Coming Out of Shock

Not Enough!!
By Grockle
May 11 2003

So what went down before the week-end? A simple business of getting through to face Surrey and four points in the NCL? Yeah Right! Well it didn't go to plan. The C&G is safe...until Surrey come expecting a walkover. Why? Well Scotland beat the pants off us in the NCL. That's why!

v SCOTLAND NCL2 @ The Grange 9 May 2003

SCORECARD

What the hell did happen at The Grange on Friday?

Was it complacency as with Durham? Well not really, yes we didn't have Caddick but we had everyone else. At 12 an over you would have expected (on this season's performances) that Johnson, McLean and Francis would have kept it tight.

Was it over-confidence? Well we had beaten them by 10 wickets two days earlier and we had set them 180 off 15 overs AND we did have them at 1 for 15 when Johnson had Williamson caught by Dutch.

Surely Marcus Trescothick had put us out of sight with 80 off 44 and although this was a slogfest they required 12 an over for heaven's sake!

So how the hell did someone called Watson hit 103 off 44 balls, with 10 fours and 7 sixes?

Why did Dutchy give FORTY EIGHT off TWO overs?

Why didn't Parsons bowl at all when he had been the significant player on Wednesday with the ball?

Why did we bowl both spinners instead?

Who knows? It makes no difference now. The NCL is not going to be our league this season unless we drastically change our method. We are three results down and we haven't played the name sides yet. Victory in every game is what we have to provide and nothing we've seen yet suggests that is plausible.

So, what about the cup competitions? Well Burnsy was saying that Surrey would be looking nervously at us after Wednesday. I would think they'll be saying 'No Worries' after the Friday performance.

The Twenty over competition? Forget it. Based on this example, we'll leak runs and we will probably lose our form bat by that time. We'll not get past the preliminaries on performances like this.

The Championship - consistency is what we need. Problem is, it comes with confidence and we are in exactly the same situation as last year. We are struggling so we falter, we lose and then we struggle for confidence.

I've read lost about Burns as a tactician. That's not what we need. We need a motivator, a pusher and a driver. This is where Burnsy needs to put his energy if this is not going to be a season to rival the last as one to forget.

Well done to Scotland - a famous victory. Rob Outram's comment about expecting to give the less impressive sides a game came out right. We are certainly not impressing anyone at the moment. I would expect them to be checking when they get the easy games against us at the moment

We have the strongest squad for nearly two decades. Where is it going wrong? I personally don't give a monkeys. I just want it put right before this year is irretrievable and that is not as far away as some people seem to think in certain competition scenarios.

CROUCHEND'S COMMENTS

I had to leave during the second over of Scotland's innings to get the last flight back to Luton. 12 an over for 15 overs looked well beyond them after what we had seen on Wednesday! Anyway, what I wrote on the plane is here>
Thursday was a free day, and most of th Somerset supporters wandered around the tourist sights of Edinburgh. Decent selection of French Impressionists in the Scottish National Gallery, and a coule of Canalettos. Tractor, however, had heard that Glasgow was the City of Culture, and so got an Awayday ticket. He didn't stay long because he had to get back for Grab-a Granny night at Wetherspoons.

Friday dawned bright but breezy, although showers were forcast there were grounds for optimism. Various people had donloads from this website, and were trying to put faces to the names. One person spoilt the game of course, by wearing a T-shirt with his pseudonym on it. He also had dreadful orange trousers, and could get a job with EasyJet as soon as Stelios buys a wide-bodies aircraft.

Back clouds were looming as the piper led the Saltires out onto the field, and Banger and Jamie made a sound start against a moving ball. Jamie missed one and shortly after the heavens opened.

The gtound staff struggled to stop the covers blowing away, but heavy rain soon left puddles on the sheeting. They started removing surplus water, and we hoped for a start at 3.30, but more rain intervened and it was obviously going to be a coupe of hours. The N19s went off to the National Portrait Gallery and Tractor went back to Wetherspoons to see if they had an afternoon tea dance.

By 4.30 the sun was out again, and Neil Mallender and Barrie Leadbetter asked for the covers to be removed with the hope of a 5.15 start. As Tractor weaved his way back to the pavilion, having failed to get a waltz, it was easy to see why he got 6.0 for artistic impression in his last ploughing match. He got no marks for ploughing in a straight line unfortunately! He then told us all he knew about the Duckworth Lewis system, which didn't take long.

We now had a 16 over game. Balls started flying everywhere, and even though there is a 10 foot wall about 30 yards back from quite a long boundary, there was a serious risk that the Scottish Cricket authorities were going to run out of white balls before the end of the innings. Blackie and George hit some good shots, with one of Burns' three sixes hit so flat it nearly decapitated Neil Mallender at square leg.

Banger was a lucky, lucky, b*st*rd. Three consecutive balls were skied but dropped, and a couple of overs later two fielders on the boundary failed to announce to each other that they were going to catch it before they collided.

179-3 seemed a good total, and Vera Duckworth gave us 6 more for reasons that were obvious to everybody who was present at the earlier tutorial. As the players came off the covers went back on, but it was only a light shower and the Scots had 15 overs. Vera Duckworth responded by taking her 6 runs back.

Although they got 11 off the first over, I left the ground confident that they couldn't get 180. If I was a paid hack, I would have been sacked. You will have to wait until Dasher and the N19s get back to a grey dawn at Euston in the morning to tell you the rest of this sad tale, I am afraid.

I am just off to bed to have a cry

ROB OUTRAM'S COMMENTS (Rampant Lion Website)

After Wednesday, from a Scottish point of view, this game was anything but ugly, however I do have some sympathy, It was a slogfest and obviously having batted first, you had only 23 runs on the board for your first 5 overs, the revamped restrictions meant each bowler only had 3 overs (and you lot without Caddick!) and the fielding restrictions played into Scotlands hands as well.....it's a funny old game as they say and a 16 over thrash is a bit of a lottery.

Two observations, at times today (and on Wednesday) it did seem like you had a team of chiefs, with not enough indians! and secondly, the eejits shouting obscenities at Nixon will be rounded up and shot...sorry for that,
Anyway, hope we can manage a 45 over match played in good spirit, as this was, and give you a better fight than we did on Wednesday when we come to you.

Lastly, there are some Scot's kids who will forever remember the day they had a knock around with Trescothick before the restart