Sellsy's Cricketing Thoughts

Monday 20^th April

Matthew Hoggard England’s best ever bowler, well that is one is certainly up for debate.

The BBC Sport website came up with this little gem over the weekend, giving a breakdown on why Hoggy is England’s No.1, ok, I am good at maths and I can see the BBC’s reasoning behind why he is rated number one, but surely it goes on your average surely?

Hoggy, who played the same amount of Test matches as Fred Trueman, 67, and took 248 Test wickets at an average of 30, whereas Fiery claimed 307 scalps at an average of 21.57, surely these figures speak for themselves.

But if you want to just go on averages we have the likes of George Lohmann who claimed 112 wickets, averaging 10.75 in his 18 Tests. This was in the late 1800’s where there was only Australia and South Africa to play Test Cricket against. And then it took an entirety to travel to such places to represent your country, but still a great return.

Then there is Billy Barnes, again in the same era as Lohmann, who only claimed 51 wickets at an average of 15.54 in his 21 Test matches for England.

We mustn’t forget the great Sydney Barnes who played his Test cricket in the early 1900’s, right up until the outbreak of WW1. In his 27 Test appearance for England he claimed an astonishing 189 wickets at an average of only 16.43. Once he claimed 17 wickets in a match, this is only bettered by the great Jim Laker who took 19 Aussie wickets. Most cricketers and students of the game belonging to the period in which Barnes played were agreed that he was the bowler of the century.

Enough said about this BBC Sport study, it has Stuart Broad as third for crying out loud, you can’t tell me Broad is better than the likes of Ian Botham, Alec Bedser, Jim Laker, Derek Underwood, Brain Statham as well as Trueman, Barnes et al. Not a very good piece of work done there by the BBC, I would think it may have had a lot of comments, the majority of it very negative.

Test cricket has changed and developed more over the years, especially over the past two decades. I think there is no way you can pick the greatest English Test bowler; everyone with any cricket knowledge will have their own thoughts and ideas in what the criteria should be.

For me I wish I could of watched Sydney Barnes bowl, from what I read and understand he was virtually unplayable.

Right, that’s it for a couple of weeks, on my jolly holidays – going on a cider tour of southern England, then straight in to the Over Stowey 2015 West Somerset League Division Five campaign.

Sellsy's Cricketing Thoughts

Monday 13^th April

The County Cricket season is now up and running, and with that in mind I am already thinking of those long summer days and evenings.

Somerset are already in action, playing against Durham in a four day County Championship match at Taunton. As of yet I am yet to see a ball being bowled, but plans are afoot to watch some quality cricket during the week ahead.

So what are Somerset’s chances of silverware during the 2015 campaign? Well according to most experts – none. No surprises there then, these so called experts aren’t worth the column inches given to them. I always look at the bookies to see what the odds are, they are generally near the mark (have you ever seen a poor bookie?). Guess what, Somerset odd are quite long, especially for the County Championship, the Holy Grail amongst the majority of the Somerset faithful.

So who will win the County Championship? Yorkshire are favourites to retain their title, a title they emphatically won last year - they didn’t beat Somerset though did they. However, I am pretty sure half their 1^st XI starting line-up will be on England duty throughout the summer, therefore weakening their chances.

Nottinghamshire look like the team to fear / beat. Shrewd signings, with the likes of Will Gidman and Brendan Taylor; quality overseas bowlers, namely Vernon Philander and Ben Hilfanhaus; plus if James Taylor can avoid being selected for England, Nottinghamshire do look very strong indeed.

Warwickshire will push both Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire close, but I think it will be between those two counties. That leaves Durham, Hampshire, Middlesex, Sussex, Worcestershire and the mighty Somerset all fighting for positions and not wanting to finish 8^th or 9^th.

Somerset are in a transition period which is a bit of an understatement, losing a hatful of players over the winter. However, Matthew Maynard has already been out and got some good replacements, the likes of Tom Cooper and Jim Allenby. However me thinks the batting is still lacking one quality batsman. Young Tom Abell looks like a ready-made top order batsman, who made a handful of appearances towards the end of last season; I do hope he gets selected very soon. If Somerset finished 7^th I will be happy, and I will be even happier if they get to quarter-final (especially a home one), and what then?

Regulars would of noticed that I haven’t been talking about my annual Somerset bet I place. Well put it like this, I think William Hill has had enough money of me over the past few seasons, so I will leave it for 12 months.

Right, time to go and watch a bit of cricket and enjoy a drop of Thatchers or two!