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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 19/10/2017 22:00 by BarmierKev.

well covered LL,and caught most of the evening.
Hmmmm,plans for Middlesex Room??.....Sure they are not just gathering dust along with all the artefacts removed when we were made 'temporarily homeless' those years ago?!

Excellent comprehensive report and very good news that relegation will not affect our finances.

Leprechaun-

Many thanks for such a comprehensive report.

One piece of potentially good news: Richard Goatley said that he has seen an outline structure of the 2018 fixture list which indicates there will be a lot more weekend cricket next year, including a number of Championship games being staged Friday - Monday.

Very good summary - thank you.

Although no players are out of contract, presumably some will wish to leave. It would be good to freshen the squad with a few youngsters.

Was anything said about overseas players for 2018?

Fantastic news on weekend cricket, particularly the 4 day games. It was torture for me not to be able to attend a single day of our last few fixtures this year, especially with so much at stake.

Looking like a compromise might have been reached (not 100% definite)

See Arrowgate thread- likely to be 9 teams per division next year. (so said David Fulton on Sky)

Comments about Middlesex’s over rate and the decision to not enforce the follow-on v Essex at Lord’s were made in several questions/statements across the evening.

Fingers made an interesting suggestion that, in order to save time, Toby Roland-Jones should begin walking back to his mark after a batsman has played a shot rather than stand by the stumps at the non-striker’s end. However, surely this would encourage batsmen to attempt an extra run, something which could actually be helpful for us if the fielder makes a direct hit, although otherwise it would make it harder for us to keep the scoreboard down.

It is understandable that virtually every supporter believes it was the incorrect decision to not make Essex follow on. One supporter went into great detail about how few overs we had bowled across the season by the end of Essex’s first innings (it was only April), and he added that it was our last County Championship match before the break for the Royal London Cup, meaning there was no reason for us to be protective of our bowlers’ workloads. I remember being at the Essex match and feeling great disappointment when it was announced that we declined to enforce the follow-on.

It was interesting that Angus Fraser said he likes to give a player one more chance rather than one less, as it sounds contradictory considering Max Holden lost his place after a decent Middlesex debut.

Towards the end of the forum, treasurer David Kendix said that the club would appreciate the assistance of any members who have a skill or expertise that could be helpful to our business plan, as the club have already benefited in this way. I am tempted to tell the club that I believe I am capable of helping in this regard, as I am confident I can bowl six deliveries inside four minutes to thus help our over rate. My deliveries may not be fast or threatening, but I would like to think I can get through six balls quicker than several members of our playing staff using their present run-up.

Although Richard Goatley said that several County Championship matches in 2018 are likely to begin on a Friday, I am uncertain whether that will apply across the season. Some members of the media reacted to the 2017 fixturelist by proclaiming that it contained lots of weekend cricket, but that ended up mainly applying to the first half of the season. The amount of weekend Championship cricket in 2018 will depend on the amount of occasions weekends are set aside for the knockout stages of limited-overs competitions. Once one round of matches is pushed away from the weekend, the following couple of rounds often have to be to ensure the players feel they are getting sufficient rest time.

"Towards the end of the forum, treasurer David Kendix said that the club would appreciate the assistance of any members who have a skill or expertise that could be helpful to our business plan, as the club have already benefited in this way. I am tempted to tell the club that I believe I am capable of helping in this regard, as I am confident I can bowl six deliveries inside four minutes to thus help our over rate. My deliveries may not be fast or threatening, but I would like to think I can get through six balls quicker than several members of our playing staff using their present run-up. "

Brilliant JW,after all the stuff about what was and wasn't said last evening what was inferred and what was not at least somebody is prepared to call a spade a spade and not make out it's a shovel.

Jonathan is assuming no wides or no balls...


Adelaide

Cracking stuff JW

12 days after the event, Middlesex have produced a report on the forum.

In the past, the club have tended to either produce shorter reports of forums or to not publish anything, but this report is quite comprehensive. It wouldn’t surprise me if the media pick up on some of the points raised, especially as the report gives the impression we have accepted relegation. However, it has to be borne in mind that the forum took place before it was revealed that we were appealing our points deduction.

Jonathan - Unless it has been revised since you posted, it is very clear that the club had not accepted relegation. They have accepted that relegation might happen, also started to consider the factors behind the season's outcome, but all of those would be ripe for review even if we had stayed up by one point.

The pitch outcome has been accepted, though Gus still clearly thinks they went too far.

Any fool knows that the only way you can have no "below average" pitches is by having no "above average" pitches either. If (as is surely the case) "below average means "well below average", that is the terminology that should be used. The existing one is illogical nonsense, which is I suppose to be expected from the ECB.


Adelaide

My point was that the article talks about relegation as something highly likely (or certain) to happen, which some readers might be surprised about considering I see there as being 50% chance of Middlesex being spared relegation.

I wrote my post anticipating that the media and/or supporters of other counties might pick up on the report of the forum. However, I don’t think that has happened yet.

Somerset's new CEO Lee Cooper, has implied such pitches at Taunton will be a thing of the past next year.

'There is a wider issue for us, rather than the game. We won't be playing on spinning wickets net year, as there are unintended consequences of doing so.

If you're a batter, do you want to play your cricket here when first innings is 200 v 200? Probably not. If you're a seamer, do you want to play on a wicket where spinners open the bowling? Probably not. And if you;re Jack Leach, do you want to play on a wicket where your wickets are discounted?'

The above two paragraphs in this link-

[www.burnhamandhighbridgeweeklynews.co.uk]

so, regardless of whether they think Gus was over the top in his criticism of Rakehampton (AKA Ciderabad) they must have come to the conclusion it isn't the way to proceed in the future.

That part of Cooper's comments appears not to have been reported as widely as his comments about legal action.

The pitch issue (as a possble cause of deduction) is dead. It is an interesting development thoigh, given that a number of people have justified the Taunton wickets by suggesting they are necessary to help English batsmen come to terms with sub-continent wickets, and also that they make for more varied cricket.

Matthew Maynard also said that it took a lot of skill to produce a pitch like that for the Middlesex game, yet now those specific skills are no longer to be used. Maynard (and of course Chris Rogers) won't be there next season; makes me wonder whether people were already pulling in different directions on this. Or whether there is genuine concern that one slip up next year could have disastrous consequences.


Adelaide

I think we'll carry in with the graveyard wickets, especially with Gus in division 2.

Scrumper

Do you mean graveyard for batsmen (Ciderabad) or for bowlers (M5)? If Somerset are really going to carry on as they are, why is Leo Cooper clearly stating otherwise?

I always thought that one of the issues with preparing three day wickets was that it could undermine the confidence of your own batsmen for wherever they played. His reasoning is rather different, that it hinders recruitment of, well just about anybody. but it kind of confirms that in the medium term it could be a double-edged sword, whatever the short term benefits.


Adelaide

One of the reasons why Cooper quite clearly doesn't trust the ECB is that they had - I feel sure - been encouraging us to produce turning tracks precisely because they want at least some CC games to be played on big turning tracks to help prepare future England batsmen........ hence why none of the previous tracks (many of which were very helpful for spinners) ever attracted any censure... but then, when it came to a very important match they lost their bottle and told their guys to grade it 'below average.'

As Lee Cooper said, the Middx track wasn't vastly different to a number of other ones that were used for home games over the preceding 18 months or so.