County Cricket

[davidcampbell]

Re: County Cricket swoops (or others) whats your thought on surrey? ive got a few quid on them (each way) for the championship. they got a bit of a gap just now to pull back and they dont really appear to be clicking just yet. do you think theyve got the capabilitiy of putting some results together. how many games do they play.

[swooperman]

Re: County Cricket I'm not looking at the table when I say this, but each team plays 16 x 4 day games. Theyve got as good a chance as any & youve got on them at the right time, David as they have 2 days to bowl Hants out for a second time & they are 215 runs ahead, so barring somebody doing something remarkable they should win. Leaders Warwicks are struggling at home to kent, who if they can get 200 ahead by tea will leave Warwicks a tricky 4 sessions to survive, & its hard to see Notts getting anything but a draw from their game with Sussex. So you are likely to be making points this week. They will only have 1 more match with Thorpe (if England let him play) before the Ashes tests, & Ramps is out for 2 weeks with a thumb injury, but because of the 20/20 he should be back for the next game in the second week in july. Ramprakash is a huge assett for Surrey, & hes been in the runs this season. He is probably the heaviest scoring & best English batsman who, barring an outbreak of the plague, is unlikely to be called up by England. After Graeme Hick, who is too old now but is the only comparable player IMO, Ramps will become the next, & quite possibly the last ever, scorer of 100 1st class centuries. In these days of central contracts if you are good enough to do it you will not be able to play enough innings to achieve it, because of the higher standard of tests & the amount of county cricket that you would miss. Mark Butcher will return at some point & will probably miss the Ashes now, so will score runs for Surrey instead, & compensate for the loss of Thorpe. The bowling relies heavily on Bicknell still, plus Harbhajan , but probably has more penetration than Notts's & is on a par with Warwicks if not better than. Ormond & co are decent county bowlers who arent going to receive call ups for England. Warwicks are likely to lose Ian Bell to England & they arent the same outfit without him, & they cannot replace him as well as Surrey can replace Thorpe with the returning Butcher. All in all I think youve got a decnt bet which the timing of should give you a run for your money. Surrey have had their wobbles already this season & could look good.

[Postman Pat]

Re: County Cricket Gloucestershire Gladiators (from): C Spearman, P Weston, M Windows, C Taylor, A Gidman, M Alleyne, M Hardinges, S Adshead, U Chandana, M Ball, J Averis, S Kirby, C Greenidge. I must admit alot does fall on Spearman's shoulders to get runs. Chandana appears to have been ineffectual so far and only has two games to play before returning to Sri Lanka. Big chance for Kirby in his fight to secure a first team place (also redeem himself from the concrete ball rubbing incident). It's a 'gut' thing, I'm probably looking for reason why I should back Gloucester when it's obvious I should oppose them. I've had a small punt on Gloucester just to give myself some interest whilst watching the game. Thanks for you're thoughts Swoops.

[swooperman]

Re: County Cricket Championship scores after day 3: Surrey 361, Hants 146 & 160. Surrey won by an inns & 55 runs Warwicks 252 & 45-2, Kent 569. Warwicks deep in trouble Sussex 355, Notts 249-4. Certain draw Glamorgan 584-3 & 176-3, Middx 435-4d. The fact that Middx declared immediately upon saving the follow-on means that theres possibly some wheeling & dealing going on here with some joke bowling possibly. Havent seen any odds but treat with severe caution if you do... Derby 191 & 185, Lancs 241 & 136-9. lucky buggers.... Leics 225 & 132-5, Worcs 323 Durham 334 & 207-4, Northants 214 NL Somerset, who were 1/10, lost to Scotland by 15 runs.... Essex 271-7, Glos 216. Andy Flower scored a 74 ball ton & finished on 127*

[Postman Pat]

Re: County Cricket That was a pretty poor performance from Gloucester. Once Spearman slapped that catch I was tempted to turn off but decided to let my family endure another two hours of it. I suppose Taylor was unlucky following a bright start but they had no answer to kaneira. On the basis of that performance I may well back Northants to beat Gloucester on Sunday. They need a high quality overseas player and who are they probably going to sign....Bandara (if he turns up). I'm no Gloucester fan (I'm from Yorkshire) but they need to sort things out pretty quickly, fielding was poor and I got a general feel that they just weren't with it.

[dave]

Re: County Cricket Ok, haven't looked through the real odds yet, this is just how i'd price them. Obviously my odds don't include an overround. Once I've posted I'll take a look for the real odds. Hampshire v Glamorgan 15/8 v 8/15 Middlesex v Nottinghamshire 2/7 v 7/2 Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire 8/11 v 11/8 Worcestershire v Essex 4/1 v 1/4 Derbyshire v Scotland 2/7 v 7/2 Sussex v Durham 8/11 v 11/8 Warwickshire v Leicestershire Evs v Evs

[dave]

Re: County Cricket Hampsihre v Glamorgan Most bookies go 5/6 the pair, with some making Glamorgan slight favourite. I have Glamorgan as a bigger 8/15 favourite because of the abscence from the Hampshire team of Pietersen and Tremlett due to international duty. Middlesex v Nottinghamshire Both myself and the bookies have Middlesex favoruites, but I'd have them 2/7, the bookies range between 4/9 and 4/7. Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire Bookies have smaller prices for both teams, agreeing with Northants as favourites. Worcestershire v Essex Quite a big difference here. I make Essex 1/4 shots, bookies 4/6. Derbyshire v Scotland Almost identical odds. Sussex v Durham I have 8/11 and 11/8, both sides available @ Evs with bookies, and both as low as 8/11 in places. Warwickshire v Leicestershire I can't split the teams, bookies have 1/2 to 4/7 for the home side, and as high as 6/4 for Leics.

[dave]

Re: County Cricket Ok from that, matches worth looking at. Hampsihre v Glamorgan Middlesex v Nottinghamshire Worcestershire v Essex Warwickshire v Leicestershire Swoop or anyone else have views on these matches?

[swooperman]

Re: County Cricket Havent looked at team news yet, but: Hants seem to be collapsing a lot, particularly in the CC, but they had a problem chasing not massive totals in this early on in the season, & I wouldnt back them at the moment, particularly if the Aussies panic & try to recall Warney. No bet for me, Glammy arent reliable enough either, & losing today will have hit them after dominating the match Middx v Notts. Notts won last time out from memory (v Lancs ??) & Middx are riding high in this & have just had a storming CC victory over Glamorgan, but Notts record IMO makes them look worse than they are, & I wouldnt take Middx at those odds Worcs v Essex. I would take Essex at 4/6 @ Stan James, but I must admit that I wouldnt touch them with a barge pole @ your 1/4 Dave. Ive backed them a couple of times when theyve really collapsed but I think they'll be too strong here. Irani playing is the key IMO. Warwicks v Leicester. I fancy Warwicks here & I dont think I'm being biased, I'm not sure they are as clear favourites as the bookies think, as Leics are a decent 1-day side, but I think after todays hammering v Kent they'll come out flying. I fancy Northants to hammer Gloucs TBH, & I wouldnt be surprised at a big Northants 1st innings & a Glos struggle. Glos looked bland & weak to me on friday & a side in desperate need of an overhaul. Anybody thinking of touching Derby @ 1/5 is surely mad :lol ;) Championship after 4th day: Warwicks were skittled for 153 & lost to Kent by an innings & 164 runs Notts made 360 then Sussex 256-3 in a draw As i thought, glamorgan only batted 14 overs this morning & declared on 256-3, setting Middx 406, which they knocked off for 4 in a brilliant effort. They put on 288 for the 1st wicket between Smith & Shah after Hutton retired hort early on. Leics got up to 238, setting Worcs only 140, & then bowled them out for 128 to win by 12 runs :ok Durham declared on 293-4, setting Northants a notional 414, & they finished on 205-4.

[dave]

Re: County Cricket

Hampsihre v Glamorgan Most bookies go 5/6 the pair, with some making Glamorgan slight favourite. I have Glamorgan as a bigger 8/15 favourite because of the abscence from the Hampshire team of Pietersen and Tremlett due to international duty.

Hamphshire won by 7 wickets.

Middlesex v Nottinghamshire Both myself and the bookies have Middlesex favoruites, but I'd have them 2/7, the bookies range between 4/9 and 4/7.

Middlesex win by 31 runs

Northamptonshire v Gloucestershire Bookies have smaller prices for both teams, agreeing with Northants as favourites.

Northants win by 5 wickets

Worcestershire v Essex Quite a big difference here. I make Essex 1/4 shots, bookies 4/6.

Essex win by 39 runs

Derbyshire v Scotland Almost identical odds.

Match tied

Sussex v Durham I have 8/11 and 11/8, both sides available @ Evs with bookies, and both as low as 8/11 in places.

Sussex win by 7 wickets

Warwickshire v Leicestershire I can't split the teams, bookies have 1/2 to 4/7 for the home side, and as high as 6/4 for Leics.

Leicestershire win by 7 wickets I actually didn't wake up until 2.30 this afternoon, too late to bet. If I'd bet on the teams that I thought should be a lower price than what was available (Glamorgan, Middlesex, Essex, Sussex, Leicestershire) I'd have made a 2.74pt profit from 5 selections.