Story Three Lions on the Shirt? - Match Day: Northamptonshire fight back!!!

[mattfb]

Great read. Bad luck for cooky. Great story Tom!

 

[Left_Hander]

Good luck in the Ping Pong tournament! I'm sure you will enjoy yourself. Great update of the theme park

 

[Highlander999]

Wednesday 10th April

We all put our names into a hat and drew out our opponents and team-mate. My name was first out :happy I got drawn with Darren against Cooky and Andy.

"You do realise that I'm going to whoop your ass, Tom? "

"You have about as much chance of winning as you do of ever getting a MOTM award :laugh"

However my confidence was soon to be made to look mis-placed as it transpired that Darren, to be blunt, was horrendous. Everytime the ball went near him he either missed it or hit so hard it looked more like he was going for the boundary :laugh However I stuck in and managed to get it to, two game's apiece. The fifth game would be the decider. Unfortunately Darren was serving. We lost it, badly I now had to endure Cooky's taunts for the next half hour. Even more annoyingly him and Andy eventually won the tournament

It soon transpired that our table was not booked till 7 (Nice one David : ) so I decided to head upstairs and catch the county review on Sky Sports

Welcome to this week's review of the County Championship, "Around the Grounds". It has been a busy old week. And to take us through it is Bob Willis.

Thank you Craig.

Glamorgan vs Surrey
Glamorgan have always been considered a bit of a push over in recent years however I don't know what Croft has been feeding his men down in Wales, as they managed to earn an excellent draw against Surrey at Sophia Gardens. Batting first they declared on 390/4. Surrey then made 414 with Butcher top scoring on 87. However half of Day 3 was lost due to rain, which meant that any chance of a result was ruined. Still it was a good draw for Glamorgan who will go into their next match with a lot of confidence.

Warwickshire vs Middlesex
Middlesex made the quick trip to Warwickshire this week. Middlesex were put into to bat on a green wicket and overcast conditions. The Warwickshire seam attack made use of these conditions bowling them out for 295 with Strauss top scoring on 75. Warwickshire then made a good score of 425 All Out with both Wagh and Bell scoring centuries. The Warwickshire seam attck then, once again steam-rollered through Middlesex to leave only a small total for the Warwickshire batsmen to chase with Knight ending up on 42*. So Warwickshire won by 7 wickets, a very good result for them.

Nottinghamshire vs Sussex
The fans up in Nottinghamshire were treated to a low scoring thriller. In the end Sussex won by 28 runs with Matt Prior scoring 52* and 43 plus two stumpings. He will be looking to get his place back in the England squad and that match will only have served to boost this. Ryan Sidebottom also claimed match figures of 7-98 showing why he is the number 1 bowler for England at the moment. However Sussex just prevailed, but the real winners here were the fans

Gloucestershire vs Kent
To Round off Division 1, Kent were travelling up to Bristol. In horrenous batting conditions both teams failed with the bat in the First Innings. However young rookie, Tom Baker, came to Kent's rescue and had a massive 134 run partnership with South African veteran, Andrew Hall to secure a good victory for Kent. This was Tom Baker's first big knock in FC cricket and will be a show of defiance against those who say he did not have the skills for that form of cricket.

Glad to get a mention

Derbyshire vs Northamptonshire
Now to Division 2. Derbyshire have recently been a struggling team, however against Northants they put up a great show of batting and bowling to earn a superb win of an innings and 42 runs. The Derbsyhire skip, Di Venuto will surely be proud of the way his team played and will be looking for them to build on this superb victory.

Somerset vs Essex
After a lot of talk of how they would be challenging for sliverware this season, Somerset have been a bit of a let down. Their woes continued at Taunton this week as a travelling Essex side completely blew them out of the water winning by 10 wickets. There has been no excuse for Somerset this season, they are simply failing to score the runs. Justin Langer will surely be having a headache as he tries to work out where to go from here. Full credit to Ravi Bopara who not only hit 80 but also claimed 4 wickets. A possible England re-call? You never know.

Worcestershire vs Lancashire
Lancashire are another team who have failed to make a decent start this season. However it looked like they had shaken of the cobwebs as they thrashed a Worcester side who always looked second best. Andrew Flintoff showed he is almost fully fit scoring 38 Not Out and 76 plus picking up 7 wickets. Eventually the Lancashire boys showed just how good they are with a 162 run win.

Northamptonshire vs Hampshire
Northants were looking to bounce back strongly from their earlier defeat against a strong Hampshire side. Even though Mascarenhas hit a quick fire 45 of 23 balls and picked up 4 wickets it was not quite enough for Warnie's boys who ended losing by 3 wickets. However Mascarenhas did get a thoroughly deserved MOTM award.

Lancashire vs Nottinghamshire
A tricky match away at a buoyant Lancashire proved too much for struggling Notts. After a competitive score of 239 All Out with good contributions from all the top order the Nott's batting line-up completely collapsed and it was only a 75 run partnership between Ealham and Sidebottom which saved them from being completely routed. Lancashire are now looking very dangerous.

Middlesex vs Worcesterhsire
Both teams were coming of the back of defeats, and you would have expected Middlesex to prove the stronger team with home advantage. On a tricky pitch Middlesex were not able to chase down the low total and ended up losing by 11 runs. Andrew Strauss made another useful contribution of 50 showing the England selectors that they were right to give him another chance.

Scotland vs Durham
Recently Scotland have been considered a bit of a push over and Durham in a show of complete arrogance sent up their 2XI to The Grange. This was to cost them valuable points as their 2XI was no match for the Scots who notched up their first win of the season with Poonia making 70 and Watts scoring 42.

That rounds up this weeks results. Back to you Charles.

Thanks Bob. At the moment Kent are the team to watch out for placed third in both the Championship and the Pro40. Their new skip David Fulton has really made a big impact there backed up well by his team, especially Tom Baker. Aparat from that it is really too early on to tell how things are going to pan out this season although Somerset have been the big shock so far failing to impress in the Championship.

Much has been made of the young rookie Tom Baker. This week he really impressed wih a score of 86 in their match against Gloucester, in what we can say were very difficult conditions. He must surely be on the England selector's radar, however it is crucial they do not rush him or else it could end up in disaster. Let's just look at his stats. They show just how good of a start he has made to his maiden season in County Cricket.

Thank you for watching this weeks county Round-Up, we look forward to seeing you again very soon. We'll leave you for some music for Tom Baker to celebrate with (Maybe one Day he might be living like this)

I was cheesing. I had been mentioned again. I had been told that I had made a big impact on a lot of people but I was rapidly becoming a cult hero. Everyone kept associating my name with England which wasn't making my life easy. I switched of the TV and went for a quick shower. My life was rapidly becoming very hectic. The young rookie was beginning to make a big impact.

 

[vaibhav mehta]

lol..You definitely will make big impact.
Enjoying hectic day!!
Great Presentation.
Keep Up The Great Work.

 

[Karachi Xpress]

Great update! Loving this story alot!

 

[Spoobir]

Woot! Go Scotland!

 

[Kiko_97]

Glad to see you got a mention Tom loving the story as always Mr SOTM again. KUTGW you deserved it.

 

[jarl]

Good entertaining story mate and congrats on the SOTM award

 

[mattfb]

Great update Tom. Really nice read and the presentation is one of the best I've seen.

 

[treva]

Quality song that! Remember it from FIFA 2005

Really nice round up there. Good and bad for Somerset, top of the OD standings but crap in the Championship, which should be our best form of the game. Keep up the cracking work Tom

 

[Highlander999]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Try and update sometime today

Quality song that! Remember it from FIFA 2005

Yeah, I remembered it when I was un-installing '05 a few days ago. I've searched itunes but can't find it anywhere : Really want it for my ipod

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Brilliant update Tom...love this story a lot...and congrats for winning SOTM....KUTGW

 

[Highlander999]

Thank you everyone who voted for me to get the SOTM award. It is really appreciated

Wednesday 10th April

After having a really refreshing shower I decided to get ready. I was really pleased with the way things had gone for me so far this season, and I was really fired up now. Hopefully I could maintain it I finally managed to have a quick shave as I had not had much time this morning to get ready and finally by quarter to 7, I was ready to go downstairs.

I met Cooky as he came out of his room and we got the lift down together. He was telling me a story of how his brother was currently following the England Cricket team around for his gap year after university. It sounded really good. Down in the lobby everyone else was already there. Cooky and Andy were given free pints due to winning the ping-pong competition and after spending some time in the bar we all headed into the restaurant. My meal consisted of Avocado Pear to start with, followed by Beef Stroganoff followed by a very nice cheescake. We all had two glasses of champagne with this, but that was it. We had a game against Warwickshire tomorrow and so we had to be in good shape.

By eight thirty we had all finished and our stuff was in the lobby. We all got into the coach with plenty of the guys dozing off. It had been a hard few days and with a match tomorrow so we really needed our rest. Thankfully after tomorrow's match we had a really good long period of rest which would be nice I soon fell asleep and was woken up by David as we pulled into the car park. It was 10. We got told by Graham to all go inside to find out the team for tomorrow. We all headed inside. On the notice-board we could see a little piece of paper,

vs

Kent vs Warwickshire @ Canterbury
1. M. Walker
2. D. Fulton (C)
3. T. Baker
4. R. Key
5. M. van Jaarsveld
6. D. Stevens
7. A. Hall (2)
8. N O' Brien (WK)
9. J. Tredwell
10. A. Khan
11. M. Saggers (1)

Meet at the ground at 8:30​

OMG, I would be batting at three!!! This was a really big chance for me to impress. Hopefully I would have a nice long innngs and make a big total. I was gutted to see Cooky get dropped although not surprised considering what had happened over the past few days. It was also nice to see Niall and Rob getting chances to impress after poor form by both of them. We had a very long tail which should mean that we could post a good total and our bowling attack did not look to bad. I turned around to see Graham standing behind me,

"Coach. Thank you so much for this oppurtunity, I won't let you down."

"You deserve it Tom. You've been playing some really good knocks recently and here is your chance to make a big score. Don't let me down."

I promised myself I would not let him down. I was really excited at batting at 3. It was the most important position. Hopefully the openers would build a solid foundation and I would not be sent in too early on.

I headed out to my parked car. There was very little traffic and so I made quick progress. By 10:30 I was tucked up in bed and ready for tomorrow's match.

 

[Mr. Kurns]

OMG YOU'RE AT 3 :P KUTGW jasmine, nice to see a female win SOTM, can't wait to see you get a 100

 

[Manly]

Deserved, I would say, on both accounts (SOTM and 3)