What next?

After a busy spell at work, I now have eleven blissful days off. Mrs P and daughter are heading to Poland for a few days next week, while son is in London for a long weekend.

I'll be at home with our dog, enjoying long walks, writing a few articles and perhaps making a start on my third book, which isn't about cricket...

It will also give me a chance to catch up on correspondence, which has slipped a little, so apologies if you have not heard back from me. There has been a regular subject in my emails, namely what do I expect us to do over the winter?

To be honest, I don't expect major business.I hope that we will see Matt Critchley sign a new deal, his current one running until the end of next summer. I think Matt is happy at the club, where he is respected and liked, as well as being in a set up that is settled and positive. He will have seen the travails of his good friend Ben Slater, who moved to the club down the road, averaged 20 and had a season-highest in four-day cricket of 76. At this stage, Ben will not be thinking he made the right move and he may not start next season in the first team, if his county do their normal winter scouring of young talent elsewhere and waving of a cheque book.

Matt's 2019 summer was not of the kind that made others sit up and take note, but he bowled well in the T20. He needs to work on his batting, which looks good but doesn't last long enough, and could then be a special player.

Indeed, his not signing is the only way I could see us show interest in Ollie Rayner. Several asked if I thought we might move for him, but he is an experienced, solid county player on commensurate salary. Unless someone leaves, or the club finds a suitcase of used notes buried under the Gateway Building, I don't see him being high on our list of needs, nor how we would fit him into a first-choice side, to be honest. A compact, competitive squad is Dave Houghton's preference and most of them did a good job in 2019.

I would like to see us sign Tom Lace, but then Middlesex may well want to keep him. What I saw of their batting this summer looked anaemic and rumours suggest another dressing room that isn't the happiest. It is a big decision for Tom to make this winter, but for not just parochial reasons I think playing in a welcoming, positive environment would be best for Tom's development. If he signed, it would give us a very strong top five in which I would have considerable confidence.

Our great need, touched on today in an interview by Dave Houghton, is a reliable strike bowler. I didn't realise that Logan van Beek had a knee injury all summer, though I know he struggled towards the end. Maybe, fully fit, he could have made a difference for us, because a promotion spot was definitely there for the taking, if we had that special overseas bowler who wins matches.

This summer's Australian squad had several fine bowlers, though I suspect their main international ones will struggle to get a No Objection Certificate from their board. More likely are the second tier ones, and as I said at the time, I thought Michael Neser looked a player of real quality against us. He took thirteen wickets on the tour for only 176 runs and is a good enough batsman to average mid-twenties too. I wondered about Joe Mennie, but I think his last international appearance is now too long ago to qualify to play, unless he has a UK passport in his ancestry. Neser hasn't yet played a Test match either, which would appear an issue, but I have every confidence that Dave Houghton will have irons in the fire.

One of them will be getting nicely hot in the coming weeks.

Add in, perhaps, another young bowler from elsewhere, I suspect that will be our winter.

But it will be a pretty good one, if that all comes together, don't you think?