County Championship 2025.

[Durhamfootman]

Durham currently in the hotseat for the drop. Nice weather though!

missing out on a 3rd batting point was a killer. They now have to win, which hasn't happened since May

[Durhamfootman]

Notts have 350, so I guess that means they can pack up and go home now with the county championship trophy strapped to their kit bags

[Arthur Crabtree]

Loss to Warks by one wicket now looks crucial.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Hants have slithered back into the churn.

[Durhamfootman]

Loss to Warks by one wicket now looks crucial.

The Capt and I wondered at the time if we'd regret that. We'd declared when we didn't need to and then couldn't take the final wicket. I seem to recall the capt asking the question, would Warks finish the game 9 down. At 90-5 that seemed unlikely, but little did we know that we'd make a season long habit of conceding big lower order partnerships

Our bowling has been sh1te all season and it was largely a recruitment issue. Our first overseas bowler had no experience bowling with a dukes ball in England and was away before he got it right... I think he even played for the seconds at one point, although I may be wrong about that. We recruited ageing pace bowlers, were surprised when they got injured and then had to scrabble about for anyone we could lay our hands on at short notice. Poor old Ben Raine has had to do most of the wicket taking all on his own, because Potts has had a poor season even when he has been available and Carse, of course, got called up. Connors arrived injured and barely played. Rhodes has been in and out of the side and batted everywhere from 3 to 7 because we didn't know what to do with him and I doubt he knew what to do with us. Bedingham broke his toe early, then went off with SA... he even missed a round of the CC because he had to go to a SA team dinner. When he was with us he'd hardly batted, was in poor form and probably had his mind on bigger things anyway.

Lees is a cr@p captain and we both knew that before he was even offered the captaincy, because his white ball captaincy was decidedly iffy the year before.

Pitches have been poor imo. Of course the groundsman (who keeps winning groundsman of the year) can only prepare what we ask for and our increasing desperation for wins was reflected in the pitches we played on. I can't remember the last time I saw so many green pitches at CLS, very apparent in the k ball rounds, and we still couldn't take 20 wickets... other teams could though. June and July saw 3 losses and a draw, I think. Whilst other teams were bringing in kookaburra specialists for those matches, we ended up with Ben Raine, a 17 year old, two 19 year olds and no spinner.... against Somerset.....hard to understand why we lost that

We started the season with a thumping at TB, because we'd sent the two teams to Zimbabwe on a 'jolly' and were in no shape to play FC cricket when the season started. We seemed to be entirely focused on the T20 comp and we did well in the groups, but of course that all disappeared down the sh1tter after a 100 year wait for the QF's to begin, with a month of our players either getting thumped in a disastrous one day cup campaign, or sitting on their @rses not playing for somebody else in August

Other than the batting of Emilio Gay, the continuation in form for Clark and a couple of decent rookie performances with 5fers (and one of those, Mitch Killeen, has signed for another county, because Marcus North thought he wasn't different enough from our established bowlers and so we didn't offer him a new contract.

All in all, it's been a complete *modded* up from start to finish and we'll get what we deserved

[captaincolly]

Loss to Warks by one wicket now looks crucial.

The Capt and I wondered at the time if we'd regret that. We'd declared when we didn't need to and then couldn't take the final wicket. I seem to recall the capt asking the question, would Warks finish the game 9 down. At 90-5 that seemed unlikely, but little did we know that we'd make a season long habit of conceding big lower order partnerships

Our bowling has been sh1te all season and it was largely a recruitment issue. Our first overseas bowler had no experience bowling with a dukes ball in England and was away before he got it right... I think he even played for the seconds at one point, although I may be wrong about that. We recruited ageing pace bowlers, were surprised when they got injured and then had to scrabble about for anyone we could lay our hands on at short notice. Poor old Ben Raine has had to do most of the wicket taking all on his own, because Potts has had a poor season even when he has been available and Carse, of course, got called up. Connors arrived injured and barely played. Rhodes has been in and out of the side and batted everywhere from 3 to 7 because we didn't know what to do with him and I doubt he knew what to do with us. Bedingham broke his toe early, then went off with SA... he even missed a round of the CC because he had to go to a SA team dinner. When he was with us he'd hardly batted, was in poor form and probably had his mind on bigger things anyway.

Lees is a cr@p captain and we both knew that before he was even offered the captaincy, because his white ball captaincy was decidedly iffy the year before.

Pitches have been poor imo. Of course the groundsman (who keeps winning groundsman of the year) can only prepare what we ask for and our increasing desperation for wins was reflected in the pitches we played on. I can't remember the last time I saw so many green pitches at CLS, very apparent in the k ball rounds, and we still couldn't take 20 wickets... other teams could though. June and July saw 3 losses and a draw, I think. Whilst other teams were bringing in kookaburra specialists for those matches, we ended up with Ben Raine, a 17 year old, two 19 year olds and no spinner.... against Somerset.....hard to understand why we lost that

We started the season with a thumping at TB, because we'd sent the two teams to Zimbabwe on a 'jolly' and were in no shape to play FC cricket when the season started. We seemed to be entirely focused on the T20 comp and we did well in the groups, but of course that all disappeared down the sh1tter after a 100 year wait for the QF's to begin, with a month of our players either getting thumped in a disastrous one day cup campaign, or sitting on their @rses not playing for somebody else in August

Other than the batting of Emilio Gay, the continuation in form for Clark and a couple of decent rookie performances with 5fers (and one of those, Mitch Killeen, has signed for another county, because Marcus North thought he wasn't different enough from our established bowlers and so we didn't offer him a new contract.

All in all, it's been a complete *modded* up from start to finish and we'll get what we deserved

Agreed!

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe Hants will save the day and pull a defeat from the jaws of victory. Durham will still need a draw though. I think.

Well, Durham can beat Yorks to stay up, though the balance of the game is slightly against that.

[captaincolly]

Maybe Hants will save the day and pull a defeat from the jaws of victory. Durham will still need a draw though. I think.

Well, Durham can beat Yorks to stay up, though the balance of the game is slightly against that.

Yes, a draw will do it if Hampshire somehow lose. This Durham attack can't take 20 wickets. Worcestershire had 10 batting points going into last week's game and they declared 9 down after batting fkr for 2 days!

[captaincolly]

The one glimmer of hope ( and I'm clutching at straws!) Is that the scores in the Hampshire v Surrey game suggest the bowlers are on top so Surrey could have a chance if they get the target up towards 200.
Then Durham's inability to take wickets and Yorkshire just needing a draw could make that the most likely result.
As DFM said though we deserve to go down, so many missed opportunities and poor decisions.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Congrats to Notts on their title. Anyone who had a flutter on that must have won a few quid.

And a big well done for skipper Haseeb Hameed whose trials provoked a few comments on here- including from me- but his recent success hasn't attracted any attention. So he's just got a round of applause from me.

And I think we have to extend that to Peter Moores!

[andy]

So, Stokes has signed for Yorks.

Wouldn't matter anyway. He never plays for his county.

He might do for a bit, when he's no good anymore.

I don't think he has....

[Arthur Crabtree]

I see the BBC report that Stokes was at Headingley today, getting ready for the ashes by bowling on the outfield at his home county

I was responding to this!

[Arthur Crabtree]

The situation should be clearer by stumps...

[Alviro Patterson]

I see the BBC report that Stokes was at Headingley today, getting ready for the ashes by bowling on the outfield at his home county

maybe they know something I don't

maybe they don't know anything

I know it's trivial stuff, but it annoys the sh1t out of me

I was just joining in with Durham's post.

Haha.

I would have been underwhelmed if Stokes did sign for Yorkshire

[Arthur Crabtree]

Surrey v Hants approaching an interesting period. Might be Surrey's overseas legspinner will condemn Hants to Division 2 ignominy


And Notts about to win. Good for them.