stevegrant

Surrey declared on 820/9. Some scary looking bowling figures on that scorecard

Meanwhile Worcestershire declared on 679/7 and Fletcha Middleton mustered 1 off 23 balls before being pinned LBW

A full round of games where, so far, not a single batting team has put up less than 367. Obviously the weather has likely made it much harder for ground staff to prepare a "result" wicket, but the ball does seem to be having far too much of an impact. And as @Dark Munster mentions, having to use it in a game we would have been targeting to win handily has put us at a huge disadvantage against other teams in the division.

5 hours ago, Football Special said:

I noticed a Birmingham fan I know gloating how great their support is as "already sold out first game of the season as soon as tickets went on sale" , seems to be they don't have many available for non season ticket holders. 

Also they are only giving the minimum 2000 to away fans this season, annoying if we choose to give more than we have to (seems that we will) 

I am expecting us to take a reciprocal approach this season. If teams give us more than the 2000 they are obliged to then we will allow them to have additional tickets at St Mary's. Any team that refuses will just get the bare minimum. Not 100% sure how it works in terms of whether those unallocated away seats will be able to be sold to home fans or not, given the hard barrier on either side of the away end now.

16 minutes ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

If the ground capacity is 32500 (for example) does that mean they’ve sold more than 31500 ST’s? I find that hard to believe, but if it’s true then it’s little wonder that a stadium expansion is being talked about! 😉

If we've sold 31,500 season tickets, where are the away fans going?

I'm led to believe that we are actively recruiting for NEXT season already. The rules in county cricket are utterly ridiculous, that counties are already allowed to talk to players with expiring contracts regarding signing for next season, so we've been doing that. It can't be all that helpful to their current teams, though - would imagine the non-Hundred counties have a lot of rolling contracts so will have most of their first XI up for renewal this winter, and if any of them have interest from elsewhere, it could be a big distraction.

The pitch seems to have just died on its arse today, don't think we've necessarily bowled badly (although Fuller's first spell today was pretty wayward) but it's been very easy for them to accumulate runs this afternoon. Frustrating as this is one of those games where we'd have targeted victory against a team below us, but we'll extend the gap to the relegation zone by a few bonus points, and we have Worcestershire home and away in the next three games.

Not sure you'll see any captain or coach of that sort of disposition these days, think it's been well proven by now that those types of "leaders" just don't work in the modern era.

Looking at today, Essex still 49 behind with 7 wickets left. If we can chisel out the first 3 or 4 of those before lunch then I think we'll have enough time to win it. Fail to do that and we probably don't leave ourselves enough time to chase what would then probably be a target of about 200.

Proper weird innings, this. We were pretty fluid right up until about 5 overs from the bonus point cutoff at which point the runs have largely dried up, to the extent that Kyle Abbott has just hit our first boundary for 25 overs  

Haven't been watching as the test match is on, but surely it can only be as a result of Essex going all-out defence and putting numbers on the boundary and bowling negatively down the leg side, etc.

On 21/06/2025 at 10:03, Wurzel said:

On 20/06/2025 at 19:21, Badger said:

Any idea why the Itchen was different? 
As I set out in a later post the railway line behind Kingsland could scupper major development there, whereas Councils can agree to reroute roads and closures a lot more easily. 

The other 3 sides are "just" stadium. The Itchen has too much infrastructure - offices, hospitality, dressing rooms etc - in the way

Think I remember them saying the foundations for the Itchen had to be much heavier to accommodate those extra facilities, so developing that side would be very difficult if not prohibitively expensive. The others are obviously much more straightforward.

Never warmed to Nigel Quashie at any stage during his relatively and mercifully brief time with us.

Well that was abysmal tonight.

We've filled the team with so many allrounders that James Fuller looks at least two places too high at 6 and there's way too much pressure on the top order to go big. We probably gave them 20 easy runs in the powerplay which made the chase tougher than it needed to be, but no demons in the wicket and we just kept hitting the ball straight to fielders.

It didn't have any impact on the result, but having former Surrey all-rounder Ian Blackwell umpiring and not giving blatant wides against Mitch Santner or spotting the big front-foot no ball Chris Jordan bowled when he hit Fuller on the head doesn't do the "they're all neutral" argument many favours. Although he also missed two probable run-outs despite having access to the third umpire.

15 hours ago, Football Special said:

Will be a strong Brighton side but as always with these games lots of changes during the match as subs get a runout. 

If it's 3pm Saturday I'd imagine they'd bring quite a few for a day out, not that appealing for us home fans, likely they'll just open a couple of stands 

Depends how they price it, I reckon. Anything more than a tenner and you'll have most people saying "can't be arsed, not worth the effort", I suspect. So obviously it'll be £20...

2 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

We moved a couple of years ago. I rang the club and they sorted. I gave them a list of the new seats we wanted and they told me to log into our accounts the next day. When we logged in they had switched our old seats for the new ones & we then “renewed” them. It worked really well actually. The problem with following the correct policy & renewing your existing tickets & then swapping during window ,  is newbies can come along & buy up the ones you want to swap to. If there’s seats free you fancy now, I’d contact the club and they may do what they did for us. If there’s none you want and you want to see what’s available from people who don’t renew, you should renew your existing and then swap in window. 

If those seats are already free (i.e. they're not reserved for an existing season ticket holder) then you can do it online now without having to speak to anybody, or without having to wait until the renewal deadline to pass. However, I think we sold somewhere in the region of 20-22k season tickets, so there likely won't be that many seats available right now in areas that people will generally want to sit/stand in. 

I think the one thing I'd cut them slack on is the Vince situation. While obviously the disruption has been known about for a while, I get the feeling those in charge were a bit blindsided by his decision to uproot his family to Dubai, and it didn't leave them enough time to source a suitable replacement, even if there were such a thing available. Mark Stoneman had test experience at the top of the order so I suspect they thought it was a "least bad" option for them as a stop-gap (hence the one-year contract) which would simultaneously plug a gap in the top two and allow others to bat in perhaps a less exposing position. Fair to say it's not worked out yet.

That said, I still rate Yorkshire and Worcestershire as comfortably worse than us, and based on our game the other week Warwickshire too. And we've been inconsistent rather than outright dreadful so far - the wins were both very good and two of the three draws were after being on top in the game and running out of time due to the weather.

But as mentioned by pretty much everyone, we have known that the top order has been fragile for years, really. It was generally Vince or the middle to lower order bailing the others out, and without Vince that leaves fewer bail-out options. I think the bowling has mostly been OK. Abbott has been excellent again, Fuller continuing to prove deceptively important, Dawson good when needed (surprisingly infrequently this year so far due to conditions or opposition team collapses), and Wheal, Turner and Baker have shown glimpses, but they are young players who don't have all the answers yet and will get it wrong sometimes. 

18 hours ago, st_tommy said:

Has anyone decided to renew but move seats? I clicked on choose an alternative but it takes me to buying one now. I want to wait till 13/06 when the deadline for renewal passes as I think they’ll be loads more available but I’m not sure what to do now. Should I renew existing seats and try and move later?

I imagine your best bet is to renew your existing seat to lock in the price, and then once the renewal deadline passes next month you'll then have a much wider selection as all the ones reserved for existing season ticket holders but which haven't been renewed will become available. There is a form to fill in - link here - so I am assuming there's not going to be an automatic way of doing it, unless you're happy to take a seat that wasn't a season ticket holder's seat last season.

26 minutes ago, Pwoite said:

Living a handful of miles from Selhurst Park, this was more a ‘home’ fixture for me, and being of a certain age, I got in for a quid, and it was well worth every penny.

We deservedly won, though we were exposed to a number of fast Palace breaks, and if they knew where the target was, if could have been a different result. Similarly, their keeper kept them in the match, pulling off a number of saves, often at close range. The final scoreline flattered Palace, particularly with the dominance we showed in the extra thirty minutes.

It was my first chance to see these players, and Robinson stood out head and shoulders above others, though his start seemed a little complacent after his recent elevation to the first team squad. He is like a young Lallana, cutting in, crossing and shooting. Another to enjoy whilst we can. 

Of the rest, Jayden Moore, at 18, and in the middle of defence, is tall and fast, and if he bulks up a bit, he could be one to follow. Alongside him was the much vaunted French U18s captain, who is a beast but several times was caught out as too casual. If he can cut that out of his game then his size and agility will be very useful at a higher level.

Will Merry came on after 66 minutes, looked sharp, had a couple of good long range shots, but injured himself with the second, and had to be replaced ced by Princewill E…….. He is one powerful player, though sadly reminded me of Tall Paul in appearance, but seems to have better ball skills.

Lewis Payne and Juan Larios were running full backs. Larios has class but looks too slight to have impact at a higher level, and was too easily pushed past by the fast, powerful Palace winger. He has ability, determination but….. Payne looked useful, but not a real stand out.

Abu got the winner, and has some clever moves, and is full of energy, but whether he has enough to move up, I’m not sure on this performance. He certainly took his chance with a tremendous shot for the  winner. Akinchukwu (sp) lasted till halfway through the second half, and he might develop into a useful squad player in time.

Cam Bragg, although he has a little first team experience, didn’t look as though he will be a regular on the bench next season and made a couple of howlers, so maybe that will guarantee him game time!!!

Joe O’Brian Whitmarsh started on the bench, and came on with Merry, and I was hoping to see him make an impression after his pre-season form and loan experience. Sadly, he was rather anonymous apart from one powerful run.

Always a bit harsh judging players on one game, but most fans like to see who the next big stars are going to be. Level months will bring.

 

Would largely agree with that assessment, Robinson looked head and shoulders above anybody on either side in terms of just an all-round game and having both the physicality and spacial awareness that you need at senior level, so he's the one I would expect to see in and around the first team next season.

Dom Ballard is an unrivalled centre forward when playing against his peers, but his senior record in a few loan spells in League One doesn't yet suggest he's going to be troubling the likes of Adam Armstrong for first team minutes next season, he's a very willing runner (and to do so for 120+ minutes was undoubtedly impressive) but while he's got a little burst of pace it's probably not quite enough to make a difference against experienced pros, and while he's not a pushover physically he's not big or dominant against players of his own age. I don't want to write off someone who's still very young in his development and has shown such promise but we've been here before with the likes of Ryan Seager and even Cosimo Sarli for those of a slightly older disposition  where banging the goals in at reserve team/U21 level doesn't necessarily translate to the first team.

Will Merry was one player I'd not seen before in the flesh, but he looked more attack-minded last night than I'd thought him to be, two or three excellent driving runs through the heart of Palace's midfield (which was their main weakness, I'd say), his cameo curtailed by a shin injury, assume he got closed down late by a defender when he took a shot from the edge of the area that was well saved by their keeper - one of about 8 saves varying in quality from decent to outstanding.

That game could genuinely have ended 6-6, 8-1 or anything in between, such was the openness of the game. Not sure such an open game will work to our benefit against Man City in the final, but we'll wait and see, I guess!

16 hours ago, Dragon_man said:

Either way, I have little confidence that next season will be a good one. We're in a much worse position ... no manager, not sure which players are staying, the best are bound to leave, club may be up for sale and Bazunu back in goal 😂

So exactly the same as two years ago, then?

2 hours ago, sad saints fan said:

Is the game tonight being streamed/televised anywhere?

Might be on Palace's YouTube channel but wouldn't expect them to announce anything until very close to kickoff to maximise ticket sales.

1 minute ago, OldNick said:

sadly not many things come down in price. We are getting 4 more games to be fair

And we have catering that is the envy of the Premier League... 

2 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Can anyone tell me when the priority window ends?  I’m not that keen on renewing until the new manager is announced.

5pm on 12th June.

4 minutes ago, Turkish said:

What did they do? Surely these days with it being all computerised and scanners etc it's not like the old days when you can get your ticket and then cancel the direct debit after one payment which i believe a few did back in the early St Marys days.

Likely people who basically had no intention of going again this season, so they noticed they hadn't finished paying for their season ticket and just cancelled the direct debit via their bank. I imagine the club would have first tried contacting them to reinstate the payments but after that they probably just blocked the ticket.

If I remember rightly, the early St Mary's days featured voucher books for season tickets as they had the free bus passes attached as well, so there probably wasn't much they could do about fraud (and let's be fairly clear, that's what this is/was) because every ticket voucher was the same and nothing was scanned to authenticate that exact ticket.

1 minute ago, franniesTache said:

It's obviously not terrible pricing but given people are skint at the moment it's not great, and the extra 5% fee for people doing monthly payments is a proper kick in the bollocks to those folk

I only looked at my own renewal price, so I don't know if it's replicated across the board, but an adult ticket in the Northam was £499 this season and if you use the payment plan this year it's £497.70, so it's still effectively frozen.

Given the apparent number of people who abused the payment plan this season, we seemingly have them to thank for the extra expense.

49 minutes ago, EssEffCee said:

People cancelling presumably? Maybe they could have just prevented those people using that option.

Yeah, basically this. Apparently numbers "in the hundreds" simply cancelled their direct debits midway through the season because they couldn't be bothered to go anymore. Quite surprised the club doesn't have any recourse on that through the Direct Debit guarantee (the main aim of which is consumer protection but surely should protect the "service" provider in cases of deliberate non-payment of agreed amounts), so I guess their way around that is to levy a charge and to ensure payments are complete by the end of the calendar year.

They've said that anyone with an outstanding balance on this season's ticket won't be able to use the payment plan for next season. Quite surprised they've not just said "no season ticket for you", tbh, but I guess money talks.

Three drops in the slips already