County Cricket 2013 Season

Durham have one hand on the Trophy after bowling Notts out for 78

Apparently Notts won the toss and decided to bat first, bit risky doing that at 10:15 in September.

18 wickets fall in first day at Durham .
25 point penalty deduction for unfit pitch ?
(Yorkshire supporter asks in desperation ! )

(17-09-2013 09:01 )Jack Bishop Wrote:  ^ in the old days of 3 day matches and contrived finishes.

Yes many a game was set up with a contrived finish then ,due to lack of time .
Also there wasn't a minimum overs per day target like there is today (96).Back then it was hours of play 11am - 6pm and nothing more .Last day 11 am- 5pm plus last 20 overs ,only if a result was possible.
Contrived finishes ? That's just what Yorkshire and Sussex were attempting last Saturday .

^ True you do still get some contrived finishes in 4 days game but normally only when the weather has intervened or on very flat wickets.

Yorkshire have expressed concerns to the ECB over the early start time in the Durham Notts match.The 10.15 start (regular start in Sept 10.30) is to allow the game to finish on day 4 1 hour early to give Notts extra time to get down to London for the CB40 match the following day.
Yorkshire's Director of Cricket Martyn Moxon believes this could give a one side an advantage,as play is more likely to be lost to bad light late in the day,which is why they start & finish times are adjusted in September.A result or vital points could be gained on the final day.
The use of floodlights has been allowed at Derbyshire this year,another example of inconsistencies in the Championship.
Both Middlesex & Surrey believe matches should start at the same time.

^ It has been ever thus. The Championship has always been subject to better weather light conditions in some parts of the country compared to others. Captains who are prepared to agree "sporting" declarations. I really think that Yorkshire are clutching at straws to suggest that a start time of just 15 mins. earlier is giving a team much of an advantage.

As a Warwickshire supporter and therefore a neutral observer as far as far the title race is concerned, i believe all matches should start at the same time, anything else could be seen as giving one side an unfair advantage. All this sort of thing does is devalue the championship title in some peoples eyes.

I am also neutral in this case as a supporter of a division 2 team. Having read the article I can see it means they finish the game an hour early. I accept it may give them a slight advantage although it could also go against Durham (a point the Yorkies admit themselves). However their are many other advantages / disadvantages throughout the course of season which I feel even themselves out. For example one team will not be playing this penultimate round. Games throughout the season do not always start the same day for each of the fixtures. Floodlights are a new issue but when the Championship started sides used to play a different number of games than each other and later on they would not play all sides home and away.

I agree with most of the things you have pointed out but there is absolutely no reason to allow a match to start earlier in the day just because a team has a final to play a day when that game finishes. It smacks of one rule for one and one for another. If they are unhappy about the scheduling of matches then i,m sure the losing semi finalists will be more than happy to relive them of such an inconvenient burden.