Quiet day

A quiet one today with little to report with regard to the club.

A couple of comments on last night's piece. Mastervillain produced figures to suggest that Tom Lungley has a worse appearance record over ten years than Simon Jones and you can't argue. Many will feel (I know, as they've mailed me!) that he is lucky to get another year and Mastervillain is right - next year really has to be payback time. The year when Lungley takes a ripe harvest of wickets to reward the club for their faith in him. Realistically, if he doesn't, it will surely be his last with the club. Can't really add to that.

Peter asks my opinion on the young Indian Ravinder Jadeja. I have to say I've not seen him either, though he took three good wickets today and, as you say, has bowled well in the IPL. To be honest, as I wrote the other night, Derbyshire must, if we have the money for another overseas player for the Twenty/20, get someone who will pull the crowds and with respect to Jadeja, I don't think he'll do that.

If the Under 22 money - henceforth known as the Borrington/Redfern Award (or BRA for short...) is available by that stage it could, with the right name filling those extra 2,000 seats, pretty much pay for someone. I hope so. Another night I'll tell you the outcome of the deliberations of Peakfan and his Dad on the "money no object" hunt for an overseas Twenty/20 professional. I tell you, that Dad of mine still knows his cricketers. Even if it sometimes takes the form of "you know, him that used to play for Leicestershire...you know who I mean... he were a right hander...played at the same time as that big hitter they once had". Just so you know, on that occasion he meant Roger Tolchard, who played in the same team as "big hitter" Brian Davison. Cryptic huh?

Sad news today about the death of David Shepherd, after a long battle with cancer. Many will know Shep as one of the greatest of umpires, but those of a certain vintage still recall the golden days of cricket on the telly and regular viewings of what, at that time, was a terrific Gloucestershire batting line up. Stovold and Sadiq to open, Zaheer Abbas at 3, Mike Procter at 4 and Shep at 5. The real mirth occurred when the pretty rotund Shepherd had to bat with either Jim Foat or Alastair Hignell, both of them whippets. There were occasions when they could have lapped him when the chase was on, but Shep was a decent batsman and a fine servant to the county and the game of cricket. Rest in peace Shep.

Finally, sorry about the lateness of the blog tonight but we've had our cricket club AGM and (talk about momentous!) I've handed over the captaincy after nine years at the helm. I'd thought of going for a round ten but, given that the previous record in the post was three years, I decided to quit while I was still ahead, also known as sane. I still intend to play, but I'll no longer have to organise fixtures and teams and it will be nice to just turn up and have a game, if selected of course... I'm sure there's a piece in there for the blog too, which is another reason to let someone else take over.

I'd no idea, when I started this a year and a half ago, that it would become so popular. At the current rate of viewing, tomorrow should see the 50,000th hit in that time, which quite honestly astounds me. I'm grateful to everyone who tunes in on a regular basis and especially those who take time to mail in comments and e mail me about different things. Thanks very much to all of you.

Now, if I could just find a way to make this lucrative, I can pack in the day job...

Until tomorrow. See you then.