Solbear
Member
Congrats to our former Bear on making his Test debut v the West Indies in Wellington overnight, taking 3-66. In fact, two other Bears alumni are in the NZ team too - Tom Latham of course and Zac Foulkes, who played some T20 in 2004 if I recall correctly.
Would rather we invested in some younger home-grown talent, but have read that he’s headed to Trent Bridge in any event.
Brilliant news - hopefully it will bring about a change of fortunes too!
This looks like an exceedingly sad story:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/ex-cricket-star-charged-after-32904303
An inauspicious day for Bears players - Gleeson went for 45 off his two overs!
Mark Wagh?
Name of last Scottish ODI international has just come to me half way through jet washing the patio - Navdeep Poonia?
Good questions, Highveld! I'll add Danny Briggs to the pot for question one, struggling with the others at the moment and can only think of Brian Lara for question 7, although I'm sure that's wrong!
Quite surprised to see he's been named in the Lions squad:
…is off, be interesting to see who steps in as bowling coach. Chris Rushworth and/or Keith Barker perhaps?
It’s been great to see so many glowing tributes; Chris is clearly universally recognised as not only a fabulous cricketer but also an absolutely top bloke. Quite right too, he deserves all the recognition and accolades that have been made.
I’m encouraged by his apparent eagerness to continue playing county cricket, although he does also allude to pursuing franchise opportunities, so time will tell.
Very good point, EB. Perhaps one or two of the aspiring middle order batters could reinvent themselves as openers - it’s happened before, perhaps they just need some encouragement.
I know that Somerset have a rich vein of young cricketers coming through, but still seems odd that they have let Green and Dickson go, both of whom have featured prominantly in their T20 success this year (...as we know only too well!).
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.
A somewhat below par score but we’ve got a fighting chance so keep the faith! Good innings from Davies, shame Yates didn’t kick on after a promising start.
Staying on as player/coach, I suspect more the latter than the former!
Some real positives to take from this, despite a very dodgy start to our innings and what looked like a few umpiring howlers. Be nice to see the likes of Yates, Malik and Shaikh find some form in the remaining matches, but certainly plenty to celebrate from today.
Highly impressive start to his Bears career. We need to make sure he’s not poached by another county - pretty sure he’s currently only on a rookie contract until the end of the season, let’s not lose him!
Andy Umeed is also leaving Somerset and currently playing for SACA. As others have opined before, there aren't too many former Bears who dramatically shine brighter elsewhere - Ethan Brookes being the current exception to that rule. His brother Henry, meanwhile, doesn't seem to have flourished since moving to Middlesex and I noticed that Will Rhodes didn't appear in the last couple of Durham matches having ironically done better in T20 than four day cricket since making the move. I haven't seen Ed Pollock's name too often this season either, so unless he's carrying an injury suspect his days with Worcs may be limited.