The following piece
was written for LeftLion. In fact, it
was the inaugural Left Line and Length column, for which the Sports Editor (me)
interviewed the cricket correspondent (Dr. me)…
If NCCC were a
football team, where would last year’s performance have put ‘em?
On last year’s performance alone, they’d perhaps have been
Stoke City: a not-quite-Northern stronghold (one that’s also reputed to have
its microclimate) at which they played in a muscular style sometimes lacking subtlety
and with not enough numbers from the men up top, while a mid-table league
campaign was partially offset by a decent cup performance that ended
disappointingly against a big favourite. However, overall, as a club they’re
probably more of an Everton, historically speaking: managerial stability, atmospheric
stadium, although a good way behind the big trophy hauls of Yorkshire (Man
Utd), Lancashire (Liverpool), and Surrey
(Arsenal).
What was the absolute
highpoint of last season?
They won a low-scoring game up at eventual champions Lancashire
at the end of July, but the highpoint was probably the Championship victory
over Yorkshire
in April: a game they had no right at all to win and which must have left them,
as reigning Champions and unbeaten at that early stage, feeling invincible (a
feeling that didn’t last). However, the longest sustained period of excellence
was the Twenty20 campaign, where they were utterly dominant at home during the
group stage, right up until…
And the lowpoint?
…Being unluckily drawn against best-team-on-paper Somerset in the
quarter-final of said Twenty20 Cup. Notts looked strong favourites with 5 overs
left in the match, but couldn’t find an answer to a savage onslaught by England
new boy Jos Buttler and globetrotting West Indian T20 specialist Keiron Pollard,
the game disappearing in the blink of an eye and a blizzard of boundaries.
Last year’s star
pupil?
Close call between Alex Hales, the only Notts batsman to
make 1000 Championship runs (also the second-top run-scorer in the country in
the Twenty20 Cup), and Andre Adams, but I’d just give it the latter. Having
been leading wicket-taker in the country when Notts won the Championship in
2010, the Kiwi maintained his good bowling form into, and throughout, last
season. He also chipped in with several boundary-studded cameos from number 9, proving
a serious danger to the passing traffic of West Bridgford
as he finished comfortably the leading six-hitter in the land (with 31 to next
best Trescothick’s 18). At 35-years-young, he remains the go-to bowler and very
much the team’s driving force.
And who’s staying
back in detention?
Top-order batsmen Neil Edwards and Riki Wessels both
struggled in the four-day game, although the latter had a pretty decent T20
campaign. There’s plenty of talent in both men (as attested to by 100s for each
in the pre-season game against Luffbra), but it’s probably a make-or-break season
for the pair of them.
Who are the new faces
at Notts this year?
Michael Lumb, a man with a Twenty20 World Cup winner’s medal
from England ’s 2010 success
in the Caribbean , arrives from Hampshire to
open the batting. Meanwhile, Notts’ unofficial feeder club from just down the
M1, Leicestershire, has come up trumps again, providing not only left-arm
paceman Harry Gurney, sure to feature strongly in the white ball game (Twenty20
and 40-over stuff), but also the diminutive middle-order batsman James Taylor,
skipper of England’s reserves and pretty near the front of the queue as far as
breaking into Andrew Strauss’s Test side goes.
And who’s been
lobbed?
After 9 years’ sterling service, much loved Cornish beanpole
Charlie Shreck has nobly passed up the chance of a lucrative testimonial season
for the opportunity of more regular first-team action at Kent. Veteran batsmen
Ali Brown and Mark Wagh have both retired. And Samit Patel’s younger brother,
Akhil, has been released.
So, who’s the key
man?
Andy Flower (yes, the England Coach, Andy Flower; which
one did you think I meant?). You see, the thing with county cricket is that, ideally,
you have a core of players that are decent, but not quite good enough to play for England (well, they can be good
enough on paper, but just not actually picked to do it). Notts already lose
Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad for pretty much the whole season, while Samit Patel
has just made his debut (albeit perhaps only as a horse for the Sri Lankan
course). So, looking at things from the sort of narrowly self-interested and
parochial perspective in which county fans up and down the country specialize,
Notts’ hardcore supporters wouldn’t want him, Taylor, or Hales cementing spots
in any England side just yet, ta very much, duckeh.
Any other pre-season
goings-on worth noting?
They’ve been to Barbados for a couple of weeks’ warm weather
practice and, as I say, are giving Luffbra’s students a lesson they probably
won’t forget (unless they turned up for class half-cut with no note paper, as
no student as ever done before, of course). LeftLion
is reliably informed by club historian Peter Wynne-Thomas that the April 1
start to the season is the second earliest ever at the Bridge. The County Championship
What are the kits
like this season?
Well, this is cricket – besides minor alterations to the kit
manufacturer or sponsors, the clobber is pretty, y’know, uniform (which reminds me of the Irish game that was abandoned
because both sides turned up in white). For the one-day kit, the yellow that
previously covered the entire trunk has been relegated to a minor feature,
which is maybe more in keeping with the county’s tradition but doesn’t look quite
so flash in my proudly non-expert opinion.
What’s the food like
compared to the City Ground and Meadow
Lane
The canteen in the Radcliffe
Road stand offers scrumptious, unpretentious English
fayre, but I don’t know what the food’s like at Forest
or County. If you want a simple, hearty snack less than a six hit from the
ground, try Mrs Bunn’s Cob Emporium on Musters Road .
If Notts staged their
own version of Robin Hood, who would be cast in the main roles?
ROBIN HOOD: Stuart
Broad in the Hollywood remake, but probably local
lad and dressing room heartbeat Paul ‘The General’ Franks in the low-budget
version.
MAID MARIAN: Lisa
Pursehouse – Notts are once again blazing the trail for equality (much as did
Robin and his Merry Men), and Pursehouse is the first female Chief Exec in the history
of county cricket.
WILL SCARLETT:
Chris Read – normally skipper, his still youthful appearance and blade-wielding
abilities make him the ideal sidekick for Robin.
LITTLE JOHN: Luke
Fletcher – in his own words, a “tall heavy goober”.
FRIAR TUCK: Samit
Patel – after a slightly undisciplined past in which he was not so much a
glutton for punishment as punished for gluttony, the talented (and still
rotund) Giltbrookite is now so in tune with the error of his ways, so virtuous,
he could almost be the religious figure of the group. Almost.
ALAN À DALE: Graeme
Swann – who else could be better suited for the role of wandering minstrel than
former lead singer of Dr Comfort and the Lurid Revelations?
SHERRIFF OF
NOTTINGHAM: Mick Newell – a decade in the job now, rumour has it that ‘Kim
Jong-Newell’ has forced the club to build a 40-metre-high bronze statue of
himself that will stand on the Trent Bridge Inn car park and loom over the back
of the William Clarke Stand, and includes a state-of-the-art viewing pod in the
left eye (from which he may or may not be watching the game, but his charges,
the players, unable to see in, would have to assume he was observing them, thus effectively disciplining themselves). As I
say, this is only rumour.
Are there any International
matches this summer?
Yep, they’ve got West Indies
in a Test match (May 25-29), and the same opposition in a T20 game on Sunday
June 24. There’s also an ODI against the powerful South Africans on September 5.
What do you dislike
the most about Notts cricket?
I’d like to see a bit more youth and sprightliness in the
fielding department, which is a nice idea in the abstract but in reality is
essentially down to said youth forcing the selectors’ hand through weight of
performance, as Karl Turner did last year. An out ground for a festival would
also be cool.
What’s the best
reason for people who have never been to a cricket match to take themselves
down to Trent Bridge
If you’re after bitesize, fast-paced entertainment, the buzz
of a sizeable crowd and the feel of a major event, then swing down for the
Twenty20 games. Otherwise, the gentle rhythms of four-day cricket are a pleasant
break from the pace of a hectic world: sit on the top tier of the imposing Radcliffe Road
stand, dip in and out of the game and your Tom Clancy novel, and get a suntan. In
the idyllic yesteryear world of the County Championship, ‘Every Day Is Like
Sunday’ – though not Morrissey’s “silent and grey” version so much as a lazy
afternoon down the boozer where what was supposed to be a quick buffet roast
and couple of cheeky beers with the papers turned into an afternoon watching
the football then having a go in the quiz (and the TBI and Larwood & Voce
pubs are well within hitting range if you fancy a quick jar) before staggering
out at last orders. Oh, it’s also definitely
a better standard than any of the football currently on offer in the city.
Call your shot: what
will Notts do in 2012?
They’ve undoubtedly strengthened the batting, something of a
problem area in recent seasons, particularly the opening slots. Both Lumb and
(especially) Taylor are top quality performers, so with Hales and Patel likely
to be around for most of the summer, the runs should flow. Once again, however,
there’s no proven frontline spinner (Notts are not alone in this, mind) and the
traditionally strong cupboard full of medium-pace and fast bowlers looks like
it could struggle to take 20 wickets if Andre Adams were to get injured. I
would be very, very surprised if they won the Championship – I predict fourth –
but I can see them winning the Twenty20, a format for which the squad has more obvious
matchwinners.
Left Line and Length
will bring you a monthly round-up of news from Notts.
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