We've put all of the comments so far about becoming Champions on the Leicestershire thread, so I just thought we needed one specifically devoted to winning the Championship. And here's an article to start the thread:
https://leamingtonobserver.co.uk/sport/cricket-ian-westwood-admits-warwickshires-county-championship-win-feels-sensational/
Although I don’t like the name they give the podcast this was wonderful listening live on WM last night:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0032vsp?
Looking forward to the Awards dinner tomorrow!
They dedicated (for once) a section to us on the Wisden cricket weekly podcast - I enjoyed the bit on Rob Yates' slip catching by Nick Friend
Nick Friend is my favourite cricket writer. His player interviews are brilliant, the one with Bamber is especially good.
He's so well researched.
Whilst we've quite rightly been critical in the past of some of the media coverage of the Club, I think that, on the whole, they have done a pretty good job of covering the Championship win. To be fair, they found that there was a good story to tell with some elements that would appeal to readers, such as:
I found a lot of it begrudging to be honest. Telegraph talked about ugly batting. Scyld Berry had a pop. Guardian said it didn’t have romance of Somerset or Notts.
Specialist writers a bit better but not much!
BosworthBear wrote:
I found a lot of it begrudging to be honest. Telegraph talked about ugly batting. Scyld Berry had a pop. Guardian said it didn’t have romance of Somerset or Notts.
Specialist writers a bit better but not much!
Can't see there would have been any romance in Notts winning back to back titles!
Unfortunately this is a West Midlands/Birmingham thing. Our sporting successes are played down, we don't get the praise like London or Manchester based teams, or plucky outsiders from the South West. Our best football team is patronised because they're not one of the media darlings.
We will just have to keep on winning things, they might get the message eventually.
ExiledBrummie wrote:
BosworthBear wrote:
I found a lot of it begrudging to be honest. Telegraph talked about ugly batting. Scyld Berry had a pop. Guardian said it didn’t have romance of Somerset or Notts.
Specialist writers a bit better but not much!
Can't see there would have been any romance in Notts winning back to back titles!
Unfortunately this is a West Midlands/Birmingham thing. Our sporting successes are played down, we don't get the praise like London or Manchester based teams, or plucky outsiders from the South West. Our best football team is patronised because they're not one of the media darlings.
We will just have to keep on winning things, they might get the message eventually.
Well a Warwickshire thing!
Nothing new tbh. I'm reminded of several snarky articles the late Martin Johnson wrote about us in the glorious mid 90s. One I can't find likened Dermot's team to a rusty but reliable Vauxhall Cavalier pootling up up and down the motorway. This one still survives:
I enjoyed the Martin Johnson article!
Of course, he was the journalist who wrote about the 1986/7 England team touring Australia that there were only three things wrong with them - they can't bat, can't bowl and can't field. The team then (with Gladstone featuring strongly) went on to win the Ashes, the one day series and a special one day tournament as well.
My own take, having sat for a lifetime watching cricket with Bears fans, is not that we are hard done by (though occasionally we are) but that we like moaning about being hard done by.
PS - a moan from me - Sam Hain doesn't get into the BBC team of the season:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c6dx01807d1ro
But because it was decided by public vote, maybe those of us who didn't vote are to blame.
GerryShedd wrote:
PS - a moan from me - Sam Hain doesn't get into the BBC team of the season:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c6dx01807d1ro
But because it was decided by public vote, maybe those of us who didn't vote are to blame.
looks like all of Abell, Clarke and Bedingfield scored more runs than he did, to be fair
ITE7376 wrote:
GerryShedd wrote:
PS - a moan from me - Sam Hain doesn't get into the BBC team of the season:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c6dx01807d1ro
But because it was decided by public vote, maybe those of us who didn't vote are to blame.
looks like all of Abell, Clarke and Bedingfield scored more runs than he did, to be fair
How dare you confuse a good moan with some facts!
From the Guardian's 2026 County Cricket Awards:
"The nice guys don’t finish last award
Ethan Bamber
The Championship’s leading wicket-taker (with 69 of the things) mingled on the outfield at Edgbaston last Saturday after Warwickshire were awarded the winner’s trophy. Bamber had already been called the nicest man in cricket by his captain, Ed Barnard, and the hardest working by Sam Hain, before he auditioned for the most modest when talking to reporters (while signing a supporter’s miniature bat.) “You always wonder, as an average cricketer like me, how high your ceiling is, and in quiet moments I wasn’t sure I quite had it,” he said as he was passed a plastic cup of champagne and a man in a Scooby Doo costume sidled alongside. “Here I’ve been given the opportunity and space to express myself on the field. I feel like I have been the beneficiary of a really good group.” Bear hugs all round."
GerryShedd wrote:
ITE7376 wrote:
GerryShedd wrote:
PS - a moan from me - Sam Hain doesn't get into the BBC team of the season:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c6dx01807d1ro
But because it was decided by public vote, maybe those of us who didn't vote are to blame.
looks like all of Abell, Clarke and Bedingfield scored more runs than he did, to be fair
How dare you confuse a good moan with some facts!
although Abell's total was inflated by 300 runs in the definitive dead rubber so his total doesn't count!!!!
ITE7376 wrote:
GerryShedd wrote:
PS - a moan from me - Sam Hain doesn't get into the BBC team of the season:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c6dx01807d1ro
But because it was decided by public vote, maybe those of us who didn't vote are to blame.
looks like all of Abell, Clarke and Bedingfield scored more runs than he did, to be fair
The latters just gotta get thru this...
Andy wrote:
ITE7376 wrote:
GerryShedd wrote:
PS - a moan from me - Sam Hain doesn't get into the BBC team of the season:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c6dx01807d1ro
But because it was decided by public vote, maybe those of us who didn't vote are to blame.
looks like all of Abell, Clarke and Bedingfield scored more runs than he did, to be fair
The latters just gotta get thru this...
I was waiting for someone else to do that rather than me...
The BBC article pre-voting didn't seem to distinguish between Division 1 and 2, and despite what some of the posters on the BBC said Division 1 runs still carry much more weight than Division 2, so for that reason Hain should have been ahead of Daniel Bedingfield (and David Bedingham).
Going back to people being critical and writing like morons about our various title wins, it goes back to 1911 as well when Kent moaned that we had won but seeing as teams arranged their own fixtures and you could decide who you didn't want to play. Guess which side Kent didn't want to play because they felt it was beneath them, yes but once the season was over, they were the ones beneath us in the table. In 1972, certain journo's felt we'd bought the title because we had 4 overseas West Indians in the team. In 1994, it was Lara (But someone had to take Donald's wickets) in 1995 it was Donald (But someone had to make Lara's runs), in 2004, we won 5 and lost none and Kent had a moan but lost 3 anyway. Not our fault, the points system is the same for everyone, we were never bowled out for less than 265 and maybe we were lucky to win the toss so often and bat big (400+ 10 innings in a row world record) but maybe if sides hadn't also got big runs to condemn the games to draws, they might have beaten us, no harm in declaring behind and maybe getting a total to chase. We established such a big lead, why would we have wanted to throw it away because sides didn't like how we played. 2012, not sure anyone moaned about tour title but how could they, we won with a game to go. Even the 2021 title was bemoaned because of the circumstances, sorry but we didn't start Covid, the rules were the same for everyone. Maybe someday people we see we won titles because we are/were the best team.