Short term signings very rarely work anyway so I don't think we should worry too much.

Well, we need a strong side and as we will have our players back from The Hundread so we should be alright to put out a full strength side.

The whole scenario should have been to play the BEST side possible to win the game and worry about a quarter-final if it happens. It is like a similar dilemma when there are 2 overs left in a one-day game, 15 runs to win and you have a good bowler and a part-timer left who can bowl. You choose the part-timer to bowl the penultimate over on the basis that the best bowler will be able to defend most things but the part-timer goes for 12 and the best bowler is irrelevant then. I cannot believe we couldn't give Sylvester's place to someone else. Would Che Simmons have been a better bet and is George Garton in the Hundread but to bank on Sylvester was a real gamble which went badly wrong. Should we be surprised, the same as most games when we lose in a chase, batsmen who are set and are scoring above the rate, deciding to stick it up in the air rather than just knock it about as they have been doing, at one point we needed 4.4 an over with about 7 wickets in hand but as usual we see an innocuous bowler come on and decide to give him wickets.

That would have been excellent, another home tie but having said that, playing at home does not appear to give us any advantage at all. Sometimes it is possible to get 5 wins and go through depending on how other results go but we should have won today and we also blew it against Middlesex so perhaps we didn't deserve to go through. Though it does have to be said that in most cases, their game with Lancs would normally have been over at 6 down but as Lancs couldn't get any further, they were not exactly 'on It' so to speak and Middlesex had no choice but to keep playing shots. Sussex to a degree didn't look interested until the 5 wicket went down, another 40 runs and they would have just gone through the motions. Bloody awful day.

Some of us on here have been accused of going over the top and exaggerating a defeat but there are no other words for that except 'Abject Shit'. 204-3 with loads of overs left, a side who can't even qualify against a spinner who barely spun one and who's first class bowling is 7 wickets in 7 games. Did our players look at Old Trafford and think it was all over because a few supporters near me did, appearing to be concentrating on other games when I turned around and said "It's the Lancs/Middlesex game that matters...". Lancs didn't take a wickets for ages and because they couldn't qualify, were not that bothered maybe. Again, we give a lesser bowler a great return by giving out catching practice. Perhaps that needs to go on the wall in the dressing room, 1. Don't give the opposition catching practice 2. Don't play big shots if you have the game under control 3. Never think a game is over until it is. The other game at Old Trafford might have been one of those freak games which happens rarely but there was no excuse for that and all the hard work that has gone into run chases against better sides and here were are failing to get home on our own ground. Never mind 'T20 Bottlers' as we are called by other county supporters, this was as bad as any of those T20 games that we have ** up.

Ed, what can you say, we are running out of great things to say. Booth, becoming a really good all-round player, loads of confidence.

301 to win, could be tough, trust us to concede that many against a side that might struggle to qualify. I seem to remember them doing the same at Edgbaston 2 seasons ago when they finished bottom of the group and it was the only game we lost.

You could call it 'Lazy Journalism' but having said that it is complimentary so we like it.

We aren't playing Sussex away, it's on Tuesday at Edgbaston.

We are seeing the future of our batting for the next few years. I am quite optimistic.

Flippin' 'eck Ed. Why do we get greedy when we are going at 10 an over.

Just watching the first few overs and the outfield looks awful.

When I look at some of the duffers on the batting and bowling side, you have to wonder how such a consistent performer at T20, 50-over and CC, can't even get into any first XI.

It just goes to show that The Hundread has no idea what it is doing. There are players in it who struggle to get into their own county sides and you have Sam Hain, one of the most consistent performers in county cricket in all formats, who cannot get a game. I have heard a few players names being shouted out and I cannot immediately think which county they play for. There are some mediocre players in there who perhaps made the cut because they had a good 4-over spell in a T20 that was televised.

Yes, the allrounder Lintott plays another good hand. At least this time in a winning cause.

I remember Mark Lathwell, a lovely free-flowing opener for Somerset who would have been great if the selectors had just left him alone to play county cricket for a few more years. Even his mother told the selectors to just leave him alone as he was just 21 and not really ready to play Tests. It affected him, no he never captained but trying to rush him into things just destroyed his love for the game, he was in and out of the first team, had a good return in 2001 but lost all enthusiasm for cricket and retired at 30.

Come on, who hasn't had that happen to them. I was lucky, when I fell off my smugglers cart, I was only trampled by my pet stoat Gerald.

This business of trying to win too soon by playing too many shots, is beginning to really piss me off. No one has to smash it about when you can bat the overs out in a 'normal' way but to see a losing margin like that with that many balls to spare, smacks of batsmen playing like stupid kids having a slog. With wickets in hand, 29 from 21 balls is easy but when you leave it to hope the tail can rescue you, then it is batsmen not using their heads. All the hard work done and then messed up like schoolboys.

At 61-1, this was very comfortable but now it's gone.

It might get to the point where we run out of balls, nearly 5 an over but we are scoring slowly so at some point someone is going to have to 'Go for it'. So that's what 'Poom Poom' meant, bloody hell, when those girls insisted they give me some, I was thinking it was a new perfume from YSL. Just think of all I missed out on. Grrrrrr!