Gosforth Thursday

another sign of the contempt the authorities hold this competition in. not even a live stream or commentary for the game,

Stream and comms aye

Dunno about you but I'm imaginging the shots that are being played as I watch the scorecard on the BBC automatically update...

or watch Middlesex from Radlett stream with live commentary. To give the Middle their due, they at least are giving their members a service

Great result if they can pull it off againist Durham. The one jarring note is that Amar Virdi is in the side yet did not bowl a single over in the Durham innings.

Amar is in for his batting obviously..

Credit where it's due - a comprehensive victory today. Does it mean that the team is strong enough or the competition up to scratch? Patently not, but they are entitled to be happy with their day's work.

I just had a pleasant surprise seeing the Rey had won by 9 wickets. Batting second possibly helped. Our batting line up lacks the depth to go hard from the start and set a challenging target, but we still have enough decent bowlers to take wickets as long as they aren't constrained by defending an inadequate total.

Patel fired today after two ducks in three days against Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire. Steel backed up his 84 ball century at High Wycombe. (He really looked pretty decent there for me.)

I hope people will go easy on criticising the likes of Steel, Kimber, Reifer etc for the duration of this tournament. My understanding is they were mainly signed to add ballast to the squad and if any of them does well enough to claim a regular place (as James Taylor briefly suggested he might without injury) it's a bonus.

I may cough up the £20 to visit Radlett next week. It's a bit steep for the teams we're likely to see but the ground is a tick.

optimistnot wrote:another sign of the contempt the authorities hold this competition in. not even a live stream or commentary for the game,

There was commentary on the BBC Sport app.
Martin Emerson and Churchy. Use yer loaf fella and
search for it‍�‍�

Not sure how I feel about this competition. Good to see some fringe players playing at a fairly competitive level and ultimately this may be the best route to developing players who could cut it in the championship and perhaps Surrey should use this competition as a four day development rather than just look for players who are limited overs specialists. It’s hard to see Roy, Curran T, Curran S, Pope having any large Surrey involvement moving forward and this has left us very light in the past. Surely the way forward is for ECB to try to create a championship where all the best players are available . Balancing act is going to be how many championship games members will accept. Can anyone foresee a time where large counties try to break away from ECB due to member dissatisfaction at what is on offer?

Bhambrownhatter wrote:Not sure how I feel about this competition. Good to see some fringe players playing at a fairly competitive level and ultimately this may be the best route to developing players who could cut it in the championship and perhaps Surrey should use this competition as a four day development rather than just look for players who are  limited overs specialists. It’s hard to see Roy, Curran T, Curran S, Pope having any large Surrey involvement moving forward and this has left us very light in the past. Surely the way forward is for ECB to try to create a championship where all the best players are available . Balancing act is going to be how many championship games members will accept. Can anyone foresee a time where large counties try to break away from ECB due to member dissatisfaction at what is on offer?

It's something that I have advocated for three years. No-one is doubting what a big step it would be, nor the challenges setting up such a breakaway organisation would face. The main one of course is money: only Surrey and (possibly) Lancashire would be confident of being self-sustaining from the word go. The ECB has deliberately created and reinforced a culture of financial dependancy among the rest, like the abusive controlling spouse (it regards itself as county cricket's "parent", and that is at the heart of the problem!). When divorce is inevitable, the hardest part is to make the emotional leap. Once you've done that, then you can start to work out the practicalities. Counties would surely be entitled to claim a share of the game's assets from the ECB in the divorce settlement to set up their new governing body (and no doubt this would have to be settled in court). So it won't be easy, but those who grasp that there is no compromising with the ECB's corrosive blueprint for the game (for example, accepting first The Hundred, then devaluing the 50-over competition, then the reduction in championship matches to 10, then...?!?.....) are already in a good place.

Been out all day and was very pleasantly surprised to see the result. You just never know with this game do you. Like it or not we have to go with what we've got so let's get behind the guys and give them full support. Now looking forward to Sunday a bit more than I was yesterday!

Great effort by our mix-and-match brigade!

A very enjoyable match played in an attractive small ground. The weather was good, a few spots of rain but mainly a mixture of sunshine and cloud. We had a friendly chat with some of the Durham fans who were very complimentary about Surrey.
All in all, a pretty decent day.

Any win is welcome  with such a side which lacks enough batsmen.   Nice to see the young spinner doing well again.

Steve wrote:

optimistnot wrote:another sign of the contempt the authorities hold this competition in. not even a live stream or commentary for the game,

There was commentary on the BBC Sport app.
Martin Emerson and Churchy. Use yer loaf fella and
search for it‍�‍�

I found and all i got was silence, then after 20mins the local news.