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Warwickshire

A year laced with disappointment

The pundits favourite for the Championship, Warwickshire produced only in fits and starts but did find some success stories in 2013

Andy Bloxham

28-Sep-2013

Didn't quite go as predicted, did it? Whilst Nostradamus has never truly threatened to dislodge Paul as my middle name, I had approached the season with the blind optimism of a bespectacled maths nerd with an unfortunate facial complexion inviting the class hottie out for a date. A county boasting such strength in depth as Warwickshire would find it difficult to finish outside of the top one; of that I was almost certain. Others of greater renown held a similar opinion.

But we were all deceived. My castigation of the top order has been well documented throughout the course of the season, and the latter half of the campaign saw the lingering shroud masking its deficiencies blown away. Injury befallen by the likes of Tim Ambrose and Rikki Clarke left the batting looking about as clever as a Worcestershire quiz contestant and confirmed what many had long suspected: Warwickshire need to replace at least one of their top three batsmen. Meat Loaf might think two out of three ain't bad, but I'm telling you that invariably being one or two down for not very many ain't good, either.

For a year laced with disappointment for Bears fans, it has not been without its successes. Keith Barker - who finished the season with the extraordinary record of having taken at least three wickets in the first innings of 10 of the 11 Championship games he played - delivered some of the finest spells since Albus Dumbledore engaged Lord Voldemort in a vigorous bout of wand twirling at the Ministry of Magic. To have extracted 102 Division One wickets at less than 22 apiece across the last two seasons is quite remarkable, and only adds to the befuddlement at Barker's continued absence from England's performance squads at the very least.

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Top three is top priority

The realisation that trust can no longer be vested in a delicate top three that's been bailed out more times than a Cypriot bank by its lower middle-order colleagues has at length registered

Andy Bloxham

09-Sep-2013

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the five Fireside Poets, once said "into each life some rain must fall." It is rumoured, without testimony I hasten to add, that Longfellow continued "but into each cricket ground where Warwickshire County Cricket Club are playing, and particularly if victory is all but assured, a deluge to make even Gene Kelly hastily seek shelter must intervene."

And thus the theme persists. Warwickshire's lingering title hopes are dashed by the elements, and I continue to lament the injustice of it all like a member of the Australian press corps would a comprehensive Ashes defeat.

There is change in the air at Edgbaston. Dougie Brown remains a disciple of an enormously successful Ashley Giles regime - and possesses the same tools with which to accomplish grand feats of his own - but much as David Moyes must impose his own style of management in the post Sir Alex era at Manchester United, so Brown must follow suit with the Bears.

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Warks dream of title-defence turnaround

Players returning from injury, attacking captaincy from Varun Chopra, victories in T20 - things are looking up for the champions

Andy Bloxham

23-Jul-2013

How quickly things change in Championship cricket. Mere weeks after being firmly encamped within the drop zone, Warwickshire might well have commenced what would be the single most effort-laden turnaround since Ian Blackwell was last sent back by his partner upon attempting a tight single.

I've only made a brief foray in to the wonderful new library at Edgbaston - an excellent addition to the stadium that is well worth a visit - but I would wager that, had I perused the log of withdrawals, I'd have found a Mr D. Brown scribbled next to ESPNcricinfo columnist Ed Smith's publication Luck. He's been searching for it for some time.

As highlighted in my previous Supporters' Network piece, luck can be a cruel mistress. Her disposition toward the Bears in the earlier part of the season, though, was not so much to taketh away with both hands as to stroll in to Edgbaston, mask 'n' all, and rob Warwickshire blind. That's the view from the stands, anyway, and Brown too must quietly have wondered how he'd drawn her wrath as an injury list lengthy enough to bring Manchester City out in a cold sweat mounted.

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Time for champions to show some adventure

Injuries, illness and England calls have all played a part in Warwickshire's stuttering season, but they should not be used as excuses

Andy Bloxham

17-Jun-2013

I have been somewhat ambivalent toward Warwickshire's season. It just hasn't quite got going, has it? Then Guildford happened (more of that later), at which point I became as aggravated as a vertically challenged Australian opener furiously attempting to swat a bandy-legged youth donning a false beard.

Debate rages at the prospect of the formative stages of the County Championship taking place overseas. If that decision belonged to Warwickshire, they'd probably take it. An exceptional performance against the MCC in the Champion County fixture in the UAE displayed an ability to adapt to alien conditions, where a return to the more pluvious climes of Blighty has seen them struggle for consistency amid a mass of rain curtailed draws.

It's not been the ideal start to Dougie Brown's tenure at the helm. For a man under pressure to emulate the triumphs of the departed Ashley Giles, a series of troubles have combined to leave the reigning champions in an unfamiliar, and slightly precarious, position. Defeat at Durham failed to reignite hopes of successfully defending their crown: a loss which has seen fears of the only emulation being that of Lancashire's meteoric demise last year begin to creep in.

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Bears look to conceal soft underbelly

With a batting line up resembling an iceberg - an over reliance on the lower two thirds - Warwickshire's top order is the biggest problem for their title defence

Andy Bloxham

25-Apr-2013

Amid effusive praise for Warwickshire in the aftermath of a glorious 2012, pre-season murmurings of blasphemous dissent began to emanate from supporters around the counties - a fad that picked up pace faster than Suresh Raina's heart rate in the face of short pitched bowling.

Aspersions directed at the Bears top order placed it under greater scrutiny than North Korea's ballistic missile programme; at least in the eyes of a county cricket Twitterati evidently cheesed off with anything Midlands-related possessing the audacity to render itself praiseworthy. What if your lower order doesn't make the same contributions, they asked. Rikki Clarke exceeded expectations, they said.

Kim Jong-un might have labelled it jealousy, and then threatened violent retribution. Mercifully, Warwickshire's own response has, thus far, involved little more hazardous than willow and leather (though word has emerged of UN inspectors seeking to investigate the destructive nature of a substance known as Chris Wright).

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Consecutive titles is a distinct possibility

Warwickshire's 2013 prospects previewed by the ESPNcricinfo Supporters' Network

Andy Bloxham

04-Apr-2013

Oscar Wilde once coined the phrase "consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative". For all of Wilde's undoubted wisdom, it is a notion that Warwickshire - through inelaborate yet ruthlessly proficient cricket - impugned and ultimately denounced in a Championship winning 2012.

With the appointment of former assistant coach Dougie Brown as director of cricket in wake of Ashley Giles' England summons, and the dual promotion of esteemed bowling coach Graeme Welch to Assistant Coach and Tony Frost to full-time batting coach, the Bears intend to demonstrate that consistency is indeed the greatest bastion of success.