Glamorgan (H) - 21-24 Sep

They were 12 overs that would not encourage me to give him a 13th. My pick for our player of the year but he can’t be match fit, or else something is going on off-field. Wayward dross, yesterday - a lowlights package of the season’s worst from Dunn, Overton and Topley combined.

Batty should have played.

Batting looks easy for them, but I suspect its our partially our bowling. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we were at least 5 down for 100 in reply, in fact I expect it!

RB wrote:Batty should have played.

Why would you want to put your 43 yr old hero through this? This is the sort of match that makes me want to retire as a fan.

Wobbler wrote:They were 12 overs that would not encourage me to give him a 13th. My pick for our player of the year but he can’t be match fit, or else something is going on off-field. Wayward dross, yesterday - a lowlights package of the season’s worst from Dunn, Overton and Topley combined.

Fair enough - I missed the first session but still, opening the bowling and bowling 12 out of 152 suggests there may be another issue. For what it’s worth, he’d also be my choice for player of the year.

If I were to meet the Chief Executive, Chairman or any member of the Committee any time soon, I would ask them (a) what specifically they are going to do to hold those responsible for our alarming on-field decline to account; and (b) what specifically they are going to do to recognise and respond to our members' strong opposition to the franchise teams and the damage they are already doing to the cricket we 'enjoy'.

The two issues are inextricably linked. There is no point addressing either without the other.

If the club and its cricket management had anything about them they would also cancel the awards evening tomorrow evening and refund the ticket money (I'm being serious). I would not be seen dead at it. It is embarrasing to hand out prizes when no-one deserves them. If we were a friendly club cricket team we would probably recognise Jamie Smith for being a sterling club-man this season but we really should not devalue the achievements of any previous winners of our performance awards by handing them out for 2021.

611-5 at tea, what is the highest score ever against us ???

If I’d it difficult to criticise any individuals in the side, when only Smith and Amal can look back on this season with any satisfaction. Virdi is certainly no worse than most of the rest of the side.It is the collective failure of the side to achieve anything like what we are entitled to expect. For this failure the management must take the blame. It seems the upper management at the club don’t have the bottle to sack Stewart,and he doesn’t look like he’s going to resign ,until he goes I can’t see any end to our woes

I bowl leg spin. Can I have a go?

Howzat wrote:611-5 at tea, what is the highest score ever against us ???

Lancashire scored 863 at The Oval back in 1990 - after Surrey had posted 700+…….

I don’t usually have much truck with the whole ‘sack the board/manager/coach/player’ approach, which often seems premature to me. However, our decline in the past three seasons has been ridiculously steep. I recognise the impact of enforced absence (injury, England, short-form leagues) from the side. But that doesn’t adequately explain our poor recent performances. I agree this must be seen, first and foremost, as a management issue. We need changes there for sure.

Having said that ,this is yet another example of the roads the Groundsman has provided over the last few years,truly awful pitches which provide truly awful cricket.

dougieginn wrote:Having said that ,this is yet another example of the roads the Groundsman has provided over the last few years,truly awful pitches which provide truly awful cricket.

For once I agree on your pitch assessment. It may deteriorate from here but there is no fair balance between bat and ball with this one. We may lose some wickets this evening but that will likely be down to fatigue and boredom as much as anything.

Solidarity to Jamie Smith and making him open. I do fear we're gonna give the lad burnout with the roles we've thrown at him

On another note, fucking hell his cover drive is so gorgeous to watch.

I've said it before  and i repeat it here.Teams should not be allowed to bat on and on,in this case past tea on day two.177 overs?  Absolutely ludicrous and an insult to the public.

Badges wrote:I've said it before  and i repeat it here.Teams should not be allowed to bat on and on,in this case past tea on day two.177 overs?  Absolutely ludicrous and an insult to the public.

Why? It's up to the opposition to get them out. We have, bar Sussex, the weakest bowling attack of anyone in all 3 Divisions. In this game they all looked like a bunch of zombies. When we came out to bat Glamorgan were more busy in the field than we had been for two days. The team looks totally deflated and fed up like most of us watching it. Add for some reason the worst pitch of the whole season and Jesus I'm glad I'm not sucidal. If it wasn't for the friends and conversation at the ground there is no way I would pay to watch these so called "matches". Major major problems at this club, and what a shame for Rikki's last game.

177 overs?

DO ME A FAVOUR..............................

Badges wrote:177 overs?

DO ME A FAVOUR..............................

So what? We couldn't get them out.

Chinaman wrote:We have, bar Sussex, the weakest bowling attack of anyone in all 3 Divisions.

Excuse my French, Chinaman, but this is bollocks.

At the start of the season our first choice bowling attack would have been Curran, Curran, Roach, Topley, Virdi. In this match we have Clark, Clarke, and Moriarty, all of whom would more or less walk into most Championship sides. On paper they are GOOD.

I don’t want to hear any more bullshit about “we had everyone missing”. In the early part of the season we were missing only 3 first choice players (and whether Roy and TC are “first choice” in the CC is debatable anyway) - when the top five scores fewer runs than they have test caps, you’ve got a problem. A full-strength batting line-up in Burns, Stoneman, Amla, Pope, Foakes, Smith should not have been rolled over twice at Lords.

Since Solanki became coach we have won 3 games in 31/32 (depends if you count Durham as a game or not) and that’s highly likely to be 32/33. Given the players we have had available in the early part of the season, that is ridiculous.

So no, I don’t believe this is the 17th best bowling attack in the league.

When you have a side where Jordan Clark is your " best" bowler you have a problem (he didn't bowl yesterday ). Rikki is way way past his best. Moriarty is the best of the 3 on a helpful wicket. Topley, Plunkett, Dunn, Mckerr and Overton are all injured most of the time. The Currans haven't played CC games for two years, which leaves Atkinson, Steel and Taylor all of whom are second eleven at best. Virdi? I believe his action has been "remodelled". Awful. No sorry RB this bowling" attack" is pants especially when it's reported Dunn has been given another two years!
But yes the batting on paper should have been far better and Solanki has a lot to answer for, so does Alec. But there are deeper problems at this club.
Bowlers win you matches though don't they. We've hardly got any. In 2018 we had a fine attack that bowled sides out twice and we won the CC, but not since. In fact we only got away with it in 2O17 because of Sangas batting.

It is true that we had close to our strongest team available in tbe early part of the season, and to that extent "availability" is no excuse for our generally abject performances (Hampshire at home excepted). Nonetheless, if you are talking about our performances and results over the past three years as a whole, and when you also take in poor results in the one-day competitions, of course we have been hugely  handicapped by being deprived of so many of our best players for so much of the time.

And Chinaman is spot on about the paucity of our bowling attack. Jordan Clark is generally bang average even in early season conditions, Rikki has been great but was clearly past it this season, and Virdi hasn't really progressed and has arguably gone backwards. Topley  when fit can be a handful in very short bursts, and Moriarty has made pleasing progress to the extent he usually exerts a degree of control even if not taking wickets. But as a whole, with little quality in reserve, it is a pitiful bowling unit.

My favourite part of every season is when message board contributors think they are expert talent evaluators.

Cee Gee wrote:My favourite part of every season is when message board contributors think they are expert talent evaluators.

Well you don't have to be an expert, just watch what has been happening since 2019.

I had looked forward to this game.The last game of a dreadful season to be played out in the sunshine at The Oval.After watching Glamorgan completely ruin it by batting 177 overs  and forcing Surrey fielders to go through the motions (and can you really blame them?) i will be staying home today.
I felt it was getting embarrassing yesterday afternoon.Surrey should have put Amla and Foakes on to bowl and lobbed a few up in the air so perhaps Glamorgan could have scored 1,000.When yet another stop in play happened it seemed Cooke was too embarrassed to carry on any longer.

It's getting more and more like Lord's with a new band of Stasi,sorry Stewards,doing their best to upset everybody and prevent people going here and there.

The only place to get a cup of tea seems to be the pavillion.Be prepared for a 20 minute wait if you have a couple of people in the queue in front of you.The staff are so slow it's unbelievable.

We were told on the blower yesterday that Essex/Northants was the shortest CC game in history.No it wasn't.Surrey won a game once in a day.