Bounce & Cramped

Yorkshire Vikings 200-3
beat
Durham Jets 156-4
by 44 runs

T20 Blast

Played at Headingley

Thursday 5 July 2018

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You'd have to go a long way to find a lazy afternoon drinking boozer that is better than The Cardigan Arms. Nice & quiet. People in of course, just being quiet. Great beer range. Cask & Keg. Dominated by (their own) Kirkstall Brewery, but with some nice British & International guests.

As well as North of 8% kegged Double IPAs, I'm becoming a sucker for North of 6% cask NEs or West Coast IPAs. You don't see them very often & I think the brewers just put a bit more care, and a little less Instagram in them. Yesterday (not a ball occasion) I had Thornbridge Hacksaw, New England IPA on cask. Only 5% that one. But, fresh, bright, hop forward & not juiced to del Monte. Superb.

Toss up between that 'un & today's North Brewing Co. Transmission, West Coast IPA at 6.9%. That was superb. It just seemed in sync & balanced. Very rich. How do you describe richness? It was - rich. Sugar sweetness in the background. You can't say what it is. You don't really notice it. Until you realise it sets up the richness - so that the hop bitterness just keeps coming at you. Good beers don't taste of their ingredients - that's the key.

Great win for Yorkshire that. Best to start at the end. Jack Brooks three for 21. Patto one for 26. None of them have gone for 40. I don't know what they're doing, but they're doing it well. The best I've got is that they were getting a bit of bounce & cramping batsmen up. Not much in the slot to go Downtown. Backed up by perfect, he's hit it straight at him field placings. Have a look. Durham have only lost 4 wickets. Stokes was not out 90 at the death. But, the bowlers made sure they could never get it going. Stokes has done 90 off 68. Lyth has done 92 off 54. Tape tells tale.

678/1416

10 from The Big Hitters

Northamptonshire Steelbacks 161-8
beat Nottinghamshire Outlaws 153-9
by 8 runs

Durham Jets 156-6
beat Yorkshire Vikings 149-9
by 7 runs

Saturday 20 August 2016

T20 Blast Finals Day

Played at Edgbaston

Twitter @ball_sup

Gillespie Gunslinger Gauge - steady at TWO. Ballance & Willey.

Sighs. Dry day.  Which allows me to deal with the main issue. It's successful. They won't change it. But, I don't know how we got here. T20 is a great low attention span game. Set up as high intensity, compressed sport at it's best. Yet, on showcase day, we play three games. 120 overs of the stuff. Longest day in cricket. For the bish bash bosh. I don't get it.

Anyway, early start, rain around, schedule subject to change, may even spill into a Reserve Day. I didn't know whether I was coming home or looking for a hotel. Big crowd. The New Fans aplenty. I walked past some fella who was excited because beer was being served in different plastic glasses to his previous pint. Beer Snakes easier with the new ones. Won't knock it. Not my scene. Not my drinking environment of choice. Dry day.

There is still a deal of debate about the future of ECB T20. City Based Franchises. We already have them. A common central brand, franchised to local dealerships, a lot of which are in cities. Call it what it is. The leaked proposal amounts to fewer teams & new names.

I've blown cold & hot. Finals Day has just hardened my views. We need each team to play fewer games. Make the games matter. Fourteen games per team. To whittle down to the last eight is far too many. That's madness. No sense of event or occasion. Too many games per night. No focus. It's that sense of event, of every game counts, which is central to the success of Big Bash in Australia.

We've got 18 Counties. With Northants & Durham in this year's Final. The best way to have fewer games is a full two Division meritocracy. Nine teams per Division. Eight games per County. I'd go to Semi Finals. Followed at a different time by a full on Final. There'd need to be a play off system for promotion & relegation.

I'd just about slide to an unbalanced nine games per County. To preserve existing home & away big games like Lancashire v Yorkshire and Middlesex v Surrey. But, if they're in different divisions of the meritocracy. So be it. Their big games will have to be against someone else.

The England Boys back for Yorkshire today. Back from choreographed International Cricket. Into they're all trying, some tough characters, Big Boys Cricket. Shell Shocked. Lo, it came to pass.

Root 7, Bairstow 3, Ballance quacking. That won't do. Switch on.

Yorkshire had to take a recognised Batsman deep into the chase. Leaning was out 35 short of the target at 122-7 off 17.2. That left Bresnan, Plunkett, Rashid & Rafiq too much to do. After just 10 combined from the Big Hitters. Won't do it. Didn't.

353/760

If it comes off, you win

Yorkshire Vikings 223-6
beat Durham Jets 174-8
by 49 runs

Wednesday 20 July 2016

T20 Blast North Group

Played at Headingley

Twitter @ball_sup

Gillespie/Gale Gunslinger Gauge - steady at THREE. Willey, Head, Hodd.

Pre match drink in the reliably superb Arcadia. On Roosters/Bronx Brewery, Ida Rivera’s Mulitcultural IPA on keg at 6.5%.

A serious beer that. (At a serious price). Tan brown in the glass. Powerful sweet smell. Like putting your head into a jar of boiled sweets. Very sweet in the mouth at first. But, pleasantly so. Very quickly gives way as a swirling bitterness grabs you.

There's a fruitiness I can't place. Maybe some orange. The barman is saying Tea involved.

I'm living proof that you can just about do T20 under lights at Headingley from Sheffield on the train. The Sky TV 6:30 starts have a nominal finish time of 2115. That gives you plenty of time for the 2237 Leeds/Sheffield Rattler. To get back just after midnight. Not for the faint hearted though.

Friday nights. 7pm starts. Bigger crowds. Weekend drinkers. That's a whole different group of Lads with cans of Stella on the train situation mind.

Anyway. I even had time for a post match celebratory bevvy. In the I'd forgotten just how great a range of beer they have Tapped Leeds. I had a lovely swill of Sierra Nevada, 11.5 Plato on keg at 4.5%. No tasting notes. Sorry, I had to be on the 2237.

Man Crush Klaxon. First time I've seen the back from the wilderness Azeem Rafiq. Welcome home Son. One of my favourite cricketers. Since Chelmsford. Single handed. Hope it works out.

Didn't bat. Four overs. Two for 27. Took a catch off Willey. In the game. Natch.

Look, you're gonna win T20 games if you play like that. It's an if it comes off game. Lyth came off. You've got to pepper the ropes in the first few overs. Lyth (87 off 54) & Willey (32 off 14) did. That allows cameos. Leaning 32 off 11. Head 34 off 24.

And then the immense scoreboard pressure means a Bowler might come off. Plunkett one for 13 off his four. Ridiculous. He took a great tumbling catch off Rafiq as well.

334/729