Shabbir's shock

"There was lots of anticipation but he had a bit of an innocuous start." So says Mark Alleyne of Shabbir Ahmed, displaying the innate tact of a diplomat. Shabbir's hamstring and no-ball problems were bad enough but were compounded by a downing of tools against Northants.

Alleyne, the player-coach, had never seen anything like it. "When he pulled up halfway through the over I thought it was the hamstring at first. What people misunderstand is that Jon Lewis had bowled a long spell from that end and brought all the moisture back up - it got boggier. More often than not, in those circumstances, there wouldn't have been any play before tea: the players were brave to start as early as they did," says Alleyne.

Chris Taylor's initiation as captain, concedes Alleyne, was only marginally less traumatic. "He'd been through it all by the end of his first month, gone from one extreme to the other: days we couldn't stop taking wickets to back-to-back wicketless sessions. We had a good chat the other day and he said he was really enjoying it. I'm sure he'll settle down fine." And the man Taylor replaced in charge of four-day operations? "I'm still practising as if I'm playing the next day, just as I'd expect any 21-year-old to do," says Alleyne. "Even though I haven't played much Championship cricket, I feel just as involved as a player."

Moment of the month Shabbir Ahmed refuses to complete an over at Bristol, blaming a soggy run-up.