As could many of the threads on the WRF. In fact somebody should write a book about the 2009 season - with all it;s twists and turns (Vaughan leaving, Naved leaving the team just when we needed him the most, the errors in tactics, the travails of our captain, the emergence of Wainwright, the loss of Rashid and Bresnan, the problems with the new grass, the incredible Sussex match, etc, etc, etc.)
Might also make a great play, as seen through the eyes of this outstanding forum and its members - who obvioulsy live and die by the team's fortunes. You could use actaul quotes.
We beat Sussex, T20 champions and potential winners of Div 1 Pro40. As such they are arguably the best one-day side in the country. Their last innings was described by Cally and the clown from BBC Sussex as a one-day innings, 240 in 40 overs. They collapsed, therefore......
We must be the best one-day side in the country! Martyn Moxon is just one step ahead of us all the time.
its good to see that the perils and fortunes of following a county side extend to the south as well.
Sussex also missing 2 players in the pointless 1 dayers for England. They also lost their overseas player mid season - but bought another one who has done well for them but I think they expect too much from him as he bowls about 40% of their overs so its no wonder he hets 4 or 5 wickets an innings.
Meanwhile back in the shires we replace our 2 england call ups and lost overseas player with 3 local lads.
Alongside Prior and Wright - they also lost Ed Joyce who has been their best player this season, and there was no sign of Robin Martin-Jenkins - presumably he must have been injured too?
I don't think Robinson is far wrong. After all, Yorkshire didn't bat aggressively until a touch of desperation set in at the end of the innings and Hoggard decided to go for broke. That looked like "attack as the best form of defence", not an effort to win the game.
Moxon is saying we will go out trying to win the game against Hants. That's fine, but, after quite a negative season, most supporters will want to examine the evidence.
Why on earth would either team have tried to aggressively win this match until the point at which the opposition was out of the game? There was too much riding on it - let's face it, Sussex threw this away! They could have been 3 points behind now and with a better chance of catching us if only they had not gone for it and lost their top 2 batsmen cheaply.
For once I think we're being unfair on Mags and MM.
After wining the toss and batting surely the stratagy for winning the game was looking to bowl Sussex out on a deteriating pitch on the final afternoon. This is exactly what happened. Scoring runs first up at Hove is always easier than second time around, so taking things cautiously, scoring 400+, and take time out of the game during the first inning seemed sensible.
I accept to didn't have the nerve to actually set up a final day delaration, and our own batting failings were always go to be the only hope of winning, but the real tatical error was the reckless Sussex chase. They should have secured a draw and given themselves a chance during the last round of games.
The 4 drawn points from the recent Notts game now look like points well won and without them the Sussex approach would have been very different. If we'd declared and lost at TB, we wouldn't have won at Hove.
If we'd declared and won at Trent Bridge we could have gone to Hove under a lot less pressure.
We won a great victory at Hove - but only by default in some ways. We took advantage of Sussex's positive approach - they lost the game rather than YCCC taking the game by the scruff of the neck and winning it....
Steve keeps giving the opinion that if we'd batted harder in dark on Saturday evening at Trent Bridge we'd have been in a position to win the game .... some of us are under the opnion we'd have lost wickets, ended up around 250 in front with 60-70 overs remaining & lost that game. The 4 points we got at Trent Bridge mean we only now need 6 to stay up.
By the same token - we could have ended up about 240 or so in front with about 40 overs left... I wonder what might have happened then........?
We'll never know!
I could not help but click back on the link above to see the Sussex fans reactions to their sad demise yesterday. There but for the grace of god...
Overall I think they have taken it pretty well but they do have one day success to fall back on.
Most of them think relegation was deserved (so would we if we had gone down?).
More interesting is to see the Surrey vultures circling over their better players and no doubt Adams will be using his Sussex connections and knowledge to attract them to the Oval. Wouldn't it be great if someone like Goodwin promised to move to the Oval and then 2 weeks later changed his mind?
I resisted posting a gloating comment from Yorkshire as I don't think most of their loyal fans deserve it (bar the one brave soul who posted something on the WRF in the last game only to disappear down a plug hole when they lost).
Bit like the poster from Durham who told us they would beat us by 10 wickets and then he disappeared when we drew the game.
Now Adams has departed there seems to be no real reason to dislike Sussex and I hope they manage to keep their players and bounce back next season as they seem to have a genuine and knowledgeable fan base and some good young talent coming through. Like us, it appears as though their pace attack may be the critical thing for next season.
I did a lot of the background reading on my PhD at Hove and I've always liked RC Robertson-Glsgow's comment about it:
'There was something in the sea-air which helped a swerving bowler, something very soothing about the bath-chairs which, to my distant fancy, conveyed many of the older spectators to their regular angle of criticism.'
After reading the Sussex forum I'm pretty impressed with that bunch. Seems a nice group and both our team and theirs appear to have similar problems (seam bowling, batting and losing players this winter).