County Championship 2026

[Arthur Crabtree]

Good chase by them. Essex about to take the points also.

Mddx game looks horrible though.

[Durhamfootman]

Good chase by them. Essex about to take the points also.

Oops!

Durham-esque

[Slipstream]

Just seen Jimmy the Saint's match figures of 7/65 for Lancs.....

Taking the p*ss at the moment.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/to ... -two-17769

[andy]

How on earth did we throw that away??? We had a fantastic start but the last two games are horror shows with the bat they really are! And we had a long tail this week! Batting needs to shape up and quick, cook and the bowling attack looks in ominous form as usual but the batting isn't good enough and it is a talented batting line up that is just misfiring at the moment

[sussexpob]

Home Ashes in just over a year, if he wants to play Home games for England until then, get him in ...

[Arthur Crabtree]

Durham are top of the division!

because they have no longer got to play Ed Barnard, Lyndon James, Simon Harmer or Adam Lyth and haven't yet had to play Keaton Jennings or Jake Libby

Big promotion clash on Friday with Lancs.

[Durhamfootman]

this a curse of the old boy on speed scenario.

150 for Jennings, 100 for Jones, 30 and 5fer for Coughlin and then another 7 wickets for Santiago

what could possibly go wrong?

[sussexpob]

I see the ECB are once again being the BCCIs lapdog by banning Peter Siddle and Samit Patel from playing this season in the county game. Their crime was to go out to Goa for a legends tournament for a bit of fun and a bit of an end of career payday, but as the BCCI aren't making any money themselves, they blacklisted the tournament as one "disapproved" by the board, triggering the ECB to act to ban the players. Siddle has seen his Notts contract torn up, and Patel, who was hoping for a last minute short term deal to play in the blast, has chosen to retire.

I fail to see how this is remotely legal. How can a professional sporting organisation completely disbar a player from playing in their domestic league, because at time when he was a free agent with no employment contract or restrictive covenants forcing him to conform to any sort of obligation towards any party, he chose in a completely legal way to find work in another country where the ECB have no jurisdiction at all, and another governing body had a problem with that.

Restraint of trade has to be justified on the grounds that the party enforcing it is unfairly damaged by someone exercise their rights to work. How can the ECB possibly argue that someone not contracted to a professional club in England, playing in a tournament out of season when no English matches were taking place, and with no competitive or financial impact on anything to do with the ECB, has damaged them? In fact, isn't it the opposite - that they are acting to protect a very direct competitor's interests?

Good luck trying to argue that one in court while you literally have ECB contracted players at this very minute carrying the drinks for IPL teams instead of playing County Cricket. Having a 41 year old having a bit of fun in with some other has beens is damaging our game, but having 23 year old wonderkids coming into tests without playing a 4 day game in 6 months is A ok....

The ECB should get in the bin, they really are a horrendous organisation.

[Durhamfootman]

Ed Smith will sort it out from the inside

[andy]

Surrey have won the toss and are fielding first in a televised match! Essex have Westley back and noah than is balancing the side at number 7 after a century for the 2nd XI meaning Harmer drops back to number 8 the balance of the side looks a lot better like that ...brave decision to bowl first from Surrey forecast looks good for the whole match could be a grind for the bowlers

[sussexpob]

Sussex up in Yorkshire today.....

Interesting that once again the ECB choose a Yorkshire v Sussex game to allow their contracted players to turn up finally. Joe has been nowhere to be seen for 3 weeks, but time to unleash him on us.

Still haven't forgot the time the ECB did us over in Leeds when we were chasing the title in the 2000s. End of year top of the table potential title decider, the ECB made us rest 4 players while releasing all Yorkshire lads to play.... a decision that should have led to criminal charges for match fixing

Or the time convinced chucker Kane Williamson took match changing wickets when he should have been banned for bowling, but for reasons unknown he was given a one week only pass to baseball throw us out...

[sussexpob]

I am not bitter about this by the way.... not at all

[sussexpob]

Always hard to judge with the cameras they use for county cricket because it can distort the colour slightly, but the pitch here in Leeds appears to be damp. White just fell over in his follow through, and he left a huge mark on the turf which usually only happens when there is grass with moisture in it left on the surface. And then one ball that over bounced quite significantly off a length.

Having said that only that ball, the rest have been gun barrel straight...

[Arthur Crabtree]

Joe has been nowhere to be seen for 3 weeks, but time to unleash him on us.

Usually doesn't do well when he plays for Yorks, and Benco is missing.

Yorks get back their subbed players without penalty though...

Top v bottom encounter, I think.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Top v bottom encounter, I think.

Well, not quite but Sssx have 100% record.