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Day Two

Morning: A bright start to Friday, but wickets remained hard to come by. Resuming on 363-7, both batsmen came close to perishing early on, but hung on to carry Durham to a fourth batting point. Adam Finch dismissed Paul Coughlin LBW for 42 a short while later, and Ben Raine then pulled Dillon Pennington to deep midwicket for 71 to get the young man off the mark for the season, and perhaps mindful of the weather forecast, the hosts decided at that point that 425-9 was a suitable total on which to declare. They might well have regretted it as Ed Pollock opted to marmalise the opening bowlers left, right and centre, pushing the run-rate close to ten an over as he motored onto a rapid-fire 41 with nine boundaries, before a remarkable over from Matthew Potts yielded four byes, a slog-swept four, an LBW shout denied, a square cut for four, and a fierce delivery that finally rearranged the stumps of Pollock and brought the fun to an end. Lunch followed on 67-1.

Afternoon: The clouds descended, the floodlights came on, and Jake Libby showed genuine grit and fight to see off the new ball in testing conditions. Azhar Ali, whose pre-lunch cameo had approached a run a ball, was similarly watchful, but as the rain finally began to fall the umpires were perhaps guilty of capitulating to Durham gripes about the three wickets they lost to a gloomy new-ball spell on Thursday evening; stubbornly keeping the teams out in the middle, it wasn't until Azhar was adjudged LBW to Potts for 29 that a rain break was finally deemed necessary, curtailing the day's play on a low note.

Evening: No play possible due to rain.

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Day Three

Morning: At last the weather gods decided to leave Chester-le-Street alone, and beneath scudding white clouds Worcestershire resumed on 96-2. Three-quarters of an hour of patient resistance came undone for Jake Libby when an edge was juggled and caught at second slip for 26 off Paul Coughlin, but Jack Haynes and skipper Brett D'Oliveira upped the scoring rate in response, Dolly in particular looking eager to get on with proceedings until lunch intervened on 192-3, with the Pears trailing by 233.

Afternoon: There was time for Haynes to complete his half-century before a leading edge from Dolly saw him caught and bowled by Matthew Kuhnemann for 46, breaking a fruitful partnership. But on the increasingly flat track, one wicket a session remained the upper limit, and there were no further casualties as an assured knock from Gareth Roderick helped to push the Pears past the follow-on target, reaching tea on 293-4.

Evening: Stranded on 98 during the interval, Haynes completed his fourth first-class century by half past four, and though Roderick departed for 44 pulling Ben Raine to midwicket, the Pears stuck to the task until a third batting point was up and Haynes had gone one better than his previous Championship best, with 134 not out. At that point, with the game seemingly drifting towards an inevitable draw, the skipper made a competitive decision to declare on 366-5, still trailing by 59 runs. The bold move was rewarded by a couple of late wickets, as Joe Leach jagged a ball back to bowl Michael Jones for 9, and Ben Gibbon dismissed Alex Lees LBW for 22; yet the hosts navigated the final ten overs safely, reaching stumps on 96-2 with a lead of 155. Having been stung in a close game last weekend, I'm not sure Durham will be overly eager to reciprocate Worcestershire's carrot-dangling declaration tomorrow, but the Pears have gamely put the ball in their court, and done an admirable job of maintaining some interest in a match where a draw still seems the likeliest outcome.

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Day Four

Morning: With conditions still ostensibly batting-friendly, Durham continued to make hay until Adam Finch added to his solid tally for the match by having David Bedingham caught for 86 on the pull, while Ollie Robinson holed out for 13 to Ben Gibbon, giving the left-armer his sixth scalp of the weekend and career-best match figures. On 254-4 the hosts declared, setting a fair target of 314 from seventy overs to win, but when Jake Libby was caught at first slip for a duck to leave the Pears 3-1 at lunch, it was a omen of things to come.

Afternoon: Almost immediately after the resumption, an attempted drive by Ed Pollock off Paul Coughlin spooned the ball up to mid-on for 2, reducing Worcs to 3-2, and though Azhar Ali and Jack Haynes combined to good effect for the bulk of the session, both fell trying to sweep Matthew Kuhnemann for 33 and 40 respectively, caught by diving catches in the deep. As the abortive chase rapidly subsided, there was still time for Gareth Roderick to be comprehensively bowled by Kuhnemann for 2 before tea.

Evening: Spells of intermittent resistance simply weren't enough, as Matthew Waite perished LBW for 21 to Coughlin before Joe Leach was bowled for a duck by a sharply-turning delivery from Kuhnemann. A titanic rearguard effort from Dolly ended when the skipper edged Potts behind for 42, and Gibbon copped a golden duck in the same fashion off the following delivery. It was down to the last-wicket partnership of Dillon Pennington and Adam Finch to see out the last nineteen overs, and agonisingly, the pair came within thirty-two deliveries of getting the job done before the former was bowled by Kuhnemann for 14.

Worcestershire LOSE by one hundred and twenty-one runs

The Verdict: From a Worcestershire perspective, it's a matter of philosophy whether this result is the unfortunate consequence of an admirable gamble that produced a thrilling day's cricket, or a stroke of idiocy that threw away an almost-guaranteed draw, however boring to watch, for a hapless car-crash defeat. For my money, I'm inclined to take a balanced view that there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the Saturday declaration, and it is the kind of sporting gesture which benefits cricket, while feeling that the way in which Worcestershire approached the eventual run chase was a catastrophe from the word go, with too many top-order players throwing their wicket away and duly exposing a lengthy tail to hours of hostile bowling. The outcome, like it or not, is that five points have been sacrificed and an extra eleven granted to the opposition, making for a 16-point differential with a potential promotion rival. If these gambles are going to become the norm for us when hunting for wins, we absolutely have to improve the way we chase a stiff target against the clock.

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With the dust scarcely settled from Sunday's mishap, Worcestershire are right back on the horse tomorrow with the first home match of 2023, as relegated Gloucestershire visit New Road in search of their first win. Having managed no play at all last weekend, they're well rested, though perhaps a little rusty; nevertheless, centuries from Marcus Harris and Graeme van Buuren a fortnight ago, along with six wickets for young Tom Price at a razor-sharp average, spell a threat for the Pears in this encounter.

Yet with Jack Haynes second only to Colin Ackermann in the Division Two run stakes, Josh Tongue likely to make a return along with Ben Cox, and some signs of real promise from Ben Gibbon for a bright summer, Worcestershire have reasons to be cheerful. The weather may be patchy, but we should see plenty of action at New Road in the coming days.


Probable Worcestershire XI: Libby, Pollock, Ali, Haynes, D'Oliveira, Hose, Cox, Waite, Leach, Tongue, Gibbon

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County Championship, Division Two

vs Gloucestershire

New Road, Worcester

Day One

Morning: Gloucestershire won the toss and elected to bat on a windy yet sunny Thursday in Worcester. It soon seemed the disaster to end all disasters, as just nine balls into the innings Ben Gibbon, having already drawn a play-and-miss from Chris Dent with his first delivery, made his third rear up on the opener and fly to first slip off an outside edge to see him off for a duck. It became two in two for the left-armer when he dismissed James Bracey with the next ball, angling the delivery in and drawing a thicker edge to slip for a duck. Though Gloucs dodged the hat-trick, things got steadily worse for them as Joe Leach had Miles Hammond caught at gully for 4 ten minutes later, leaving the visitors 5-3, then doubled up by pinning Marcus Harris LBW for 1, making it 8-4. They made it to the heady heights of 24 before the fifth wicket fell, Leach this time seeing off Ollie Price LBW for 11, and Dillon Pennington joined the fun by seeing off Graeme van Buuren for 14 with a steepling top-edge caught behind, before having Jack Taylor caught at mid-off for 10. A brisk counter-attack, with no further wickets, took Gloucestershire from 45-7 to 73-7 in time for lunch; it was Worcestershire's session, but sadly about as good as the day would get.

Afternoon: Whether the air lost some moisture, the pitch lost some greenness, the ball lost its shine or the Worcs bowlers simply lost their marbles, the Gloucestershire tail wagged both inexorably and predictably, led by Tom Price scoring above a run a ball. The early afternoon casualty of Zafar Gohar, caught behind off Joe Leach, seemed only to spur the visitors on as Marchant de Lange came to the crease and peppered the boundary until Josh Tongue had him caught behind after skying a top-edge. Still the resistance continued, with Price completing an excellent maiden first-class century, and it felt like a minor miracle when Matthew Waite at last deflected a straight drive from Ajeet Singh Dale onto the non-striker's stumps to run Price out for 109. A slightly early tea was taken with Gloucs 231 all out, an almost unthinkable total at 45-7, and already it felt like the pendulum was beginning to swing.

Evening: Incredibly, on a deeply peculiar day's cricket all round, the first fifteen overs of the new ball brought no wickets and few real problems at all as Worcestershire advanced to 58-0 by five o'clock. Which made the events that followed all the more baffling, as Jake Libby was dismissed LBW for 27 to open a door that Tom Price gleefully barged through, having Azhar Ali, Jack Haynes and Brett D'Oliveira caught behind for a hat-trick of ducks. Though the Pears attempted a fightback after losing those four wickets for one run in the space of eight balls, the subsidence continued; Ed Pollock inside-edged behind for 34, Ben Cox was adjudged LBW for 15, and Joe Leach edged behind for 1 to leave the Pears 118-7 at close, still trailing by 113. Matthew Waite remains the rock of Worcestershire resistance on 37 not out, but he'll need to do a Tom Price - perhaps with bat and ball alike - if the Pears are to remain in this match.

[themaclad]

Not often someone gets a hat trick an a century on the same day

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Day Three

Morning: After heavy rain washed out the second day entirely, a delayed start on Saturday saw proceedings commence at noon, but Matthew Waite was an early casualty, edging Dale to second slip for 42 after adding just five runs to his overnight total. The tail certainly fought, but didn't wag; Josh Tongue was bowled by Dale for 11, and though Ben Gibbon scored a couple of valuable boundaries, Dillon Pennington edged Dale behind for 6 in short order, leaving the Pears 157 all out with a first-innings deficit of 74.

Afternoon: Ominously hard going for the Worcestershire attack, with the Gloucestershire batsmen not looking entirely comfortable at the crease but the ball never quite finding the edge or going to hand. Tongue made the only breakthrough of the session when Marcus Harris tried to uppercut him and was caught behind for 26, but the visitors were 105-1 at tea with a lead of 179.

Evening: In a session dogged by bad light, Tongue was again the man with the plan, though there was more than a whiff of batsman error to both evening dismissals as James Bracey was caught behind for 51 hooking down the leg-side, and Miles Hammond spooned a catch to mid-on for 15. The gloom eventually curtailed the day seventeen overs prematurely, and Gloucs closed on 172-3 with a lead of 246. With Worcester due to receive a Biblical deluge from around two o'clock on Sunday, it'll be interesting to see whether Gloucestershire still fancy their chances of forcing a result; trusting the Met Office and making an overnight declaration would give them the opportunity to do to the Pears in the morning what we did to them on Thursday, with the minor risk that clear skies and an aggressive approach could yet allow Worcs to chase down that kind of total.

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Day Four

Morning: Not risking the overnight declaration, Gloucestershire came out swinging on a cloudy Sunday and put on three dozen runs in the first twenty minutes before Matthew Waite drew a top edge from Chris Dent and had him caught by the keeper for 83. The declaration came at 11:45, setting Worcestershire a theoretical 301 to win, and the hour that followed was nightmare fuel. Ed Pollock, who's been admirably reining in his attacking instincts so far this season, perished for a 3 to a dreadful attempt at a pull that came off the top edge; Azhar Ali also decided to counter-attack but spooned up a catch for 9 from a poor shot of his own, while Jack Haynes fended off a short ball from De Lange and was caught at second slip for a duck. De Lange continued his barrage of short, venomous bowling, and the seventh delivery faced by Brett D'Oliveira struck his forearm with sufficient force to make the skipper drop his bat, narrowly avoiding a hit wicket, and obliging him to retire hurt without scoring. Ten minutes of the session remained when a thick outside edge from Jake Libby was caught at gully for 22, and with the Pears 51-4 at lunch - yet effectively five down - it would have been a big ask to bat out much more of the day. But the rain intervened, no further play ensued, and Gloucestershire were left to rue the forty-five minutes at the beginning of the day which they could have used to pursue the win.

Match DRAWN

The Verdict: Having lost five points last weekend that we undoubtedly deserved, this week we managed (or rather, the rain managed) to gain five that we didn't deserve. It was alarming to see tendencies from 2019 and 2021 creeping back into our game, as for much of this match it looked like our players - batsmen and bowlers alike - were using a different pitch to Gloucestershire's, sometimes within minutes of them playing on it. A fortnight's break here and now is a blessing, as the Pears need to regroup and rethink before going into May.

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Sad news from Worcester this week as the county announced the retirement of 30-year-old Charlie Morris, a real fan favourite of the last ten years in the mould of Jack Shantry, who's called time on his career after suffering a knee injury last summer. Distinguishing himself (alongside Tom Fell) for Oxford MCCU when Worcs visited the Parks in 2012 and 2013, Charlie debuted for the Pears against Australia a decade ago, took 56 wickets in the promotion summer of 2014 and 50 more during 2015's relegation, and despite having to remodel his action in 2016, losing two years of cricket in the process, he returned to action in 2018 and over the next four summers pushed his career wicket tally up to 237. I wish Charlie all the best in the future, and will have many a fond memory of his time at New Road.

This week we host Sussex, having slept for a fortnight on the unfortunate showings against Durham and Gloucestershire. There's little hope of an easier ride against the boys from the south coast, as an in-form Cheteshwar Pujara is now joined by Steve Smith for the coming month, but with weather again threatening the weekend's cricket, it could prove to be a stop-start contest. Nevertheless, the Pears are boosted by the return of Dolly and Gareth Roderick for a crucial early fixture.


Probable Worcestershire XI: Libby, Pollock, Ali, Haynes, D'Oliveira, Hose, Roderick, Waite, Leach, Tongue, Gibbon

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County Championship, Division Two

vs Sussex

New Road, Worcester

Day One

Morning: Sussex won the toss and put the Pears in to bat on a bright Thursday morning in early May. Ollie Robinson wasted no time capitalising on a green pitch in the notoriously iffy conditions of a New Road first hour, even though some of the Worcs batting was deeply suspect; certainly, Ed Pollock threw his wicket away almost immediately with a drive flying high to third slip for 4, while Azhar Ali fell LBW for 11 to a ball that nipped back, and Jack Haynes edged a ball that seamed away to first slip for 1. Jake Libby attempted a counter-attack only to lose his middle stump for 15, and when Brett D'Oliveira edged Fynn Hudson-Prentice to first slip for 1, the Pears were 44-5 before noon. But the sixth-wicket partnership managed a successful fightback in the following hour, with Adam Hose producing some splendid shots as Worcestershire reached lunch on 111-5.

Afternoon: Having suffered a tough first session, run were the order of the afternoon, and Hose continued to supply them as he reached his maiden first-class fifty for the county off 68 balls. Gareth Roderick, who'd offered fine support, edged Sean Hunt behind for 39 shortly before Hose was bowled by a Henry Crocombe yorker for 59, but the eighth-wicket partnership then continued the rearguard with a record Pears stand versus Sussex of 103. Matthew Waite was first to his fifty, taking just 40 balls to reach the milestone before he was bowled by Robinson for 59, and Joe Leach clubbed his way to 53 before edging Robinson to second slip. The England bowler then dismissed Ben Gibbon LBW for a duck, leaving the Pears 264 all out at tea; a better total than we'd have dared dream of at midday.

Evening: Yet not for the first time, the opposition made batting look a lot easier than our top order managed to, and only one wicket fell before bad light curtailed the day's play; Josh Tongue having Tom Clark caught behind for 12. Sussex were 63-1 at stumps with Orr and Alsop in the middle, and as Pujara and Smith are the next pair in, it's vital for the Pears to make the first hour count tomorrow as the visitors did today.