Radlett Wednesday

Chinaman wrote:Well the thing is we don't know the ins and outs of our salary cap, but as I've already said earlier we had a squad of 25, how many more do we want?  Well clearly now some batsmen, but you can't plan for every eventuality back in March unless finance is unlimited, which it isn't.

Except the Hundred draft was before then, wasn’t it? We also lost Smith as the “wildcard” pick but we knew what we would be having.

Next year we will probably have Sibley and Burns in this competition so things will be a bit better.

Just a thought from another sport. The best things that happened to Spurs last season were failing to get out of the European Village Cup group stage and getting beaten by 'Boro in the FA Cup. I don't think they'd be in the Champions League this year without either. Fielding an almost completely different team in the RL rather than dragooning in Amla, Roach, Burns or any Hundred players not actually playing might actually help with the CC. That may be why the Surrey hierarchy seems so relaxed about this competition, much as that may annoy the supporters.

adelaide wrote:Just a thought from another sport. The best things that happened to Spurs last season were failing to get out of the European Village Cup group stage and getting beaten by 'Boro in the FA Cup. I don't think they'd be in the Champions League this year without either. Fielding an almost completely different team in the RL rather than dragooning in Amla, Roach, Burns or any Hundred players not actually playing might actually help with the CC. That may be why the Surrey hierarchy seems so relaxed about this competition, much as that may annoy the supporters.

It's an interesting comparison, and it certainly it seems to be proven that teams like Leicester and West Ham with limited resources do far better in the Premier League when they are freed from the burdens of Thursday night Europa Football. I am not sure it applies to the best resourced clubs, and Surrey are surely the cricket equivalent of Manchester City in that respect.

In Tottenham's case I get the impression the main reason they are in the Champions' League is that the notoriously thrifty Chairman Daniel Levy hired an elite coach in Antonio Conte, and in doing so signed up to his equally notorious appetite to wade into the transfer market and increase the range of quality players to compete on different fronts. If Surrey had as many batsmen available for the RLC as Tottenham now have wing-backs available to cover all competitions, I wouldn't be complaining.

Jackers

Oh yes, Conte is the main reason but it also required the Woolwich Exiles to blow it (and Man Utd to amuse is all). If they had a similar European distraction to West Ham, the outcome would have been different, I suspect. Lots of wing backs this year but even Conte can't clone Mr Kane.

The Peter May Boys' banner was evident on the stream. Hope the banner bearers enjoyed the day, if not the result.

The Peter May Boys' banner was evident on the stream. Hope the banner bearers enjoyed the day, if not the result.

t's a pity they can't display it during the Hundread!

Would the cameras ignore it?

Well, it's an entirely hypothetical question as I know them well enough to know that they are principled enough never to go to a Hundred game.

But leaving that aside, it depends which of their selection of banners we are talking about: the eponymous "Peter May Boys" banner would probably be seized on by the cameras, as "boys" suggests the young audience they like to pretend are there. The "18 to 8 - the Counties' Fatal Fate" and "Oppose the Hundred" banners....I guess they might swerve them.

Indeed. They asked them to remove them at Bristol back in April this year. There were about 400 people there at best but they said "it might upset the ECB", which of course it's meant to. Same thing happened at Taunton in 2021.