, the better.

GerryShedd wrote:

On the Hain debate, I get that he hasn’t always done full justice to his talents; but I still think he’s been unlucky.
A decade ago, I thought that the future of England’s batting lay with the (almost biblical) pairing of Hain and Abell. I was wrong in both respects (though I’m told that Abell has knocked up a decent score this weekend).

2016 and 2017 Hain was way out of form and was even dropped at one point during the relegation season. His emergence as a white ball player for us affected his 4day form for a couple of years, he wasn't leaving the ball as well. Obviously this has since been addressed, think his career average is over 43 now which in this era of result pitches etc is extremely good.

Edit to add, 2018 aside all his CC runs have come in the top division. Levels.

BosworthBear wrote:

I wonder how George’s relationship with WCCC is now. He doesn’t seem to like the current hierarchy and write that scathing piece which ironically may have sparked our amazing recent form. Noticeable he’s been at Taunton this week!

His done some nice pieces about us in the past, but ive said before if he ever gets the chance to put the boot in on us he really goes for it. That piece earlier in the season was way over the top and frankly a bit mean spirited.

I still can't get my head around yesterday, probably hasn't sunk in yet. Im so proud of them for doing such a professional job in the pressure of suddenly being top.

Word on Woakes, it would be such a blow if he did retire, I appreciate he's found it hard going, but he's still so, so, so good and when the best opposition batters are at the crease he's still the bowler you want with the ball in his hand. That ball that got Budinger yesterday was an absolute seed. He's been phenomenal in this run in. Like I say, still so good.

And fair play to Ian Westwood, since he's took over the reigns he's been fantastic and we've improved so much. Not just this season just look at some of those 4day wins we had last season. Hopefully people back off him now. Nobody can take this away from him. County Champion as player and then Head coach. Richly deserved.

Roll on 2027 fixture announcement!

mad wrote:

One thing I hope is and I know the commercial difficulties etc... and I do think the club chair, board, and CEO already do have the best interests of the club at heart but that they now realise even more how important it is not to allow the county championship to in any way be further undermined or reduced at any point in the short to medium future.

At ECB meetings Warwickshire should now (if they weren't already) be on similar page to Surrey, Somerset who voiced opposition to any more cuts over the last 3 or 4 seasons

We've landed on a structure that seems to fit okayish. Sure I personally would prefer more CC matches to watch that's natural but we can't have everything. And next year 2 of these final 6 fixtures are being moved into June/July so that's welcome I don't think folks mind alterations of this nature so much

Should be going the other way, bring back 2 divisions of 9 and let's play 16 games.

I just keep looking at the league table every so often and having a smile to myself :)

Andy wrote:

I just keep looking at the league table every so often and having a smile to myself :)

I’m just hoping Somerset don’t win so that gap is big enough to stop all of this nonsense about them giving the Championship away. Gibson trying to again today.

With a draw for Essex it looks like they need to regain all of their lost 27 points. For some reason they are confident but that’s a big ask!

Times like this make me wish we still had some iteration of the Champion Couty game. That win against the MCC in Abu Dhabi was absolute vibes.

Championship winners vs Shield winners would be so fun.

Random but who was it on here that referred to us as title contenders in name only or some such nonsense after the Notts game?

LOL

cjav1874 wrote:

Times like this make me wish we still had some iteration of the Champion Couty game. That win against the MCC in Abu Dhabi was absolute vibes.

Championship winners vs Shield winners would be so fun.

This, so much this.

I had plenty of confidence in us winning. I obviously thought that at some stage, we would need our 2 rivals to lose one or have 2 poor draws but looking at the last 4 games, I was happy that Essex had a few omissions, that Glamorgan had gotten worse since we played them early season and that Leicestershire at home would be a nailed-on win if we had good weather. As for Hampshire, they are awful and even being put in, I knew we could win very easily, they were very lucky to survive last year and have constantly been lucky in T20's (Having 3 batsmen running in the last ball of a final, Lancs not being allowed to run a bye to the keeper in the last ball a few years ago) and were lucky to stay up a few years ago when Durham's financial irregularities were discovered. It was all set up nicely but I think about that game v Sussex when we scraped it and hard to think it was a month ago. Also the game at Yorkshire where they were so desperate to beat us after we gave them a massive beating, that Bairstow announced in the press that they were desperate to get revenge but we batted for a draw. Pivotal moments like that are almost as important as some wins but it was great to win it at home in front of a good, noisy crowd at a weekend. It was only just over 24 hours ago but as I look out of the window at the gloom of today, it seems like ages ago. I watched the YouTube highlights again this morning, I can make out a figure in the distance puncing the air every time a wicket falls, you cannot put a price on moments like this.

Chris Woakes joins Dougie Brown as 3 time title winners for the Bears. Just reading about Dougie and Graeme Welch's contributions at Guildford in the 1994 season. Wow. Welch now has 5 altogether 2 as player and 3 as a coach

I was unable to watch any of the play yesterday and not much on Friday. So I will live with the regret of not seeing them trounce Leicestershire. To win their last four games in such style is some achievement made even more so with losing the toss in September!

What makes winning the Championship so good is what, by our standard, was poor showing in the two white ball competitions. That would have deflated many sides but not this Warwickshire side. Let's go on to back to back Championships!!

There’s no telling what boost this will give the players.

Next year I’d like to win the Blast!