Cricket

Membership pack arrived the other week. Kind of prepared for watching Surrey to be similar to England...

Wonder how many bobble hats we'll see on show today...

Livestreams of all the games are on YouTube/county sites I presume.

Edit. Yes, YouTube.

Livingstone having a great start to the IPL. Must be an argument to get him into the test team at some point soon. His bowling could be useful too....

Bits and pieces allrounder who has done well at white ball cricket? Not for me, and I say that as a Lancs fan.

Ben Foakes:'County Championship runs are currency, you say?'

No mention of one of Englands best bowlers retiring from international cricket?
Such a great bowling talent, still throwing them down domestically though.

Anya Shrubsole? Excellent bowler.

Root steps down as skipper.

Stokes? (Like he needs something else to do on the pitch)

Is anyone else, fitness permitting, even guaranteed to be on the team sheet?

I would be happy to see Broad as captain for this Summer's series. At least he can handle the media demands.

Buttler in.

(ducks)

Is anyone else, fitness permitting, even guaranteed to be on the team sheet?

Absolutely not, no.

Good to be back over the last few days

Wonderful sight.

Matt Parkinson has had Kent in knots for Lancs. Should be England’s frontline test spinner even though he’ll be a huge loss to the county.

Hassan Ali is (and this is not a shock) taking the piss at county level.

Shame Lancs having got him all season.

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MiniGB played her first game of the season yesterday (Girls U12 hardball).

Nice to be at the side of a pitch in chilly drizzle again. Left my garden chair at home.

Playing again tonight and I'm scoring, so off to remind myself of the rules of this particular league (8 players per team, 16ov per innings, pairs cricket so each pair bats for 4 overs, max 3 overs per bowler, no LBW).

Ah, there is chance you're tonight's opposition... My daughter is playing in the first Ham and Petersham girls U12 hardball match tonight on Ham Common. She's played a few times in the mixed teams, but will be the first time we have a whole girls team at this level.
As a fellow SW Londoner I'm thinking there is a decent chance we'll be facing off.

Not tonight, but from what you've said I think we're playing you on the 5th June at your place.

Hope she has a blast tonight, it's great to see them all out playing games.

Aha! See you then!

There's an interesting mix of teams in our league. Wimbledon CC and Spencer CC are pretty ruthless as they have big squads to draw from (they field 4 or 5 teams at each age group) and are very much interested in winning every game.

Old Ruts, Roehampton and us are more interested in developing the players, giving everyone a game, bowling everyone (rather than maximising best bowlers), etc. No idea about Esher CC as we didn't play them last season.

Good thing about pairs cricket is that each pair will get 4 overs (as a pair) regardless of how many times they're out. Nothing worse than someone really looking forward to playing and then only facing one or two balls (or even none).

Completely agree. We're somewhere in the middle competitive wise. Last year's mixed under 8s were a proper little team, and my daughter loved it. This year they've moved up to hardball, and we're trying to a get a core team together who can all play properly and know what they are doing with the hope of some moderate success - whatever that is.

I'm excited about the under 12s girls team for her as it should show her some role models on the girls side, and what she should be aiming for.

Her first hardball game of the season was against Malden Wanderers, who take things pretty seriously. Under 10 mixed and not pairs - out is out. She did well and was happy with 4 runs from her 6 balls and a wicket bowling. Couple of the boys got golden ducks - plenty of tears. I'm yet to see a kid get out first ball and not cry in these games. Pairs is much less stressful for all involved.

Also, we're all off to the Oval on Friday 17th June to watch Surrey Vs Middlesex T20 evening game. Looking forward to that more than her I think!

Take a bow Ben Stokes...

(though looking at the rest of the scores in the innings, it does seem like a very flat deck)

He really doesn't give a toss

Solid effort from Surrey here

Sussex-Middlesex on radio 5 live extra feels like a weird mixture of the 1950s and the "future".