19 wickets falling on day one in Southampton!! Kent over 100 ahead and 3 bowling points in the bag. Looks like we have to beat Gloucs with max bowling points.

And what idiot said Hampshire would be expected to win - I will now look in the mirror for an answer. That was a shock, 57 all out.

26 wickets in the day at Chelmsford…

LeicesterExile wrote:

19 wickets falling on day one in Southampton!! Kent over 100 ahead and 3 bowling points in the bag. Looks like we have to beat Gloucs with max bowling points.

We are going down aren't we?! Kent will win, Somerset will win or draw and we aren't likely to win, unless our bowlers can do better than they have for many a long while.

I would take any kind of scrambled survival over relegation but it has to be said that with the squad we have had at our disposal this season, it would be harsh on Somerset & Kent if we stayed up instead of them. Both of those teams were going to struggle along with Gloucs but they have fought to win points. Kent currently have a lead of 125 after rolling championship chasing Hants out for 57, 3 days after winning the RL cup!

Somerset looked out of it earlier in the season but were the better team against us and are looking like they are building towards a decent 1st innings.

Kent play Somerset last game and we will certainly lose to Hants, making them look superb in the process. We can't say that this was not coming, there have been enough posters on here warning about things not being right all season.

I think things have been wrong all season, right from last winter, even after a season of such success. But I think it’s far more to do with behind the scenes and management than the actual players.
Performance isn’t just about talent, it’s about environment. And for whatever reason this year the environment clearly hasn’t been conducive to players performing well.
Some interesting acquisitions were made, both domestic and overseas, who have been poor or underwhelming across all formats.
Pop Welch leaving as he couldn’t work with Robinson.
Some big players are leaving: Stone, Hose, Sibley. Others are clearly being frozen out like Lamb. Players like Johal have faltered massively.
And actually a lot of this group has been together a long time, and despite it being professional sport, they will have strong friendships, so to see it clearly being dismantled after a very good season can only be negatively effecting them.

Considering the club said Siraj was unavailable for personal reasons, I’m assuming that they’d have said the same for Burgess if it was personal. I think same as Lamb, they’ve taken their first chance to drop him. Which again can only cause issues amongst a team, as both it seems that both Lamb and Burgess are very popular in that group.

Time will tell with this match, but if I were to point the finger anywhere for this season it would be Robinson and Farbrace.

There have been stacks of wickets all the way through today across all games so premature to say we can't win this. And if we do we pull ahead of Kent, despite them rolling over Hampshire. Could we even get close to Yorkshire if they get smashed by Surrey?

Also think very premature to say Burgess was dropped. There are plenty of reasons why he would be unavailable. For what it's worth, I don't think anyone in their right mind would say Davies is a better option with the gloves given how he's been batting. Robinson included.

Finally I think the assessment of the season is too soon as well. However it goes I think we were fortunate last year and failed to account for it this year. I can remember Eddie Jones saying it took three years to get the team you want as head coach, it could yet be that 2023 is the year Robinson gets things the way he wants.

Yes lots to play out over the next couple of days. Does sound as though like Edgbaston this Bristol pitch will flatten and flatten as the game wears on perhaps a consequence of ecb finally getting to grips with some issues at non test ground pitches over the years. I think it might well be Henry Brookes time to really shine and collect a clutch of wickets also Briggs ought to take some confidence into his bowling.

We are where most pundits expected us to be though in the bottom 4 of this ten team league (I was more hopeful I guess of at least safe mid-table) - it is a worrying state of affairs with the club set to perhaps vote itself into semi-permanent feeder league status (you wouldn't put it past our CEO and board would you????!!!) as envisioned for any county not occupying one of the six top spots at the conclusion of season 2023. Likely go then spend at least 2/3rds of our future existence not being able to even compete for the county championship let alone win it.

Talking of winning we've apparently not won at Bristol since Allan Donald (match figures of 8-91) and fifties for Ostler, Reeve and Penney emerged from a thriller against Bill Athey and Courtney Walsh in June 1992 our sole victory there in 60-odd years (admittedly for the last 23 years we've often been in a different division or beat them at Cheltenham, Gloucester or Moreton in the Marsh). I think we could well find ourselves playing Gloucestershire quite a bit over the next few seasons in one of these 'feeder divisions'. You see we don't have the clout of Surrey or Hants and don't currently produce enough of our own top talent like a Lancashire or Yorkshire or Somerset. Best of luck selling three-year memberships off the back of that clever piece of future proofing.

That's the first really strong session we've had in a long time!

If the pitch is turning now you would imagine it's only going to take more turn - Briggs and Yadav to win it for us in the fourth innings

Just on us producing talent.

I think that we do produce players, the problem we have is that we do not then bring them through properly. All of the clubs mentioned above put youngsters in and then let them evolve through thick and thin. Brookes, after a couple of seasons hampered by injuries is now looking a decent bowler, Yates despite having a poor season was more or less ever present opening the batting last season so the club bring in Davies to mess that up! Bethel should retain his place whatever happens to make him feel part of things especially as he can bowl, Mousley & Benjamin are both talented youngsters who need to feel part of the red ball set up. The Lamb situation is just baffling.

I know it is a different format but Brookes, Bethell, Benjamin and Mousley were all deemed good enough for the hundred but we cant find regular game time for them?

E Brookes & Johal have suffered imo from not being given regular game time at 1st team level.

really need some wickets quickly. Kent will win their game and Somerset shouod not lose so us getting win points is essential.

I would be absolutely fuming if a Warwickshire batsman played that shot, brainless from Hammond. Great for us

Yes we produce a decent amount of cricketers, particularly batters, but we generally dispense with them far too quickly in favour of signing average players from other counties. It's seemingly happening with Matt Lamb.

With the size of our catchment area we should have a minimum of 5 or 6 locally developed players in our XI for most games.

6 down now but Gloucs are having a go at us with nothing at all to lose.

We need a 1st innings lead here to force a win or we are done for as it is looking like both Somerset & Kent are well on there way to victories.

On the production of youth, I think we’re conflating 2 different issues. The first being producing talented players and the second, having those players perform consistently in senior cricket.
Arguably we do well at the first point.
But it’s the second, where we manage that transition and create an environment for them to succeed, that we fail at.
The problem is we can’t complain about Davies or Yates being selected, but suggest Benjamin, Mousley or Bethell. None of them have so far shown they’re up to the task consistently in any format. They might be eventually, but not yet.

I’m sure as a young man he’s a superb person, but Bethell to me sums up so much with what is wrong with talent production in this country. He’s shoved to the front of the queue in Championship, T20 and Hundred having never performed in senior cricket. All because he’s an England under 19 and someone has decided he’s got potential. Gone are the days you have to earn it. There are players out there who have made multi year careers off the back of how good they were only 18/19/20. And to me that’s incredibly strange.
I would have liked to think Mousley would have been ahead of Bethell for this match, as at least he’s performed a few times for the county over the last couple of years.

Yorkshire, Lancs, Surrey & Somerset regularly blood 18/19/20 yr olds and get them to bed in to become good experienced players by the the time they are early to mid 20's.

My beef with players like Davies, Sidebottom and this season Miles just to mention 3 is that we could have put our own youngsters with potential in and fight a relegation battle .

Bethell could have a bowl now and be smacked around the park like Briggs has been all season, at least he would get some experience from it.

Does anyone know why Matt Lamb isn’t in 1st X1

He is scoring more runs than Yates and Davies that were Farbrace/Robinson signings?

Last year Farbrace/Robinson gave multi year contracts to Yates, Davies, Johal, Benjamin & Lintot. so far none of them have done anything this year to show that giving them long contracts was the right decision.

Also, how can players perform consistantly when they are not given the opportunity to play. Bethell, Mousley and Benjamin have played a combined total of 10 Championship games less year, and have scored more runs than Yates.
The only young player given a chance to be consistant is Yates, who consistantly fails.

Not only has Davies massively underperformed with the bat, I don't think he's a very good keeper.

Two unnecessary byes there, and a generally under-par performance in this game.

Having watched him in the flesh in the Blast, I also think he stands too far back, which suggests he doesn't have the ability or confidence in his own ability.

All the byes have been very poor. His hands aren't great, nor does he seem to be willing to dive around.
There was one from Sidebottom early where Davies barely stuck out a hand, let alone jump or dive. Sidebottom looked deeply unimpressed and it was poor enough for even the commentators to mention it.

Keepers often get unlucky with byes and have no chance, and usually I sympathise with them. But think all of these were preventable.