In the closing hours of 2017, a chance to wish all of you, wherever you are, the very best for the year that lies ahead.
In the season just past, that now seems a distant memory, Derbyshire made decent strides forward. The T20 can be looked back upon with considerable satisfaction, providing more memorable moments than that competition has managed in the previous five. If we can persuade John Wright and Dominic Cork to return, then recruit a couple of top players for the competition, we could easily manage the same, if not better, next year.
In the four-day game, I suspect our season may have panned out differently had Hardus Viljoen been available all summer. If he starts next year in the same form he ended this, has the expected support from the experienced Ravi Rampaul and perhaps an overseas seamer who can bat in April, then our championship may be less the form of also rans, more that of promotion candidates. With, fingers crossed, a fully fit Will Davis in the mix, we should bowl sides out.
Neither of our two batting lynch pins, Wayne Madsen and Billy Godleman, were in their best four-day form last year, but there was enough progress elsewhere in the side to suggest next summer could be one to excite us.
Here's hoping.
To you and yours, enjoy your evening and I hope that 2018 brings everything you wish for.
Sunday, 31 December 2017
Friday, 22 December 2017
Christmas wishes - and John Wright's festive single
The next few days are going to be busy for family Peakfan, as well as for all of you, no doubt, so I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas.
After the travails of the year, our family is looking forward to this one especially. Sylvia is doing really well now, I am pleased to relate and should be back to her best in the months that lie ahead.
I would like to thank all of you who have checked in regularly throughout the year and those who have contributed your thoughts from time to time. That's ten years that I have been doing the blog now and it continues to grow, each successive year bringing more hits than the ones that preceded it.
I am proud of that, and flattered. What started out as a means of getting in touch with 'one or two' Derbyshire fans out there now has seen readership increase to 34 countries. It is always a particular pleasure to hear from those far away, whose support of the club continues undiminished despite the miles in between. Please continue to get in touch and I will always reply, as and when I can.
Thanks also to those who have bought my two books and in answer to your questions, the Edwin Smith one is long since sold out, with copies now popping up on ebay from time to time.
In Their Own Words: Derbyshire Cricketers in Conversation continues to sell well and the box that I had pre-Christmas has been reduced to one last lonely copy. Festive delivery won't happen now, but if anyone would like to buy it, suitably inscribed, please get in touch. Copies are still available, while stocks last, from Amazon and your local book shop.
Every so often something blog-related happens that surprises me and that happened overnight, when I got an email from Rodeo Records in New Zealand. My thanks go to Aly Cook for the link below to John Wright's Christmas single, which I hope that you enjoy as much as I do. As a seasoned traveler to Tennessee, country music is close to my heart and this is a song that will doubtless seep into your sub-conscious and find you singing or humming the chorus in the days ahead.
I will say with confidence that Derbyshire has the best Christmas song in county cricket this year.
Maybe that's a portent of things to come in 2018?
Enjoy the video - and your Christmas!
After the travails of the year, our family is looking forward to this one especially. Sylvia is doing really well now, I am pleased to relate and should be back to her best in the months that lie ahead.
I would like to thank all of you who have checked in regularly throughout the year and those who have contributed your thoughts from time to time. That's ten years that I have been doing the blog now and it continues to grow, each successive year bringing more hits than the ones that preceded it.
I am proud of that, and flattered. What started out as a means of getting in touch with 'one or two' Derbyshire fans out there now has seen readership increase to 34 countries. It is always a particular pleasure to hear from those far away, whose support of the club continues undiminished despite the miles in between. Please continue to get in touch and I will always reply, as and when I can.
Thanks also to those who have bought my two books and in answer to your questions, the Edwin Smith one is long since sold out, with copies now popping up on ebay from time to time.
In Their Own Words: Derbyshire Cricketers in Conversation continues to sell well and the box that I had pre-Christmas has been reduced to one last lonely copy. Festive delivery won't happen now, but if anyone would like to buy it, suitably inscribed, please get in touch. Copies are still available, while stocks last, from Amazon and your local book shop.
Every so often something blog-related happens that surprises me and that happened overnight, when I got an email from Rodeo Records in New Zealand. My thanks go to Aly Cook for the link below to John Wright's Christmas single, which I hope that you enjoy as much as I do. As a seasoned traveler to Tennessee, country music is close to my heart and this is a song that will doubtless seep into your sub-conscious and find you singing or humming the chorus in the days ahead.
I will say with confidence that Derbyshire has the best Christmas song in county cricket this year.
Maybe that's a portent of things to come in 2018?
Enjoy the video - and your Christmas!
Thursday, 21 December 2017
Knives out for the county game
Well folks, Christmas is coming and we come closer to the end of another year.
Activity at Derbyshire this week seems to have revolved around Alex Hughes delivering memberships and the players having what appears to have been a sports-themed Christmas party, from the photos on Twitter. All good stuff, of course and the reality is that we will know little else about next season's plans, I guess, until the new year and the IPL draft.
There's little point in contracting an early season overseas player until we know if he will be involved in the Indian competition for several weeks. We must be patient and acknowledge that behind the scenes a lot of work is doubtless going on.
Off the field, I realised this week that my work's new holiday policy, where next year's calendar opens up in November before the fixtures are announced, is not conducive to booking cricket trips. I managed to get a week in July and August in there for family breaks, but neither coincides with the cricket as announced. Perhaps as well, as neither are to God's own county.
I have managed to work a long weekend around the opening four-day game at Derby, because it is usually too cold for most to holiday, so should get to see what we look like then. Another couple of planned trips have been knocked back, at least for now. I will also pull in a couple of days in Durham for the four-day game there, all being well and will shape the rest of my visits when we get into the new year.
Elsewhere, the usual suspects have started to blame England's tour travails on the county schedule, likely doing a copy and paste from the last time they wrote it, which was when we last lost a series. It's funny, when we win, no one says it is because of the excellent grounding on the county circuit, but when we lose, it's like they are being made to work the pit face, naked, with a knife and fork for tools.
When we read that Steven Finn has 'pace sucked out of him by the daily grind' there is an initial sympathy, until one explores further and sees he bowled less than 300 overs in the summer just past. There will be plenty of veterans who will laugh a little at that, and a good few for who that was around a month's bowling.
I don't pretend the life of a county cricketer is easy, because it isn't. Everyone wants a pop at you, thinks they could do as well, given opportunity and thinks you should score runs and take wickets every time you play. It doesn't work like that, but it also a life of privilege, as many realise when it is no longer there and an 'ordinary life' beckons.
The England squad, in my humble opinion, would be better served by appreciating what they have and not treating a tour like an all-expenses paid jolly, which this tour appears to have become. With privilege comes responsibility, certainly in personal conduct and, like anyone in the public eye, there will always be those out there who are ready and wanting to bring you down.
Making four-day cricket less of an unwelcome guest might help too. Playing four-day cricket in the early part of the year, when quick bowlers can't get warm and the dibbly-dobblies thrive is stupid. You won't win in Australia with Darren Stevens, even if he will get 30 wickets by the end of May on slow, green wickets as sure as night turns to day.
If the cricket authorities seriously want to win the Test series and see it as more prestigious than a T20 series win (which it is) then they need to show its importance with scheduling. I'd guess that Harold Rhodes and Bill Copson were more willing to let themselves go on a warm day when the muscles were loose and the wicket had a bit of bounce. When those conditions are available now, our bowlers want only to bowl wide yorkers and a range of slower balls.
Anyway, I can't change it any more than you and the suits at Lord's only want to increase the game's pulling power with a city-based T20, which for me remains doomed to failure.
On the bright side, if it succeeds there will be a lot more people interested in the game who will wonder why we are so poor as a touring side.
And start to ask questions themselves...
I will be back before Christmas - see you then.
Activity at Derbyshire this week seems to have revolved around Alex Hughes delivering memberships and the players having what appears to have been a sports-themed Christmas party, from the photos on Twitter. All good stuff, of course and the reality is that we will know little else about next season's plans, I guess, until the new year and the IPL draft.
There's little point in contracting an early season overseas player until we know if he will be involved in the Indian competition for several weeks. We must be patient and acknowledge that behind the scenes a lot of work is doubtless going on.
Off the field, I realised this week that my work's new holiday policy, where next year's calendar opens up in November before the fixtures are announced, is not conducive to booking cricket trips. I managed to get a week in July and August in there for family breaks, but neither coincides with the cricket as announced. Perhaps as well, as neither are to God's own county.
I have managed to work a long weekend around the opening four-day game at Derby, because it is usually too cold for most to holiday, so should get to see what we look like then. Another couple of planned trips have been knocked back, at least for now. I will also pull in a couple of days in Durham for the four-day game there, all being well and will shape the rest of my visits when we get into the new year.
Elsewhere, the usual suspects have started to blame England's tour travails on the county schedule, likely doing a copy and paste from the last time they wrote it, which was when we last lost a series. It's funny, when we win, no one says it is because of the excellent grounding on the county circuit, but when we lose, it's like they are being made to work the pit face, naked, with a knife and fork for tools.
When we read that Steven Finn has 'pace sucked out of him by the daily grind' there is an initial sympathy, until one explores further and sees he bowled less than 300 overs in the summer just past. There will be plenty of veterans who will laugh a little at that, and a good few for who that was around a month's bowling.
I don't pretend the life of a county cricketer is easy, because it isn't. Everyone wants a pop at you, thinks they could do as well, given opportunity and thinks you should score runs and take wickets every time you play. It doesn't work like that, but it also a life of privilege, as many realise when it is no longer there and an 'ordinary life' beckons.
The England squad, in my humble opinion, would be better served by appreciating what they have and not treating a tour like an all-expenses paid jolly, which this tour appears to have become. With privilege comes responsibility, certainly in personal conduct and, like anyone in the public eye, there will always be those out there who are ready and wanting to bring you down.
Making four-day cricket less of an unwelcome guest might help too. Playing four-day cricket in the early part of the year, when quick bowlers can't get warm and the dibbly-dobblies thrive is stupid. You won't win in Australia with Darren Stevens, even if he will get 30 wickets by the end of May on slow, green wickets as sure as night turns to day.
If the cricket authorities seriously want to win the Test series and see it as more prestigious than a T20 series win (which it is) then they need to show its importance with scheduling. I'd guess that Harold Rhodes and Bill Copson were more willing to let themselves go on a warm day when the muscles were loose and the wicket had a bit of bounce. When those conditions are available now, our bowlers want only to bowl wide yorkers and a range of slower balls.
Anyway, I can't change it any more than you and the suits at Lord's only want to increase the game's pulling power with a city-based T20, which for me remains doomed to failure.
On the bright side, if it succeeds there will be a lot more people interested in the game who will wonder why we are so poor as a touring side.
And start to ask questions themselves...
I will be back before Christmas - see you then.
Saturday, 16 December 2017
Mystic Peakfan thrice foretells the future...
I think I should put on a coupon today, as three times this week my erstwhile comments have been shown to be accurate by subsequent events.
First up we had Luis Reece ending his stint in Bangladesh with a dazzling top score of an unbeaten 80 when opening the batting, when earlier, slotted into the unfamiliar middle order, runs were harder to come by.
Who'd have thought it eh? As I wrote at the time, there was no point signing him if you don't bat him in his regular place and it suggests that the selectors, while obviously able, don't always allow common sense to interfere with their work.
Then there is England's struggle, again, to bowl out Australia in their own conditions. Once more, while I'd love to claim the foresight of a Romany mystic, common sense dictated that on a semi-decent batting track a semi-decent Australian side would simply line up an attack that is squarely built around a battery of right arm, fast-medium bowlers.
Variety of your attack, at any level of the game, is a key to taking wickets. How often do we see the advent of a spinner taking a wicket, after batsmen have become established against fast medium bowlers? I hope that Derbyshire persevere with Luis Reece's left arm medium pace and Matt Critchley's leg spin, because they offer something different. If Hardus Viljoen returns from his winter overseas fully fit and Will Davis is fit for more than a couple of games at a time, that variety in our attack will help us to win games. Always assuming that the batsmen score the runs we need, of course.
Finally - and going back over a year to my original thoughts on this - we now read that ten first-class counties, Derbyshire apparently among them, have written to ECB chairman Colin Graves in opposition to the plans for the eight city 20/20 competition due to start in 2020.
Why? Because the framework agreement cuts them out of an ownership share that was promised back at the start, for 'legal and tax efficiency reasons'.
As long-term readers will know, I expressed my grave reservations about this competition and what it meant for the smaller counties when it was first touted. Promises were made to 'buy' support that never looked sustainable to me and the whole thing, then as now, looked like some Machiavellian sub-plot to first marginalise and then dispense with several counties.
Having been involved in cricket, from a playing, watching and reporting perspective for over fifty years, I can honestly say that there are plenty of people within it who, were they to tell me it was sunny outside, I would want to check before I put on my sun cream. As my old Dad, still sage and alert at 90 told me the other day once again, 'it's the best game in the world, but has always been run by the biggest idiots'.
Harsh? There are the well-meaning out there, but too many, in positions of power, who are out to feather their own nests, irrespective of the cost and impact on others. It has always been so and likely will remain that way.
If these counties don't stand together, the county game in 25 years time will be massively changed to its detriment. We have already seen the marginalisation of the four-day game and to those who question who attends these games, my answer is quick and to the point. No one does who is in employment, because the games are arranged for midweek when we cannot go. Play more games Friday to Monday, even if it means three divisions and six teams in each, then see the difference.
In closing, thanks to all those who have ordered copies of 'In Their Own Words'. I now have just two left, although Amazon have sourced more and it can still be ordered from your local book shop.
I will gladly post mine, inscribed as you wish, in time for Christmas, if ordered in the next couple of days. Price £15 now though, as they will need to go first-class on Monday or Tuesday.
Have a good weekend.
First up we had Luis Reece ending his stint in Bangladesh with a dazzling top score of an unbeaten 80 when opening the batting, when earlier, slotted into the unfamiliar middle order, runs were harder to come by.
Who'd have thought it eh? As I wrote at the time, there was no point signing him if you don't bat him in his regular place and it suggests that the selectors, while obviously able, don't always allow common sense to interfere with their work.
Then there is England's struggle, again, to bowl out Australia in their own conditions. Once more, while I'd love to claim the foresight of a Romany mystic, common sense dictated that on a semi-decent batting track a semi-decent Australian side would simply line up an attack that is squarely built around a battery of right arm, fast-medium bowlers.
Variety of your attack, at any level of the game, is a key to taking wickets. How often do we see the advent of a spinner taking a wicket, after batsmen have become established against fast medium bowlers? I hope that Derbyshire persevere with Luis Reece's left arm medium pace and Matt Critchley's leg spin, because they offer something different. If Hardus Viljoen returns from his winter overseas fully fit and Will Davis is fit for more than a couple of games at a time, that variety in our attack will help us to win games. Always assuming that the batsmen score the runs we need, of course.
Finally - and going back over a year to my original thoughts on this - we now read that ten first-class counties, Derbyshire apparently among them, have written to ECB chairman Colin Graves in opposition to the plans for the eight city 20/20 competition due to start in 2020.
Why? Because the framework agreement cuts them out of an ownership share that was promised back at the start, for 'legal and tax efficiency reasons'.
As long-term readers will know, I expressed my grave reservations about this competition and what it meant for the smaller counties when it was first touted. Promises were made to 'buy' support that never looked sustainable to me and the whole thing, then as now, looked like some Machiavellian sub-plot to first marginalise and then dispense with several counties.
Having been involved in cricket, from a playing, watching and reporting perspective for over fifty years, I can honestly say that there are plenty of people within it who, were they to tell me it was sunny outside, I would want to check before I put on my sun cream. As my old Dad, still sage and alert at 90 told me the other day once again, 'it's the best game in the world, but has always been run by the biggest idiots'.
Harsh? There are the well-meaning out there, but too many, in positions of power, who are out to feather their own nests, irrespective of the cost and impact on others. It has always been so and likely will remain that way.
If these counties don't stand together, the county game in 25 years time will be massively changed to its detriment. We have already seen the marginalisation of the four-day game and to those who question who attends these games, my answer is quick and to the point. No one does who is in employment, because the games are arranged for midweek when we cannot go. Play more games Friday to Monday, even if it means three divisions and six teams in each, then see the difference.
In closing, thanks to all those who have ordered copies of 'In Their Own Words'. I now have just two left, although Amazon have sourced more and it can still be ordered from your local book shop.
I will gladly post mine, inscribed as you wish, in time for Christmas, if ordered in the next couple of days. Price £15 now though, as they will need to go first-class on Monday or Tuesday.
Have a good weekend.
Friday, 8 December 2017
Book rush leaves me with limited copies
Thanks to all those who got in touch to buy inscribed copies of my post war oral history of the club 'In Their Own Words'.I am now down to the last half dozen copies of the book and new copies are now selling on Amazon for over £30, with stock seemingly in short supply.
A recent review on Amazon called it 'a brilliant book not only for a life-time Derbyshire supporter such as myself, but also for any cricket enthusiast with a deep love of the wonderful game of cricket. Every story is fascinating and in many cases there are amusing anecdotes which verify the spirit in which the game was played. A great piece of work'.
It tells the story of life on the county cricket circuit since the last war, told by the people who played the game for Derbyshire and were among its major characters. Opened with what was for me a memorable interview with the late Walter Goodyear, it travels through the 1950s with Harold Rhodes, Edwin Smith and Keith Mohan, on into the 1960s with Peter Eyre, Peter Gibbs and Brian Jackson. Legends such as Bob Taylor, John Wright and Devon Malcolm are included, while county stalwarts Alan Hill and Tony Borrington's memories of the pace attacks of the 1970s and 80's are memorable.
My remaining copies are available, inscribed as you wish, for £14, including second-class postage.
If you have a Derbyshire fan in your life, I am grateful for the fact that it has enjoyed excellent reviews and has been enjoyed. I am equally happy that non-county fans have enjoyed its memories of the county game as it changed over seventy summers.
A good Christmas present and, as the old advert used to say, when it's gone, it's gone.
Contact me now to get yours in time for Christmas, with an email to peakfan36@yahoo.co.uk
And thanks to everyone who has already bought it and for your positive comments.
Hughes contract signals coming of age
The good news that Derbyshire supporters were waiting for came this week, as Alex Hughes signed a new three-year deal with the county, one that keeps him at the club until the end of the 2020 season.
At 26, Hughes has been around the club for a long time, but university studies hindered his cricket progress for a while. Before last season he had flirted with the first team and showed glimpses of promise, making an occasional good score, chipping in with wickets when given the opportunity and fielding well in any position.
Last season was the breakthrough. While long-term readers will know that I have espoused his value to the side for some time, 2017 was the summer in which his talents became obvious to a wider audience. He sealed and maintained a position in the middle order for the first time, making the number five role his own with a series of fine innings. One of 142 at Bristol in the summer's final knock took his season average to a solid 40, while edging his career one north of 30 for the first time. It was his fourth century for the club and something on which he can build.
I have mentioned before his ability to score runs when most needed and it is one that promises to serve his county well. Perhaps, like a county professional pre-war, he will better learn to 'drink at the well' when conditions are in his favour, as a score of 30-3 is more likely to see him at his best than one of 200-3, but it should be remembered that he has still had only 74 first-class innings.
He finished top of the RLODC averages and has the ability to play the orthodox and unorthodox with equal skill. He has all the shots and yet a defence and technique that enables him to dig in and score runs when others fail. I see him as the man around who the batting line-up can be built for the next five-ten years and I am pleased to see his value to the side becoming more obvious to others.
Whether his bowling becomes even more that of an occasional option only time will tell. I don't recall him bowling in the four-day game last summer, though his skiddy medium pace remains a useful one-day option on slower wickets. I hope it is not ignored, because the likes of Paul Collingwood and Darren Stevens have shown the merits of a more sedate pace, especially on early season tracks.
I also see him as captain-elect of the club, almost certainly the next vice-captain to Billy Godleman and eventual heir to the 'throne'. He's a bright, intelligent and affable lad, with a level of commitment that all sports supporters want to see from one of their own.
I am pleased that the new contract affords him the security that a player needs to flourish. The next five years should see a talented erstwhile bit-part player become a rock of the county eleven.
I look forward to seeing it happen.
At 26, Hughes has been around the club for a long time, but university studies hindered his cricket progress for a while. Before last season he had flirted with the first team and showed glimpses of promise, making an occasional good score, chipping in with wickets when given the opportunity and fielding well in any position.
Last season was the breakthrough. While long-term readers will know that I have espoused his value to the side for some time, 2017 was the summer in which his talents became obvious to a wider audience. He sealed and maintained a position in the middle order for the first time, making the number five role his own with a series of fine innings. One of 142 at Bristol in the summer's final knock took his season average to a solid 40, while edging his career one north of 30 for the first time. It was his fourth century for the club and something on which he can build.
I have mentioned before his ability to score runs when most needed and it is one that promises to serve his county well. Perhaps, like a county professional pre-war, he will better learn to 'drink at the well' when conditions are in his favour, as a score of 30-3 is more likely to see him at his best than one of 200-3, but it should be remembered that he has still had only 74 first-class innings.
He finished top of the RLODC averages and has the ability to play the orthodox and unorthodox with equal skill. He has all the shots and yet a defence and technique that enables him to dig in and score runs when others fail. I see him as the man around who the batting line-up can be built for the next five-ten years and I am pleased to see his value to the side becoming more obvious to others.
Whether his bowling becomes even more that of an occasional option only time will tell. I don't recall him bowling in the four-day game last summer, though his skiddy medium pace remains a useful one-day option on slower wickets. I hope it is not ignored, because the likes of Paul Collingwood and Darren Stevens have shown the merits of a more sedate pace, especially on early season tracks.
I also see him as captain-elect of the club, almost certainly the next vice-captain to Billy Godleman and eventual heir to the 'throne'. He's a bright, intelligent and affable lad, with a level of commitment that all sports supporters want to see from one of their own.
I am pleased that the new contract affords him the security that a player needs to flourish. The next five years should see a talented erstwhile bit-part player become a rock of the county eleven.
I look forward to seeing it happen.
Friday, 1 December 2017
Fixture announcement brings season closer - and frustration
As the weather closes in and the thermometer plummets, the announcement of the summer cricket fixtures is always eagerly anticipated and somehow makes the Spring and warmer weather seem a little closer.
And yet, once again, I looked at the fixtures yesterday and wondered who the ECB have in mind with the dates chosen.
Certainly not the average working man. With the exception of the first two home games, when the weather is rarely of shirt sleeve variety, Derbyshire's four-day cricket has only two weekend days over the entire summer, one of them the fourth day of a game that may or may not feature a lot of cricket. It's the same with the RLODC, with only one game at a weekend.
July and August are better for the T20, with most games scheduled on a Friday night or weekend, but I can't see myself driving the 316 miles (yes, I've logged it) from my house to the 3aaa County Ground and then back again, for three hours of cricket. If I was down there, of course, it would be a different matter.
It's all fine and dandy if you are unemployed or retired and the club membership, at £139 for the summer represents outstanding value for those who have the time to attend a lot of the matches. For the traditional working fan, who prefers to see the ebb and flow of a longer game, rather than the more 'in your face' T20, it means that your opportunities to watch the game are ever more eroded.
With 25 days leave a year and a hefty percentage of that time rightly allotted to spending time with my family, I'd hoped for more Friday starts, enabling an early morning 5am departure on that day, watch a couple of days cricket and then head home on the Sunday.
As it stands, I will be doing that in early season and then perforce being selective on my visits thereafter, as far as the constraints of my leave allocation allows.
I've penciled in a few early possibilities and the away game at Durham offers a chance to watch a day when I can travel there and back, but it is all rather frustrating.
The next time you see the powers that be bemoaning attendances at four-day cricket, and citing those attendances as rationale for changing the game's format, keep in mind that the same dozy beggars who arrange it all at Lord's are the ones hammering the nails in the coffin of traditional cricket.
Finally today, it is good to see Luis Reece making a decent fist of his bowling, at least, in Bangladesh's Premier League T20. Reece took three wickets in his last match - albeit at eleven an over, though runs have been harder to come by.
Mind you, as selection decisions go, it takes some working out. Here you have a lad who earns a gig in the tournament with fine scoring at the top of the order for Derbyshire. So they take him over there and bat him at six, which in T20 - indeed any form of the game - is a very different mindset.
Sometimes I wonder who earns good money for these decisions. It's like signing an attacking midfield player and playing him at right back in football and makes little more sense.
At least I generally have confidence in the decision-making at Derbyshire these days. Aside from the puzzling promotion of Hardus Viljoen in the T20 quarter-final, when the defence was that desperate times called for desperate measures (and I'm still not convinced...) most of the thought processes are logical.
There's been plenty of times when that couldn't always be said, believe me...
And yet, once again, I looked at the fixtures yesterday and wondered who the ECB have in mind with the dates chosen.
Certainly not the average working man. With the exception of the first two home games, when the weather is rarely of shirt sleeve variety, Derbyshire's four-day cricket has only two weekend days over the entire summer, one of them the fourth day of a game that may or may not feature a lot of cricket. It's the same with the RLODC, with only one game at a weekend.
July and August are better for the T20, with most games scheduled on a Friday night or weekend, but I can't see myself driving the 316 miles (yes, I've logged it) from my house to the 3aaa County Ground and then back again, for three hours of cricket. If I was down there, of course, it would be a different matter.
It's all fine and dandy if you are unemployed or retired and the club membership, at £139 for the summer represents outstanding value for those who have the time to attend a lot of the matches. For the traditional working fan, who prefers to see the ebb and flow of a longer game, rather than the more 'in your face' T20, it means that your opportunities to watch the game are ever more eroded.
With 25 days leave a year and a hefty percentage of that time rightly allotted to spending time with my family, I'd hoped for more Friday starts, enabling an early morning 5am departure on that day, watch a couple of days cricket and then head home on the Sunday.
As it stands, I will be doing that in early season and then perforce being selective on my visits thereafter, as far as the constraints of my leave allocation allows.
I've penciled in a few early possibilities and the away game at Durham offers a chance to watch a day when I can travel there and back, but it is all rather frustrating.
The next time you see the powers that be bemoaning attendances at four-day cricket, and citing those attendances as rationale for changing the game's format, keep in mind that the same dozy beggars who arrange it all at Lord's are the ones hammering the nails in the coffin of traditional cricket.
Finally today, it is good to see Luis Reece making a decent fist of his bowling, at least, in Bangladesh's Premier League T20. Reece took three wickets in his last match - albeit at eleven an over, though runs have been harder to come by.
Mind you, as selection decisions go, it takes some working out. Here you have a lad who earns a gig in the tournament with fine scoring at the top of the order for Derbyshire. So they take him over there and bat him at six, which in T20 - indeed any form of the game - is a very different mindset.
Sometimes I wonder who earns good money for these decisions. It's like signing an attacking midfield player and playing him at right back in football and makes little more sense.
At least I generally have confidence in the decision-making at Derbyshire these days. Aside from the puzzling promotion of Hardus Viljoen in the T20 quarter-final, when the defence was that desperate times called for desperate measures (and I'm still not convinced...) most of the thought processes are logical.
There's been plenty of times when that couldn't always be said, believe me...