Somerset vs Surrey Taunton, 12-15th June

Match information
You can purchase tickets online up to the day before for £15.50. If you are going for the whole game you can buy on the ground for the same price up to 5pm. Gate price is £20.50, so worth doing.

Be interesting to see the squad.

Did I read the other day that they charge for entry after tea?!

Absolutely bonkers...

[quote="Alex!"]Did I read the other day that they charge for entry after tea?!

Absolutely bonkers...[/quote

Yes it's £7 at Taunton, but I note most away grounds charge, in fact Bekenham was the full price after tea! It's the sort of thing the ECB should be doing it they were interested in red ball, i.e. standardizing the prices for CC to get more people interested. Hampshire does a 4 day ticket for £33, and Essex were doing one for £28.
What's wrong with £10 a day and £30 for a match ticket? Free after tea of course!

I am all for making county cricket more affordable, but if you only charge £10 a day then membership (at most counties) might seem less attractive...they'd have to reduce their fees to retain some of their existing members or attract any new ones. Not a problem at Surrey, as membership is cheaper than most. In fact I wonder whether we were wise to dispense with the cap on membership numbers given how crowded the members' areas can get for T20 games, but other counties need to keep and grow their membership.

£15 flat fee across the country for pay on the day seems right, I think. £50 for a four-day ticket Free after tea.

Without Pope, Foakes, Roy, Curran, and Topley due to extremely strange circumstances (both Test and ODI squads at once due to Covid backlogs), this could be a bit thin on the ground!

Suggestion would be Burns, Patel, Amla, Jacks, Smith, Steel, Clark, Atkinson, Worrall, Moriarty, Virdi but that’s a VERY long tail.

RB wrote:Without Pope, Foakes, Roy, Curran, and Topley due to extremely strange circumstances (both Test and ODI squads at once due to Covid backlogs), this could be a bit thin on the ground!

Suggestion would be Burns, Patel, Amla, Jacks, Smith, Steel, Clark, Atkinson, Worrall, Moriarty, Virdi but that’s a VERY long tail.

I think Overton will be ahead of some suggested above.

You’ve it included Pollard and Narine in your team,surely they are available?

Pollard last played FC cricket 7 years ago, Narine in 2013

If there were ever two blokes who fitted the 'T20 guns for hire' mould

Stewie said as much at the forum.

RB wrote:Without Pope, Foakes, Roy, Curran, and Topley due to extremely strange circumstances (both Test and ODI squads at once due to Covid backlogs), this could be a bit thin on the ground!

Suggestion would be Burns, Patel, Amla, Jacks, Smith, Steel, Clark, Atkinson, Worrall, Moriarty, Virdi but that’s a VERY long tail.

Is Brett Hutton still with us? He seems to be a red ball specialist and it was a bit pointless borrowing him just for that tour match against the Sri Lankans.

Evans or Geddes are other options for a top 6 place.

No, Hutton is not. And Evans is retired from first class now.

Hopefully Surrey have remembered there’s a game tomorrow and have at least named a squad internally and travelled down. No need to let the fans know.

Well, it's listed on their website

SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT

We have named a 15-man squad for the game against @SomersetCCC starting tomorrow…

Rory Burns (c)
Hashim Amla
Gus Atkinson
Jordan Clark
Ben Geddes
Will Jacks
Tom Lawes
Conor McKerr
Dan Moriarty
Jamie Overton
Ryan Patel
Jamie Smith
Cameron Steel
Amar Virdi
Dan Worrall

I would go: Burns, Patel, Amla, Smith, Jacks, Clark, Overton,  Worrall, McKerr or Atkinson, Moriarty, Virdi.

It's the best team available to us, and it's Taunton in June with a dry forecast, so I would throw both spinners in, allowing Will Jacks to concentrate on his batting which we will need in this match with Pope, Foakes and Sam Curran missing.

I suspect only one of the specialist spinners will play, with  one of the  two young batsmen selected instead. One thing is for sure, we need Amla to earn his corn in this match.

Jackers wrote:
It's the best team available to us, and it's Taunton in June with a dry forecast, so I would throw both spinners in, allowing Will Jacks to concentrate on his batting which we will need in this match with Pope, Foakes and Sam Curran missing.

I suspect only one of the specialist spinners will play, with  one of the  two young batsmen selected instead. One thing is for sure, we need Amla to earn his corn in this match.

Jackers - Taunton turns when it suits Somerset to prepare a pitch that turns. When they had Leach, Bess and van der Merwe available there was a very strong incentive to produce a bunsen, especially if the opposition had limited spin options. Bess has gone, Leach is at Nottingham and they will be fully aware that Surrey could probably field better spin options than they can. I would be prepared for an undercooked grassy wicket or a road. (They have previous on the unprepared; when they learnt an hour before the match that Murtagh was not playing they switched the match to a barely prepared greentop). Given their propensity for collapsing, I think a road might be favourite.

Cue a two day match with spinners taking 39 wickets...

Although Somerset have dispensed with 'Headband Warrior' Brooks shipping him out on loan to Sussex, they have what looks a decent and plentiful seam attack for this match including COverton, Siddle, Davey and Gregory. Green is also in their squad although may end up on drinks duty.

Just one thing about the Surrey squad. Although Surrey made a big fanfare when Chris Jordan was signed on a long term deal as Blast skipper, I don't think they ever commented on whether he would be available to play in the Championship. I suspected the silence meant he wouldn't and his absence today appears to confirm it.

Here's my preview of the 4-day clash between @SomersetCCC and @surreycricket which starts today http://www.ovalworld-online.com/prevsomsurcc2022.htm

First-class stats sheet for @surreycricket vs @SomersetCCC http://www.ovalworld-online.com/fc_stats_surrey_somerset.pdf

For Surrey's fixtures and scorecards go to: http://www.ovalworld-online.com/cards.htm

Somersault win the toss and bat.

Surrey team:

1 17 R Burns (c)
2 26 R Patel
3 1 H Amla
4 11 J Smith (wk)
5 44 C Steel
6 14 B Geddes
7 9 W Jacks
8 8 J Clark
9 88 J Overton
10 37 G Atkinson
11 40 D Worrall

Still only half a spinner.

I hope for their sake Virdi and Moriarty have deals elsewhere. Awful.

Alex! wrote:I hope for their sake Virdi and Moriarty have deals elsewhere. Awful.

there was a question about this at the last members forum.

Do we have to keep seeing the commentators after almost every ball. I'm not listening to them and I certainly don't need to see them.

optimistnot wrote:

Alex! wrote:I hope for their sake Virdi and Moriarty have deals elsewhere. Awful.

there was a question about this at the last members forum.

I'm not watching the game but if neither of them can get a game at Taunton where it will inevitably turn then it just stinks a bit.

Either way, encouraging start looking at the scorecard

RB wrote:Somersault win the toss and bat.

Surrey team:

1 17 R Burns (c)
2 26 R Patel
3 1 H Amla
4 11 J Smith (wk)
5 44 C Steel
6 14 B Geddes
7 9 W Jacks
8 8 J Clark
9 88 J Overton
10 37 G Atkinson
11 40 D Worrall

Still only half a spinner.

Maybe two halves with Steel? It looks like a cautious selection to pick the extra batsman with Pope, Foakes and Curran all missing but I still feel we could have picked Moriarty ahead of him though. The BBC scorecard had Geddes at 4, followed by Smith, Jacks, then Steel at 7.

Still, it's another good start with Somerset 54/4 at lunch after winning the toss. I don't think spin would have won us any of the three games we've drawn so far but I prefer to have at least one specialist on hand all the same. Is Steel's batting likely to make a real difference here?

I guess right now the team selection has been justified, and subsequently shut me up