On (fairly) local ground

Walmley CC is my local(ish) cricket ground. Well the nearest ground where a Warwickshire team play anyway. Not that Edgbaston is that far away. Anyway the Warwickshire 2nd XI started their annual game at Walmley today, this year a friendly against Derbyshire. I always go and see a bit of this game when i can. Its a bit earlier this year, the last few years the game has either been in August (which is one of the few times in the year i am holiday restricted) or the weather has been terrible. Today the weather was fine, if a bit cool. The Bears were batting, and here are some pics from the first couple of hours play.

Now this pic i am quite proud of. 80% luck though. I need a better camera to be honest.

T20 glory amid reality TV overload

Men cannot multi-task they claim. Last night i proved that was nonsense! I managed to watch the Junior Apprentice, the Big Brother housemate entrances and the Bears' T20 match against Derbyshire at the same time (on TV the latter not live). And tweet about all 3 at the same time too! I must admit though that the Apprentice had most of my attention. Those strange helmets the Bears were wearing though probably came a close second. The Bears won, but if they hadn't the dissappointment would only have been second to Mr T not entering the BB house.

Can we dream the impossible dream

Following the dramatic events in the Warwickshire 1st innings in their current match against Lankyshire at Edgbaston when the Bears amassed 113ao in reply to 354 (and 69 of those coming from Carter - no one else made double figures) the Bears looked to be in trouble to say the least.

Especially when the northerners scored 199 in their next innings and set the Bears an Earth shattering target of 441. No doubt the Bears felt like Liechtenstein having to face the Red Army in battle. They didn't get off to a good start either in what looked to be "interesting" conditions with 3 down in short order.

But cometh the hour cometh the... er... Trott! The Bears ended the day on 263-6 with Trott still there on 102*. 178 more to win but with only 4 wickets left... can we dream the impossible dream? You never know. Well i think this every time there is a lottery and i am not a millionaire yet so i am not getting my hopes up.

Unstoppable Bears

Amid the chaos of a general election one fact has come to the fore which truly shakes the world to it's foundations. Learned men in the great capitals of the world are rubbing their heads in puzzlement, computers furiously number crunch petabytes of data but to no avail. This mystery has baffled the world and taken up countless hours of TV across the world. The Bears have seemingly become unbeatable.

Today's victory over Durham in the CB40 is yet another Earth shattering event of such magnitude the LHC operators in CERN ran panic stricken from their laboratories for a while as they mistook the events unfolding at Edgbaston as a black hole opening up deep below Switzerland.

It followed on from a famous victory over Kent at Canterbury which was probably the greatest victory since Trafalgar and last week's rout of the Foxes who will probably wish they had been shot instead like the one at Hove. And of course can we forget the awesome victory over Hampshire? No we never will. Er which one was that again?

Can this amazing run continue? Lets just enjoy it while it lasts, maybe everything we have grown up to know and expect is wrong. Maybe up will now be down. Maybe ants will take over the world. Maybe something even more weird could happen like the Liberal Democrats get into power?

Bears vs Hampshire

Was at the ground today to see the first day (or session rather) of the Bears latest county championship match against Hampshire. Good entertainment too as Michael Carberry looked in good form but the Bears' bowlers also! Pics from the morning are here. Some very large drills appeared to be whirring away in the new development area, presumably drilling holes for the foundations? Certainly made plenty of racket anyway!

One man and his dog

The start of the county cricket season and of course the stadium was empty, with just the proverbial one man and his dog shivering with misery in the stands... but wait what was this? Queuing to get in? A really decent crowd (which i expertly managed to miss out of most of the below shot)? Well of course its no surprise to me though it might be a surprise to the various well-paid journalists who spout out the usual cliched bollocks this time of the year. Maybe because i actually visit the ground and not rely on reusing tired out cliches and hobnobbing with England players in the hope that other people might think they are friends.

Some photos from the first session of play are on my Flickr account. The Sun was out but it didn't really shine on the Bears who struggled.

The season begins...

April 9th! Yes the county championship season begins very early this year, the earliest ever isn't it? I shall be going along to the ground later. I awoke to glorious sunshine yet a hint of frosty dew on the lawn outside so i suspect the toss today will be fairly important...

Team for the Yorkshire game

Ian Westwood (Captain)
Varun Chopra
Ian Bell
Jonathan Trott
Jim Troughton
Tim Ambrose (wk)
Rikki Clarke
Chris Woakes
Neil Carter
Ant Botha
Naqaash Tahir
Imran Tahir
Andrew Miller

The season starts in a couple of days, who knows what the 2011 season will be like but lets enjoy 2010 first!

New membership card received... countdown to the new season

My new membership card arrived at the weekend now i am waiting for the start of the county championship season on Friday when Yorkshire come down to Edgbaston for a good hiding (well we can hope). I shall be there, at the moment the weather forecast looks promising.

We're off

The 2010 season is days away and the Bears are playing against Oxford UCCE in a 2 day match at The Parks over the next 2 days. Just in time for the cricket the weather has gone cold and wet after a few days of glorious Spring sunshine!

Pre-season friendlies

Just a few weeks away now.

Oxford  UCCE, The Parks (March 30th-31st)
Leicestershire, Grace Road (April 1st-2nd)

Member's Nets

I got my ticket, i am looking forward to seeing behind the scenes at the club. Not really sure what to expect though because i've never been before. But after a long hard winter (which might have some hardness yet to come) this is the first sign that the new cricket season is coming...

2010 fixtures calendar file

I have created an .ics file for the 1st XI's fixtures for 2010 in iCal, this can be imported into your iPhone, Outlook et cetera. See the link on the right for help.

Members’ Nets

Members' Nets will be on February 26th, you can find out details here. I've booked, not been to this event before and am looking forward to it.

Membership renewed

Alea jacta est!

Let the 2010 season countdown begin!

Well you have to have something to look forward to...

Pinks balls to start the new season

The traditional curtain raiser for the 2010 domestic season will apparently take place under floodlights, with pink balls, in Abu Dhabi! Is it April 1st? The freezing fog outside indicates not. How extraordinary. I am a mixture of appalled and intrigued.

2010 fixture list

Is available here as a PDF, i'll update my iCal calendar later on.

2010 Membership

2010 Memberships are now on sale, i await my renewal details through the post (so that means they may be some time). Membership fees have been frozen for those who renew before February 1st, which is nice.

Imran Tahir signs for Bears

Finally a signing! Pakistani leg-spinner Imran Tahir has been signed as the overseas professional next year. He was at Hampshire last year and may indeed play for them again in 2011 but for 2010 he is a Bear!