So Long, Leonard Cohen

I have never been one to go back and listen to the back catalogue of a musician that has died or read the work of a closely departed writer. That is until now. For a lot of people, the passing of Leonard Cohen will have marked any emotion with people. The more I listened to some of his songs for the first time in ages or in some cases for the first time, I needed to get some of these thoughts down.

This in many ways isn’t surprising once his offerings were called ‘music to slit your wrists to.’ On some levels that is true but it kind of misses the point of what he produced. There is a lot of humour all be it very dry and at times self-deprecating. That the line for ‘Tower of Song’ where he sings the lines “I was born like this, I had no choice/ I was born with the gift of a golden voice.”

I didn’t discover Cohen until fairly late on, and this weekend started to wonder what would have happened if I had come across him as a teenager? I this to a certain extent I would have been more confident, certainly more articulate and probably less emotionally stunted.

What I mean by this is while I have not ever suffered from depression, there have been certain moments of self-doubt. Cohen makes this feel like part of the journey. It’s these hard times that make life all the worthier of celebration.

In his song ‘The Future’ he references how he has seen it all before but one thing is constant and worth fighting for as he says

                                                 "I’ve seen the nations rise and fall

I’ve heard their stories, heard them all

But love’s the only engine of survival”

There is, of course, the danger of reading too much into the songs/ poems/ novels of anyone. We take we need from them all. Sometimes we just need someone wiser and to look towards as much as we need light relief of the fool.

Well anyway here is a collection of Leonard Cohen songs that I like some that make me think, some that make me smile and some that make you cry.

How I became a women's cricket fan

It is when you aren’t looking for anything particular that you find the extraordinary. Once in a state of boredom, I switched on the T.V. to see Usain Bolt break the world record. It wasn’t planned, I didn’t know he was running, or that it would be televised. It’s just one of those where were you? Moments.

It is kind of the way that I started to follow women’s cricket. I was the day of the World Cup final at Lord’s. It was the first I had known of the tournament, and there was England in the final against New Zealand. It was an aspect of cricket that I had known nothing about. It wasn’t something that was on television, or in the newspapers, although the 1994 Wisden comments on the ‘excellent media coverage’ much of which I was oblivious. There was no internet to follow scores or social media to help get to know the players better, no one to bounce opinions off.

I was sold there and then. It didn’t matter that these weren’t men, I didn’t see a difference in terms of the competition. I couldn’t care less if the bowlers weren’t bowling at 90 miles an hour, or that the ball wasn’t clearing the boundaries. It is an argument I’m still making to this day to people who are dismissive of a game that is improving rapidly and with an event like the Big Bash and Kia Super League will only prove the quality of those pioneers that are taking the game into a professional era.

Before the time that all the home fixtures at least started to be covered by Sky Sports, it was as I’ve stated before hard to follow women’s cricket. That has of course been partly my fault. Some of it has been down to where the games have taken place at international level. I could have sought out the county game better. As I write this I have only ever been to two Sussex women’s games (more of which later.)

My first live experience of the England side was in 1998, an ODI between England and Australia. A month after my last GCSE exam I went to Hove. I would only be able to stay for the first innings as I had to take my sister to a school play that evening. The England side had a few of those world cup winners, Jan Brittin, Barbra Daniels, Clare Taylor (not to be confused with Claire Taylor, who was 12 on the scorecard) the wicket keeper Jane Smit, and captain Karen Smithies. There was also a young opener by the name of Charlotte Edwards who would become a truly household name.

Australia had won the toss and had chosen to bat and little did I know then just how good their batting line-up was. Belinda Clark, Joanne Broadbent, Lisa Keightley, Karen Rolton, and Mel Jones. Broadbent and Rolton both made half centuries.

I missed England fall 35 runs short, and also the chance to see just how impressive a bowler that Catherine Fitzpatrick was. I was on the verge of going away for the summer to work and prepare for college. Moving to Mansfield for the summer meant that I would be away from Sussex but not from cricket. It meant that I was near enough to Worcester to go to a day of the Women’s test match there.

It was overcast all day but I don’t remember it being cold. It was my first time in a new part of the country. I arrived at the ground just in time for the start of play, no time to explore the cathedral or the rest of Worcester. The crowd was also different to the ones I was used to. It was younger and there were more women around. It was friendly and I soon got into the day's play. England was in the process of having its tail put up a small amount of resistance. On the scorecard, I put England’s score down as a rather exaggerated 414 when they had in fact mustered 243 all out.

I only saw three Australian’s bat that day Keightley (50), Clark (136) and Rolton who finished the day on 97 not out, this after there were at least three extra overs bowled over than scheduled. I went to the wrong railway station on the way back and had to sprint to the other to catch the last train home. This after promising I would get the train before.

I was determined not to let England be the only team I would go to watch. When I got back home I found out that Sussex had a friendly against Derbyshire and I was going to go. I missed the bus and ended up getting the train instead even though it was cost ten times as much.

I got to the ground and they only had one umpire, to which for some reason volunteered with ‘I’ll do it’. I can’t believe they agreed to it. So there I was having only done a spot of umpiring in school games in the middle of a county match, albeit a friendly. I was given some good guidance from the other umpire. I turned down an lbw appeal from a Sussex bowler that I still wonder if turning it down was the right thing. I was paid £10 which just covered the cost of my travel expenses, so I can’t have been that bad at it. I couldn’t do it again. It wasn’t until 2015 that I saw Sussex play again.

It was the same summer job that allowed me to watch England the following year at Trent Bridge in and ODI against India that went down to the final ball with captain Smithies scoring an unbeaten 110 after Clare Connor had taken three wickets to restrict India to 220.

I didn’t get to another women’s game until 2006. A combination of being nowhere near where the games were being staged and a combination of work and university meant opportunities to get to any form of cricket was limited.

2005 had given Women’s cricket a higher profile, England games were given more prominence, and the players even got to take part in the open top bus ride around London with the men who had also won the Ashes that year.

That optimism didn’t seem to continue into the next year. With T20 finals day becoming an event in the men’s domestic calendar I booked that week off work. It coincided with the women’s test match at Leicester. I would be able to go to all four days. On the walk to the ground every morning I was passed by the coach carrying the England side.

Getting into the ground you would barely have noticed that this was an international fixture. The small crowd was made up mainly of friends and family of the England side. There were no more than a dozen Leicestershire members, although among them was Lewis. He was a well-known figure at Leicester and even had his own catchphrase, ‘I’ve got me Brandy.’  

The game didn’t explode into life until the final day when England declared during the lunch break leaving them two sessions to win it. India held on with two wickets at the end, as fresh gloves and extra jumpers were brought on the field. With three of India’s top four dismissed for ducks England would have been disappointed not to have won.

Two Sussex players made their England debuts during that game. Laura Marsh, a fast bowler. The other was Sarah Taylor, someone who would come to score plenty of runs for England. It is her wicket-keeping that has made headlines and there are plenty examples to view on YouTube. It hasn’t come without setbacks and is currently taking her second break from the game.

The test was over, I went to thank Edwards for a fabulous and nearly tripped over a batting helmet at the same time. I also seem to be wearing a Sussex shirt whenever I meet her, which she always points out about Kent being better.

It was by accident that I became a volunteer at Trent Bridge for the World T20 competition in 2009. Looking for tickets for the England v Scotland warm-up game there was a notice looking for volunteers. Myself and a friend signed up and we got access to all the games at Trent Bridge. I don’t remember much about those games, but it did get me tickets for the finals day at Lord’s. We would do a lap of the ground to show the importance of those that helped make the competition possible.

England were in the final after beating Australia in a tense semi-final at The Oval. A game that has been cast as an example of just how exciting the women’s game can be. The final was more straight forward and England were busy celebrating while I got ready for my cameo appearance.

This was only months after England had taken the ODI World Cup in Australia. Having seen Laura Marsh make her England debut as a fast bowler, it was odd to see her now bowling spin, albeit very well. It just showed how out of the loop I was.

In between then and 2012 I had continued to follow the team on the radio and television. The coverage was getting better and under the stewardship of Charlie Dagnall and Ebony Rainford-Brent, I would listen while traveling all over the country. Their enthusiasm for the game is infectious, something that I have tried to install in my niece.

I took her to her first game when she was only a year old. I had won tickets for a T20 international at Arundel against West Indies. I got her a programme and helped her to get it signed by all the players, they couldn’t have been better with her. Edwards took the longest with her, asking her questions, while my niece waved her Sussex flag.

It was a game that showed signs that West Indies could become a force in the game, and it came as little surprise when they won the World T20 earlier this year.

England didn’t have a good time at the World cup the year after the trip to Arundel, they never really got going and went out fairly early. The teams that they had beaten easily a few years before had played catch up and in the case of Australia had overtaken them.

The men’s Ashes series of 2013/14 was going so horrendously that, even those that had never followed women’s cricket were looking to Charlotte Edwards and her team for some of the hope. Which is exactly what they delivered. The test match of the series was one that swung one way then the next. It was a low scoring game where Australia’s first innings total of 207 was highest of the game.

With a points system weighed in favour it was going to take something for Australia to take the Ashes series. They won two of the three ODIs. It wasn’t a surprise when England won the first T20 to win the series.

While England’s players were being paid to be ambassadors by Chance to Shine, it showed just how important women’s cricket was becoming to the ECB when they were rewarded true professional status after the successful Ashes series.

It was everything that the players deserved. With more money being generated from television money, it was only right that some of this was shared around the game. When England won the world cup in 1993 it was still seen as okay by the MCC to omit women members from Lord’s, now here they were 21 years later becoming part of the mainstream.

That isn’t to say that Women’s cricket gets the respect it is due. During the 2015 Women’s Ashes, I spent half a day arguing with a Derbyshire fan why an International match was more important than a Derbyshire versus Yorkshire Royal London One-Day Cup game. It would, after all, have been better for his county if he had attended the game in the flesh.

That series also raised the issue of whether the women’s game benefited from test matches. England had lost their first test as a professional team the year before to India, under far more scrutiny than there had ever been. It was put down to a blip, a team still getting used to their new status.

The Ashes test was different; it was a dour affair under leaden skies. There were people watching that were not used to the way that the women’s game worked. Yes, there were arguments to be made that a professional side should be looking to score runs faster and look to take the initiative. It was unfortunate that is wasn’t a greater spectacle but then the same things had been said about the men’s side in the last couple of years.

This was the only game I had made of the series. I was in Sussex for the T20 Blast quarter-final the night before, a game that David Willey won single handed. I had won tickets for the test at Canterbury thanks to a competition on the Kia twitter page. Kia are a company that has taken women’s cricket to its heart, being a sponsor independent of the men’s side as well as sponsoring the new women’s super league.

I picked my tickets up and was checking them when a woman approached me asking where she could get tickets as her friend needed one. I had a spare ticket so I said she was welcome to use it. “She used to play for England, I don’t know if you have heard of her. Enid Bakewell.” I was a little surprised but I knew who she was. A woman born in the next town over from the one I was born in, she is considered one of the best all-rounders.

I gave my ticket over and thought nothing on it as she went off with her friend. I the afternoon, as the rain fell steadily she came and joined myself and the other competition winners in hospitality, we were entertained with stories of her playing all over the world. The others were surprised that I had only met her that morning but enjoyed the experience. Though shocked that former players weren’t looked after a bit more.

So it was a shame that there was so much negativity around that match. There were moments of really exciting cricket, but people want high scoring games apparently. Paul Allott was coming out with nonsense like shorter pitches and lighter balls, and better judges of the game were calling for tests to be scrapped altogether. There should be more not less. T20 is a good introduction and list A cricket is entertaining but players need to be tested over a number of days.

It will come, maybe not in the next ten years or so, but then if you had told me the health of the game after that test at Leicester in 2006, it would be hard to believe.

The rise of professional leagues like the Women’s Big Bash and the Kia Super League are a good start. They raise the standards of the players just below international level, which if like England the only professionals are those who play for England, this is only a good thing.

The Kia Super League was a successful tournament, in the sense that no one knew what to expect. The crowds were good. I went to the first game played in the competition at Headingley as the Yorkshire Diamonds, took on Loughborough Lightning. There were people waiting for the gates to open and populated by a mix of ages and genders. This wasn’t just family and friends but people who wanted to watch good cricket.

As Sussex didn’t have a team in the competition and not willing to support a Southampton based team: for many reasons, Loughborough would be the team I adopted. I took my mum and she enjoyed the experience; not a traditional cricket supporter (her last game had been 20 years before), she got into the spirit of things and there we were two Loughborough fans in a fairly partisan crowd, which she liked all the more.

I went to the next Loughborough game, a home game against Lancashire Thunder. It was professionally managed and the entertainment was spot on. Loughborough looked well out of the running, until Thea Brookes and Paige Scholfield took the game down to the last over, made all the more nerve racking sitting feet away from Brookes family.

This was what part of this competition was about, giving those players just under the international places the chance to prove that they could mix it with the best. They were not the only ones but then again they weren’t playing for Loughborough.

In a lot of ways, much of the support and willingness to access the Kia Super League was not under assessed at the outset. It is dangerous to use the Big Bash as an example of how to do things (just ask some of the county sides), but they had televised the event and got good figures. The future of the tournament needs to be on free to air television. I don’t think it will detract the numbers going to games.

Clare Connor said that she was really pleased with the number of boys that were going to games because it was important to the future that they saw women playing cricket as ‘normal’. This, as I have stated, has been something that I have grown up with. There are times when your motive for watching women’s cricket is questioned, but never by anyone at the games I have been to and if anything my support has been welcomed.

I want my niece to see that she can achieve anything she puts her mind too. That might not be in the world of cricket, but I hope to give her a number of examples of women who have done just that.

Last year I finally went to my second Sussex Women’s game. I had meant to be playing cricket all day that day, we lost so heavily that when I got home I had enough time to get a bus up the road where Sussex were playing Nottinghamshire at their base of Welbeck Cricket Club. Sussex won, I came away thinking that I can’t leave it so long before the next time I see them again. Maybe one day I will watch my niece play for them. But then again it’s her choice.

My Sussex supporting origins

Have you not ever felt the urge to write

Of all the cricket that blessed your sight?

Is there no inspiration in the names

Of those that play our best of summer games? (Blunden, 1945)

1993 seems to have been a big year for me, it was the year that the sporting teams I would support for the rest of my life were firmly marked. I remember the day that I became a Norwich City supporter, I remember that feeling of finally having a team I could call my own. A team that whenever people I know hear them mentioned, it was me they were thinking about. I had dabbled with a number of different clubs, like Sheffield Wednesday but they never felt right. I mention this because it is rather more difficult to pinpoint when I started to support Sussex.

I was at one stage just happy to watch what was ever on T.V., which for the major part was England. There was one game from every round of the Nat West Trophy. This meant that it was down to good fortune who I would get to see. I remember teams like Northamptonshire and Worcestershire; who had an early favourite player of mine Graeme Hick.

There was a time when I would have associated myself with Hampshire, it is where I had spent most of my early life, before moving back for a second spell in the town I was born. Hampshire had players like David Gower, Robin Smith, Mark Nicholas, and Malcolm Marshall; It was an exciting possibility. I lived in the county borders, but Southampton was a world away from Havant, with its connections to Portsmouth it was never an easy alliance to make.

That isn’t to say I didn’t have some form of link with Sussex, I had lived in Crawley. It was a stop gap on the way back to Havant. In that year and a half or so, cricket had gone from something that I had a keen interest into a full blown obsession.

I was aware of Imran Khan, who had been a Sussex player. I wasn’t to know that he was never to play for them again. What I did know was that he was one of the world’s leading players. A rapidly quick bowler and hard hitter with the bat. He had just helped Pakistan win the world cup. I had been given a coaching book he had written one Christmas, it had photos of him in many text book poses, and I would look through it over and over again. I took it everywhere, even using it to show American tourists on a train from Gatwick Airport just how amazing this game was. I still have it and the curled up corners, and indentations of writings long forgotten about mark the front cover.

We eventually moved back across the Hampshire border, leaving friends behind. I know why we moved but I guess by becoming a Sussex fan I was clinging onto a sense of belonging, a sense of identity. I left with tears in my eyes as, fearing I would never come back.

Like most people with a passion for sport, it all started with a family member. My great-grandad was a cricketer and umpire, who died a long time before I came on the scene. My great-grandma lived on the bottom floor of a block of flats, surrounded by a huge garden and a park at the top.

It was the focal point for the family. We would visit most days; initially on holidays and then when we lived in Mansfield. It was strangely at a time when most sports were on free to air television. Sky sports had yet to corner every market. Most days on the t.v. that was only being half watched was some sporting event or another, snooker, athletics, horse racing, football and cricket.

It was the room I watched my first F.A. Cup final; Manchester United versus Crystal Palace. It was a place where the family would meet for tea on a Saturday afternoon. The living room would fill up with aunties, uncles and smoke. It would get too hot. The kids, consisting of me my sister and a cousin, would play in the bedroom, bathroom, or the big field outside. We would play our own games of football and cricket. Or go to the park and play on the playground.

It was at this park that I met kids slightly older than me who actually liked cricket.  They were two brothers, both at the middle school, while I was at the first school. They were surprised to see me when I went on a school trip to see the school we would move up to. Apart from the fact I knew, I wasn’t going to that school and we were moving back down south.

It was over the course of these days at my great-grandmas that cricket became part of the consciousness. It took a while to pick up the rules; it took even longer to be certain of the fielding positions. My great-grandma watched keenly, most of the time. A selection of England players would come out to bat and soon disappear, to the disapproval of my grandma. On more than one occasion this would lead to an ‘oh you bugger’ slipping form her mouth, only to turn around and see me, much to the amusement of my mum.

It was difficult to get my school friends to show any interest in cricket. I took a bat and ball to play in the playground, although it was soon stopped by teachers who saw it as dangerous; more to do with a swinging bat than a rouge tennis ball. So it was back to being pinned to the floor and having my pants pulled down, in front of the girl everyone had a crush on. She did get that one boy to stop doing it, as she wasn’t impressed by it.

I started to collect any articles I could find on the sport. Unburdened by any affiliations I could read without bias. However, it was limited to copies of The Sun which my granddads bought. It wasn’t long until I moved on to The Times and The Daily Telegraph with their coverage of the county game in some detail. I would even rummage through the newspapers at school that had been donated for painting time. Fellow students would bring me anything with a cricketer on. I had started to get a bit snobbish, they are only ‘club cricketers’.

I started to read about Worcestershire who had Graeme Hick and an ageing Ian Botham. Even players such as Steve Rhodes, Stuart Lampitt, Tim Curtis, David Leatherdale and Tom Moody. They were a good one-day side and must have been on television a fair bit. Worcester seemed to be so far away. It is a decent journey even now.

 I got to see these players close up in my second ever game. A Sunday League game at Portsmouth, on a gloomy day I followed Hick around the boundary edge, eager but silent hoping for his autograph. One of the supporters, gave me an encouraging ‘go on ask him’ at the fall of a wicket; to which I could only whimper a ‘Hick’. It was in a shy reluctant way in which he turned and signed my autograph book.

They were in a number of one-day semi-finals and finals, as were Northamptonshire. When Northants beat Hampshire in the semi-final of the 1990 NatWest Trophy by 1 run I cried. Not that I would cry at a Hampshire defeat now-a-days.

 Another NatWest Semi-final that sticks in the memory was the following year when, Northants again played Surrey. It had gone into a second day, and Surrey defending 208. It was the first time I was aware of Waqar Younis, he ran in with such venom and it was thrilling to watch as he dismissed five of the Northants line-up, every close chance he would clench his fists and grind his teeth so often, he was soon nicknamed Gnasher in our house.

False start for Sussex

It is never going to be easy to replace the experience of Luke Wright and Chris Nash before the start of any game. There was hope they would be fit when named in a 14-man squad for the first game of the new Specsavers County Championship. Matt Machin and Harry Finch are by no means inferior players, Machin has been to world cups with Scotland and has been in and around the first team since 2010. Finch is an up and coming batsman who has been on the fringes for a while. Only last week he scored his first Sussex hundred against Leeds/Bradford MCCU.

One selection that did kind of surprise people was George Garton who was preferred over the solid medium-fast bowling of Lewis Hatchett. Sometimes it is a hard call to go for youth over experience, (Hatchett is still only 26 it should be added) and it is a hunch that looks like it will pay off.

The new regulation that allows the away team to choose to field first is an interesting idea. Of the six games that started on Sunday, only one side chose to turn this offer down. Sussex may have wished that they hadn’t. The game at Northampton started half an hour late, but Northamptonshire’s openers Ben Duckett and the on-loan Jake Libby came out to bat under clear blue skies.

As Ben Brown lead his team out it seemed like a good option, it soon looked like they had been suckered into making the wrong decision. Libby has got history with Sussex. On his championship debut for Nottinghamshire in 2014 he scored a near faultless hundred on a flat Trent Bridge pitch.

It looked like he was going to do that again here; he was dropped at slip by Ross Taylor to what is usually a routine catch at knee height. It was a rare movement where something happened for the Sussex bowlers. There was so little assistance on offer that Danny Briggs was bowling his left-arm spin in tandem with the part-time leg spin of Luke Wells before lunch. It is not often you can say that has happened on the first day of the season.

It was Duckett who impressed with the bat for Northants. At 21 and more than a capable wicket-keeper he has had to adapt his game as Adam Rossington is the man tasked with keeping wicket for Northamptonshire. Since being given the task of opening the batting he has been unstoppable.

There were moments when he took risks that evaded the Sussex field and it wasn’t long before a third-man was put in place as a number of cuts and slashes found their way down to that boundary.

It is far too early to talk of England selection, although I have seen at least one person mention it off the back off this innings. Some may suggest that playing for a second division team won’t help, as Northamptonshire know all too well to their cost as they have lost both Jack Brooks and David Willey as they bid to play for England.

Duckett has adapted well to opening the batting there is no doubt about it, he is a player who likes to play shots, and is kind of the player England are looking for to open the batting alongside someone like Alastair Cook. Duckett is only 18 runs off a triple-century. The next step is to keep scoring big. One other option would be to keep badgering people to keep. As that is also another area England haven’t tied one player down. Although opening and keeping in the test match is incredibly difficult.

On day two Sussex have fought back, and George Garton was at the centre of it. There were some grumblings among some Sussex fans that he was chosen over Hatchett, I wasn’t one of them. Garton had a good under-19 world cup for England and looks a great prospect and just days away from his 19^th birthday, he seems level headed for one so young and isn’t afraid to bowl Yorkers.

One of the remits given to Mark Davies the new Sussex coach was to bring through more young players and that is what he is doing with Garton. Sussex haven’t produced enough bowlers in recent years and have brought them in from other places mainly in an attempt to resurrect careers.

Garton took three wickets on day two, the first couple bowled as well. With Steve Magoffin and Ollie Robinson, the attack is well lead, with the prospect of Chris Jordan and Ajmal Shahzad (if injury free) Sussex have the making of an attack that can get Sussex back into division one.

Shakeup at Sussex expects results

At the end of the 2015 season Sussex were relegated in deflating style at the hands of Yorkshire, coupled with a surge of form from Hampshire. It was a different mood from the start of the season where they were some people’s outside tip to win the LV= County Championship.

Disappointing exits in both the Royal London One Day Cup, and blasted out of the NatWest T20 Blast by an extraordinary innings by David Willey meant that the south coast club came away with nothing.

There is change in the air at Hove this year, with the retirement of Michael Yardy, Luke Wright replacing Ed Joyce as captain in all formats and Mark Robinson leaving as coach to take on the challenge of the England Women’s side. Mark Davies steps up from the second team to coach the first team, while Keith Greenfield will become Sussex’s first director of cricket.

With the tragic death of Matthew Hobden at the start of the year left the club in a state of shock. Hobden was such a promising young player who could have thrived in Division Two of the Specsavers County Championship.

The restructuring of the County Championship from 2017 means that there is only one promotion spot available. Sussex will be expected to challenge for that one spot but the likes of Worcestershire will be close challengers.
There is a feeling that a number of the younger players will get a chance to challenge for first-team places, with an emphasis to improve form in the limited- overs arena. There is no reason that this cannot be achieved.

With Steve Magoffin now qualified as an English player Sussex have been able to recruit an extra overseas player and in Ross Taylor signed up for the first half of the summer it looks like they will have added strength in the batting department which has seen the loss of the experienced Yardy.

The fact that Murray Goodwin is back as batting coach will see a focus on scoring not only a large amount of runs but runs when they matter. With the likes of Ed Joyce, Chris Nash and Luke Wright they have players of doing just that. Last year was a breakthrough season for Ben Brown who was even mentioned as a possible candidate to take the gloves for England.

The signing of Danny Briggs will strengthen the spin department that has never fully replaced Mushtaq Ahmed. It feels a little unlucky on Will Beer. Beer is a match winner in white-ball cricket but has not really been given the opportunity in the championship.

On the bowling front much will rely on the fitness of a number of bowlers, Tymal Mills will be limited to the short forms of the game as the pressures of four-day cricket is not good for his back. Ajmal Shahzad showed in the small amount of cricket he was able to play that he is a real asset. Much will depend on James Anyon regaining fitness as he is a good strike bowler who takes wickets at regular intervals, if not a little expensively.

One real find last season was Ollie Robinson, who was really on his final chance in county cricket, over perceived attitude problems. He scored a hundred batting at nine and took a bucket full of wickets. There may be hopes that George Garton the England under-19 player will be the next player to make their impact at Hove this summer.
In terms of bowlers in T20 there is the signing of Mustafizur Rahman the Bangladeshi pace bowler who has impressed in a much improved Bangladesh team.

So while there are a number of intriguing questions to be asked about just how well Sussex will consolidate and improve, much will be expected of them in the championship even though it will be more difficult with the restructuring on the county championship for 2017.

County Cricket is back!

It wasn’t long ago that the traditional curtain raiser to the county cricket season was staged in front of a sparse crowd at Lord’s as the MCC take on last year’s county champions. Things have moved on. Abu Dhabi now hosts the game and last season a pink ball was used.

There is a special breed of person that looks forward to another season of county cricket. Some may not venture into any of the countries county grounds, some may follow it in the daily paper and others on the internet, but their passion isn’t any the less because of it.

Last year I started this website with the intention of covering as much of the county season as possible. This died a death rather quickly as new ventures came to the fore. I want to revive it. But with a different intent. I will update when possible maybe not as in-depth and missing games that you would figure have more prominence. Some of it will be from games I have been to, watched on television or read about.

One thing you get will be my opinion. I don’t support a county with a test venue for a ground but I wouldn’t have it any other way. You may get fed up with my opposition to Franchise T20 in this country, but that is the way I see things.

So, for now, what am I looking forward to this season?

1.       The new Specsavers County Championship – A new sponsor means it will take a while to get used to. But the same intrigue will be there. Can Yorkshire make it three from three? Who will go down? And who will come up? With only one team being promoted ahead of a shift in the structure of the county season from 2017, it will be a hard fought season with a Worcestershire and Sussex heading the queue.

2.       England – The rebuilding of a young side continues, and it is an exciting prospect. With Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the two touring sides will offer some interesting battles, which England would expect to do well in. There are still places up for grabs at the top of the order which will keep things interesting.

3.       England Women – A new coach in Mark Robinson and a new intent about an already talented line-up will be looking for more consistency that saw them lose last year’s ashes series.

4.       Women’s Super League – After the success of the WBBL over the winter, it will be interesting to see how a first franchise style league plays out in this country. It will also hopefully help grow the international talent pool outside of the centrally contracted players.

5.       Ireland – I have followed the Irish side for a while now and am a big advocate of more opportunities for the associate nations.

6.       Sussex – I am a big Sussex fan, so I will always have something to say about how they are getting on. I will be at Northampton to see them kick-off their county championship season of April 10^th. It is a time of rebuilding. Much is still expected of the side captained by Luke Wright.

A small tribute to Matthew Hobden

While you very rarely get to know the people that represent the sports teams you support, you can gain an insight into their character when they strive for the same goals and aims as you. You see how much it means to them when they win and when they lose.

So it is always a shock when one of them doesn't get to fulfill their potential and promise. So when someone who is as young Matt Hobden was when he passed away yesterday.

I only got to see him play for Sussex a few times but he looked as if he was really starting to become a cricketer of quality. It wasn't just his bowling that had improved over beyond measure, but his batting that helped Ollie Robinson score a century from number nine.

All the messages on twitter suggest he was a good bloke and from the limited amount of time I saw him he certainly seemed to be just that. You could tell from the way he held himself and the way he was supported by his captain and teammates.

So my thoughts are with his family, friends, and everyone who saw him represent Sussex.
RIP Matt

Joy - film review

When I say a second trailer for the film Joy I was intrigued as they made it seem like two different films. One was a light-hearted comedy about a dysfunctional family with Joy played by Jennifer Lawrence the one person keeping it together. The other showed what looked like it would be a more sombre film. In some respects they are both correct.

The film sets off at a decent pace that is funny without ever getting a room of people to laugh heartily. Robert De Niro is defiantly funnier than in the Meet The Parents films he was in. The real star of the show is Lawrence who gets the character of Joy just right.

I had never heard of the woman this film is loosely based on, and not intrigued enough to find out more; I guess that’s bound to happen when you consider just how unglamorous the world of mops are. That doesn’t mean the story isn’t worth telling.

All inventions have a story to tell, and this one does it well. The use of a voiceover was good, kind of in the Steve Martin mould. It was used sparingly and never got overly emotional.

The focus was truly on Lawrence an actor I haven’t seen that much of (Hunger Games not really my cup of tea), but there is no doubting this film belongs to her. It has a strong supporting cast who help the film flow.

As films go it's a good way to start a new year with. It won’t be the best film of the year, nor will it be the worst, it will however be near the top of the rest.

https://youtu.be/uR-2TiQVY-k

https://youtu.be/D-A85lXUCO8