Hampshire Great Escape?

Not football based I know, so apologies for that in advance.

I thought I'd put this on the Pompey and Saints boards as it is some-thing that may be of interest to us [except for pompeymeowth, who's a dirty Sussex fan - boo hiss]

After back to back county championship victories against title chasing Durham and Warwickshire, can Hampshire somehow keep the momentum going and miraculously avoid relegation?

 

I doubt it. Very surprised we beat Durham though a couple of weeks ago.

 

its almost impossible isnt it?

 

Nah, too much to do and likely that remaining games will be rain effected etc. Got lucky that Durham agreed to forfeit their innings.

In reality, sod all difference between division one and two in cricket anyway.

Might be better for the club to mostly use the excellent academy nippers and fringe second XI players in the championship and keep the "stars" for the limited over games. The squad is too big with the likes of Kabir Ali & Myburgh contributing nothing, plus Simon Jones is still on the books, then there is Balcombe out on loan as well.

It's all about T20 for Hants now anyway. Only way the club makes money.

 

If we beat Worcs this week, we have a real, real chance of survivial. But we must beat them - anything else, and we can continue on our merry-way to division two. And unfortunately, the weather forecast looks pretty dire this week.

If we do win though, that closes the gap to Worcs right up (and to Yorks, if they fail to beat Warks) and means that two more wins from our final three games should be enough (one more might be enough, but very unlikely). Although those games are against sides currently in the top four (Somerset, Lancs, and Warks) and therefore on paper we shouldn't win them, it may well be the case that those sides are desperate to try and win to keep their title chances alive, and therefore following Durham in trying to set games up with us - potentially playing into our hands.

 

But in reality, what is the difference between div 1 and div 2 anyway? Do clubs get less income from the ECB? I can't imagine the attendances will be any less for Rose Bowl div 2 games, will be the usual 200 (plus obligatory man and dog) for most 4 day games?

Just don't see the point of the split really. Am I missing something significant?

 

Financially, it can actually be better to play in Division 2 - assuming you ultimately get promoted. You receieve more money for finishing 1st in D2, than for finishing 4th in D1, and more money for finishing 2nd in D2, than for finishing 7th in D1 (I completely disagree with this by the way). Of course though nothing compares financially to winning D1.

However, they use the stupid tiflex ball in the D2, which any old rubbish can seemingly take wickets with (Darren Stevens has turned into Glenn McGrath thanks to the tiflex ball, and many wouldn't even class him as an all-rounder, let alone a bowler). In no way do I see this helps the development of young bowlers.

But most of all, being in D2 gives you absoloutely no chance of winning the County Championship. And that is what it's all about. Surrey can spend as much as they like, sign up as many players as they like. But whilst they continue to rot in D2, they are never going to win the holy grail.

You are right about attendances. I don't see them being affected by the division that we're playing in.

 

I find cricket too expensive to watch and I have found the Rose Bowl quite difficult to go without going out of my way first of all.

 

Cheers for the detailed response.

When was the last time Hants won the Championship? 71? Even when I watched them a lot during the Greenidge, Jesty & Marshall days, we came close but couldn't win it. As our set up is all T20 based (it appears) then I don't think we are close to finding the balance that Durham, Lancs, Somerset & Sussex have regarding playing well at forms of the game. Just doesn't feel like Bransgrove is that bothered and I can understand the financial realities why that's the case. The club probably makes more money from one T20 game than it does all the 4 day games combined.

 

Major matches (ie England matches and t20 finald day) are miles too expensive. Ridiculous prices. But county cricket I think is more than fair, especially when compared to Football and especially when you go down the membership route rather than the individual tickets route (of course though, unless you're a concession, you need to have enough free time to make having a membership worthwhile).

 

Yep, 1961 and 1973. Our only two times.

Lots of hype was going on during the pre-season about it being our 50th anniversary since the first of those two wins, and how fitting it would therefore be if we won it again this year. Hasn't exactly turned out that way....

I personally don't think we are set-up for t20. But we do have a well-laid, and very successful, plan for t20. It will be interesting how it goes this weekend though, away from the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately, in no way can that be said about our CC cricket, where we appear almost clueless (the plan to improve us in this area by bringing in De Wet and Myburgh as kolpaks clearly hasn't worked in the slightest for example).

 

I've been to only a handful of games over the years. I don't go to the internationals or the T20s because they are too expensive. I try to get to the 40 over games when possible but I don't have a car at the moment. Hedge End station is on the opposite side of the village to the Rose Bowl and I would have to bus out to via Eastleigh. None of my friends like cricket either.

 

The forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning looks awful, so if we win the toss it may well be worth inserting Worcs and letting Wood and Tommo continue where the left off against Warks on Saturday. Knock 'em over for 160.

 

I think we could defend 150, certainly 200. But we've got no chance of getting a lead anywhere near that amount (I'm not even expecting a lead of 100), so we need the rain that's forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning to last for long as possible. Should sneak a draw if it does last long.

 

Meowth, no slur on Sussex can be outrageous enough!