Hodgey

Good question - anyone know the answer to this. I’ve read in player biographies that when they leave they get their contract paid off, unless they put in a transfer request - which is why nobody does it. But equally that seems mad ie do players really get effectively two salaries for a couple of years ?, would make it extremely unattractive to sign anyone on a long contract. Think the answer lies somewhere in between where they get a ‘loyalty bonus’ which is maybe a % of their remaining contract ?

If we do have replacements lined up - may as well play them until they leave, unless they don’t want to play and will phone it in. Lavia seems closest to leaving (ie agree terms with another club) so I’d be tempted to leave him out, but play the rest.

Hidden within the gloom was another fantastic bowling spell by Turner. Hope he stays injury free and with us as he looks like an incredible prospect across all formats. Middletons inexperience has I think caught up with him a bit. But he’s still better than Organ/Weatherly/Holland as an opener which in itself is an issue. Gubbins is having a decent season, Brown is doing in the champs what Wheatley did in the T20 - both good players, both totally off form. Vince again looking a bit off form but with t20 captaincy previously and t16.4 nonsence upcoming I can see why he’d be distracted. Good to see Albert get a decent knock in for Kent. Can see why we would hold off on a batsman with Albert and Prest around, and both opened for the 2nds last game with high scores. But don’t see either of those as 1st team openers which we need.

With Hampshire I’ve learnt it’s too early to tell. They are really bad in first innings, better in second, and have a good bowling line up. 50/50 here whether the tail wags and we get them out cheaply. Or Essex amass a huge score and we lose by an innings. Plus we can’t play Harmer at all - he’s already got a wicket maiden in the first session….. Probably a few of them prepping/thinking about the t16.4

It speaks volumes that our team is now down to 3 specialist batsmen - kind of makes sense when an all rounder is just as likely to make runs but it’s a bit damming on our batters. Is this just a reflection that more players need to be all rounders or that we can’t coach out and out batters ? talking of which, two of our all rounders now pulling the game away from Notts. Seems like we always score more in the second innings, it’s like they use the first just to get used to it.

Think they were unlucky, but they would have known rain was coming so arguably, with 4 wickets spare, should have gone harder - 10 more runs I think would have done it. That said without Weatherly we would have posted a dreadful score - outside of McD he was the only one who really took to the surface. Problem we had as stated is with 9 wickets spare in a shortened game Essex could risk wacking it. Whitely really did have a stinker - average of 16 and strike rate of 94. Prest was also pretty unconvincing (av 18, sr 116) so our problem was pretty obvious. Fuller also poor with the bat but as an all rounder he did ok (just nowhere near as good as last year) Both Howells and Turner really did add something more this year.

Yeah this is a problem as next 3 in are striikerate of just over 1 a ball, Got to hope for fireworks from Fuller or Howell. Maybe Whitely might do something ? He’s capable just horribly out of form. These 2 in now need to pick the pace up though

They need to do something about reduced games - far too much advantage for the chasers. Looks like Hampshire know it may be reduced so going hard at it.

Good on them for fighting out a draw, would have been easy to throw the towel. Dawson is having another good season, bowlers not on it this match but you can’t blame them for that given how many games they have carried us. Another frustrating season as in reality we were only a couple of quality batsmen short of being possibly double champions - think that time has passed as there’ll be chinks in the bowling shortly. Onwards to the t20 - looking fwd to that, and hopefully the one day comp will give the young players more exposure and chance to break into the first (recall that Turner had a good run in it last year)

It does feel like they have given up here - knowing they can’t win the game - interesting that they are continuing the win or lose trend rather that try for a draw. This looks like zero batting points yet again which isn’t too clever - especially as they didn’t get full bowling points. Really can’t use the T20 excuse - Somerset are in the exact same boat and only 3 of the players here will be involved. This batting issue has gone on far too long, was an issue last season too. We do need to be careful as the bowlers are ageing and struggle once wickets are worn in / sun is shining. Hopefully the likes of Turner and Currie will break through, plus Prest and Albert. Not sure you can realistically look to win a championship with only 4 specialist batsmen (one of those being very suspect, another being a rookie)

Is the pitch totally flat or are Hampshire bowling filth ? Can’t tell but it looks like they hit 50 runs for the last batting point with 9 down in about 4 overs….

Excellent bowling again, couple of scares but comfortable chase. Turner looked excellent again - what a player to burst in the scenes like he has. All the teams in the South group through which will make it a bit interesting with teams who know each other. If I recall we hammered Essex and Surrey, beat Essex and Somerset, lost to Surrey and got hammered by Somerset. So overall you would take that as positive with nothing to fear. Also shows how well Hampshire have done to get there - playing all the finalists twice in the group stages.

My understanding is that we wanted rid last summer - ironic really given he was (and still is) clearly our best striker. I think they thought our recruitment geniuses were going to find someone better, plus for some reason Ralf really didn’t fancy him pre-season (and indeed in the first few games) I’d take him this year and lose him on a free next. I don’t see us spending the £12m or so on anyone better, and that £12m is utterly insignificant if it is the difference in us going up or not.

Guess you mean because Coventry and Boro were bottom 5. However Burnley, Shef Utd, and Luton were 1 to 3 points off top spot. Its certainly a league you can still finish in the play offs if you have a terrible start - but odds on you going up are much lower…

Funnily enough when I saw an article on Toon selling Fraser I thought we’d be in for him. Not sure why, did Russel play with him for Scotland ? I guess we don’t really have any right sided players now Theo has gone, and he can play in the middle which if the Athletic article is to be believed is something Martin encourages of his wide players. If that’s true, then £15m plus say £5m wage subsidy would be closer to our £30m I can see this happening, journalists reporting this generally have some inside knowledge, and Tino will be on for a massive wage increase and can be eased back into action as Trippiers back up / ultimate replacement. Plus aren’t they in Europe - so he’ll get plenty of games.

Also we’re playing other teams equally unsettled in the first 10 games - Leicester, Leeds and Wednesday - good time to play them. On the earlier question, I’d be fine with us having 13 points or so after 10 games. You’ve got to think if we are going to finally get things right we will improve as the season progresses. With 46 games I’d be happy enough to get through the first ten with a few wins and draws. Hopefully those wins at home, as after the last 2 years things could turn sour if we don’t start winning at home.

Looking like 2 batting points here. Great rebuild by Dawson and Gubbins. Seems like our more senior players have worked out the kookaburra better - be interesting to see how it affects our bowlers who seem to enjoy the duke. Handy that Middlesex don’t have any Aussie bowlers too

What a game, unlike the misery of saints I really enjoy watching Hampshire - they have weaknesses but they give it their all. When Essex we’re 127 for 1 after 10 I really thought we’d be looking at a 240 total, we’d also been surprisingly sloppy in the field, so credit to the bowlers, especially Turner (what a player) for reducing them to 209. Also couldn’t work out why Essex had a specialist batsman coming in at 9 ! (Das). As posted here the only way I could see us chasing that down was if one of the openers hit a huge score, as it turned out Vince almost did but when he holed out I couldn’t see us winning. In many ways as an opposition you almost want Weatherly and Albert to stay in (strike rates of 120), and then you have the totally out of sorts Whitely (strike rate of 100). Again we were reliant on the all rounders after those lot had all failed, Fuller finally found some form with his explosive hitting and Howell who was unlucky Vs Sussex looks like a very handy finisher. We did get a bit of luck with dropped catches but at that stage they had to take risks and go for 6s. With Kent winning comfortably (helping their nrr) its very tight. If we had lost that things would not have looked good. I can see both Kent and Essex winning their last two games (they face Surrey and Somerset last who will be secure by then) so I think we still need to win against Glamorgan and Gloustershire - both at home, both can’t qualify, so you would hope we would, but this season they’ve been beaten by a few poor teams so you never know. But what a joy to support a team who give something back to the fans !!

That’s my concern - if you bowl well then you can still get results. This is pretty much down to whether McD or Vince can go big - can’t see any of our other batters scoring fast or big enough to win.

This is going to be a massive total. Pitch looks a batters paradise but are Hampshire explosive enough to chase a big total down ?

The group is wide open now, Surrey and Somerset pretty safe but not much between Essex, Kent, Glamorgan and ourselves for the other two spots. Game against Essex tomorrow looks like a must win Unbelievable response by Middlesex chasing that down btw, especially having nothing to play for.

Would be great if we could persuade him to stay. When Lavia goes we don’t have a midfield and a possession style will suit him . Still think someone will bid £35-£40m at the business end and he’ll leave sadly - with Poch at Chelsea and a suggested flow of Saudi money don’t rule them out going for him.

That’s it now - cant afford another loss. That whole performance was sub standard. Good to see Whitely finally fire, but outside him and the openers we don’t have any fireworks in the team - plenty of batters who can job along at a 120 strike rate but you need more. DL does favour the chasing team, but we were a good 15 runs short in the first place.

We’ve finally beaten Surrey !!. Very well played, credit where it’s due, that is an extremely strong batting side to roll over for sub 125. Still not sure about a few of our batters, but Howells adds something to this team in both bat and ball. Think we’re still on for that 4th place, although it’s now pretty tight up there. Vince is ridiculously good - if he had England call ups we’d be in a lot of bother

It would be a shame to lose our promising youngsters, but I don’t really see them being ready for a promotion push at that level next year, they need to fill out a bit. If they want regular football they need to accept that or leave on loan / transfer. PL reserve division 2 isn’t the highest of bars. On cbs - again I’m not convinced on any of them and they all have clear issues. We’ve got far too many average players so losing a few to create space for players Martin will want is a necessity.