Durham Match Thread 2025

[Durhamfootman]

we're off the bottom, at least

[Durhamfootman]

bowling has been hard for us this season. BR has bowled 846 deliveries for his 13 wickets and MP has bowled 834 for his 12. No other div 1 bowler, let alone seamer has bowled even remotely that many. I think Jack Leach is 3rd, but he's a hundred balls behind BR. We might be losing bowlers right, left and centre, but if we aren't careful we'll end up breaking these two. Maybe this enforced workload is one reason why we can't take enough wickets to win matches. Why aren't we playing a spinner?

[Durhamfootman]

Away fixtures at Worcs and Hants coming up. Maybe we'll play a spinner there. We certainly can't afford to lose to Worcester

Women's matches start on Wednesday, I think. I might pop down after I've finished work

[westoelad]

bowling has been hard for us this season. BR has bowled 846 deliveries for his 13 wickets and MP has bowled 834 for his 12. No other div 1 bowler, let alone seamer has bowled even remotely that many. I think Jack Leach is 3rd, but he's a hundred balls behind BR. We might be losing bowlers right, left and centre, but if we aren't careful we'll end up breaking these two. Maybe this enforced workload is one reason why we can't take enough wickets to win matches. Why aren't we playing a spinner?

Campbell post match said we're signing another overseas bowler in place of the injured Bedingham.Also hinted at Minto and Luke Robinson inclusion.

[Durhamfootman]

Bedders is out for a while then?

bummer!

Boland?

[Durhamfootman]

First women's game today. I went along straight from work (if you can call it work) and got there just as the 5th Essex wicket fell. Everyone who went got a commemorative pin to mark the occasion. We had clearly made an effort for the inaugural match. There was a disco, a beer tent and a burger van in addition to the usual, coffee van and ice cream van. The activity zone was open and there were plenty of kids there. A lot of girls, which was good to see. Most of the men's team seemed to be there with their kids and generally people seemed to be enjoying themselves

All in all, the only thing that put a downer on the day was the sodding weather. It was cold again although nowhere near as cold as the Yorkshire game. This was 10 degrees rather than the 5 degrees of last weekend. The forecast was for bright unadulterated sunshine. We got heavy leaden clouds that wouldn't shift at all, so I watched afternoon cricket under floodlights for the second game in a row.

[Durhamfootman]

It turned out to be an easy win for us, but in truth we weren't really tested by Essex. Our bowling looked decent enough, but in the absence of Lauren Filer, who I presume is injured, because she seemed to have a bit of a limp when she appeared for photo's, our bowlers didn't seem to have as much pace as the Essex players.

Katie Levick looked a good bowler. She seemed very accurate and gave nothing away. The Essex batters ended up getting frustrated and gifted their wickets to her by dancing down the pitch and getting themselves stumped.

When it came to the batting, there was only one show in town. Suzie Bates looked head and shoulders above everyone else today. She took her time, because run rate wasn't an issue and then gradually accelerated. There was a long boundary which the Essex batters just couldn't reach, but she hit runs through there time and time again. I did wonder if it was just because we used a lot of slow bowlers and theirs were that bit quicker, but later on she was hitting the slow bowlers through there with ease. She did have a moment when it looked possible for her to bring up her hundred, but with only 3 runs needed to win she had to hit the last ball of the over for a single to keep strike and then hit her next shot for 6. Sadly she didn't get the attempted single past the fielder and so the chance was gone.

Hollie Armitage took an age to get going. I think she was on 3 off about 20 balls or something like that. By the time she reached double figures her SR was around 20 odd, but then she nailed a square cut for her first boundary right out of the screws and then she really started to get going reaching her 50 in 75 balls.

we weren't really tested today. Had Essex nipped out a couple more wickets we might have collapsed like a house of cards just like the men often do, but they didn't so neither did we. Our first 50 came up in 48 balls, the second in 35 balls and the 3rd in 28, so we just shifted through the gears. We didn't really offer any chances either. There was a dropped catch, but by then the game was as good as over anyway

There will be stronger tests ahead for us, but this was a nice simple way to get the comp up and running

[Durhamfootman]

The standard of cricket looked pretty reasonable to me. There was some quickish bowling, some big shots and both sides seemed quite athletic in the field

[captaincolly]

The standard of cricket looked pretty reasonable to me. There was some quickish bowling, some big shots and both sides seemed quite athletic in the field

That sounds good. Would have gone down this afternoon bit looked likely to be an early finish. Encouraging start to the campaign.

[Durhamfootman]

Apparently we picked up a bonus point, but I'm not sure how bonus points are awarded

[Durhamfootman]

The standard of cricket looked pretty reasonable to me. There was some quickish bowling, some big shots and both sides seemed quite athletic in the field

That sounds good. Would have gone down this afternoon bit looked likely to be an early finish. Encouraging start to the campaign.

you missed your pin

[captaincolly]

The standard of cricket looked pretty reasonable to me. There was some quickish bowling, some big shots and both sides seemed quite athletic in the field

That sounds good. Would have gone down this afternoon bit looked likely to be an early finish. Encouraging start to the campaign.

you missed your pin

I should have gone down earlier. Was there a decent crowd?

[captaincolly]

Seems as if this is the bonus point system.

"A winning team that achieves a run rate of 1.25 times that of the opposition shall be
awarded one bonus point. A team’s run rate will be calculated by reference to the runs
scored in an innings divided by the number of overs faced."

[Durhamfootman]

report says 600, but it looked like more than that to me..... although I'm hopeless at judging crowds. A lot of people were in the members lounge again, with it being so cold, but there did seem to be a lot of kids about in the activity zone, so maybe they don't count towards the figures?

I spotted a fair few of the men's team there supporting the women. Kyle Coetzer was there (does he have a role with the women's team?) and I thought I spotted JJB, but that might have been a flash back or a nightmare or something. Marcus North was fawning over the women players on the balcony, draping coats over them to keep them warm.... which felt a bit pervy to me (shudder)

[Durhamfootman]

Seems as if this is the bonus point system.

"A winning team that achieves a run rate of 1.25 times that of the opposition shall be
awarded one bonus point. A team’s run rate will be calculated by reference to the runs
scored in an innings divided by the number of overs faced."

thanks for that

it was a right old thumping