By Grockle
July 21 2002

It would be nice to report that he fought back...but we didn't we suffered the final indignity of an innings defeat. Despite the work of Mike Burns, Ian Blackwell and the tail.

SUSSEX CC1 @ TAUNTON JULY 19 2002

DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY THREE

DAY FOUR

Too many runs...

When we finally put paid to the onslaught of Martin-Jenkins and Davies, our victory in this game was dead and buried.  The best we could hope for would be a fighting draw.   The Sussex all rounder reached his 200 before we got anywhere and the two of them must have made hay in in the morning sunshine because Davies reached his ton as well in the early session.  He finally became the next victim when Jones had him caught by Bowler at 111 (at number 9!!) and a score of 642.  It only took two more runs to get the next man who went for 1 from 7 balls and Lewry lasted no timw, going first ball to Jones.   Martin-Jenkins had killed us and ended on 205 not out off 233 balls.  Jones' morning haul gave him figures of 3 for 159 - academic really.

Too many poor bats..

Cox, bowled 4th ball - when it's not your week it's not your week.  Wood gone for 13 within half an hour.  3 for 63 in 90 minutes when Bowler finished a poor game - what the hell had happened to the pitch.  Why was it a minefield for us?  Was Lewry that much better or were we getting ourselves out? 

Mike Burns shows some backbone but Parsons goes first ball and at 63 for 4 chasing God knows how many he must think, "What's the point"  no-one else seems to understand the seriousness.  Sussex are just above us in the table and we're just above the relegation zone, on our own turf, on a batting pitch where the opposition have just hit nearly 650 with the majority coming from the non batsmen!  Isn't that serious enough?

Sanity returns as Blackwell and Burns start to build a partnership, but to be honest, the damage is done.  Even their 128 is no where near enough.  Burns goes 2 before a deserved century but Blackwell continues with Rob Turner but he only sticks around for 31 and Dutch doesn't even make that many minutes as he is caught and bowled for 2.  When Blacky goes for 114 we are deceased.  Peter Trego worries the scorers to the tune of 4 and once again Matt Bulbeck and Steffan Jones show some backbone - with Jones as the leading party this time - as they put on 68 for the last wicket.

Almost as a statement on our part in this game, just when we may retrieve some dignity from the situation, by making Sussex at least bat again, it is snatched from us when Bulbeck is caught by Ambrose off Taylor one run short of the total needed.

Three days of sun, over 1200 runs and we come out of the game an innings and one run short.  The seventh wicket partnership for Sussex must be a record, our submission and defeat is becoming all too common, although not in this form of the game until now.   I thought at least we were safe from relegation in the longer game.  We have been unlucky with the weather.  We were today in fact.  We were so woefully out-batted in this game that only the rain would have helped us save it.  Steffan Jones bowled over 40 overs in this game because Matt Bulbeck bowled only 13.  How long is he going to hold out and what happens when we have NO bowling attack - that is if you believe we have one now.  The problem once again however was that our struggling bowlers got almost no support from the specialist batsmen - Mike Burns the possible exception.  If the weaknesses in our side are not balanced by the supposed strengths then we've got absolutely nowhere to hide.  Some of the squad had better start standing up and being counted if this season is not to turn into chaos!  Even the C&G run, if it continues, will not be enough if we sink into the second string of counties in both forms of cricket!!  Ondaatje's millions will mean nothing then!!