rebus
On my final warning
Middlesex CCC 2025
Early wicket so might get my arse down there later. Rain predicted at 2pm though.
Middlesex CCC 2025
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rebus
On my final warning
Sunbury Bee
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ppobee
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Middlesex CCC 2025
First First Class 100. Not a bad time to do it, and then a wicket too. Hopefully match heads towards a draw, would be difficult to win from 371 behind with two days left.
Sunbury Bee
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Middlesex CCC 2025
2nd 1st class Hundred. Got one a couple of weeks ago against Leicestershire. Amazing what you can do with a coach that supports you!
ppobee
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Middlesex CCC 2025
Apologies, should have checked CricInfo rather than Wikipedia! Glad to see he is getting a proper chance.
rebus
On my final warning
ppobee
Active member
Middlesex CCC 2025
It was a good morning until the last two balls. Middx now 18 ahead but lost two wickets right before lunch - the second one looks like a run out going for third run?
ppobee
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Middlesex CCC 2025
So - Max Holden out slogging, trying to get to 100 before lunch. Out comes Leus de Plooy, with a runner. Nice drive through the covers, easy three - except Fernandes, the runner, settled for two and runs Eskinazi out. On the YT feed at around 2:10
View: https://www.youtube.com/live/MSf-m0Ukp5w?si=WC_JvHbIjgjz4iR3
It didn't matter in the end, Higgins and Gohar batted well and draw secured.
ppobee
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BuzzWord
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rebus
On my final warning
Middlesex CCC 2025
Surrey are set to confirm that they are developing an additional ground to their main home, the Oval, at a site in New Malden, while Middlesex are exploring developing a base away from Lord’s at Uxbridge as the counties who play at venues that host Hundred franchises scramble for new facilities.
Both clubs have long had ambitions to establish their own grounds away from the Oval and Lord’s — Middlesex especially, as they are merely tenants of MCC at Lord’s and restricted in how they operate there. However, the professionalisation of the women’s game and the need for these two venues — alongside six others around the country — to act as home to the Hundred throughout August has created unprecedented demand for high-quality playing and training areas.
As things stand, host clubs do not surrender complete control of their venues during the Hundred, but how much scope the new owners of the competition’s eight teams have to use the grounds as they wish during the four weeks of the competition is one issue holding up the signing of contracts after the £520million sale in February.
Either way, the affected counties need other venues to stage matches in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup, which runs concurrently to the Hundred. This summer, 19 of the 32 home matches played by Hundred host counties in the 50-over tournament will take place on private club and school grounds. Surrey will play two games at Guildford and Middlesex will host three matches at Radlett.
The problem with venues such as Guildford and Radlett — or Merchant Taylors’ School, which Middlesex will use for County Championship and T20 Blast fixtures in July — is that the counties do not own them and are reliant on the goodwill of the club or school to accommodate them. Lancashire and Warwickshire will also stage One-Day Cup matches at school grounds this season.
Outgrounds such as these generally lack space, substantial seating areas for spectators and, most importantly, state-of-the-art indoor schools that are fundamental to professional counties running multiple sides all year round.
Surrey are expected to update members on their plans for New Malden at their AGM on Thursday. The site, known as the London School of Economics Sportsground, has been used by the county for Second XI matches, age-group games and women’s county matches since 2016. The complex was also used by Fulham football club as a training base until last year. There is scope to expand the pitch and build an indoor school.
When Oli Slipper, the Surrey chairman, stood as a candidate for the role in 2023 he listed a second ground as a priority. As with Headingley and Trent Bridge, outdoor nets at the Oval have to be erected on the outfield, so if a match is in progress there is nowhere for other players to practise on turf.
Surrey are the wealthiest club in England and could probably afford to develop New Malden in any case, but for most counties the revenues generated by the sale of the Hundred teams create an opportunity to finance infrastructure projects. Tim Bostock, Durham’s chief executive, has suggested they will use some of the funds to complete a women’s nursery ground at their Riverside home.
Middlesex’s case is among the most pressing, given that at Lord’s they must fit around MCC as well as the many demands made on the ground even before the Hundred came along.
At last month’s AGM, the Middlesex committee told members: “Our vision is to secure a second ground that could be wholly owned in partnership with an external party. We are actively exploring the development of a ‘home away from home’ to host matches when Lord’s is unavailable… designed with multi-purpose functionality in mind, ensuring year-round usage and with it additional revenue potential”.
Middlesex were last year gifted a site at Swyncombe Avenue, which is being developed for women’s cricket and will be a base for teams at the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2026 — it is the first ground they have owned outright.
Uxbridge Cricket Club in west London appears the likeliest “home from home”, although a site at Copthall, adjacent to Saracens rugby club, has also come under consideration. Middlesex regularly used Uxbridge for championship and one-day matches in the 1980s and 1990s, but have not played there since 2017.
The ground is on a big site but hemmed in on two sides by roads. Another side, which could be expanded, shelves away sharply and would require a large landfill. But it meets the demand for “multi-purpose functionality” as it also stages rugby, tennis and bowls and has an athletics track. There is also a council-owned lido.
Unlike counties who own their main ground, Middlesex struggle to generate non-cricket revenue, which is a bitter pill to swallow for a team based in London. Surrey, by contrast, have grown hugely rich in recent times.
“We need to try to find 12 months of revenue,” Andrew Cornish, the Middlesex chief executive, said. “We want to be at Lord’s when we can, but we accept that being completely nomadic when we are not there isn’t the best thing for performance or revenue-enhancing opportunities.”
London urgently needs extra cricket facilities, if only to service the international touring teams who visit the capital and are shunted off to a club ground to train when Lord’s is in use.
Middlesex have used the ground at Uxbridge previously, such as in their T20 game against Hampshire in 2016
Middlesex must proceed with care, though. They are the second-best supported championship team, behind Surrey, across the past three seasons and may struggle to sustain the same following at a venue 15 miles further away, albeit still connected by the underground.
Lancashire are in the process of building a second venue at Farington, south of Preston, due to pressure of demand on Old Trafford. The original aim was to provide a base for female and academy players, as well as an all-year training centre, but there is an expectation that Lancashire’s men’s teams will also play there once the ground opens in 2026.
Old Trafford is not a popular place to watch championship cricket — Lancashire’s large membership seems to prefer Blackpool and Sedbergh School — but this may have something to do with its pitches, which are moribund from overuse.
By their nature, a county’s second ground is not going to be stadium-sized but more boutique, and if developed appropriately has the scope to attract crowds of 6,000-8,000 for a championship or one-day match.
The danger for many counties, already struggling to make traditional county cricket relevant, is that if they don’t get a new venue right they shed supporters along the way.
There is already a growing disconnect between the bigger counties that host men’s and women’s Hundred teams along with their own fixtures, and who have too much cricket to put on in one place, and those that don’t, and have too little.
With the domestic structure review expected to recommend a reduction in championship and T20 Blast games for 2026, the second of these groups is going to have to figure out what cricket it does put on to create an audience. As it is, only Essex and Somerset among the non-Hundred hosting teams averaged home gates above 3,000 in the championship across the 2022-24 seasons.
TW3Bee
Can We Play You Every Week
Middlesex CCC 2025
I seem to remember that Uxbridge was the first out ground that Middlesex used, but they don't seem to use it so much now.
Will be great news, if they can finally get a ground of their own.
Will be great news, if they can finally get a ground of their own.
ppobee
Active member
Middlesex CCC 2025
An enterprising Council, like Hounslow, might want to consider whether somewhere like Fetham Arenas might work, and then float a proposal. Much better connected than Uxbridge. Feltham also has that "rural idyll" feel in its favour! Not sure why it needs to be an existing cricket site. Kent's Beckenham ground is the model to follow.
rebus
On my final warning
Middlesex CCC 2025
Needs an upgrade. They spent a lot of money on merchant Taylor’s and Radlett now they are going full circle.
rebus
On my final warning
Middlesex CCC 2025
Hounslow cricket club would be great but not sure if the land is big enough. I’d say Uxbridge was just as connected in terms of public transport.
Middlesex CCC 2025
I dont understand how most teams survive financially in all honesty. Must be investors, or fans keeping them afloat.
Most county cricketers get paid below the UK wage average, so you have to be lucky or good enough to make it for England tbh. And if you're REALLY lucky, make it to the IPL.
Most county cricketers get paid below the UK wage average, so you have to be lucky or good enough to make it for England tbh. And if you're REALLY lucky, make it to the IPL.
ppobee
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Middlesex CCC 2025
Glad to have not followed the current match too closely. Daniel Bell-Drummond last out for 223 for Kent - had scored fewer than 100 runs this season before that, averaging under 10. Middlesex need 375 to win, currently 64-2 with a day left - after bowling Kent out for 129 first time around.
rebus
On my final warning
Middlesex CCC 2025
Hopefully a good day’s batting ahead tomorrow but the third wicket right near the death has probably put a stinker on that. Will be popping along regardless. Ended 80/3 chasing 365.
rebus
On my final warning
Middlesex CCC 2025
This is some last day. Couple of quick wickets by Kent when it looked like Middlesex were going to wrap this up. Eskinazi has a runner due to retiring earlier due to a back injury and is clearly struggling. 53 to get with three wickers left.
Untouchable
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Les Beeavinu
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Untouchable
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Untouchable
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Les Beeavinu
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Middlesex CCC 2025
Middlesex win. Two lbw shouts in those last few overs very harshly not given.
TW3Bee
Can We Play You Every Week
Les Beeavinu
Administrator
Middlesex CCC 2025
Which it didn't looking at the replays. The other one just looked out. ?
badgerbee
Mafeking Avenue........gets you there!!!!
Middlesex CCC 2025
Letter to the ECB incoming??Which it didn't looking at the replays. The other one just looked out. ?
Maybe Kent need to get Dickie Bird in as an advisor....??
A bit like Forest and Mark Clattenberg....
Les Beeavinu
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badgerbee
Mafeking Avenue........gets you there!!!!
Middlesex CCC 2025
Yeah, appreciate that. ?
And mine wasn't in any way meant to be serious. Just a light hearted comment. Mainly poking more fun at Forest......
rebus
On my final warning
Middlesex CCC 2025
I must admit, there were a lot of shouts that I couldn’t see why the finger wasn’t being pointed up. Great day’s cricket though. Kent can consider themselves hard done by. Can’t have been more than 300 in the ground. Such a shame.Which it didn't looking at the replays. The other one just looked out. ?
ppobee
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Middlesex CCC 2025
Wow, just seen the score, that is some win. Glad some of you got to see it live!
johnnym
Where did it all go wrong
Middlesex CCC 2025
Sitting in the lower Compton in my happy place,absolutely beautiful day only spoilt by the cricket !!!!58-4 and struggling.
johnnym
Where did it all go wrong
rebus
On my final warning
GP200
Voice of the mysterons...
rebus
On my final warning
badgerbee
Mafeking Avenue........gets you there!!!!
Untouchable
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Middlesex CCC 2025
I’ve always said he’s one of the finest players of his generation. Won’t hear a bad word said about him.
View: https://x.com/wisdencricket/status/1923744024386548019?s=46&t=SQP7mje7Pimu8X-ugPnQnQ
View: https://x.com/wisdencricket/status/1923744024386548019?s=46&t=SQP7mje7Pimu8X-ugPnQnQ
rebus
On my final warning
Middlesex CCC 2025
That was some capitulation. There’s no county four day games at Lord’s until 8 September now. One day games are absolutely ruining cricket.
Les Beeavinu
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?ppobee
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Middlesex CCC 2025
No great surprise given the lacklustre start to the season
www.bbc.co.uk
Middlesex part ways with coach Richard Johnson
Middlesex part ways with first-team coach Richard Johnson as "results have fallen below expectations".
www.bbc.co.uk
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