SomerSex - County championship 2021

[Sporting]

And Leicestershire.

[Sporting]

Glamorgan's development of Sophia Gardens as a Test ground was done very much with the idea that the Test hosting counties have significant advantages

I've had a brief go at looking at the stats so they are subject to tweaking and alteration but approximately more than 70% of championships since the very beginning have been won by clubs whose venue was a current test match one:


Yorkshire 32 +1 shared
Surrey 19 + 1 shared
Middlesex 11 + 2 shared
Lancashire 8 +1 shared
Warwickshire 7
Notts 6
Durham 3

Glamorgan 3 (not a test ground when they won)
Hampshire 2 (not a test ground when they won)

I think these are the true outliers:

Essex 6 (1979 – 1992), 2 (2017-2019)
Kent 4 (1906 – 1913); 3 (1970 – 1978)
Worcestershire 5 (1964 – 1989)

Essex (because it's rich, well-run, in the Home Counties, good pitches?)

Kent for similar reasons (though why the recent dearth of titles; and why were they suddenly so dominant back in the early years of last century?)

Worcestershire (20% of all titles between their first and last)

[Jon]

Doesn't the lack of variety of county championship winners also have something to do with England players hardly playing for their counties anymore thanks to central contracts? I have no definitive proof but it feels that way.

Worcestershire had two great eras in county cricket, the 60s (Kenyon and d'oliviera) and the late 80s/early 90s (hick and Botham).

[Sporting]

The central contracts issue is relatively recent and I don't know how or if it's possible to extrapolate solid conclusions from it. But there has been a historic lack of variety in title winners.

I wonder how many championship matches Boycott, or Trueman, say, missed while Yorkshire were dominating.

[nmrfox]

What has gotten into Leicestershire?

Very much on track to beat Gloucester by an innings

In a word; confidence. Colin Ackermann has always been a decent player, but the signing of Marcus Harris has been inspired and bolstered the batting, and the bowling attack has benefitted from a couple of years getting carted all over and grown up and matured a bit (though it still looks a bit threadbare). Allied to a groundsman making Grace Road a spinners wicket, therefore Callum Parkinson and Ackermann have benefitted, and suddenly Leics are not the whipping boys everyone, myself included, expected them to be. A most pleasant surprise, though I do wish they would lose the Running Foxes moniker they now like to use and just stick to plain old Foxes...

[Levin]

It's a really good fox though. The one in the logo. Is it possible that they feel that the football team have called dibs on 'Foxes'?

[nmrfox]

Possibly that Levin , though they've co-existed as years as both being Foxes. I just think that running foxes sounds a bit naff, it seems to imply (to my mind) running scared...

[Levin]

The blast has begun. Worcestershire and Notts got a tie. I'm very disappointed that Rashid Khan is playing for the Qalandars rather than the Sharks.

[Jon]

Worcestershire and Notts got a tie.

A colleague went to that game but had to leave early He couldn't believe it when he checked the score later on to find out that Worcs got a tie. When he had left, Worcs had scored a paltry 152 and Notts' Hales and Clarke were going well with no loss of wicket.

[Levin]

Well this seems rather embarrassing for the Foxes

[Levin]

Ray, did you get tickets for tonight in the end?

[Levin]

Please Observe Respiratory Etiquette

[Levin]

I'm glad that Rashid Khan is in Pakistan as I'd be even more annoyed if the only reason I didn't get to see him play was the weather.

Covers have just come on at the Oval.

[Levin]

Cor. 28 off an over

[longeared]

Saw some recreational cricket on my walk today, which apparently was Killamarsh Juniors 1st v Cuckney 2nd in the Bassetlaw & District League top division, called the Championship rather confusingly. Tidy ground, not only do they have a boundary rope but also boundary flags emblazoned with KJCC. Saw a slightly unusual incident, a bowler delivered a high full toss which the batsman smacked to extra cover who took a one handed catch. The batsman started to walk off, the umpires consulted and decided the ball had been above waist height so declared it a no ball and recalled the batsman to the obvious disgust of the Killamarsh fielders. Cuckney might have scored more had they tried hitting it somewhere other than straight to the fielders.

(Would upload a photo but the board won't let me)

[Levin]

Surrey Essex delayed 1hr. Theoretically it will start at 19.30 with 17 overs each.

[Levin]

Now that's interesting. 17 overs means 2 x 4overs and 3 X 3

[Levin]

There is a man in front of me who I've realised isn't tiny but is drinking from a 1l bottle of coke.

[Levin]

Amla wearing his sun hat while in his T20 duds is a look

[Levin]

Worcestershire got thumped. Samir Patel 4-1-4-3

[Levin]

Non terrible weather has brought the people out. There's a hum at the oval, distanced as the seating is.

Although some people find sitting in the seat they're mean to more difficult than I'd expect.

[Levin]

A pitch invasion at edgebaston isn't a great look given the pandemic.

[Guy Profumo]

I've had a brief go at looking at the stats so they are subject to tweaking and alteration but approximately more than 70% of championships since the very beginning have been won by clubs whose venue was a current test match one:


Yorkshire 32 +1 shared
Surrey 19 + 1 shared
Middlesex 11 + 2 shared
Lancashire 8 +1 shared
Warwickshire 7
Notts 6
Durham 3

Glamorgan 3 (not a test ground when they won)
Hampshire 2 (not a test ground when they won)

I think these are the true outliers:

Essex 6 (1979 – 1992), 2 (2017-2019)
Kent 4 (1906 – 1913); 3 (1970 – 1978)
Worcestershire 5 (1964 – 1989)

Essex (because it's rich, well-run, in the Home Counties, good pitches?)

Kent for similar reasons (though why the recent dearth of titles; and why were they suddenly so dominant back in the early years of last century?)

Worcestershire (20% of all titles between their first and last)

Durham not a test ground "now"

Despite being told they had to bear the cost of building one by the ECB if they wanted to have their application to be a first class county accepted.

[Guy Profumo]

I've had a brief go at looking at the stats so they are subject to tweaking and alteration but approximately more than 70% of championships since the very beginning have been won by clubs whose venue was a current test match one:


Yorkshire 32 +1 shared
Surrey 19 + 1 shared
Middlesex 11 + 2 shared
Lancashire 8 +1 shared
Warwickshire 7
Notts 6
Durham 3

Glamorgan 3 (not a test ground when they won)
Hampshire 2 (not a test ground when they won)

I think these are the true outliers:

Essex 6 (1979 – 1992), 2 (2017-2019)
Kent 4 (1906 – 1913); 3 (1970 – 1978)
Worcestershire 5 (1964 – 1989)

Essex (because it's rich, well-run, in the Home Counties, good pitches?)

Kent for similar reasons (though why the recent dearth of titles; and why were they suddenly so dominant back in the early years of last century?)

Worcestershire (20% of all titles between their first and last)

Was Kent necessarily "rich", compared to the rest of the Home Counties?

More industrial, more casual employment of agricultural workers, coal, steel, and shipping?

[pebblethefish]

Notts' 3 ties in 9 games this T20 season has got to be a record, right?