May 2009 Archives

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

It has been dry since the early hours of the morning. The sun is breaking through and the intelligence from The Grange is that play could start on time which would be a remarkable effort by the groundstaff.

Woken this morning by the baying of seagulls.

Warwickshire's chances of harvesting two much-needed FPT points tomorrow are in big jeopardy from the weather. It is pelting with rain in Edinburgh and has been for some hours. Cold too. The local forecast for tomorrow is a little better but The Grange is taking an awful lot of water today.

Grim news all round. Unfortunately, and very much against my will, I seem to have taken the guise of Mr Bean for this trip.

It all started this morning in Warwick when, quite out of nowhere, my trouser button flew off. "No problem," I thought, dead cool like. My trusty belt will do the job. I failed to realise that passengers going through Birmingham Airport these days are instructed to remove their belts. As all Warwickshire's players filed through, confident and perky, I hung back in horror. Then when everyone I knew was firmly out of sight, I went for it. I minced through security clutching my metal objects in one tray, my laptop separately in another tray and my laptop bag in a third (needing three hands there) at the same time desperately trying to stop me trousers falling down.

The lady in security could not make up her mind whether I was to be suspected or pitied. Had this incident been submitted for a Mr Bean script it would, I think, have been rejected as not credible. Mr Bean never looked THAT undignified.

Then we landed in Edinburgh into weather that, never mind cricket, the trawlermen of Arbroath would draw a line at going out in. There was a lengthy delay in our luggage coming through and it transpired that this was to allow the luggage-handlers to expose our bags to the maximum amount of rain - and to hurl selected items roughly about in large puddles.

Mine was one of the selected items and, when I reached the hotel room, the product of all that hurling about became clear. The top had come off my shaving cream and had evidently remained compressed so that it continued to discharge, with the consequence that all my pants and socks for this trip (we are going straight to London for the Middlesex game) are covered, not just flecked but covered, in shaving cream.

I was going out to have a look at Edinburgh tonight but I think maybe I'll go straight to bed.

Hope the Bears party all made it safely home up a treacherous rainswept M5 this evening.

Neil Carter, out today with a groin twinge, will probably be rested against Scotland on Saturday in the hope that he will be fit to face Middlesex on Monday.

Warwickshire's last FPT group game, at home to Kent next Wednesday, will be a 10.45am start.

So the Bears master plan has taken a step forward. I hope that, whatever the final scheme brings, it retains that scaffolding which has become such a popular and much-loved feature of the Pavilion End in recent years. Edgbaston would not be the same without it.

Allan Donald will be interviewed for the position of head coach of the Eagles franchise team in Bloemfontein next Wednesday.

The nightingale population in this country is plummeting. Sad.

And it's off for the day.

Well worth all those motorway miles for Belly!

It is now raining heavily. Just a matter of time before the call-off. The umpires will probably delay just long enough to ensure that people emerge from the ground into the rush-hour.

Even the possibility of Warwickshire chasing a D/L target of 91 in 10 overs is remote in the extreme.

Just popped into St James' Church which nestles so gloriously next to this ground. Aren't churches amazing? All around is bustle and noise and grinding traffic yet inside those thick walls nothing but serenity.

And, in the case of St James', the extra resonance, for cricket followers, of knowing that for the last 130 years, members of the church have had to collect balls thumped into the churchyard by the likes of Sammy Woods, Harold Gimblett and Ian Botham.

Still drizzling steadily. Small crowd staying around but it's not looking good. Players to take lunch at 1.45pm.

Rain is causing serious inconvenience here just as it did when these teams met here in the county championship in 1927.

That was a rain-ruined draw in which Somerset's team included Cecil Case who is perhaps unique in first-class cricket for having four initials, all the same.

RAIN STOPPED PLAY. Somerset 135 for 2 (22 overs). Trescothick 84, De Bruyn 0.

Clarke, Barker and Patel reined the scoring rate in a bit before Botha came on and took a wicket with his sixth ball, beating Hildreth's attempted clip to leg and bowling him for 33.

Drizzle has been falling for some time and it thickened up enough for the umps to take the players off. There is no break in the cloud and the groundstaff have put the big covers on the square.

Joel Garner's championship debut for Somerset, in 1977, was against Warwickshire. His match figures were 44-14-100-8 and he dismissed KD Smith twice for a duck.

Somerset 95 for 1 (15 overs). Trescothick 68, Hildreth 9.

An opening stand of 57 in 7.3 overs ended when Suppiah, on 16, clipped Rankin to leg and Clarke took a superb catch at short mid-wicket.

Trescothick reached 50 from 33 balls in 11 fours. Anything pitched up to him he has thumped mightily through the air.

Barker, pitched into this maelstron, has bowled rather well. Clarke tidy too. Just 17 from the last four overs

Craig Kieswetter, the Bears' tormentor three weeks ago, is ruled out here by a throat infection.

Bell, by the way, was driven down here from Chester-le-Street yesterday afternoon. The ECB evidently deemed it worthwhile for him to go up and train up there for a morning via a 550-mile round trip.

Somerset 55 for 0 (7 overs). Trescothick 40, Suppiah 14.

Trescothick pulled Rankin's first ball for a savage four and straight-drove his third for another. He then cover-drove Woakes for two glorious boundaries from successive balls.

Woakes 3-0-29-0 was replaced at the Old Pavilion End by Clarke who began with a good straight over to Suppiah, conceding just a single.

Before the start of play, Joel Garner officially opened the "Joel Garner Gates".

Carter has a sore groin. Both of Bell's groins are fine and he is here and will play.

Warwickshire won the toss and will field. It is cloudy and sultry but play is scheduled to start on time.

Warwickshire: Trott, Bell, Troughton, Westwood, Ambrose, Clarke, Patel, Botha, Barker, Woakes, Rankin.