SAM MORSHEAD, HUW TURBERVILL, JAMES COYNE AND NICK HOWSON look back on the opening round of action in the County Championship
County Championship team of the week: Robson, Vince and Stevens are in... but who else makes our XI?
In the week that golf’s most coveted major was played out at Augusta National, Leicestershire’s captain brought a little golfing glamour to the County Championship.
Decked out in the rebranded Running Foxes’ dazzling new club blazer, Colin Ackermann could certainly have fitted in alongside Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson at the customary Champions Dinner on the eve of the tournament.
The striking green number is just one of several bespoke items introduced at Grace Road (see also the Uptonsteel County Ground) for 2021. When Ackermann tossed up with visiting captain James Vince of Hampshire, he used a specially crafted coin featuring a pair of Foxes.
Not yet available via the online club shop, it certainly beats the mustard-coloured threads which the club produced last year. Sam Morshead
Trips to Essex are always comforting to find the presence of the wise men.
Keith Fletcher and Graham Gooch were both in attendance for the visit of Worcestershire.
They sit on the club’s playing committee, alongside David Acfield, who is also at most matches. It is chaired by Ronnie Irani.
Fletch sat in the press box ruminating about his young charges Dan Lawrence and Tom Westley, as it was a bit chilly outside, but that didn’t deter Goochie, who was outdoors near the radio box.
Fletch seemed pleased to be given a copy of the centenary edition of The Cricketer - inside he found he’d been named captain of the best Essex XI since 1921. Huw Turbervill
Lewis McManus made a mistake. Vince made a mistake. Billy Taylor made a mistake. Michael Gough made a mistake. I could probably go on, but I needn't.
The greatest scandal (if such a word can ever justifiably be used, even in a sporting context) regarding the incident on day three at Grace Road, when with 353 still required to prevent an innings defeat Leicestershire lost their second wicket as Hassan Azad was stumped by the Hampshire wicketkeeper McManus, is what has followed.
I know how excellent the county streams have been both last season and at the start of this, but it is remarkable how many hardy souls claim to have been out in the middle at Grace Road or have been able to unpick events so expertly using just a short social media clip. And all while grounds are locked to spectators. Stunning.
The fall-out has been typically unedifying and grotesque. McManus and Vince are being accused of committing the most heinous of crimes. What they had to gain by knowingly committing such grievous acts while 350-odd ahead on day three during the opening fixture of the season, I am not sure.
We're supposed to #bekind to each other in particular, while lurking behind screens. Part of that process is to actively protect each other from a potential pile-on. See Leeds United and Karen Carney for further reading.
Foxes head coach Paul Nixon didn't help matters when he retweeted a super-slow-motion video of the episode, compiled to single out McManus and which used language like “depressing”.
The footage has been shared elsewhere, of course, but this is one of cricket's own going after another in a cauldron where the haters need no encouragement. And boy have they gone to town. "I’ve never seen it before in all my years," the former England international added during his post-match media rounds.
At least Azad, among the primary victims of the whole spectacle, has shown a bit more decorum. "I was angry yesterday but appreciate that I don't know the other side of the story," he wrote on Twitter. "I do not condone the abuse of any kind towards Lewis or Hampshire."
An internal investigation at Hampshire and by the ECB can take place perfectly well without cricket trying to take chunks out of itself while liberating those who use such divisive events to target the vulnerable. Everyone should be better than that. Nick Howson
Few were better turned out on the opening day than Colin Ackermann
Nineteen centuries, more than 30 fifties and just three first innings failing to breach 200 - it would be fair to conclude that the batters got the better of the opening round.
Eight matches, a possible 16 innings provides a welcome opportunity to add an elusive headline to a batter's CV: 1,000 first-class runs before the end of May.
Graeme Hick was the last man to complete such a feat in 1988. Nick Compton came close in 2012, but rain forced him to wait 24 hours.
WG Grace, Wally Hammond and Charlie Hallows each reached 1,000 runs just in May. That club is unlikely to be breached again, for a myriad of reasons.
Tom Hayward, Don Bradman (twice), Bill Edrich, Glenn Turner and Hick are the others to take impressive April starts into May and subsequently reach four figures.
Plenty have made fast starts in pursuit of the honour. Durham's David Bedingham tops the tree after backing up his first-innings fifty with an unbeaten 180.
None were more impressive than Vince, who went to his fastest first-class century and then converted it into his third double with a punchy knock against Leicestershire.
Westley too was classy is recording 213 of his own, Tom Haines survived several dropped chances to reach 155 and Jake Libby soaked up the second-longest County Championship innings ever during his own 180 not out.
It is naturally too early to tell whether the elite company will be joined, though plenty are in the hunt. Division One saw just three reach the milestone in the whole campaign in 2018 and 2019 but there is a visible platform for such a feat to be repeated. NH
Hassan Azad has attempted to warn-off the social media abusers
The 18 first-class counties marked the start of the season with a moment of unity, as part of the sport's commitment to eradicate any form of discrimination.
There will take place across the campaign, with players standing socially distanced either on or around the outfield. These may develop as the season progresses.
The act follows the release of the ECB's new anti-discrimination code of conduct.
On Friday (April 9), a two minute's silence was held after the death of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, aged 99.
Matches on day three of the second round will also be halted for one hour and 20 minutes between 2:50 pm and 4:10 pm to coincide with the funeral on Saturday (April 17).
Recreational matches are also being asked to halt play between 3 pm - when a national one-minute silence will take place - and 4 pm as a mark of respect. NH
Just as Christmas decorations and promotions could be spotted in unused high street shop windows beyond the Easter weekend, some of the buildings in the real estate of our county grounds won’t have been accessed for quite some time due to the pandemic.
This was rammed home to me when strolling over to conduct the (outside and socially distanced) post-match interviews in the Northamptonshire v Kent match. I walked past the old signal box, where I always pop in to see if I can pick up a bargain cricket book or old magazine. I can’t imagine Le Corbusier was quaking in his boots when the building went up in 1905, but it means a lot to the Northamptonshire Supporters’ Association, who run their operations out of it. There they were, racks and boxes of fascinating old books and The Cricketer back issues, alongside pulpier novels.
Another favourite peripheral aspect of a day at Northampton, for Matthew Engel anyway, is the Gallone’s ice cream van, which in normal times would probably have been parked next door to the signal box. (Though even with the modern fashion for gelato in winter I doubt the queues would have been too long in a match marked by sub-10°C temperatures and snow.)
It was particularly poignant to consider that, until the mid-1980s, the signal box was used to house the journalists and scorers. In these socially distanced times we were stationed well away from the players in the disused (and warm) Sky broadcasting boxes on the other side of the ground, backing onto the indoor school at the Lynn Wilson End. And for that we were especially grateful in early April. James Coyne
Wantage Road staged one of the nine first-round games
The absence of crowds and the complications of social distancing in the dressing rooms might lead our professional players to do what many a (male) amateur athlete has done next to their cricket field or golf course: to nip around the back of a tree or old building to take a leak in God’s good air. One county player was spotted relieving himself around the back of a container during the first round of Championship matches. Luckily it was outside of the (ahem) streaming camera’s gaze.
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