Here's my own (Edgbaston related) anecdote about Sobers. It comes with a warning that it was told to me by my good friend, the late Bryan Curtiss, who was not averse to the odd tall tale.
We have to go back to 1970 and the Gillette Cup first round match between Warwickshire and Notts at Edgbaston (60 overs a side). There was no play because of rain on the first two of the allocated three days so, on one of those days, Bryan found himself in the bar with Garry and a few others. Garry was knocking back the gin and tonics at a great rate. Someone braver than I would have been asked him what he would do if he reached the point where he couldn't combine top level cricket performances with lots of alcohol. Garry's reply was that he would have to give up. When asked whether he thought he would find it easy to give up drinking, the great man said: "No, I would give up cricket."
And just for the record, when the match eventually started, Sobers took 1-19 off 12 overs and scored 70 not out to lead Notts to a five wicket victory. He was man of the match. And it wasn't a bad Bears side, with eight current or future internationals in it.

I hadn't picked up any of that about Sir Garry and it's disappointing to hear.
I see there is a new biography of Sobers by Duncan Hamilton. I'm not sure if he will be pleased that publicity around his death will improve sales or disappointed that the book is immediately out of date.

Gloucestershire have signed Henry Brookes from Middlesex on a three-year deal.

Now that Andy Flower has backed out, Justin Langer is tipped for the job.

And a friend to the Bethell family so an influence on young Jacob.

The greatest all round cricketer that I have ever seen.

I saw him at Cheltenham two years ago when he captained England Under-19 and scored a hundred. He looked very impressive then, though the one who really stood out was Rocky Flintoff who was only 16 at the time.

According to George Dobell, Jonathan Trott is on the short-list for the vacant England head coach of the Test team role. He is spending two weeks with Ireland as they prepare for an ODI series against Afghanistan.

As if on cue, Kai Smith says he has improved a lot and wants to be the best keeper in the country:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cgrkekq8gy4o

Piran Holloway now involved in house building in Western Australia.

In reading the various comments about Kai Smith's keeping, the thought that occurs to me is that, when it comes to having good hands, that's something that keepers have (if at all) very young. I'm sure that there's lots of technical skills you can learn. But by the time you're 18 or so, I think you either have those good hands or you don't - and it seems that Kai, now 21, probably doesn't.

I could be wrong (and hope that I am).

Highveld wrote:

I was been tounge in cheek and it was meant to be good natured.

Thanks for the reply

Taken in the spirit that it was given!

I'll give a serious answer to what I assume was a flippant question.
No, I didn't see Tiger Smith keeping but, when I was a schoolboy and he was already pretty old, he did give me some coaching tips which, to my shame, I think I largely ignored.
One surprising fact about Tiger is that he starred as a wicket keeper even though he had lost the tips of two fingers in a works accident (at Cadbury's, I think).
As for Dick Spooner, in my first ever match, I saw "K. Miller stumped Spooner b Hollies 0". I think it was probably a routine stumping but all I saw was the bails come off and I thought that the great Keith Miller had been bowled. So when it came up on the scoreboard as stumped, I marvelled at the quickness of the hands that had deceived my eyes.
There were plenty of excellent wicket keepers around in the fifties so the fact that he was regarded as the natural deputy to Godfrey Evans means he must have been good. And the person who deputised for him for Warwickshire, Esmond Lewis, was also recognised as really good and played several times in the Gents v Players matches.
As for others not mentioned, Geoff Humpage was an excellent wicket keeper/batter; and going back very many years even before my time, Arthur Augustus (Dick) Lilley starred for both Warwickshire and England.
I still think that Keith Piper was the best that I have seen.

Highveld wrote:

Final t20 averages

https://countycrickethub.net/team-averages.html?teamid=16&comp=3&year=2026

Makes for interesting reading and shows some of the selection errors?

Why was Tarriq missing yesterday? In baseball it's quite common for the pitchers to have elbow injuries from all the throwing.

What could you possibly be suggesting?

And an excellent win.

I managed to find a commentary in Hindi and a picture of the ground between innings but not much else.

Tom Mousley is Dan’s brother.

Congratulations to the team!

A beautiful venue.
Not all efforts by wealthy Americans to involve themselves in sport end badly.

Interesting to see that Lancashire have ditched their plans to charge for live streaming of matches:
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/26254481.lancashire-cricket-ditches-paywall-lancstv-u-turn/

They looked pretty good tonight. But tomorrow is another day!