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Sax's Blog - Finished

27 September 2013

As the season draws to a close this afternoon and I sit here writing my final blog for the website I find myself reflecting on the season that has quickly past.

It doesn’t seem that long ago since everyone was enjoying their month off last October recovering from season 2012, planning for the winter ahead. Many left Bristol for warmer climates and to escape the works at Nevil Road. Their priorities: their cricket and their tan. Some were left behind running around the track at Filton College, netting in sub-zero temperatures and enduring endless amounts of pain in the gym. Not that I hold any sort of grudge….

All returned and gathered for pre-season in March, it was Baltic. Beanies were donned, numerous layers were applied and a hot bath to thaw out at the end of every day was essential. The Pavilion had appeared out of the ground but the flats were still to be seen above the white boards at the Ashley Down Road end of the ground. A couple of friendlies against the local counties put us in good stead for the first game of the season on the 10^th of April against Essex. The temperature hadn’t risen much by the time we found ourselves in South-East England but we came away from Chelmsford with a draw.

As the season moved on we started to look promising, Michael Klinger the new captain from down under led the way. Wins started to mount up putting us in good positions in the Championship and the YB40. With the weather holding fine for the majority of the first half of the season the runs started to tot up, Chris Dent, Hamish Marshall, Alex Gidman, Dan Housego and Michael Klinger all recording hundreds before June. It looked like it would be a year for the batters.

Australia A arrived at The Bristol County Ground carrying a couple of players which went on to gain Ashes honours and the T20 competition got underway. We started poorly and never really got on a roll; by the time we got to Cheltenham we had lost 3 out of the 4 games played.

Cheltenham was a belter, the sun graced the college ground for the 11 days we were up there. We continued to be poor in the shorter format but put on a couple of good performances with the red ball. Losing narrowly to Kent, winning by 6 wickets against Worcestershire; a team we hadn’t beaten in the County Championship for the past umpteen years.

We arrived back at Bristol to see the flats well above sea level, a complete transformation. Somerset arrived in town to a sell-out crowd, unfortunately we got well beaten losing by 9 wickets. This pretty much ended our T20 season. We only won 3 out of the 10 games played, ending up bottom of our table.

The new Bristol Pavilion opened officially on bank holiday Monday, 26^th August. The facility is fantastic and to think that the developers only arrived 10 months before completion is astonishing. It really brings the county ground into the 21^st century providing state-of-the-art corporate and banqueting facilities as well as magnificent views of the cricket. It is something that all at Gloucestershire CCC are proud to call ‘ours’. Unfortunately we lost to Somerset on the opening day meaning that we would progress no further in the YB40 competition but I believe we achieved a lot in the campaign. Fantastic wins against Glamorgan, Leicestershire and Yorkshire, to name a few, gives us great foundations to build on for next year.

September arrived with only the County Championship to complete. One game won, one game drawn with Glamorgan left to finish. Four batters have passed 1000 runs for the season: Michael Klinger, Hamish Marshall, Alex Gidman and Chris Dent. A fantastic achievement for the lads and for the County. Will Gidman has passed the 50 wicket mark with Craig Miles narrowly missing out with 43. A brilliant maiden first class season from him.

Overall our cricket has really moved forward this year. Michael Klinger has provided a great Captain’s presence providing a figure for everyone to follow. He has now left for the winter leaving the lads to work on their cricket and fitness for when he returns. A few lads will chase the sun again and as before some will stay here in Bristol.

I will be here working with the commercial department until the end of October, I will then break to follow the lads into winter training. I hope you have enjoyed my insight into cricketing life and that it has provided a different perspective on life as a professional. October will be a month of rest for the lads, but come November this blog will turn into a weekly update from various players in the squad.

Thank you for reading.

Sax

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