2014 Fixtures

[procswrongfoot]

I understand that the fixtures for next season are being released on Tuesday 26th November, at 9.30 am.

Not really sure why it takes the ECB and counties quite so long to finalise the fixture list. Seems very unfair on those people who often have to book their holiday leave well in advance.

Interestingly, Lancs do not start their membership renewals or accept new membership applications until after the fixtures have been released.

I also note (somewhat belatedly) that the 50 over competition is being sponsored by Royal London and will officially be known as the Royal London One-Day Cup. Presumably, it will quickly become known as the RLC or the RL50.

With regard to the T20 fixtures, 2 of the counties in our Group we will only play once (either home or away). This is supposedly based on long travelling distances between the respective counties.

[Apologies to those who are already aware of most (or all) of the above information].

[procswrongfoot]

I have just stumbled on the following, which is posted on the Kent Fans Forum (We Are Kent).

'Regretfully, no Cheltenham Festival for Kent this year. Gloucestershire's opponents will be Derbyshire and Worcester in the 4 day games and Surrey and Essex in the two shorter versions. Bugger!!'

The source is from a very frequent poster who always seems to be in the know regarding all Kent CCC related matters, so personally I would treat this as a pretty reliable source.

(PS. T20 at Cheltenham after all it would seem!).

[tweaker]

Members have priority booking for ODI up to 24 November, and when are the County fixtures released 26 November. So we will not know where Glos. are playing or not playing (on 25 August) until 2 days after the deadline. !

[foz]

Saw this quote in the local press recently Proc from Will Brown confirming T20 will be played at Cheltenham again despite the problems there last season -

The Cheltenham Festival will be in July, we will be playing a minimum 11 days of cricket and, if it works out the way we want it to, that will comprise two County Championship and two Twenty20 matches and a 50-over fixture.
"The demand is there for all three formats and we envisage t20 being played up there on a Friday and a Sunday, because of changes in the fixture list.



Read more: www.bristolpost.co.uk/Gloucestershire-happy-Twenty20-Cheltenham-agenda/story-20033100-detail/story.html#ixzz2kjHYGmRs

[procswrongfoot]

Welcome back Foz......have really missed your input on this forum.

Many thanks for the link.......somehow missed this news previously. (Feeling rather smug at the moment, as back in October I did forecast the likelihood of 2 T20 matches at the 2014 Festival.....see under 'Season Ticket' thread).

Anyway, based on the recent comments from Will Brown, together with the insider knowledge from our Kent mole, we seemingly are most likely to have the following at next year's Cheltenham Festival:

11 days of cricket, 2 County Championship matches (against Derbyshire and Worcs), one Friday T20 match and also a Sunday T20 (with Surrey being one of the opponents) and finally a Royal London 50 over (RL50) match against Essex.

We also know that the RL50 competition takes place between Saturday July 26th and Thursday August 21st.

Accordingly, based on the above, I will speculate that the Festival will most likely start on Sunday July 13th with a 4 day CC match and will probably finish on Sunday July 27th with a RL50 against Essex.

(PS. From what I have read elsewhere, I understand that the initial draft fixtures were with the counties at the end of September for consideration. In the circumstances, it was always likely that potential leaks would occur before the actual fixture list was formally announcement. Frankly, I have very little sympathy!).

[tweaker]

Proc
You are entitled to feel rather smug! As I had previously doubted this, I must outline my defence.
I was told by a member of the Management Committee that all T20's would be at Bristol, and therefore thought I had a little "scoop". But you can't win them all!

[procswrongfoot]

Tweaker
In hindsight, I rather regret making my unnecessary "feeling rather smug" comment. Normally, I have little time for the 'told you so' brigade.......so presently feeling rather disappointed with myself for lapsing into this territory.

My initial speculation was merely based on the fact that given the amount of weeks available (starting 16th May) we would struggle to get all the 14 T20 matches in unless we played a couple of our home fixtures at Cheltenham.

Anyway, this morning I decided to re-visit the relevant thread on the We Are Kent forum, to see if any subsequent comments had been posted. Apparently, the Kent mole got his inside fixture list information from attending a Glos CCC dinner last Wednesday evening (13th November). Tongues loosened by a few glasses of wine perhaps! I wonder if he spoke with the same Management Committee member who previously misinformed you that all our T20 matches would be taking place at Bristol. If so, the reliability of the fixture list leak might prove to be dubious after all.

We will soon know of course. (If the fixture information regarding Derbyshire, Worcs, Surrey and Essex proves to be totally incorrect then I fear that my credibility will sink even lower).

[procswrongfoot]

At this stage, I have only managed a rather quick perusal of the fixtures. However, a few immediate observations:

1. Thankfully, our "Kent mole" was fairly accurate in respect of the Cheltenham Festival fixtures.

2. The previously much lauded ECB missive that the 2014 season would have a clear structure with County Championship games mostly starting on Sundays (for the first 16 round of matches) seems anything but in reality. By my calculations, we have 13 CC matches during the first 16 rounds of weekly fixtures. Of these 13 matches, only 8 are scheduled to actually start on a Sunday.

3. The Royal London One Day Cup (RL50) very strangely transpires to be almost exclusively a midweek competition. Apart from the Northants fixture at Cheltenham(Sunday 27th July), all remaining 7 fixtures are scheduled as midweek games. Effectively, after the Northants game, we have no weekend home cricket for the rest of the season. Quite bizarre and totally wrong in my humble opinion.

4. The official website states that our T20 match against Somerset (on Friday, 16th May) 'is the only occasion the teams will meet'. Strange statement as the fixture list shows us also playing Somerset away in a T20 on Friday, 11th July!

5. By my calculations the T20 Plus Membership results in a potential total of 13 days weekend cricket (7 T20s, 5 days of CC and one RL50 match). [Hope I have got this right, as I am sure that I have previously seen this membership quoted as equating to 14 days of weekend cricket].

No doubt others will have observations to make, once they have had time to digest the fixtures.