Yes, I do think that for much of his time in the job, Rob Key has come across as a bit of a knobhead who used to come out with lots of crap whilst he was Kent captain. He once decided to bat first in September in a 50-over final and then blamed his batsmen when they didn't make enough runs after the ball moved around in its usual manor at that time of the year. He has been accused before of coming out with crap instead of thinking about what he should be saying before the mouth opens. He epitomises the McCullum/Stokes/Key way of doing things which is to not learn from any mistakes, say whatever you like and ignore any criticism as you are too arrogant to think that someone else might be right. His comments were almost dismissive and Woakes should not have been playing in that last Test being the oldest Bowler and having played the first 4 but younger players were rested which makes me wonder if they were considering not taking him to Australia anyway. There is an arrogance about those 3 and it will be interesting to see what is made of it in The Cricketer magazine when it is out.

121 first-class wickets in 51 games, Mitchell Santner has 139 in 68 games but his one-day record means he still plays but it just goes to show what priorities some clubs have, I don't see other spinners at Derbyshire actually causing any havoc lately.

Yes, that sodding tree. Maybe that is why Kent, supposedly one of the original 'Big 6', never had a Test ground because who wants to see a Test where a scorching shot doesn't get to the boundary because of some huge lump of wood on the actual playing area.

I delved into the book on Frank Foster by Robert Brooke, where he made a similar point, that we were not good enough to play Kent who then complained about us winning the title. Also I also saw on Wikipedia that a particular dry Summer in 1911 left the pitches very hard which helped our fast bowling attack, so something that we or no other human has any control over, was responsible for our 1911 CC title. The whole structure of allowing a side to play as many times as they liked as long as they played a certain minimum amount of games, was brainless anyway so should have been blamed as well as Kent's snobbishness, which backfired. It is now quite funny that we have won the CC more times than them and the same amount of one-day titles though most of theirs were in the 1970's. So go and ++++ off Kent.

Will be good if we could see him for a couple of years, he missed so many games for us over the years because he would get called up by England then omitted from the team and left to stand around not getting a game for weeks. We now have enough bowlers to be able to rotate them seeing as they appear to think they play too much. Woakes, Bamber, Booth, OHD, Thompson, Gilchrist, Barnard should give us plenty of options. Bring on 2026.

I wish someone would feel the same whenever we win the title. By all accounts, we only won the 1994 title because of Lara (Don't bowlers have to bowl side out to win CC games) according to most journo's. we only won the 1995 title because our pitches were 'green' according to Mike Breareley (strange if you consider that most of our best performances were often away from home and we played 2 spinners, Smith/Davis or Smith/Giles combinations every game), in 2004, we played for draws and even Kent captain Steve Marsh complained that we only won 5 games (we didn't ever look like losing, Kent lost 3 times) and in 2021, everyone said we were lucky because of the way the whole CC was structured, well, we didn't implement it and despite Notts fans being pissed off because they won more games than anyone, we beat them twice in the 6-team qualifying group and the rules were quite clear from the start. Maybe when we next win it, a new excuse from 'The Experts' will have been thought up. Notts deserved it and their rotating of their fast bowlers was really well structured but whether of not, Josh Tongue will be given a central contract, might scupper that next season.

I think we did have a high turnover a few years ago when we were relegated in 2017 and it was needed as we couldn't stay up even with Bell, Trott, Ambrose, Patel, Wright. OHD and many others and it was felt that we needed fresh blood. We got that through Sibley, Rhodes, Norwell, Miles, Briggs, etc but it does appear as though no one wants to hang around too long and not sure if both Sibley and Rhodes left because they wanted to be near to more or less where they started but I don't think we have been that good at hanging onto players. A lot of the 2021 side went because of different events, in Miles case, no form, Norwell got injured, Briggs had no CC form, Bresnan was never long term anyway, Burgess to try something different, Sib/Rhodes, I have mentioned, Lamb, badly treated after having a good season but I do think there is a lot we don't get told about why a player wants to go.

Bloody lucky Hampshire do it again. How often would that happen, 8 wickets for 28, maybe Durham deserve it.

Have we all spoken too soon, Durham 5 down, still behind and loads of overs left.

Yes, my keyboard is soaked with tears. Hampshire have had luck follow them around for a while with their non-relegation a few years ago because of Durham's bookkeeping, 2 very dodgy T20 final wins and some of us do not forget that game they has v Derbyshire in 1999 (Yes, 26 years ago I know) when they put their 2nd string bowlers on when Derbyshire were close to following-on, so that Derbyshire would still be interested in going for a win which would be the best way for Hampshire to win and it sent us down. Robin Smith accused us of 'Bitching' about it but it was so obvious that even the Derbyshire members knew something strange was going on. And Bransgrove has been a mouthy individual over the years, thinking he could buy Ashes Tests just because Hampshire had a few Tests, he thought they would have the right to hold Tests every year. On the BBC cricket site there are plenty of Hampshire fans blaming all sorts of things including a points deduction. Most sides have gone down in the last 15 years, so they will just have to suck it up.

Hampshire have lost, looks like they could be dropping into the 2nd division unless Yorkshire help them out but doubt it. Perhaps they will need to get Geldof down to Southampton to record 'I Don't Like Saturday's' as they have managed to lose games for the last 3 Saturday's. Shame.

It would possibly be the worst fortnight in Hampshire's history if they went down after losing 2 finals on the previous 2 Saturday's. I make no apologies for not liking them and they did escape the drop due to Durham's financial state in 2016 and if Durham themselves escape v Yorkshire, that would be a strange irony.

Yes, maybe a few players have holidays booked and they were thinking about getting on that plane at 10.30 this morning rather than the job they are paid to do.

Most counties appear to have bigger squads so using these bigger squads to give players a rest if indeed they think they are playing too much, must be the way forward. Nottinghamshire have done this during the season with their bowlers and it has obviously paid off, not many huge wicket takers but players getting a game off and being able to recharge their batteries and someone else comes in and they are fresh and eager to produce a performance. They have a few bowlers who have 25-35 wickets and no reason why next season, we shouldn't be able to do the same with the recruits we have made lately. I still don't see how batsmen with fewer inning to bat and bowlers with fewer overs to bowl, can be tired. There is a block of games where bowlers have to bowl 24 balls and therefore only leaving themselves 96 balls to field and batmen only really batting for no more than 50 balls during most innings. And when the One Day Cup is on, although the games are pretty close together, bowling 60 balls is not as taxing as playing longer formats. How are potential Test players going to manage when bowling on a flat surface for 2 days might mean they have to bowl about 30-35 overs. I don't think bowlers are getting their potential strength into their bodies because they are not bowling enough.

Sinking fast and even though we are playing the Champions, there has been no excuse for collapses we have had in this game. I haven't enjoyed this season with us failing to qualify for T20 finals day again, failing to qualify out of our group in the One Day Cup, not taking advantage of getting into good positions in the CC and England not winning a series they really should have v India.

Looks like they are now hammering home their advantage.

Rob Key was a major surprise when he was appointed and it was a typical 'Off-Kilter' thing to do like bringing in McCullum and with Stokes as well, it has been responsible for some crazy selections and remarks about selections. McCullum can be held responsible for the England 'Crash, Bang, Wallop; approach to batting which has seen them draw series they should have won and lost series they should have drawn. Key's remark about Woakes, instead of paying a tribute of sorts, was dismissive and doesn't surprise anyone and if he ever thinks he could have matched Bell and his Test record, he is ridiculous. I hope Woakes will play for us next season, we would have a really good attack to choose from and he wouldn't have to play in every game but be part of an attack that can be switched to rest players after a few games.

As I have mentioned before, I saw only 2 days Saturday cricket in 2014 and only because we got to both finals that year but the numpties at the ECB said that youngsters SHOULD be playing cricket at weekends and not watching it. The Hundread is probably from a players point of view, all about money and I am sure they get paid more for a game in that rotten version of cricket than they do for a 50-over game or a T20.

No, I agree, there is no point now and any talk of an Ashes selection is irrelevant and playing one CC at the end of the season should not have any bearing on a selection for this particular tour. I am not sure how he would be on a tour of Australia seeing as those bastards lay into everyone as soon as they step off the plane, never letting up and getting in your face at every opportunity.

Even though there was no one-day cricket before 1963, the CC then along with other first-class games, could see you play 28 games a season of 3 days, that is 84 days of cricket potentially and if a player was in form or not, the team was picked to be the strongest possible. Bowlers regularly bowled 800-1000 overs a season and with poor transport and no motorways, it must have been a slog. Players today need to be reminded about this plus the very poor pay that most cricketers received and maybe all the talk about 'Burn Out' will be kept to private conversations and not for people like us who have to pay to watch fewer days cricket. Any player who complains and then plays in The Hundred should get a bloody good slap for being a clown and an idiot. I bet the Test players do not suffer when they look at their bank statement to see their fee for just one Hundred game. The overs in the CC have also been reduced since I started watching when it was 110 overs a day and lack of drinks breaks enabled them to get through this amount and moving around quickly between overs helped as well.