Bears/Pears/Domestic Cricket Thread 2017

[AVH87]

Sibley, Hose and Rhodes in so far. Clarke out. I like it, all young and all look promising based on some of the things they've done so far at some pretty big counties.

[Villan For Life]

Sibley is joining straight away on loan and is available for tonight's game against the Pears. Clarke has gone on loan to Surrey ahead of his move there.

I always liked Clarke, he served the Bears well but I felt that this was a season too far for him. Surrey must be furious, losing a 21 year old with a lot of potential and signing a 35 year old whose best days are behind him!

Giles is making progress with the squad, I just hope it's not too much of a gamble along the lines of the Lambert/Lerner experiment with the young players from lower divisions.

[tomd2103]

Sibley is joining straight away on loan and is available for tonight's game against the Pears. Clarke has gone on loan to Surrey ahead of his move there.

I always liked Clarke, he served the Bears well but I felt that this was a season too far for him. Surrey must be furious, losing a 21 year old with a lot of potential and signing a 35 year old whose best days are behind him!

Giles is making progress with the squad, I just hope it's not too much of a gamble along the lines of the Lambert/Lerner experiment with the young players from lower divisions.

Agree, he has been a good servant over the years.  I think we have missed him and his experience a bit at times (we looked a bit short in the bowling department on Tuesday for example), but he is getting on and we have got to start rebuilding the squad.     

[Gareth]

I think you are making some good signings, they might not be enough to keep you in Div 1 but they will be bedded down to allow you to do as Notts have done this season and stroll back up.

My only hope is that there aren't glances down the M5 at Clarke, Tongue & Cox - they aren't for sale :-)

[Villan For Life]

I think you are making some good signings, they might not be enough to keep you in Div 1 but they will be bedded down to allow you to do as Notts have done this season and stroll back up.

My only hope is that there aren't glances down the M5 at Clarke, Tongue & Cox - they aren't for sale :-)

I'm sure that they'd rather be Bears than Pears!

[paul_e]

I think you are making some good signings, they might not be enough to keep you in Div 1 but they will be bedded down to allow you to do as Notts have done this season and stroll back up.

My only hope is that there aren't glances down the M5 at Clarke, Tongue & Cox - they aren't for sale :-)

I honestly think that's the intention, they've accepted relegation this season and are concentrating on getting the squad balance right to come back next season.

[Gareth]

I think you are making some good signings, they might not be enough to keep you in Div 1 but they will be bedded down to allow you to do as Notts have done this season and stroll back up.

My only hope is that there aren't glances down the M5 at Clarke, Tongue & Cox - they aren't for sale :-)

I'm sure that they'd rather be Bears than Pears!

That's an alien concept :-)

[Villan For Life]

I think you are making some good signings, they might not be enough to keep you in Div 1 but they will be bedded down to allow you to do as Notts have done this season and stroll back up.

My only hope is that there aren't glances down the M5 at Clarke, Tongue & Cox - they aren't for sale :-)

I'm sure that they'd rather be Bears than Pears!

That's an alien concept :-)

We are continually linked with Moeen too. Whilst I don't see the logic of signing a centrally contracted player, on the plus side he would give us a link into the local Asian community. For a club with so many thriving largely Asian clubs on our doorstep we are missing out on a potential rich seam of talent.

[AVH87]

Sibley is joining straight away on loan and is available for tonight's game against the Pears. Clarke has gone on loan to Surrey ahead of his move there.

I always liked Clarke, he served the Bears well but I felt that this was a season too far for him. Surrey must be furious, losing a 21 year old with a lot of potential and signing a 35 year old whose best days are behind him!

Giles is making progress with the squad, I just hope it's not too much of a gamble along the lines of the Lambert/Lerner experiment with the young players from lower divisions.

Looking at his averages, you may well be right (18 with the bat and 41 with the ball in the CC this season).

We really need to get Stone fit as some of the other seamers are knocking on as well and have regular fitness issues (Wright, Rankin, etc).

[AVH87]

I think you are making some good signings, they might not be enough to keep you in Div 1 but they will be bedded down to allow you to do as Notts have done this season and stroll back up.

My only hope is that there aren't glances down the M5 at Clarke, Tongue & Cox - they aren't for sale :-)

If they aren't for sale no problem, we'll take Leach and Moeen instead 

[tomd2103]

Sibley is joining straight away on loan and is available for tonight's game against the Pears. Clarke has gone on loan to Surrey ahead of his move there.

I always liked Clarke, he served the Bears well but I felt that this was a season too far for him. Surrey must be furious, losing a 21 year old with a lot of potential and signing a 35 year old whose best days are behind him!

Giles is making progress with the squad, I just hope it's not too much of a gamble along the lines of the Lambert/Lerner experiment with the young players from lower divisions.

Looking at his averages, you may well be right (18 with the bat and 41 with the ball in the CC this season).

We really need to get Stone fit as some of the other seamers are knocking on as well and have regular fitness issues (Wright, Rankin, etc).

I agree, the batting seem to be being addressed, but the bowling (particularly the seam bowling) remains a concern for me.  Wright and Rankin spend large chunks of pretty much every season injured and I think it might be time to move on from them.  Stone being injured hasn't helped (although we knew he was injured when we signed him) and with no Woakes either our seam attack has looked very weak at times.  It's an area I think we have to address going forward. 

[tomd2103]

I think you are making some good signings, they might not be enough to keep you in Div 1 but they will be bedded down to allow you to do as Notts have done this season and stroll back up.

My only hope is that there aren't glances down the M5 at Clarke, Tongue & Cox - they aren't for sale :-)

I'm sure that they'd rather be Bears than Pears!

That's an alien concept :-)

We are continually linked with Moeen too. Whilst I don't see the logic of signing a centrally contracted player, on the plus side he would give us a link into the local Asian community. For a club with so many thriving largely Asian clubs on our doorstep we are missing out on a potential rich seam of talent.

There isn't really any logic to signing a centrally contracted player apart from the prestige of having an England player turn out for you a few times a season.  If they are already there (Bell, Woakes, Trott) then that is different, but signing one doesn't really make much sense. 

[AVH87]

I'd sign Ali for the 'prestige'. England pay his wages as he's on a central contract, and we'd have him for a handful of County and One-Day games as well as big games like Semi-Finals.

[Villan For Life]

I'd sign Ali for the 'prestige'. England pay his wages as he's on a central contract, and we'd have him for a handful of County and One-Day games as well as big games like Semi-Finals.

I agree with the "prestige" point but they hardly play for their home county do they?

Players like Ali who are centrally contracted for test and white ball cricket are usually rested on the odd occasions when they are free to play for their county. This has been made worse by the staging the Champions Trophy over here in June. The likes of Cook, Broad and Anderson who only play test cricket were free to play for their respective counties from the start of the season until the start of the series against South Africa. Ali hasn't played for the Pears since June and even then it was in one championship game and three Royal London games.

[Villan For Life]

I did a double take when I read this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/40825768

Giles has been very busy and I like what he's doing with the squad.