County update: Rain plays spoilsport in Derbyshire-Surrey game

And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down and saved our county’s bacon…

Just a quick blog tonight, as I have an early start tomorrow. I didn’t see any of the action tonight, because our daughter’s birthday celebrations took precedence (yes, family comes even before DCCC….) but there’s little doubt that we were in serious trouble when it came down.

When the opposition are going at 11-12 an over at half way, you know that you’re in trouble and Derbyshire‘s team selection tonight struck me as something of a Hobson’s choice eleven, especially when we were playing a twenty over game.

I find it hard to believe that Billy Godleman will be in our T20 side, while the presence of Paul Borrington is unlikely, even though his scoring rate in YB40 games this summer is ahead of some of the supposed ‘blasters’ in our squad. By the same token, I didn’t see our batsmen getting near a ten over chase of a hundred-plus, though my dessert went down better than might have been the case when the club tweet said that the covers were on…

It is tough on Surrey, who have good openers in Davies and Roy, but you have to be relieved at a point, even if not deserved. We will need to do much better over the next four days, that’s for sure.

The squad for the championship game has been announced and, on the club site reads as follows:

Billy Godleman, Chesney Hughes, Wayne Madsen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Wes Durston, Paul Borrington, Alex Hughes, Richard Johnson, David Wainwright, Peter Burgoyne, Tim Groenewald, Mark Footitt and Mark Turner.

Have to say I’m disappointed to see that Ben Slater is omitted and can’t see the logic, to be honest. Whether they have good seamers or not, a bloke in nick is likely to do better against them than one who isn’t. Alex Hughes deserves a crack and will at least give balance should he play, but the final places would appear to be between Wainwright and Burgoyne, together with Godleman and Borrington, unless Karl Krikken has a late rethink and gets Slater back from York, where he is on second team duty.

Not overly propitious tonight then, but reasons to be cheerful nonetheless. The skipper won the toss (double-headed coins eh…they work every time) while the club’s end of match report didn’t say “County run chase thwarted by elements”.

For me, that’s progress…

I’ll be back tomorrow, but later. Tomorrow night family Peakfan rock to the sound of Canadian music deities Rush at the Scottish Exhibition Centre. Three hours of classic rock…though I may be deaf by Friday.