Surrey Cricket Festival Draws Huge Crowd, Let's Expand It to Every County | Cricket

1) Red Letter Day at the Red Ball Festival

The Surrey v Essex match at the Oval attracted over 6,000 spectators on the first day, with Sunday being declared the festival of red-ball cricket. Even with the fine weather, nearly 14,000 turned up for the match, a record in this century.

None of the events around the field were particularly innovative (Alec Stewart speaking, the outfield open at lunchtime, an Xbox family zone, etc.), but the branding was. It also takes a lot of effort to coordinate a day like this. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Other counties are targeting similar fixtures in the calendar, but surely it’s time to pick a few days in the season (giving all counties a home game) and promote the championship nationwide? Who knows, maybe the ECB can be persuaded to release their contracted players and get the kids out to watch Mark Wood bowl three slips and a gully to Jos Buttler?

2) Home Sweet Home for Patel and Lawes

It should be boring to write about Surrey’s Championship season. You can wait a long time for something as unexpected as their huge defeat to end the first series of games, but it doesn’t happen. That’s partly because of the challenge of the English season to remain excellent in different conditions, even with different balls, but it’s also a product of the need to maximise the use of resources.

That Jamie Smith formed the backbone of a first-innings par with a century was no surprise, but Ryan Patel, at No 7, matched the New England wicketkeepers’ ton in the second dig, extending Essex’s target from manageable to improbable on a pitch that had consistently offered the bowlers something. Over to Tom Lawes to guide the leaders to victory, his four for 26 taking a 13-run swing over the team that had started the match on the second over.

Both were playing only their third red-ball game of the season; both are local lads; and both came through the Oval’s academy system. Having money is one thing; using it wisely is another.

Essex star Jordan Cox missed most of the game due to an appendectomy. Shouldn't the referee have the power in such circumstances to invoke the concussion substitution protocol and reduce the game to XI v XI?

3) Abell proves he's up to the task

Somerset leapfrogged Essex into second place after a remarkable home win against Warwickshire. After Michael Burgess had hit 147 from No. 8 (not exactly fair, is it?) and Oliver Hannon-Dalby had taken six for 56, Alex Davies declared to put Craig Overton's men on 410 for victory on the final day.

But Somerset's Tom Tom Tom Tom club hammered out a rhythm of runs (Kohler-Cadmore 49, Lammonby 26, Abell 152*, Banton 81) and with James Rew hitting a quick 57, the Taunton faithful could cheer for another victory. Warwickshire tried eight bowlers but apart from Hannon-Dalby and Michael Booth the other six took just three wickets in the match. Without a win all season, the Bears will need to find some penetration if they are to avoid relegation in the autumn phase of the fixture.

4) Taking wickets? Kent can't

So too do Kent, who are bottom, 30 runs from safety and looking doomed. It is not the fault of the batting unit, who put together two innings of 340 but left the Utilita Bowl with a six-wicket defeat after being asked to continue. That was enough to take Hampshire to fourth place and the fringes of the pennant race.

Kent have tried 14 options with the ball this season, but tellingly Wes Agar has the best average on 34. Matt Parkinson is the leading wicket-taker on 22, but like the leg-spinner he pays a hefty 57 runs apiece for them. By contrast, the teams they need to overhaul to stay in Division One, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, have three and four bowlers under 24 respectively. Catches win games, but bowlers save seasons.

5) The James Anderson goal at Old Trafford?

It was Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy in Southport as the oldest swinger in town warmed up for his swansong at Lords with the first six Nottinghamshire wickets. Even he (and Nathan Lyon, who gave Lancashires the most-wicket attack ever in a first-class match) could not get past Joe Clarke and Lyndon James, whose unbeaten stand of 136 ensured the match ended in a rain-affected draw.

Will Jimmy Anderson play for Lancashire again? England have him firmly in their grasp, so maybe not, but maybe in August in a One-Day Cup tie alongside Rocky Flintoff? Romantics would love that. How about August 8 against Middlesex at Old Trafford as a final farewell?

6) A great match with Bracey as the star

If Singh Dale McIlroy Bracey isn't quite Jones Bowden Kasprowicz, try explaining that to the people of Cheltenham and the thousands of others watching online.

Last ball of the match, Glamorgan on 592 for nine, the scores level, the umpires conferring, the batters conferring, the pitch moving, the record books about to be thrown out of the pavilion window.

Ajeet Singh Dale, bowling superbly, finds Jamie McIlroy’s edge and flies high and fast to the leaping James Bracey who, gloveless on his right hand (ready to knock down the stumps), takes a sensational one-handed catch and Imran Tahir swerves his way around the ground. After that, nine more catches and a double hundred, we can forgive him. Neither side deserved to lose and neither did, the match was a draw. County Championship cricket won, however.