I think in the past you’ve been able to buy them in the shop on the day? Would be daft if there’s no way to turn up and pay

I can understand the frustration with not winning this one, but I don't think the weather forecast was bad enough to warrant a much earlier declaration. If it was going to be a complete washout on the final day then that would be different, but if we'd declared early and given them something chasable, and then the weather turned out to be better than expected and Worcestershire had won, then people would also have been very upset!

We're in a very good spot after 7 games and aren't a million miles away from the top, which I'm not sure many people saw coming before the start of the season, so I'm pretty happy with how things have gone so far overall.

Malik’s LBW looked marginal as well.

This seems like it should be a good pitch for our seam attack.

Smith given out caught off his shoulder, nice.

We’re scoring slowly, is it a tricky pitch?

Oh boo hoo, how dare teams use their home advantage instead of preparing pitches that are perfectly suited to Surrey! Honestly.

Officially, Booth has an ankle injury.

185 to win. Could be a tricky chase.

Incredible to think that some people had basically written Bamber off after two games!

GerryShedd wrote:

Anyway, my guess is that there will be some play from mid afternoon onwards, just time for OH-D to complete that maiden first-class half century that he covets.

He was denied by the rain!

And right on cue…!

There’s another band of heavy rain not too far away, I think we only need to survive another half an hour or so.

Think we were quite unlucky in that last hour or so

With OHD, Woakes, Hasan Ali, Rushworth, Latham and Bethell all to potentially come in, I think we’re in a good spot.

Have cricinfo stopped doing their ball-by-ball scorecards?

We have rotten luck when it comes to overseas players

We established at the end of last season that our opening partnership is actually statistically one of the best of any county

BosworthBear wrote:

I was looking at a picture of the ground today. I bet there’s some in those new flats which were built and has a view of the ground who must be gutted a hotel will now block their view.

Surely none of the people who bought them expected to keep that view for long? The club has been planning to redevelop that side of the ground for a while.

It sounds like his contract this time around has some clauses in it related to availability, so if he gets injured again it shouldn’t cost the club.

I think it’s a good signing if he’s available, I don’t think it’s fair to say he’s on the slide.

Really hope it goes well for him. But picking him to bat at 3 when he hasn’t made a century in professional cricket and has never batted higher than 4 in first class cricket is quite a bold move.

Personally I prefer us being listed as just “Bears” rather than “Birmingham Bears”, but I would obviously prefer “Warwickshire” to either of those!