More on the Blast squad:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/c628e801456o

According to The Cricketer, Warwickshire are keen to sign Australian spinner Corey Rocchiccioli for the next four County Championship matches.
Rocchiccioli, 27, plays his state cricket for Western Australia and featured for Australia A against England Lions over the winter.
Warwickshire are set to sign him up for the four Kookaburra matches in June and July.

"ESPNcricinfo has learned that Bethell will ..... fly home before their final group match in Lucknow and report to Birmingham ahead of the first ODI at Edgbaston."

To be fair, the team pulled off a victory against the odds v Durham and won a match v Yorkshire that could have gone either way.

The report on the Club site says:
"Finding 327 runs on a difficult pitch under thick cloud against an attack led by Woakes and Rushworth is about as tough an assignment as county cricket gets."
But it doesn't draw the obvious conclusion that a lesser target and more time would have made victory more likely.

Captains generally seem to be very reluctant to make a declaration based on a weather forecast. This seems to be a case in point unless it is the opposite - Alex Davies is so convinced that the forecast is right that he thinks there is no chance of a result and so will just bat on.
The way Division One is shaping, Warwickshire are gradually getting shoved down the table by teams such as Surrey, Sussex and Somerset that started the season slowly but are now doing better.

I could swear I saw a news posting on the Club website with the squad details but it seems to have disappeared. Based on what (I think) I saw, Chris Woakes is not, after all, in the squad.

"No longer available:
Webster
Booth"
Does that mean that Anne Ziegler is unavailable too?
(PS - a less than topical joke!)

Despite that disastrous first over from Miles, a good win for the Bears.

The article on the Club website says:
"The 36-year-old is building back to match fitness and is expected to be included in the Bears squad that travels to New Road on Friday."
Of course, that doesn't mean that he will definitely play.

Looks as though he might just play at Worcester, which would be better than nothing.

A football related episode but with Jim Troughton tapping into his acting heritage to try out some regional voices:
https://www.reportsfromarbroath.com/blog/the-poignant-tale-of-a-broken-star

Craig Miles' first over: 1-25.

Pips? Luxury!

paulbear wrote:

In that case how about bringing him on when the ball is about 12-15 overs old and then again when it is less than 35 overs old. He will only get strength to bowl by bowling. As Fred Trueman said, in all the years he bowled, he barely had a single injury, bowled more than 1000 overs a season and only kept bowling because he knew he could because his body was up to it.

I agree, though I think the whole world has changed since Fred's day. (Sir) Alec Bedser used to reckon that kids built up their strength because they often had to walk miles to school. And don't ask me about drinks on the field! The great Tom Dollery once refused to have drinks brought out and said: "Drinks? Why do we need drinks? In the desert in North Africa during the war, we were allowed two pints of water a day. And one of those was for the tank." By contrast, yesterday when Hampshire got a wicket off the fifth ball of the first over, drinks were immediately rushed out to the parched players.

Rant over!

I understand that the Worcestershire match will be Clive Eakin's farewell as a commentator.

I'd be interested to know how Dermot came across on comms. He has obviously had a rough time with a few drugs relapses.

Mousley 2-46 in both innings.
I suppose they can call it an "unofficial Test Match" if they want to; but it was really just a practice match for the tourists.

Based on his first couple of shots, it looks like Davies is trying to get them before lunch.

Based on his first couple of shots, it looks like Davies is trying to get them before lunch.