Essex County Cricket 2011 Season

[Yorkshire Blue]

Hopefully.

Anyway, season starts soon so thought we may as well have a new thread to celebrate.

Essex were playing a warm up against Worcestershire today

Meanwhile in other news Alistair Cook is available for all fixtures until 23rd May :happy: but Ravi Bopara is currently awaiting results of a scan to rule out a side strain injury. Availability to be determined thereafter :'(

 

[Uncle Leo]

Good news re Cook, less so about RaviBop.

We better bloody get promoted this year, no good being down in the dumps with joke counties like Kent, Surrey and Middlesex. Speaking of the latter, it's only a fortnight until our Championship game against them at Lord's; hoping to pop down for a bit of that on the Friday.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

To my shame i have no idea who Daniel Masters and Tymal Mills are :blush:

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Ooh, I'd forgotten we'd signed Owais Shah. Nice touch. If he, Cook and Tendo (and, er... me as well) can get a few runs on the board early doors, then we might have a reasonable season, especially if Chambers and Masters (sounds like a legal textbook, that) can form a good partnership.

Still, with Middlesex, K*nt and Surrey (ha!) in the division, it should a fun season with lots of local rivalry.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

To my shame i have no idea who Daniel Masters and Tymal Mills are :blush:

I think they mean David Masters.

Looks like it might be David Masters' brother - probably the cricketing equivalent of Kevin Gray.

Tymal Mills is an England u19 bowler.

Left-armer and supposed to be raw but sharp. 90mph sharp. Apparently he only took up cricket 2 years ago:stunned:

There's another left-arm seamer worth keeping an eye out for apparently - Reece Topley, son of Don. He's I think 16 or 17 and getting on towards Will Jefferson tall. Were some good reports coming back about him from pre-season in the WIndies.

Ooh, I'd forgotten we'd signed Owais Shah. Nice touch. If he, Cook and Tendo (and, er... me as well) can get a few runs on the board early doors, then we might have a reasonable season, especially if Chambers and Masters (sounds like a legal textbook, that) can form a good partnership.

Still, with Middlesex, K*nt and Surrey (ha!) in the division, it should a fun season with lots of local rivalry.

I'm looking for a big season from Napes. If he and Chambers stay fit it should be fun.

They won't:sad:

 

[canveyshrimper]

Bear in mind both Tendo & Shah miss the first few weeks of the season because they are playing in the IPL.

According to the Echo we were close to signing Peter Siddle, but Cricket Australia knocked it back. Never mind itlooks like we'll get Bryce McGain back. :stunned:

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

According to the Echo we were close to signing Peter Siddle, but Cricket Australia knocked it back.

Gutted. He'd have torn Div 2 a new one - and Chambers could have learned from him too.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

I thought Reece Topley was at Middlesex ??

Talking of whom, i see Andrew Strauss has been given 6 weeks off after (i imagine) a pretty exhausting winter ruling him out of the Championship game at the home of cricket from Thursday 14th April :smile:

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

http://www.essexcricket.org.uk/page...ershire---match-report-and-scorecard-1531.php

4 wickets for young Masters and decent nets for all the batsmen by the looks of things

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

http://www.essexcricket.org.uk/page...ambers-sign-new-contracts-with-essex-1532.php

More good news as Tendo and Chambers sign new contracts

 

[number11]

Hopefully Godleman and Micklebrough can kick on and have decent seasons rather than fall away. If they do then a batting line up of Cook, Godleman, Bopara, Shah, Micklebrough, Tendo, Foster would give most sides a run for their money.....

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Hopefully Godleman and Micklebrough can kick on and have decent seasons rather than fall away. If they do then a batting line up of Cook, Godleman, Bopara, Shah, Micklebrough, Tendo, Foster would give most sides a run for their money.....

Not to mention the mercurial Matty Walker (not THAT one !!!!)

I'm surprised Fozzie has kept the captaincy actually, and i for one totally advocate Walker for the role .. Petts was obviously struggling badly last year and needed to be replaced but the pressure of captaining the side clearly affected his ability with the gloves in the second half of the season and i for one expected some new thinking ahead of this campaign

 

[Matt the Shrimp]

Not to mention the mercurial Matty Walker (not THAT one !!!!)

Look, I'm trying my best, OK...

:winking:

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I thought Reece Topley was at Middlesex ??

Think he was MCC groundstaff, but he's playing for us at Fenners tomorrow.

Plus more good news, Bops is back and will even be fit enough to bowl a few overs.

Alastair Cook, Billy Godleman, Jaik Mickleburgh, Ravi Bopara, Matt Walker, Mark Pettini, James Foster, Tim Phillips, Chris Wright, Maurice Chambers, Reece Topley

Not a bad batting line-up considering we're missing Owais Shah and RtD. Would hope that Westley replaces Pettini for the Championship games, but maybe he's off at Uni. Napier and Masters should hopefully return in place of Wright and Topley for the Championship game as well.

 

[Dick Bate's Protege]

Not to mention the mercurial Matty Walker (not THAT one !!!!)

I'm surprised Fozzie has kept the captaincy actually, and i for one totally advocate Walker for the role .. Petts was obviously struggling badly last year and needed to be replaced but the pressure of captaining the side clearly affected his ability with the gloves in the second half of the season and i for one expected some new thinking ahead of this campaign

I heard an interesting rumour as to why he stood down as Skipper, don't know how well known it is. But it involved a certain Pakistani cricketer, his fast bowling mate and some decent sporting ethics.

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

Well if DBP is alluding to what i suspect then i'm sickened and horrified, i know it goes on .. hell the world does after the recent high profile shenanigans .. but to find an Essex captain implicit is revolting to me :sick:

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Well if DBP is alluding to what i suspect then i'm sickened and horrified, i know it goes on .. hell the world does after the recent high profile shenanigans .. but to find an Essex captain implicit is revolting to me :sick:

I'm not aware of any allegations that have been made against Pettini. Allegations have been made against Kaneria and Westfield and despite nothing being proven neither of those two are at the club any more. On the other hand, despite a lack of runs, Pettini is still there and still seems to be part of the plans. Read into that what you want.

If incidents did happen, it would have been under Pettini's watch and a stronger captain with more control over proceedings may have been deemed desirable. I don't know for example how much respect the realtively inexperienced Pettini, with his modest county record, commanded in the dressing room.

Of course such allegations are nothing new, as the father of our latest player can attest to.

 

[BILLERICAY BLUE]

Has Westfield's case been to court yet ?

 

[canveyshrimper]

Has Westfield's case been to court yet ?

According to this it's January 2012.

 

[canveyshrimper]

I'm not aware of any allegations that have been made against Pettini. Allegations have been made against Kaneria and Westfield and despite nothing being proven neither of those two are at the club any more. On the other hand, despite a lack of runs, Pettini is still there and still seems to be part of the plans. Read into that what you want.

If incidents did happen, it would have been under Pettini's watch and a stronger captain with more control over proceedings may have been deemed desirable. I don't know for example how much respect the realtively inexperienced Pettini, with his modest county record, commanded in the dressing room.

Of course such allegations are nothing new, as the father of our latest player can attest to.

I think at the time Don Topley had a bit of an axe to grind with Essex, it may have been a benefit issue, I can't recall now.

Topley junior took 3 wickets in the University's 1st innings.