Dedications what you need if you wanna be a Record Breaker

My peers in the fashion industry generally obsess about fixed gear bikes and Summer Music Festivals (but not any of the one’s you’ve heard of – these are more obscure with a bit of a vintage twist).  In contrast, whenever my mind wanders it’s to thoughts of the County Cricket season which kicked off so marvellously at Taunton last week.  But alas, nobody seems interested in tales of Woakes, Chopra and Rikki Clarke and the way they took apart the competition favourites in our glorious opening fixture. I should stress (in case she’s reading) that I also think about my upcoming wedding as well which is set for September 17^th.  Of course if Warwickshire reach the final of the CB40 again then our first day of wedded bliss will be spent with one ear to the radio commentary (I imagine a trip to Lords will be out of the question)!

I’d wanted to get my last blog posted early.  I felt the need to have my moment in the sun with our massive first innings total because I wasn’t unconvinced that Somerset wouldn’t do the same?  The batting line- up looked strong on paper with Trescothick, Kiewetter and Hildreth and a track that was going to be kind to anyone in good nick who was prepared to play themselves in.  In a parallel universe there is every chance that my present feelings of joy and anticipation have been replaced by a flat sense of inevitability after Somerset’s 700+ first innings reply followed by headlines in the press bemoaning the 4 day game’s futile and tedious spectacle.  It’s depressing just to consider and, as luck would have it, reality couldn’t be more different.  Record after record was broken and Warwickshire cleaned up Somerset twice in a little over two sessions of play.  I have pulled together the following list of records from various sources that I understand to be true:

·         642 is Warwickshire’s highest total for 15 years.

·         An innings and 382 runs is the biggest winning margin in our 123 year existence.

·         This also represented the 6^th biggest winning margin in the history of the Championship.

·         If Chris Woakes had taken one more wicket he would have been the first Bear’s player to score a ton and take ten match wickets in 100 years (Swashbuckling and no doubt moustachioed all rounder and captain Frank Foster being the last in 1911).

·         The only man who was happy not to see that particular record broken was Rikki Clarke who took the final wicket of the game which was, surprisingly, the first 5 wicket haul of his first class career.  Figures of 5 for 10 surpassed a previous best of 4/21.

·         Chris Woakes has now scored the same number of first class hundreds as England Test batsman Eoin Morgan – food for thought!

·         The match DVD is currently the slowest selling item in the Somerset Club Shop.

Woakes has taken the plaudits for his all round performance and the likelihood of Warwickshire losing the 22 year old to more international duty this summer looks strong.  Just in case any of the England selectors are reading (and I understand Geoff Miller to be a regular reader), let me be the first the state on the record that Woakes’ figures were actually very deceptive.  He got a very lucky century on a flat pitch and then took 9 very lucky wickets on horrible surface for batsmen.  He has potential which is still best developed with his county side for the rest of this year (that should put them off the scent for a while)!  Varun Chopra should now be brimming with confidence and Jim Troughton can be pretty bloody happy with his first three days in the office as captain.  His toughest decision ahead of the visit to Worcester this week will centre around Mohemmed Youssef and who he will replace in the starting line up.  Ian Westwood must feel vulnerable after being the only man in the top six to fail  with the bat other than Jim himself.  Porterfield could open with Chopra leaving room for Youssef to come in at 3 but Maddy (especially having not been used as a bowling option) might feel equally worried despite a decent knock at Taunton.  The real fun starts when both Trott and Bell are available.

The weather is quite frankly glorious and, if Worcester manage to take the game into days 3 and 4 (a hint at some over confidence there), I might just pop down to New Road and watch my first First Class Cricket of the season in the flesh.

You Bears.