Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

You can always tell it is the cricket season, the weather deteriorates. After a fantastic last few weeks in March, the weather turned for the worse right on the start of the new season.

The start of the match at Taunton was delayed, due to rain (plus it was cold), but they did start in the afternoon. I popped into The County Ground after work for a couple of hours, it was so cold I swear I could see my breath as I spoke to Julian, proprietor of The Cottage Inn at Keenthorne. Julian told me he had been there for most of the afternoon, the only reason he was drinking a tea was to keep his hands warm, shame they didn’t sell soup!

With the weather being pretty shocking for the start of the cricket season, it made me wonder what extraordinary things have actually stopped play in cricket.

I know you will get the odd wild animal, fox, squirrel etc, which amuses the crowd, plus the odd dog running on the pitch. Swarm of bees and flying ants in places such as Asia. I have even seen a load of ducks at Taunton, thankfully not the cricketing type, but the ones which go quack!

Snow has actually stopped play here in England, in the middle of June! I believe it was a County Championship match between Derbyshire and Lancashire back in 1975, the whole ground was covered in the white stuff. Snow also delayed play between Essex and Kent on the same day.

I believe Headingley, the day before their game against Kent earlier this week, was under snow, but miraculously and credit to the ground staff, the ground ready for a prompt start the following day.

At Over Stowey we had to run for the safety of the pavilion when it hailed, not just your ordinary size hail stones, but some as large as golf balls, wow they were big and hurt a little too. Lightning was flashing around in one game at Marsh Mills, now that was scary and every player raced off the pitch to the sanctuary of the pavilion.

Now camels’ moving behind the bowlers arm was quite amusing, and this wasn’t a game in the desert! Camel trekking on the Quantocks was quite popular a few years back. At one game at Over Stowey, they suddenly appeared in the field next to the ground, the game halted why the opposition gazed in amazement. As for cows moving behind the bowlers arm, I don’t think this side from London, who were on tour here in Somerset, had seen one before the way they justly suddenly stopped playing and stared, when the played Over Stowey back along.

An away trip to Stoodleigh was probably the longest the Stowey cricketers had to make in the West Somerset Cricket League, this one year I was surprisingly called up for the 1^st XI to make this trip – I did hear the teas were great, so no hesitation there then! But what happened that afternoon was even more surprising and somewhat hair-raising, and the game had to be stopped.

Stowey lost the toss and was put into the field, as Stoodleigh batted. Half way through the innings a very loud engine roar could be heard coming from this barn a few fields away. All of a sudden this biplane shot out of this barn and done a low fly pass over the cricket field, in which all of us hit the deck.

We realised that this biplane was one of these display / stunt planes as it shot up vertically, stalled the engine, came spiralling back down towards us on the cricket pitch when the engine then cut back in (thankfully) and it shot of at a very low height as we all ducked.

After a few more manoeuvres, it landed and the game of cricket then continued. At tea we all made light of the incident, with their tea lady saying, “haven’t you heard of Stoodleigh International Airport?!!”

So England managed to retain their No.1 spot for Test cricket virtue of beating Sri Lanka in the final Test of the winter, but there are a few cracks beginning to appear. I am not wishing to be too critical on England as reaching the number one spot in purist form of the game is something they have strived to achieve for a number of years; staying there will be tough as this winter has shown.

Effectively England lost the winter Test series 4-1, trial by spin, with a lot of batsmen found wanting, especially against these mystery spinners. Off the 92 English wickets to fall over theses five Test matches, 76 were to spin, so straight away you can see that England have a problem against spin, especially in the Indian subcontinent. Guess where England are on tour next winter, India.

For me the bowling attack, plus backup, is fine. Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann are just a formidable trio, who are backed up by the likes on Monty Panesar, Steve Finn, Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett; plus waiting in the wings are guys like Jade Dernbach, Chris Woakes and James Tredwell.

Incidentally Tim Bresnan has played in 11 Tests for England and has been on the winning side in all 11; that tells me pick him and England will win!

There is also no problem with the wicketkeeper position, Matt Prior holds the gloves at present, rightly so, but one bad performance and the likes of Steve Davies, Jonny Bairstow, or Craig Kieswetter will grab those gloves without hesitation.

The cracks are beginning to appear within the batting, especially in positions five and six. The top four are fine, they just ooze class and just leave Andrew Strauss alone, he is doing a great job with his captaincy, plus his form will be back, without a doubt. Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen have proved their worth in Sri Lanka. But when it comes to five and six, the opposition bowlers must think they are already in the tail.

Ian Bell should off stayed at home and played County Cricket for Warwickshire; and is still baffles me why England do pick the likes of Samit Patel and Ravi Bopara.

The question has been said, who do you pick instead? Plus who do you pick if one of the top four gets injured? Good questions, who? Who exactly is waiting in the wings to fill gaps in these positions? The answer to numbers five and six is easy, anyone but Patel and Bopara. I wouldn’t even go back to Eoin Morgan, not until he gets some First Class runs under his belt.

I may be a bit flippant there, but there is no one waiting in the wings that is nowhere near the quality of England’s top four to challenge them for their position, or even step in when needed.

We do have good youngsters coming through the Lions, but are they the finished article yet? Give one or two of them a game against the West Indies in May, the likes of James Taylor, Joe Root, Tom Maynard and Alex Hayles, why not. The bigger tests will come when England play South Africa and India, blood them now and make them ready.

Lastly, back to Somerset, Vernon Philander has had a cracking debut for Somerset, let’s hope he can blow them away this morning (Sunday) and lead Somerset to victory. He must be feeling the cold though!

Right, 10.57, time for an Easter Thatchers!