Weston Saint

From BBC's Ben Smith "FSG's decision to sack Rodgers was made before today's Merseyside derby but the owners did not want to disrupt preparations for the match by making an announcement before the game. Even a victory at Goodison Park would not have prevented Rodgers losing his job. "Rodgers was not told at Goodison Park. He was visited at home by Ian Ayre and I am told he took the news with dignity and good grace. Many of the players are now off on international duty and so there was was no chance to say goodbye to them. FSG wanted Rodgers to learn of the news from them and no one else and hence the decision to tell him within an hour of the result."

Here is my take an it refers to Championship Cricket only What a fantastic roller coaster season we have had. Our late season performances with a settled side have justified us staying up and I am confident we will learn from this year and be much stronger next season Rod Bransgrove’s dream of winning the 1st Division Championship is a distinct possibility. Now to the team Jimmy Adams A poor season by his standards as a reluctant captain until he stood down and his benefit must have been on his mind. 760 runs @ 27.14 with 1 hundred and 5 fifties Michael Carberry Did not appear a good season either but he scored 1129 @ 38.93 with 10 fifties but no hundreds. I suppose the lack of converting to hundreds is why he was perceived as having a poor year. James Vince Cannot fault his captaincy since he took over. 3 wins 2 draws and 1 loss in a contrived game says it all. However he only scored 743 @ 28.57 with 1 hundred and 5 fifties. He was out for 0 4 times, more than any of our other players. Last 4 innings he has been bowled and with a number of lbw his may be developing a flaw in his game. Has taken the highest number of catches in the team at 21 Will Smith Not the player of last season but fairly steady scoring 859 @ 34.56 with 6 fifties. Still an important member of the team Liam Dawson Another who disappointed early on pushed up to open and not much used for his spin. Then came a meeting with the coach, words were said, he was dropped for the first time in his 1st team career, asked to go on loan and since back has been the Liam of old batting at his natural position of 5, scoring runs, taking 22 wickets at important times and his fielding at 2nd slip is still one of the best in the Championship. Why has he improved? I think it was because he was taken out of his comfort zone and made to think! Adam Wheater Tidy keeper but only 562 @ 26.8 will put him under pressure with McManus waiting in the wings. I think McManus is the better keeper and has shown some maturity in batting. Sean Ervine Suffered a broken finger mid-season but 508 @ 33.86 and his skill at protecting tail enders late in the innings makes him a continued valuable member of the team as the all-rounder taking 15 catches mostly at first slip Gareth Berg Great signing. Middlesex had written him off and told members he would never play again at this level. We have made them look a little silly. 42 wickets @ 28.11 and 672 runs @ 32.00. True all- rounder at number 8 Danny Briggs Seems to be out of favour with 2 up and coming spinners breaking through. Would not be surprised to see him at another county next season! Ryan McLaren Only here for a short while but has made an impact and would be a good Kolpac signing for next season Fidel Edwards Enough said. Emense. Never mind he leaks runs he does what a number 1 bowler should do, take wickets 45 @ 20.88 in 8 matches. Glad he has signed and when out 1st Div status still very much in the balance. James Tomlinson Lost speed and knack of taking wickets. Do not see him playing much next season but likely to be more involved in a coaching role Of the others Gatting tops our batting average for the few games he played but not really enough overall and blocking prospects and released Terry has not done anything wrong but not quite up to the standard we are looking for and went back to Australia a few weeks ago (does have 1 year of his contract left but likely to e 2nds cricket only if he stays) Wood I have said before has an injury that prevents 4 day cricket. Shame as he showed potential but we have signed Topley now. New Boys waiting in the wing and could be ready next season Crane is already making big waves and he will be our future 1st choice spinner. We also have Taylor as a spinner as well and he is captaining England Under 19 on tour in the Autumn We have Brad Wheal and Ryan Stevenson. Both have appeared in the first team and bowlers and both highly rated. Stevenson is ahead of Wheal at this stage Batting we have Tom Alsop who is at the top of the order in the seconds and nearly ready. He can keep but primarily a batsman. We also have McManus who is a keeper who can bat as demonstrated in the 2 first team games he played this season Others are perhaps a little further behind and not ready for next season

Interesting, who would you see needs to go and why? We have Topley and Fidel Edwards signed up. Hopefully McLaren will sign soon.

Don't know. Just something that came out of the Yorkshire dressing room

Yorkshire hate Sussex and hoped we would win our last game and they could send Sussex down. they will be up for it tomorrow. The door is slightly ajar.

We need 200 to win! Whatever happens Hampshire were right to gamble against Yorkshire. I have found no one in the ground who did no agree.

The thinking behind this was that Dale did not want to rely on the weather in Nottingham and saw a chance of a result here. He discussed it with Yorkshire who wanted a smaller total to go for. Obviously we wanted a bigger total to leave them but negotiations were stacked in Yorkshire favour and eventually the declaration just before play started was agreed. Although we got a good start the wicket was always favoured the batting side and so it proved despite good bowling from Hampshire.

Today I spoke with the person allegedly attributed with the comment about Adams, Kevin James on Solent. He said someone had misunderstood his comment and he has no idea about Adams other than he, Kevin James, expressed the view that he could not see him taking back the captaincy. So no basis for the comment I made for the rumour in my original post.

One of the problems facing clubs, particularly Hampshire, is the lack of concentration in building an innings in the 4 day game and to a certain extent the 50 over format. There seems a tendency of late for players to go for quick runs and never mind they get out to a bad shot. When players come up against better bowlers like we have in the 1st division the mind set cannot cope. That has been our problem until recently. The Test series against Australia proved the point. Australia were so intent on playing their shots that they lost the art of building an innings and lost a series they were strong favourites to win by a street. The Hampshire team have noticed and taken that on board. As a result our performances have improved of late. Unfortunately it might be too late for this season but sets next on a firm basis. There are one or two players in the first team squad who are blocking the way for useful younger players who are now knocking on the door. I will not name either sets of players but the club are aware and more will be revealed when the release information is published by the club. We are trying to sign McLaren on a 2 or 3 year contract. It is not a done deal but positive vibes so far. If he does sign it will be as a Kolpac. We are also talking to Edwards but may face competition from other clubs. Nothing was mentioned about the “overseas” possibility next season but it is likely to be a bowler. The club are very impressed with Stevenson and he is bowling at about 83mph and getting the ball to go both ways. They expect his speed to increase as he develops. An exciting find. Watson is a possibility. He has gone home to think about it. However he will only be used for white ball cricket. I know a lot more about the Dawson affair now. I will not repeat it but let us just say it had the desired effect and I can see why the coach took the decisions he did. There is nothing above that is not readily available from various outlets so I am not breaching any confidences. It has been gleaned from frank talks with the Chairman, Coaches and Players by me and other friends over the last week. They are all refreshingly honest and understand the issues and what needs to be done to arrest a very poor season in red ball cricket.

I dined with Rod Bransgrove today. His one remaining wish is for us to win the 1st Division Championship. The club still see this as their main task. He is bitterly disappointed with the way this Championship season has gone.

No.

Well done to Carberry who passed 1,000 championship runs for the season in this game and that without a century this season. Well done to Edwards who took his 300th first class wicket in this game Well done to Adams who got a big century, his first of the season Shame we had such a disaster on the first day on a very flat wicket.

He was a classy player but as others have said he was not suited to Premier League and his injury record is horrendous. Reports of him being on £65,000 a week are probably wide of the mark. I suspect a lot of that was appearance and other bonuses. I suspect his basic, which is probably all he collected most weeks, was below £40,000. Still a massive amount and if we can make some savings out of that we should go for it.

Interesting report on possible signings. http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2015/content/story/918227.html

Good win. Shame about his hamstring injury. I do not know how bad it is at the present but he is a big doubt for Somerset next Wednesday. Still we will have Tomlinson, Briggs and Crane available to us. Tomlinson has been offered a lead bowling coaching role with Hampshire over the winter and is delighted. He has a year left on his contract but I can see him moving more to coaching with Topley coming in. Nothing more on having Edwards next season. I suppose it depends on what division we are in for the clubs point of view Rumour that Adams will not be playing next year. I was with his Dad for the early part of the England Australia game but the rumour came later so I did not get chance to ask him Another rumour (Echo) doing the rounds is that Watson might be are overseas next year. Wait to see on that one but it might make sense. He is still a class player.

I had some great sources during the many takeover pre admin. People supposedly involved. It turned out to be bull **** I had some great sources during the Admin period. People supposedly involved. It turned out to be bull ****. Papers quote sources close to.... more bull ****. Deal with facts and not sources. We already had our two domestic loans. Fact is we could not take more. Spurs would know that so again the sources are bull ****

We cannot pay big wages. We are on a tight budget. We lost money on the recent "gig" much to the clubs dismay. We took all the risk and Boys Own were paid no matter what the situation. We do have revenue streams but......

Wood will not likely progress as he has degenerative knee issues. I spoke to him the other day and although he is fine for 1 day games the longer form at 1st team level is a long way off. Massive shame but the signing of Topley will be a great addition and a coup by the club. We are still in talks with Fidel Edwards as well or were when I talked to Giles White a couple of weeks ago

Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC 2h2 hours ago Southampton FC retweeted Alan Fans travelling to Denmark can collect their tickets from the Hotel Scandic Regina between 12pm and 5pm on Thursday.

Warwickshire Kent just abandoned. Hampshire will now be in QF but away from home unless they can beat Notts. Inspection at 8pm. At present we will be away to Gloucester Now confirmed. Gloucester v Hants at Bristol next week, date to be confirmed

Yes I am going.

Koeman said: “Everybody knows we are working at one more defender, and then I think we have a very good squad for this season, and we know that. A little bit unlucky in our options what we don’t have at the moment. “One defender on the bench and Matthew Targett played 90 minutes and he was ill, he wasn’t 100 per cent and we have to accept that and we can’t change that situation.”

2nd Semi it is. Think it is all about logistics. Hampshire have furthest to travel so given more time.

I am registered to microsoft and can log in to my account to get the key number. In the meantime windows troubleshooter found and fixed a couple of issues so I am trying to download and install 8.1 now

I am running a windows trouble shoot at present. See if that works. My windows 8 was installed by John Lewis on a newly purchased laptop over 2 years ago a