ralphindevon

Hundreds of empty seats here. Strange.

Yep, but not sure that membership has a massive impact on income in cricket - more about ECB funding and i guess capacity ( so Test grounds in urban areas do better eg 1 T20 match at the Oval generates big cash i'd imagine)? V happy to be proved wrong on this though.

Yes I'm sure you're right. Having said that I know Yorkshire and Durham, both of whom have one a the championship in recent years, had huge debts, while Somerset are nearly always in profit.

Well over 100 years and counting for Somerset.

We'll last season div 1 included yorks, Durham, warks, lancs, nots, Middlesex - all test grounds. Of the others only Glamorgan haven't been in div1 recently. Surrey, Hants have all thrown cash at players but I guess my point ( and irritation) is other counties who manage to pay top dollar and attract top (one day / T20 in particular) players. Dare I mention who I'm getting at ( a certain Christ Gayle?!!). Look, Somerset are well run but how can they be attracting better players than Glos? I just want glos to be competitive I guess.

I haven't seen figures for this or last season but when I last looked, Somerset had more members than all but a couple counties, bigger championship attendances than every county.

They certainly still have far bigger crowds than Glamorgan, Hampshire and Durham, who have international grounds.

My best SCC 11 that I've seen...

1: Banger (capt)

2: G Smith.

3: V Richards.

4: R Ponting.

5: S Waugh.

6: I Botham.

7: J Buttler.

8: M Ahmed.

9: B Close.

10: A Caddick.

11: J Garner.

La La la...

Decent team that.

Only three pace options might be a worry, until you see who the three are! Can't see many teams scoring big against them.

I might make a case for Sunil Gavaskar to open with Tres instead of Smith or even the run machine that was Jimmy Cook, who would have been an international star had it not been for apartheid .

Did anyone go to the Q & A after play yesterday with Guy Lavender and Matt Maynard?

I was at the day's play but left before the end, so fed up I couldn't be bothered to wait around for it.

Under Brian Rose we behaved like one of the wealthiest best supported counties that we are.

Under this regime, we seem to have gone back to the days when we were the poor cousin of the county cricket scene.

Thinking that giving us Chris Gale for a few matches, good though he was, just doesn't wash with most members. I think we're the second longest standing first division team, the club has all but thrown in the towel as far the championship goes, making half hearted attempts to do well in the T 20 by signing Gale, Anderson and Allenby, ignoring the LV leaving us relegation bound which is such a shame.

The World Boss has certainly been a big hit in Newton Abbot this afternoon / evening. Somerset have been hyping him up so much in the months since he signed, I thought there's no way he can live up to this hype.

In fact in the 5 days he's been here, he's been a bigger star on and off the pitch than anyone could have dreamt.

Will it be good enough to win us a trophy? No.

The county bosses have really ballsed up imo, most of there eggs in one basket with Gale while forgetting the rest of the team, not replacing players, average overseas players, bar Gale, who is only here for a few weeks.

Most members want the elusive championship and that seems like it's been completely overlooked.

Although Taunton has a small town feel about it, we are in fact one of the best supported counties in the country, with one of the highest memberships, we should be looking to win that title.

What time do the coaches arrive?

3.40 pm

Be fair. Mr Burt (whoever he is) knows him personally.

I wonder where they met? nobody has ever seen this Burt chap.....some secret society perhaps?

This is worse than post 1982.. back then we tumbled because we went bust this time we are p---ing cash away with utterly shite decisions on players and gaffers like the board are enjoying it.

 

Back then the youngsters came in and we had fight in our veins and we had, by and large, gaffers who knew what they were doing. 

 

In short, since I first went to see City play Coventry and wack em 5-0 in the old First Division this IS, without doubt, the worst time to be a City fan.. and by a country mile.

Correct

How are you getting 3G? - I get cut off once the game starts

Yeah good question, I often see people online on their phones at the match and I can never get a signal once there's more than 100 people around. 

Is it because we have older phones? I still have an old iphone 3gs

BBC saying attendance is 3763 is that right??

 

Around 5300 I heard

You have to use Google translate

Then you need something to translate google....it's rubbish.

This morning I was hoping for Chris Wood to win the golf in Qatar and then a clean sheet victory for City.

Well the first just came in, a brilliant eagle on the last hole to pocket 1/4 million £

There might be more chance of me winning the Masters than City getting a clean sheet.