Essex eh? You either love them or loathe them. There was a time when the Essex mafia dominated English cricket. Names like Gooch, Foster and Pringle were synonymous with the England team. Latterly of course, it’s all been about Andy Flower and Alastair Cook. Just don’t mention the name James Foster, or all those ‘he only plays for England because he plays for Essex’...
Hector has been to the Rose Bowl to watch some day-night first class cricket. Here are his observations … I’ll admit I was intrigued upon first hearing about the concept. Cricket under lights is hardly a new idea but the county championship under lights stoked an inner sense of curiosity. Admittedly, floodlit county championship cricket is not wholly new – Kent hosted Glamorgan at...
As we lick our wounds after the CT semi final, here’s Media Penguin to cheer us up. There ain’t nowt like watching county championship at traditional outgrounds … Lancashire v Middlesex Trafalgar Road, Southport. Lancs won by 8 wickets It had it all – a sun blazing on my baldy pate, a washed out day fit for gumboots or goloshes and two other days that at times required a...
In the ECB’s brave new world there is very little to please the poor, beleaguered, run of the mill cricket supporter. The county championship is being ever more marginalised, the calendar is re-shuffled almost every year, and the ECB is intent on wooing a completely new audience. Current supporters are just expected to shut up and continue paying their money. How very football. Instead of...
I don’t know what is happening in other counties but in Lancashire the in-fighting has erupted. Not about the fact that the club politbureau took a decision to join the T20 circus without consulting members – but what the new team will be called. The consensus outside Manchester appears to be that many will not follow a team bearing that monicker. Supporters have quickly divided along city...
Hold on to your panama hats folks. It’s time for our weekly championship roundup. Sod the IPL. We all know this is the stuff that really matters. Who cares about Ben Stokes’ match turning performance for the Rising Prune Superlaxatives when Darren Stevens has taken another five-fer at Canterbury? Ahem. We start our exciting journey at Old Trafford, the theatre of creams, where Liam Livingstone...
Afternoon all. I hope you had a pleasant Easter. Mine involved failing miserably to limit my kids’ chocolate quota (and then paying a heavy price for that failure). Fortunately however, my negligence as a parent didn’t prevent me from enjoying the last round of championship matches. Indeed, the only bit of my Easter that was vaguely tolerable was locking myself away in my study so I...
If the ECB thinks the county championship is just for obsessives, nerds, and cricket tragics, then the UK seems to be full of these anorak-wearing weirdos. A few days ago, TMS announcer Adam Mountford proudly announced that over one million people (and that’s unique visitors) followed their coverage of the championship last week. And that comes after the county cricket page was the second most...
This time of year is, frankly, a very confusing time for the modern cricket fan. As the IPL gets into full swing – with million-pound man Stokes swinging like a 1920’s speakeasy and Tymal Millions steaming in like a locomotive – it’s easy to conclude that this is cricket’s new soul. And yet, in (normally) damp old England, pockets of dangerously obsessed, statistic-adoring...
Sick of slogging your guts out at work without recognition? Tired of seeing a plethora of unworthy candidates promoted above you? Life generally isn’t fair at the best of times, but for the following collection of county cricketers it’s the absolute pits. They’ve climbed mountains in county cricket time and again and yet our shortsighted selectors continually ignore their...
The sun is shining (at least it is where I am), spring has sprung, and the domestic cricket season is nearly upon us. With that in mind, here are the thoughts of guest writer Media Penguin. As a devotee of county cricket he has some interesting thoughts to share on the championship … I have a confession to make; I like going to watch county cricket. With spring in the air and a new season...
If you were upset about Durham’s relegation from the county championship last year, you’d better have your thermometer ready. This story is going to make your blood boil. According to the Northern Echo, Durham’s Academy has just been rated as the finest in the country by the ECB. That’s the same ECB who threw the book at the county for accumulating debts that are actually...