Pre-Season Friendlies

Almost traditionally now we have pre-season friendlies against Sussex at Hove and Middlesex at The Oval. These are 27-28 March and 30 Mar-1 Apr respectively. (You think these are early? Middlesex's first pre-season game is on 21 March!)

One minor gripe with the club website here as it didn't tell me how many days each game is and thus I had to look on the other teams' sites for the length.

I have two days of annual leave I have to take before the end of March, and I have connections in Brighton I need to catch up with from my University days, so that'll be a proper seaside holiday for me, I reckon. I have emailed Sussex who have confirmed spectators can attend that fixture; I assume the same will be true for The Oval?

I do hope there is some competitive element to the fixtures, especially the Middlesex game as it's 3 days.

Considering the current weather we're experiencing, I commend any brave soul who's thinking about attending cricket in March...

The fixture at Hove at exactly the same time last year was played in glorious sunshine.

not worth opening a thread. But with the season so near has any one recieved their membership pack
yet.

No,nothing.I joined Kent for the first time recently  and got all the stuff two days later.

Lancs v Surrey is going to be shown live on Sky - which I assume means it won’t be streamed and is essentially bad news for most people? Or maybe they’ll do both.

Cee Gee wrote:Lancs v Surrey is going to be shown live on Sky - which I assume means it won’t be streamed and is essentially bad news for most people? Or maybe they’ll do both.

You may be able to get it on You Tube. If not the whole match, daily highlights.

Hi [redacted],

I hope you are well.

Membership packs and cards are in process of reaching Members now, while they will certainly be with you for the start of the season. We apologise for the delay regarding this.

Kind Regards,
[redacted]
Surrey CCC

They are quick enough to take your money in January, but seem to have forgotten where the post box is. First CC game in just over two weeks.

My membership card arrived on Saturday.

Why didn’t we as defending county champions play
an MCC side in a pre season game? We had a game
in 2019 and other counties have had these games
recently. Heard nothing about it from the ECB who only
seem to care about the Hundred. Total scum.

Ali888 wrote:My membership card arrived on Saturday.

Still waiting for mine.

Steve wrote:Why didn’t we as defending county champions play
an MCC side in a pre season game? We had a game
in 2019 and other counties have had these games
recently.  Heard nothing about it from the ECB who only
seem to care about the Hundred. Total scum.

Agree. The trouble with Friendlies is that they are just knock about practice games, not much better than an extended net. Personally never go to them.

The Champions v MCC hasn’t happened since we played in 2019 ! Covid affected 2020 and 2021 and there weren’t champions it was the Bob Willis trophy. it is a MCC event and not ECB  , other than that you are correct ‍�

Just to confirm that Alec said yesterday that they won't be proper competitive games, might be limited overs days, chopping and changing of squad members etc.

I don’t suppose Alec said why there is no CC game
at Guildford? Hear nothing from the club treat fans
like something they trod in. Awful PR.

Alec has said on numerous occasions, including Members forums, that at the present time, with only 7 home games in the CC , he feels there are better opportunities at the Oval . There are 2 x 50 ovs games at Guildford this year .

Steve wrote:I don’t suppose Alec said why there is no CC game
at Guildford? Hear nothing from the club treat fans
like something they trod in. Awful PR.

The biggest (but not the only) issue is the reduced capacity at Guildford enforced by Council H and S, limiting it to 2000.

We are playing two RLODC games in August summer holidays. That will mean advance ticket only, excluding most of the locals no doubt. Remember the Leicester game last year? I wasn't aware of council imposed restrictions but they removed all seats from the road side of the ground for "safety" reasons. Probably the Council's Health and Safety police I expect. This must be the only ground where you can't see the cricket from the Pavilion. One solution would be to remove one hospitality tent from the railway end and put a temporary stand in. But you know really this ground is no longer suitable (if indeed it ever was) for any 1st class cricket, even a dumbed down 50 over competition.

Cheers Jackers. The club tell you nothing! I note
Sussex aren’t using Arundel again and Kent aren’t
playing us at Beckenham this year.

jackersfan wrote:Just to confirm that Alec said yesterday that they won't be proper competitive games, might be limited overs days, chopping and changing of squad members etc.

Whilst I'm sure all of us would normally prefer a proper competitive game, the approach being taken for the pre-season friendlies seems sensible and understandable. We are really looking at a series of separate sessions to get most of the squad as prepared as possible for the first Championship fixture.

Anyway, RB and anyone else watching us in Sussex tomorrow and Tuesday, I hope the weather is kind and you see some decent play.

I know not all of these players will be featuring in the friendlies but my XI for the Championship opener is probably:
Burns, Sibley, Pope, Patel, Foakes, Smith, Abbott, Clark, Lawes, Roach and Worrall.
I'm not normally keen on five seamers but I'm looking to share the bowling workload out with a spinner perhaps unnecessary.

Tomorrow’s meant to be decent weather-wise, Tuesday looking a bit drizzly. That said it’s raining in Brighton today so we could well have a wet outfield etc.

I would like Surrey to say who’s in the “squad” for tomorrow, or rather “who’s not coming” because Pope/Foakes/Roy are the question marks here.

You will be lucky to get a squad RB. Our lot don’t
seem to give a toss about PR for red ball cricket.

RB wrote:Tomorrow’s meant to be decent weather-wise, Tuesday looking a bit drizzly. That said it’s raining in Brighton today so we could well have a wet outfield etc.

I would like Surrey to say who’s in the “squad” for tomorrow, or rather “who’s not coming” because Pope/Foakes/Roy are the question marks here.

Hi RB - when Pope was on Sky for the recent Bangladesh ODI series, he appeared to say he would be back for the Championship opener but, with Alec's agreement and support, he would be having a break before that.

Assuming that's right, you probably won't see him in Sussex and I would guess the same for Foakes.

As for Roy, I've no idea. Your question mark is entirely fitting.

guildfordbat wrote:

RB wrote:Tomorrow’s meant to be decent weather-wise, Tuesday looking a bit drizzly. That said it’s raining in Brighton today so we could well have a wet outfield etc.

I would like Surrey to say who’s in the “squad” for tomorrow, or rather “who’s not coming” because Pope/Foakes/Roy are the question marks here.

Hi RB - when Pope was on Sky for the recent Bangladesh ODI series, he appeared to say he would be back for the Championship opener but, with Alec's agreement and support, he would be having a break before that.

Assuming that's right, you probably won't see him in Sussex and I would guess the same for Foakes.

As for Roy, I've no idea. Your question mark is entirely fitting.

I thought the same but Pope was definitely training at the Oval this week (as per his Instagram) so it's more of a question than I initially thought.