Both sides look fairly strong

He'll be missed in the Blast side, where he does a lot of the heavy lifting, always bowls the tough overs, etc, it's correct that he's not part of our 4day side though.

Decent player, terrific lad, lovely family, he's 34 though and he'll be on the slide. It's a move that suits all parties I'd say.

GerryShedd wrote:

There's an article in The Telegraph today that is both informative and very moving. It's here if you can get behind the paywall:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2025/06/14/cricket-leaving-working-class-white-kids-behind/?WT.mc_id=e_DM607650&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_PrS_New&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_PrS_New20250614&utm_campaign=DM607650
It homes in on the story of James Minto, Durham's youngest player who, aged just 17, is his family's breadwinner after his mother's death.
On a broader perspective, it points out that:
"Last year’s announcement by Rishi Sunak of £35 million to fund state school and grass-roots cricket has not materialised under the Labour Government. It would have paid for inner-city cricket hubs but has disappeared into a spending review black hole."

It's a great read, it really is. Durham are doing great things up there with the pathway and academy and reading about the links with state schools, clubs and how that ties in with the pathway is impressive. And they've been doing it for a long time now. They back their own. Why can't we do this?

Think he's a better bowler than Barnard but Barnard a better batter.

Is rejoining Sussex

We've made him a 'sizeable' offer apparently...

Lovely weather for it...

BristolBear wrote:

GerryShedd wrote:

I fully agree with the criticism that the Club should not have allowed him to get away from us but that's a different issue.

This has become a bit of a trend. Overly willing to sign players on trial or from elsewhere, than to persist with our own youth.
We seem to still have an attitude from 20 years ago. That players have to spend at least a couple of years playing 2’s on their first contract.
But young players these days are happy to leave to get game time. Also you look how the likes of Surrey, Sussex (slightly different reasoning), Essex, Durham and some others have gone about it, they identify high potential players, then back them young and get them in the side even if they’re not quite as good as an external player they could sign. They give them time in the team to reach that level. Then only sign “marquee” players who really improve a side or who cover a specific gap.
The talent is there, but there’s a clear gap between academy and first team at the moment.

This is true I'm afraid. We've never really backed our own academy talent as much as the club likes to think. I mean we signed Vaansh Jani (im not knocking him at all) to a rookie contract off the back of a good 4-6 weeks at the start of the season but Isaac Mohammed was going to have to wait til the end of the season despite having an excellent 2024, a strong start to 2025 and an ability to bowl serviceable seam.

The bowling side of things, we contracted Adam Sylvester and put him straight into the side when we had an academy product in Ben Blakemore (who actually has a rookie contract) playing in the 2's.

Somethings not quite right.

Honestly the crying on here sometimes...I'd understand it after the game but during the game...

Great lower order hitting, interesting to see how the 2nd half goes here as this is another difficult ground to defend on...hopefully we've developed and improved since Notts away...

Just bring the same energy when we're doing well...

Some people only post on here when we're struggling I swear...

Anyway, lovely little cameo from Garton here, he can bat...

Totally agree. You see we're quick enough to offer contracts to players from outside of the pathway off the back of a decent couple of months but we don't seem to offer contracts to players who have been part of our own pathway for a number of seasons anywhere near as readily.

Good test tonight against a team that has a history of starting strongly before falling away...

Yes I was watching that game, looked terrible.

I don't really think 2's form has much bearing on first team readiness at all. There's been numerous examples, not just recently, of a player being almost non existent in the 2nd team then getting a 1st team chance and doing well. Look at Zen Malik, no runs whatsoever in the 2's, hits the ground running in the 1's.

Feel like Garton was still a little wayward, he can definitely bat though, I've said this previously. He has good technique and times the ball.

I actually thinks Mousley looks in good nick, nature of his dismissals looks a tad unlucky. However, and I've said this for a while, he's nowhere near as good on the sweep as he maybe thinks he is. Its a good option to score but he makes his best scores when he plays a bit straighter.

Moeen Ali's timing looked way off then all of a sudden he'd absolutely lace one over long on. Class.

Extremely strong win today, much better than Friday when I felt it looked like 2 poor teams playing, we were good today, in all aspects of the game.

Overpowering them here

Fairly strong Derbyshire side, on paper atleast...

Watching him with bat, ball and in the field tonight for Worcestershire and hearing how the commentators are talking about him. Such a handy cricketer, we could do a lot worse than try to bring him back!

From memory, Notts at home and Hampshire at home from last season showed he can guts it out and play the longer innings under game situation pressure. It's a small sample size I know. The season prior I felt he was a little loose outside his off stump (I think it was 2023), he might still be. I appreciate him wanting to go the IPL, I still think at his age and career development he'd have benefited more from playing the County Championship for us though this year. The IPL, and other franchise comps, will always be there for him in the future.

Mousley and Hasan are back