ITE7376
Member
on which note- it seems at this point we aren't looking to sign a spinner as direct replacement for Briggs?
Andy wrote:
It's on the clubs social media.
Good news, definitely a player we should be backing. Got a decent amount of game time last season. Hope he gets a go in the Blast next year.
yeah we definitely need to give him as much experience as possible, as early as possible, especially now we don't have Lord Danny to spin us out of a hole.
Andy wrote:
I'd have said he's stepped up?
i guess i was thinking club/ground size, and assuming M'sex can afford bigger salaries in general, but yeah point taken
ExiledBrummie wrote:
Looking at that new boys Leics have made some smart acquisitions.
haven't they just. I'm slightly shocked Eskinazi has IMO taken a step down, i would have thought Middlesex would want to keep him, strange move for someone who has Franchise-level productivity in T20 over the last few years.
GerryShedd wrote:
> He spoke highly of Alex Davies as captain (sorry, guys, but he did!)
i didn't think St Ed could possibly do anything to lose the crowd on here, but there it is!
> He also said that he would really like to play in The Hundred and was disappointed not to be picked for one of the teams. He saw this as a chance to play against some of the best players in the world and that it might open the door for him to get some overseas franchise opportunities. He did think, though, that it should be changed into a T20 competition.
he was a little unlucky not to, IMO
> Plenty more; and he came across as a very sincere and likeable character.
somehow that is no surprise at all. I have no idea how i might have arrived at the conclusion but somehow the way he carries himself around the field just seems like he must be a very nice man. Woakes was the same, except i saw him at close quarters so i knew how polite and pleasant he was
Solbear wrote:
Quite surprised to see he's been named in the Lions squad:
surprising indeed, especially as that touring team implicitly has the next cabs off the rank in the event of injuries in the full squad
on a similar note, I notice that the U19 squad had Isaac Mohammed in, no Bears as far as I can see.
the talk is that Sonny Baker will be awarded an England central contract? My word, those seem to come cheap these days
Lenham didn't look the biggest turner of the ball to me so I guess I'm not surprised he wasn't a major threat with the red ball. Its funny how the white ball game has developed to where a wrist spinner could be a very tidy bowler in those formats with accuracy, flight and variety even if they aren't a big ripper.
I suppose the emergence of James Coles as a genuine spin option who bats in the top 5 has harmed the prospects of both Lenham and Foreman (also released).
If they've got rid of both Foreman and Lenham I wonder if it's an indication of Farbrace's (and maybe generic) particular demands nowadays, the '100' seemed to suggest that more and more often teams are wanting their spinners to be able to bat top 7 (white ball at least) and not being able to do so will really impact their chances.
On similar lines the 'specialist off spinner' seems even less common (at least, teams definitely seem to want to tick the 'slow left arm' and 'wrist spin' boxes just like they do the 'left arm seamer' box, approaching it from a very formulaic tick-box perspective as England did with their 2015-19 white ball team, but absolutely nobody seems to actively seek out offspinners), with teams assuming if they need someone twirling a bit of offspin there will always be a couple of batsmen who can turn their arm over. Other than Simon Harmer I'm struggling to think of another specialist off spinner getting significant wickets in our domestic white ball competitions.
a consistent feature of Somerset's knockout stage wins was their excellent middle over and death bowling. Both ourselves and Hants got off to flyers but got dragged back by the tight overs from Green and Goldsworthy, and Gregory is always a wicket threat with his changes of pace too. I'm not really sure what Goldsworthy does other than he must be clever, cos he's a tiny fella who won't get much bounce and doesn't appear to spin it that much.
regarding our serial failures in QFs i was wondering if my memory has it right. My perception is that they are generally rooted in batting failures which have been pretty much all-encompassing and spanned the whole batting unit in most games. Other than Davies's 70, I don't recall any other batsman even getting so much as a 50 across all 5 QFs. Gloucester was obviously the worst example
I would maybe make an exception for the Kent game, IIRC Adam Milne was on dominant form with the ball that whole white ball summer and was near-unplayable and IIRC he ripped our top order out and made the game pretty much null and void from an early point.
As far as the bowling, I don't recall any particularly wretched bowling displays to match the abjectness of the batting, I mean Gloucs we actually bowled well, even. And we bowled pretty damn well for the vast majority of 18ovs against Somerset.
Devon_Bear wrote:
Andy wrote:
Does Michael Booth not qualify as a local player next season?
Let's hope so! I think a bowling attack of Booth, Bamber & Gilchrist looks tasty, backed up with OHD, Barnard & Webster too seems our best seam attack for some while. We just need a quality spinner added to our squad, unless we give Taz Ali a run in the side.
lets not forget Barker to add to all those other B's
paulbear wrote:
Just looked again at the Davies dismissal, shocking and the patronising comment about "Small men's pads" could only come from a patronising Surrey wanker who commentates using an 'Arseholes Microphone' - just to even it up.
let me guess was that Norcross
mad wrote:
Genuinely don't have an issue with any of the commentary teams. The Somerset bunch are fine IMHO one thing that grates me a bit with this Surrey lot is how much they strive to make it sound like the players have a really hard time playing county cricket. They're generally incisive and do show enthusiasm for good play from both sides but it's a bit too dour/downbeat for me compared to our own fellas. Maybe that's a result of sitting through 3 seasons where they've absolutely hammered everyone especially at home
i've listened to all of the county BBC radio comms teams sooner or later and I generally find them to be basically likeable, and engaged with local cricket and their own counties in a way I find to be quite likeably quaint almost. Surrey tend to raise my ire, probably mostly just because, well they're Surrey, Norcross aside, even.
I really enjoy seeing Peter Trego's input on the SCCC stream
Fully concur, but the wankers in the red framed specs and focus groups have told them that idiots and their baseball capped families want the 'glamour' of 16.66 overs. Renewed my Warwickshire membership today for the 36th year and was asked if I wanted some sort of 16.66 over bolt on. Informed them that I support Warwickshire, not some foul Tartrazine infused corn snack.
is it specifically the putative glamour of 100 ball that they are saying is popular, or the wider concept of 'Franchise Cricket'?
AFAIK they are talking about dropping the 100 ball format, which they only ever introduced because of Sky's exclusive domestic T20 rights, and making the 'Franchise Competition' a 'traditional' T20 as I believe the Sky exclusive deal expires this year.
regarding the 'glamour' of Franchise Cricket and all that comes with it (principally marketing and the premier slot in the season), attendances would suggest they are right, if they are getting more for womens 100 games than for some Bears T20 games at Edgbaston.
for white ball cricket a younger version of Ashton Agar would do nicely, if one exists. we got unlucky with him, too.
Devon_Bear wrote:
Well played to Young & Barnard for getting us back in the game. Let's hope they can keep going tomorrow morning & avoid any dodgy lbw decisions. With Mousley, Booth & Bamber to bat as well hopefully we can get ourselves a lead at some point.
I heard a brief bit of the Surrey radio commentary and they suggested that Young and Barnard are pretty much the last wickets they will need to take.
Nice to see their encyclopaedic knowledge of other counties and totally unbiased objectivity there
MalmesburyBear wrote:
I think Rocco’s parting comments were more of an “au revoir” rather than “Goodbye”, so you never know…..
he seemed perfect- really good but not quite good enough for international callups. I feel like we got a bit unlucky with Beau Webster on that score as I'm not sure he will be an absolute fixture in the aussie team
Solbear wrote:
Sadly, that was almost certainly the last time we’ll see Danny Briggs in a Bears shirt, barring a call up to the CC side, which is highly unlikely. We’re certainly going to miss him in T20 going forward, can’t see us playing both Taz and Jake so not sure who will come in for him as a finger spinner.
2 wrist spinners is 'bold' for sure, I will note though that in the 100, the all-conquering Oval lot have always played Sowter and paired him either with Zampa or Rashid Khan for a lot of it. The latter 2 are top line internationals for sure but I do believe two quality wrist spinners can co-exist in a T20 lineup, especially if different styles, left/right, taller/shorter, flatter/more flighted, which kind of describes Taz and Jake
realistically i don't think its likely to happen which is a shame as I absolutely love watching wrist spin launches into 'do you remember when we had Imran Tahir' lovestory
Bald_Reynard wrote:
MalmesburyBear wrote:
Danny has been an absolute joy in T20 cricket, turning many games in our favour with wickets and economy rate. At present I cannot see how we replace him, either through the current squad or by acquisition from another county. I think the only route is through an overseas acquisition. Many thanks Danny for some absolutely splendid performances!
I said on this thread a couple of days ago, that an overseas acquisition of a spinner is our No 1 priority this Autumn and he should be considered as a likely new Captain.
I didn't see him but that Aussie chap Rochiggiani (sp?) got excellent reviews on here, was there any talk of having him back? we knew Briggs was on his way out at the time
MalmesburyBear wrote:
Danny has been an absolute joy in T20 cricket, turning many games in our favour with wickets and economy rate. At present I cannot see how we replace him, either through the current squad or by acquisition from another county. I think the only route is through an overseas acquisition. Many thanks Danny for some absolutely splendid performances!
I couldn't agree more an absolute joy is exactly what he has been, its not quite the wrench that Jeetan's retirement was for me but he will be greatly missed and I'd be surprised if we manage to recruit anyone to directly replace him. Like you say nobody on the county circuit comes to mind, the names of left armers who come up to me would be, say, Callum Parkinson, Tom Hartley, decent bowlers but different styles and they don't have Briggs's stature or certainly not his prolific wicket-taking. It seems more an more common that finger-spinners are batsmen who bowl part time, the specialists seem to be a declining breed due to the prevalence of wrist spin?
I am fairly sure last season (2024) in the T20 marked his best single season's haul in terms of wickets with i think it was 29, so we may even have seen him at the apex of his powers. That's what I will be telling myself anyway. His record will stand for a long, long time I suspect.
my favourite thing to remember about Briggs is, the number of times batsmen would get out trying to repeat their 4/6 shot against him. Comparing him to Jeetan it seemed like Jeetan absolutely hated to get hit at all, whereas Briggs, it seemed like he wanted to tempt them just enough, getting them to hit a six and get excited was almost like he had them just where he wanted. I lost count of the number of times he got them out trying that 2nd consecutive big shot, to the point where I thought it was a bit of scouting/stat work they must have neglected, 'if you hit Briggs for six, whatever you do don't try repeating it'. He's all time leading wkt taker for a reason and if you think you've got his measure, its you thats the mug, now off you go boy.
He has single-handedly turned me off test match special, he's the most self-indulgent, infuriating comms guy in radio history. He honestly makes me think about doing serious violence to him.