beat Middlesex 169 for 7
by 10 Runs
T20 Blast
Thursday 18 July 2024
Played at Chelmsford !!!
Partly. Back from Germany to the calmness of County Cricket. Partly. Back to the madness which is County Cricket 2024. I recently Blogged about Exclaves. Bits of West Berlin, which are geographically in, and surrounded by, East Germany.
“No Chelmsford is not an Exclave of Middlesex.”
Yet. Here we are. A Middlesex “home” T20 game being played at The County Ground in Chelmsford, home of Essex County Cricket Club. Middlesex's traditional home is Lord's Cricket Ground. But they play there as tenants, granted a game by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) landlords. With increasing demand for Lord's. International cricket, Women's cricket, The Hundreds. The MCC cannot provide as many game days as MCCC need.
Increasingly, Middlesex have used (so called) outgrounds. Radlett in particular. But, this season's spreadsheet algorithm shows it's more expensive to set up a Radlett outground for a T20 game, than it is to “rent” an already set up Chelmsford ground. So. two Middlesex “home” T20 Blast games are being played “along the road” at Chelmsford.
Sure. Sure. Sure it makes financial sense. I believe you. But. FFS. Is this what Cricket 2024 has come to.
The format of the T20 Blast is shit an’ all. Group stage, to qualify for Quarter Finals. The pretence of every County still in it until the end of days. If we beat them, and those beat the others, and the Net Run Rate improves…
Middlesex lost. Middlesex are out. Glos are in the Quarters.
100 for no wicket off eleven overs. Under nine an over off the rest. You fancy Middlesex from there. But they lost wickets. And that slowed the run rate. At 15 Overs, Middlesex needed 57 off 30 balls, three gone. By 18 gone, they'd lost 6 wickets, and needed 32 off two overs. Never looked like getting that.
A four and a six off the lost cause last two balls made it look closer than it was. Poor I felt.
First Cask Ale since 7 June.
The Hop Beer Shop
173 Moulsham St, Chelmsford CM2 0LD
Four on.
Colchester Brewery, Metropolis, Blonde Ale on Gravity at 3.8%
I needed that one. Spicy leading into bitter, with icing sugar on the lips.
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