Championship Cricket Season 2023 Round 1

 

09/04

Leicestershire win at Headingley for the first time 1920

Division 1 wins for Essex and Kent

06/04

The first century of the season went to Finlay Bean 118 vs Leicestershire

Josh Tongue also conceded a ton at Derby 15-1-100-0

Early lunch at Cardiff owing to a mechanical issue with the hover covers.

Recent and over night rain has forced the first day to be abandoned at Taunton (Somerset v Bears) The outfield more like a beach in parts after the application of copious amounts of sand.

05/04

Another Preview from the BBC 

04/04

BBC Notts Preview

Assuming all are fit: which bowlers will start for Notts on Thursday?

LJ and LPW + ?

Broady
Stoney
Bally
Fletch
Len
Patto

County by County ECB Preview of Championship season

02/04

BBC Championship preview with a Derbyshire and Surrey bias

30/03

Countdown to the season proper - 1 week before the LV= County Championship 2023 starts and for Notts it all starts at Southampton against one of the favourites, Hampshire.

22/03 

We've reached 1 in the countdown to what will be something of a damp squib of a practise two days against Debyshire tomorrow, now at Trent Bridge, behind closed doors and not streamed.

Today, later, Notts will launch some new kit for the T20. If it is actually what was being circulating yesterday (unofficially), then it will be very much International Rescue inspired, with a diagonal "sash" design. We await in trepidation, FAB!

21/03

Derbyshire update

Derbyshire’s pre-season friendly with Nottinghamshire, due to start on Thursday 23 March, will be played at Trent Bridge. 

The fixture is due to be Derbyshire’s first of the 2023 pre-season, with places up for grabs in Mickey Arthur’s starting XI ahead of the LV= County Championship opener against Worcestershire, starting on Thursday 6 April.

The game was initially scheduled to be played at The Incora County Ground, behind closed doors, however instances of extreme weather over the last fortnight have left the outfield unfit for groundstaff to complete essential preparations, including grass cutting, in time for the fixture.

The fixture at Trent Bridge will be played behind closed doors and will not be live streamed, however a live scorecard will be available and supporters can follow updates from each day’s play on the Club’s official social media accounts.

21/03

The first (friendly) fixture of 2023 in England has had its first day lost to the elements.

20/03

LCCC: 

Foxes to Face Northants and Notts in Pre-Season Warm-Ups

17 March 2023

Leicestershire County Cricket Club can today confirm the Club’s pre-season fixture arrangements for the 2023 season.

The Foxes will host two-day friendlies against fellow East Midlands sides Northamptonshire (27-28 March) and Nottinghamshire (30-31 March) at Uptonsteel County Ground ahead of their season opener away at Yorkshire on 6 April.

The duo of friendlies will follow a three-day fixture against Leeds/Bradford UCCE at Weetwood, which begins on Wednesday, 22 March.

Both two-day fixtures are expected to see each team bat on one day and bowl on the other, while the Leeds/Bradford UCCE fixture will follow the traditional three-day format – again not carrying first-class status.

Due to the ongoing redevelopment work at the Pavilion End of Uptonsteel County Ground, the Club regrets to inform Members that both fixtures will be forced to be played behind closed doors. The Club will endeavour to stream the action where possible.

Construction is expected to be completed by the start of April, meaning the Foxes’ first home match of the County Championship season against Derbyshire (13-16 April) will not be affected.

19/03

A rain delayed start in April for the opener to 1863 where the public showed "excessive interest".

Nottinghamshire Guardian April 10, 1863

18/03

So what do we think Notts will win this season?

Without Duckett, do we have enough batting in any of the competitions?

Pre-season 1898, a month on and rain ruined.

Nottingham Daily Express April 13, 1898

17/03

As Trent Bridge Pravda reminds us through some racial stereo-typing that they would never dare with any of the Test countries from the Indian sub-continent, it's Saint Patrick's Day and we countdown to be with John Tracy in orbit.

Looking down from space next month, what kind of cricket do we expect to see?

Will play be similar to most other years or will teams adopt a more "Bazball" approach? 

Will the Bazball mentality be confined to just players with England ambitions?

Will we still see teams digging-in to grind out draws?

16/03

As we reach Thunderbird 6 in our countdown 

[I remember my mum taking me on two buses from our home to a cinema in Bobbers Mill to see that movie - Thunderbird 6, and the great anti-climax at the end when six turned out to be a Tiger Moth biplane, The Six has always left a feeling of meh for me, ever since 1968]

Today I'll pose a question about the rapidly arriving season: what do we want from the 2023 season (from a Notts POV)?

13/03

It's ten days until Notts travel to the [insert variable sponsor's name] County Ground, Derby for what the ECB liveplay tells us a T20 friendly starting at 11 AM (so in all probability, 2 matches of T20 over the day). However on the Derbyshire website, the "game" is scheduled for both the 23rd and 24th of March, suggesting two days of turn taking practise rather than a limited over set and chase game/s.

As mentioned in the comments by MAG

Derbyshire will play two behind closed doors pre-season friendlies at The Incora County Ground in March, with both fixtures to be live streamed on the Club Website. 

Mickey Arthur’s side will get their first taste of 2023 match action on home soil against Nottinghamshire in a two-day fixture on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 March, before facing Lancashire on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 March.

Both fixtures will be played behind closed doors, and will be available to watch through the Club’s Live Stream service, which can be accessed via the Match Centre and YouTube, with supporters welcomed back into the ground for the fixture against Durham UCCE, starting on Saturday 1 April, before the LV= County Championship season begins on Thursday 6 April against Worcestershire at Derby.

It's a whole two weeks before Notts play a home friendly at Trent Bridge, a three day (non-first class) match against Loughborough students. There is a two match at [insert variable sponsor's name] County Ground, Leicester aka Grace Road, before the end of the month also.

As we have seen in the past week, March isn't often ideal for cricket or cricket watching, and with temperatures set to drop into single digits again later this week and into next again in time for the practise fixtures.

We all remember that the cricket season never used to start so early in the year and traditionally (ie donkeys years ago) the season would begin with a County XI v Colts XXII, played around (the movable feast of) Easter. But, cricketers are full-time professionals these days and have to at some point put all the winter's fitness and conditioning training and the technical work in the nets all into practice against an opposition.

Nottingham Evening Post 21 April 1892