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Hampshire CCC - 2015 Season


Halo Stickman

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Interesting, who would you see needs to go and why?

 

We have Topley and Fidel Edwards signed up. Hopefully McLaren will sign soon.

 

Topley is a cracking signing - young, talented, will improve. Just don't want to see more Andre Adams-type signings, Berg has done brilliantly but tough ask to repeat that next year and injury record suggests he may not.

 

Top order mainly needs a re-boot plus change seamers. Adams has had a good end to the season but can deal with D1 attacks and is he likely to improve at this stage of his career? Been a great servant but D1 will be very tough next year. Vince needs to be skipper and build the batting order around him, he adjusted eventually to better bowling. Smith - good for white ball cricket but doesn't get the runs at D1 level. Dawson - brilliant when he came back but again, is he going to get hundreds? It's not like the Rose Bowl is Durham and it seams around all the time, we had huge trouble getting any sort of runs on the board until the very end of the season. Can probably squeeze another season or two out of Carbs but even his conversion has been poor. Need a couple of quality top or middle order batters for 4 day cricket to compete.

 

In the bowling department, Tomlinson and Wood just don't cut in red ball cricket so Tommo, another great servant, will be on his way. Topley replaces one of those but need another seamer. Fuller of Gloucs is my pick, would be ideal foil for Edwards and Topley with the red ball, if we get McLaren even better. Crane looks fantastic and still Briggs has a role to play.

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Topley barely played red ball cricket for Essex, will he play more than half of the Hants games?

 

Edwards is a great signing and McLaren would be too.

 

A similar class batting signing would add competition where there is currently none. In the last few weeks of the Championship season (for most of it in truth) no good batters miss out and those with the shirt don't have to do a lot to earn a place.

 

Solve that and it could be a good season next year.

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Here is my take an it refers to Championship Cricket only

 

What a fantastic roller coaster season we have had. Our late season performances with a settled side have justified us staying up and I am confident we will learn from this year and be much stronger next season

 

Rod Bransgrove’s dream of winning the 1st Division Championship is a distinct possibility.

 

Now to the team

 

Jimmy Adams

A poor season by his standards as a reluctant captain until he stood down and his benefit must have been on his mind. 760 runs @ 27.14 with 1 hundred and 5 fifties

 

Michael Carberry

Did not appear a good season either but he scored 1129 @ 38.93 with 10 fifties but no hundreds. I suppose the lack of converting to hundreds is why he was perceived as having a poor year.

 

James Vince

Cannot fault his captaincy since he took over. 3 wins 2 draws and 1 loss in a contrived game says it all. However he only scored 743 @ 28.57 with 1 hundred and 5 fifties. He was out for 0 4 times, more than any of our other players. Last 4 innings he has been bowled and with a number of lbw his may be developing a flaw in his game. Has taken the highest number of catches in the team at 21

 

Will Smith

Not the player of last season but fairly steady scoring 859 @ 34.56 with 6 fifties. Still an important member of the team

 

Liam Dawson

Another who disappointed early on pushed up to open and not much used for his spin. Then came a meeting with the coach, words were said, he was dropped for the first time in his 1st team career, asked to go on loan and since back has been the Liam of old batting at his natural position of 5, scoring runs, taking 22 wickets at important times and his fielding at 2nd slip is still one of the best in the Championship. Why has he improved? I think it was because he was taken out of his comfort zone and made to think!

 

Adam Wheater

Tidy keeper but only 562 @ 26.8 will put him under pressure with McManus waiting in the wings. I think McManus is the better keeper and has shown some maturity in batting.

 

Sean Ervine

Suffered a broken finger mid-season but 508 @ 33.86 and his skill at protecting tail enders late in the innings makes him a continued valuable member of the team as the all-rounder taking 15 catches mostly at first slip

 

Gareth Berg

Great signing. Middlesex had written him off and told members he would never play again at this level. We have made them look a little silly. 42 wickets @ 28.11 and 672 runs @ 32.00. True all- rounder at number 8

 

Danny Briggs

Seems to be out of favour with 2 up and coming spinners breaking through. Would not be surprised to see him at another county next season!

Ryan McLaren

Only here for a short while but has made an impact and would be a good Kolpac signing for next season

 

Fidel Edwards

Enough said. Emense. Never mind he leaks runs he does what a number 1 bowler should do, take wickets 45 @ 20.88 in 8 matches. Glad he has signed and when out 1st Div status still very much in the balance.

 

James Tomlinson

Lost speed and knack of taking wickets. Do not see him playing much next season but likely to be more involved in a coaching role

 

Of the others

 

Gatting tops our batting average for the few games he played but not really enough overall and blocking prospects and released

 

Terry has not done anything wrong but not quite up to the standard we are looking for and went back to Australia a few weeks ago (does have 1 year of his contract left but likely to e 2nds cricket only if he stays)

 

Wood I have said before has an injury that prevents 4 day cricket. Shame as he showed potential but we have signed Topley now.

 

New Boys waiting in the wing and could be ready next season

 

Crane is already making big waves and he will be our future 1st choice spinner. We also have Taylor as a spinner as well and he is captaining England Under 19 on tour in the Autumn

 

We have Brad Wheal and Ryan Stevenson. Both have appeared in the first team and bowlers and both highly rated. Stevenson is ahead of Wheal at this stage

 

Batting we have Tom Alsop who is at the top of the order in the seconds and nearly ready. He can keep but primarily a batsman. We also have McManus who is a keeper who can bat as demonstrated in the 2 first team games he played this season

 

Others are perhaps a little further behind and not ready for next season

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  • 2 weeks later...
Briggs signs for Sussex in a 3 year deal. Released early from his contract with Hampshire.

 

Charlie, doubt we will sign a batsman for Championship games. The emphasis when I spoke to Rod Bransgrove was another front line bowler.

 

Real shame about Briggs, though dont disagree with the decision. In the short format he can be, and has been excellent and rightly got to the England side.

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Briggs signs for Sussex in a 3 year deal. Released early from his contract with Hampshire.

 

Charlie, doubt we will sign a batsman for Championship games. The emphasis when I spoke to Rod Bransgrove was another front line bowler.

 

Doesn't really surprise me, but in a way it's a real shame. Only 3 months ago I heard Swann say he still thinks he could be an England bowler, but probably like most of us i'm no longer convinced. Will be interesting to see what impact this has on our 20/20 fortunes, as I think he has been a major part of our 6 final days on the trot success.

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Surely also the decision is as much about not blocking the pathway of others as it is about Briggs himself.

 

It does also rather dispel the theory that all we care about is 20/20. I don't think many would argue that Briggs is in the top 3 English 20/20 spinners in the county (arguably the best ) & we have chosen to release him. Good luck to him. I agree apparently we have some good spinners in the background. I was lucky enough to see Mason Crane's 2 hour spell against Notts this year and he looked fantastic.

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  • 4 weeks later...
He signed a contract at the end of the season, so no. It's Ryan McLaren as overseas player. He had been rumoured as a Kolpak signing previously. Will be good to have an overseas player playing the whole season and not coming and going due to international call-ups.

Ah ok, had forgotten that. McLaren good as can play all formats.

 

T20 overseas on the way too.

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I was surprised he did not sign as a Kolpak as I suggested at the back end of last season but this it from the cricinfo web site explains

 

His status as an overseas player should render his registration and work permit application a more straightforward process and leaves him free to continue his international career, though he has not been selected by South Africa in any format for a year. It is possible he could be re-registered as a Kolpak at a latter date
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Bowling looks very strong compared to most of last season. I suppose the side could look something like: Adams, Carberry, Vince, Smith, Dawson, Ervine, Wheater, McLaren, Berg/Crane, Edwards, Topley.

 

I imagine Dawson will be used as the main spinner for most of the season with Crane playing more later in the year. About time we had a young top order batsman come through as Adams struggled for most of the season and both he and Carberry are 35 now. A good season for Vince will surely put him right in England contention with their middle order struggles at the moment. He probably would have played a test by now had he not had such a poor 2015 Championship season.

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Bowling looks very strong compared to most of last season. I suppose the side could look something like: Adams, Carberry, Vince, Smith, Dawson, Ervine, Wheater, McLaren, Berg/Crane, Edwards, Topley.

 

I imagine Dawson will be used as the main spinner for most of the season with Crane playing more later in the year. About time we had a young top order batsman come through as Adams struggled for most of the season and both he and Carberry are 35 now. A good season for Vince will surely put him right in England contention with their middle order struggles at the moment. He probably would have played a test by now had he not had such a poor 2015 Championship season.

 

I was about to post something very similar. Hopefully one of the youngsters will push Adams for his place at the top of the order.

 

Personally I like Vince at 4 but I can see why they prefer the solidity of Smith in an otherwise fairly gung-ho middle order

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You might have a point actually as I've just looked up his record and he's only played six first class games in the last two seasons. I knew he'd had injury problems but didn't realise they were that bad! Still very young though so hopefully we'll get more games out of him.

 

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

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Bowling now looks strong with McLaren confirmed as well as Topley and Edwards. Wheal should be a year stronger and Stephenson's remarkable story continues with a two year contract. Batting still a major worry though, top order looks horribly brittle unless one of the youngsters such as Alsop has a storming pre-season ahead of their anticipated development schedule and dislodges Adams or Smith.

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Bowling now looks strong with McLaren confirmed as well as Topley and Edwards. Wheal should be a year stronger and Stephenson's remarkable story continues with a two year contract. Batting still a major worry though, top order looks horribly brittle unless one of the youngsters such as Alsop has a storming pre-season ahead of their anticipated development schedule and dislodges Adams or Smith.

 

 

On the other hand a better bowling attack may leave our batsmen in less desperate straights on occasions. Seems to me that they've often been facing relatively large totals due to our weak attack and thus needing to score runs quickly in order to hope for any sort of positive result. If you can't bowl the opposition out twice you're not going to win no matter how good your batting may be.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good to see Hants attendances up 20% last year. New hotel must be helping and when the golf course is finished it could increase further.

 

Excellent from Vince in the England T20 in UAE, good chance of getting in the T20 WC squad. Topley has a chance but quite a few experienced bowlers to come back but hasn't done his chances any harm.

 

What do people think of scrapping the coin toss and visitors choosing whether to bat or bowl? Could it spread to Test cricket given the recent surface for India vs SA test and some of the surfaces for the last 2 Ashes home series? I think it may have been a result of some counties in D2, namely Essex, preparing shocking green tops for their village green attack of Ryder and Masters. Vaughan commented yesterday that Hants were bound to want to bowl first opening game at Headingley in April! Can see the advantages of enabling spinners to play a bigger part and encouraging faster bowling but could be downsides as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Some good overseas players around for bext season in various formats: Gayle, Williamson, Rabada, Bravo etc

 

Clarke also making noises about wanting to play in England at some stage.

 

Have we confirmed our overseas yet? I was under the impression we were trying to get McLaren on a kolpak deal.

 

Someone like Rabada or Clarke would be amazing

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  • 4 weeks later...

So what are your thoughts on next season with the following being announced?

 

Only one team will be promoted from Division Two of the County Championship this summer in order to reduce the number of top-tier teams in 2017.

 

A top division of eight teams will be introduced next year, down from nine, with 10 counties in the second.

 

Each county will now play 14 games rather than 16, while the Royal London One-Day Cup moves to early season.

 

http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/35744204

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