County Cricket

Clifton Park in York looks a lovely ground judging by the images I have seen. I note Yorkshire have been playing there in the One day Cup competition.

^^ It a great Sport facility which includes Rugby. York has hosted the matches with great success & has proved popular among cricket supporter with a nice Festival atmosphere. getting away from the ground for those using their own cars requires some patience, the parking facilities are good however.

Crucial win for Worcestershire over Kent today to haul themselves up the table a bit.
Away games at Essex and Hampshire look tough. Realistically they need to do well in their remaining home matches against Warwickshire and Lancashire in an effort to clamber to safety. Tough but maybe just about feasible.

After a slow start Yorkshire (with Bairstow) record their 3rd consecutive Division 2 Championship win at Scarbados !! where they made hard work of chasing 103 against leaders Sussex. Not too sure what history they have, but Bairstow & former England bowler Ollie Robinson seemed to clash throughout the match at different points.
Middlesex kept the pressure on win an impressive win over Northamptonshire after the match had been badly effected by rain. Their captain took 11-107 in the match.
Sussex stay top with a 6 point advantage over Middlesex who will travel the Leeds next week with Yorkshire trailing by 3 points in 3rd place.
With the Kookaburra ball used in round 1 & 2 in April week had 17 drawn matches with just 1 positive result. Now it is back for the next 2 rounds, & the final 2 rounds its is back to the Dukes. What a complete muddle. It will be interesting to see the outcome this time round, with tired pitches. I expect Yorkshire to go with a 2 spin option which they have already used this season.

I only hope the weather somehow stays dry for the remaining matches in both divisions.
Needs to be a fair fight in relegation and promotion battles.

^^ The weather has already played a part & given some sides an unfair advantage, it's the same every year, only now the situation is exacerbated by the ridiculous mixture of ball types used & not against common opponents leading to very little informality. Geographical location put sides in the North & West of the country at a disadvantage that will always be the case, but why do the administrators have to mess things up even more. The whole Championship is a joke, it has lost the integrity that it once had, just far too many holes in it now, including International players hardly ever taking part. Over the years it's been tinkered with but now it's literally been pulled apart & bares little or no resemblance to what it was & now seem a million miles away from what it could & should be.

It's about time we fans said "Enough is enough, just stop messing about with it and put in place, a schedule that is fair & suits every team or better still - let the teams decide between themselves where and when to play and put in a meaningful formula for the championship itself and STICK WITH IT!"

Div 2
Yorkshire closed the gap on 2nd placed Middlesex in last weeks bore-draw at Leeds.
Today it's a 3rd v 4th clash. A sporting pitch was expected as Leicestershire need a win more than
Yorkshire. Sure enough the Foxes lost the toss & found themselves 17-7 before Ben Cox decided upon a counter-attack as he finished 51 not out from 31 balls. The 8th wicket fell with the score on on 52 to give the miserly Coad figures of 10-6-15-5.
The last wicket added 40 before Hill finished the innings of with Leicestershire totalling 98 all out.

Lancs' match with Durham went downhill when Durham put together a 5th wicket stand of 425

Div 2
A Sussex win has almost ensured promotion, the gap between them & Middlesex means that an 8 0r 9 point margin is all that is required in terms of points gained by them or dropped by Middlesex who fell to defeat from nowhere against Gloucestershire who along with Leicestershire still have a least a slim chance of promotion
I would expect Middlesex to bounce back next week when they visit bottom placed Derbyshire. If Yorkshire fail to win any of their remaining matches they might have to get some help from Sussex when they face Middlesex in the last round of games. In the past teams that are already promoted often take their foot off the gas not necessarily intentionally. Hopefully that is not the case & they ensure thye integrity of the competition by at least fielding their strongest team.