Window Cleaner

Probably not in the spirit of the game but in fact a wash-out would be pretty handy actually. Guaranteed 2 points, qualification assured. I think they said that McMullen has played his last game for us, in this stint anyway. So we'll need to find a replacement, suppose it will be either Jack or Kelly then, unless of course we get someone released from a Hundred team.

Scenario already discussed a couple of seasons back. Didn't do that then and I doubt we'll do it now. Vince isn't batting well and Dawson although he would be very useful has other things planned.

Well, that was excellent. Well done the lads. Good watch too.

So, 340 to get, don't really know if we have the batters to get them honestly. Depends on Orr and Gubbins? We probably need to go to about 150 without loss in 21-22 overs.

Losing this one is not beyond the realms of possibility. Too much poor bowling and I'd say that the fielding is slightly below our normal standard. Will all depend on Gubbins again likely as not.

Was going to say that it's not going as well as I expected but Organ has just bowled Jewell so we'll see. Brown behind the stumps? Maybe a bit less athletic than Mayes to be honest. A few byes.

Derbys today, Hants won toss, fielding first. Brown in, Prest out. Bowling looks better than that of Wednesday. Need the win, should see us in the quarters.

Seems that our seamers weren't better than theirs. Jack very expensive. Why no Fuller ? On another note Prest continues his train-wreck of a season.

Surrey don't seem to take this competition very seriously. Batting and bowling today public rec standard. If they're consistent about it I suppose it doesn't much matter. They had quite a good crowd in though today, bit of an affront to them to play so poorly.

Bowled really well. Surrey batted really poorly, perhaps a result of aforesaid good bowling though.

Video game tactics, or so any French fan would tell you. He didn't have the necessary coaching certificates so Reims were fined 25000 euros for each match he was in charge. Also had Etikite and two Japanese wingers.

Our number 17 is rubbish.

Good news on the bowling front, batting looks short though. Hope there's no silly flashing from Orr. We need a big start, 100/0 sort of thing.

Ball seemed to hit him on the wrist. Other than that not much to be said about yesterday's game. Their seam quintet was too good for our batting and our bowling wasn't good enough to challenge them with such a faible total to defend. Quick'ish seam bowling does seem to present us with a problem on occasions. Not much spin to slog yesterday.

Finally a very entertaining second half of our innings. We'll see if it's enough.

Not looking any too great at the moment. 4 down with just 115 on the board after half way.

So Durham in September, might be a tall order for us. Toss would be important. I think there are some England South Africa short format games at that epoque so we might be robbed of Dawson and won't probably be able to get our South Africans back. Still not at all bad to make the play-off stage. As a general comment on the T20 blast overall this season, I've been a bit surprised about the general poor quality of the bowling in most of the teams I've seen. Some of it is just destined to be hit over the boundaries, too short, too wide, a lot of full tosses. Seems that good bowlers avoid T20 nowadays. Sussex the other day were particularly poor, don't know if they have injuries or international calls but it was Club standard. Mind you batting has evolved, a few years back 160 was about par, now it would seem to be 180+.

Well, the game was always finely balanced. No one feat turned it either way, just a combination of events. Currie's catch could have won it for us but they hit a couple of sixes when they really needed to.

How has this come about? Well in my humble opinion, nepotism and cost cutting would be likely candidates. We have players,, perhaps other staff as well who contribute sfa and no doubt get paid at the end of the month.

Oh, well played Sirs, a mere 458 behind on the first innings. Zero batting points. Perhaps the problem isn't the ball but the bowlers using it.

Never mind, we're getting a look at our full range of part-time bowlers.

Problem of fixed term contracts in every sector. Employment law in most countries allows you to start your research for a new job in the last 6 months of any fixed tem contract. Some countries even let you take a lot of time off to attend interviews etc.

Not really a question of relegation. We just seem so disorganised this season. Minor changements seem to throw us out of sync so easily, like our T20 campaign so far. But what irks me most is our tendency to try to shoe in players who are long past their useful shelf life all of the time. Weatherly, Organ, Wood should all be long gone let alone playing. There's also the question young players not really progressing. Still season is half over, roll on next season.

Why is Fuller bowling? It's just free runs for Essex. What is the point of Organ exactly? Not bowling and he's a bit part batter at best. There must be someone more appropriate in the group of players. I am beginning to doubt Brown's captaincy to be honest.

Essex look to be trying to bat out the majority of the day. Might be a borefest as our bowlers don't look to be getting any sort of help from the pitch.