Gloomy weather, floodlights overhead and a woolly hat in the slips. The showpiece of traditional county cricket is here and as some of Gloucestershire’s footballers end the season as League Two champions, their green rivals look to make a forgettable season a memorable one.
That’s all going to be in the past soon though, the wet, muddy grass of the football season is about to be left to the cranky cricket groundsmen shouting “Get off the square” followed by some inaudible swearing under their breathe.
The County Championship is back and there’s no need to worry about your summer plans because the West Country cricketers are just as good, if not arguably a lot better than their friends that kick rather than throw and hit their ball.
The revamped County Championship has uncovered a genuine challenger for the Bob Willis Trophy, lead by England hopeful James Bracey Gloucestershire have more points than any other time in the tournament after five rounds of matches.
The traditional County Championship format was altered last year due to Covid-19 and abandoned the two-division system with a tri-group layout put into place.
How it works
So, in short, the Championship is usually a two up, two down round-robin league format between two divisions. Covid-19 delayed the start of the professional cricket season by four months with the first games of the reorganised competition taking place on August 1st as opposed to the initially planned April 12th opener.
This meant that there was a need for a much-shortened schedule with the typical British weather making it difficult at best to play all the matches without rain effecting the games. Also, when the Vitality Blast and Royal London One-day Cup is added in, four-day cricket is on it’s last legs in a normal season.
Last season the groups were based on geography due to travel restrictions but with the loosening of those rules a seeded system has been implemented.
Gleeful Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire would have been promoted into Division One for the 2020 season anyway, they finished third in 2019 with a respectable but not ground-breaking five wins and six draws in 14 matches. A summer dominated by the cricketing highs of Ben Stokes, Benjamin Stokes and ‘Stokesy’ saw England lift the crowning jewel to four years of hard work in the ODI World Cup. That came after Joe Root’s maverick all-rounder played the best (let’s not beat around the bush) test innings by an England batsman of all time, for me at least.
On top of all of that, even the usually forgotten, often degraded, boring and insignificant County Championship ended with a tantalising, nervy, tight and above all exciting ending. The site of Marcus Trescothick on his knees in the slips with an hour to go would have been enough to divert attention from small, little Gloucestershire. Oh, and the T20 Blast went down to the final ball in front of a packed out Edgbaston on finals day, to make it worse local rivals Worcestershire were victorious.
It’s also fair to say that after promotion, which in itself was an anti-climax, being sealed with matches in Bristol and Durham called off on the final day, Gloucestershire didn’t light up the world in the 2020 mini County Championship.
They finished second bottom of the central group, picking up a solitary victory against winless Glamorgan. Their current man in the spotlight, Bracey, only played one innings and scored four.
How things have changed
Wind the clocks forward to April 2021, Bracey is on the verge of an England appearance, Ryan Higgins is joint second on the wicket taking leaderboard and overseas star Kraigg Brathwaite is yet to get his first class runs flowing.
Gloucestershire are yet to lose along with roses rivals Yorkshire and Lancashire whilst Worcestershire also haven’t lost but are yet to claim victory. The side are playing with freedom, balance and a spirit that comes from winning.
Bracey has a serious chance of earning a first ever England game this summer and has recorded 478 runs so far, averaging 53.11. In the top ten run scorers so far only opener Jake Libby has faced more balls and nobody has more half-centuries than Bracey’s four.
His attacking style has seen 60 fours in his five matches, another stat that is only topped by three players that have played the same amount of games. Elsewhere in the side, Higgins has recorded 28 wickets, equal second and six clear of fourth placed Simon Harmer.
Together, these two are leading the Gloucestershire charge. Although it is unlikely that Chris Dent’s side will be able to go all the way and lift the Bob Willis Trophy, they are setting an extremely promising foundation for a full Division One season next year. Even if they have to do it without Bracey.
