Somerset v Sussex

So let's just take stock of this, shall we? Sussex entered this match after getting away with a draw from their last game, having wrongly backed a theory. Their previous completed game they had been surprisingly and comprehensively defeated by Somerset - again, having backed a theory. For this game they were deprived of one charismatic stroke-playing batsman and one superb strike bowler (Test match calls), one containing medium-pacer, whose ability to exact swing in helpful conditions might have been useful and one steady early-order batsman and safe catcher (injury), one left-arm spinner and, according to Mark Robinson, top-6 batsman (complete absence of form and achievement. Oh yes, and the club bears the taint of two of its overseas signings allegedly being complicit in a betting scam. All in all a great way to go into a game.

I do agree that this is the sort of time when players of character knuckle down and show their worth, and all those sort of statements, bu I can also see, and understand, that there's a sort of train-crash attitude that is likely to be present too. The kind of feeling that when one sees the last jagged rails over the edge of the ravine as the engine gathers speed on the downward slope and you crane out of the windows, and probably there must be a feeling of Oh to hell with all!

That Joyce and Magoffin should stand apart from this is not merely praise for their characters; its an indicator of just how far ahead their talent outstrips all the honest strivers and the flair players in the side. We'd like good old Nash to come good in these moments of crisis, a true and loyal player, a fine batsman, but this kind of circumstance shows that he is where he is: in the top rungs of the second-rate. In a similar way Wright, the hardest trier on the field, an occasionally brilliant strokemaker, a sometime partnership-breaker just hasn't got that extra little bit that puts him into genuine international ranking.

For the rest of them, there are talents in the making, talents that flatter to deceive, talents that perhaps have grown stale through underuse, and talents that had a brief flowering and perhaps will do so no more. I don't subscribe to all of the doom and gloom that has come through in comments on this game. I think that Sussex have the nucleus of quite a good side, but we need to find players, both at local level and by inspired acquisition from outside quite urgently this year if we are to continue to punch our weight - and for goodness sake forget all of this nonsense about punching above our weight because we can't and won't until we get another Mushtaq Ahmed with a Murray Goodwin enforcer and a single-minded ruthless captain.

What we have seems to be an excellent strokeplayer and thinking batsamn in Joyce, who seems to be too quick to fall in with accepted theories coming from within the coaching management about the style of team and their approach on certain wickets. That thinking was once innovative and fresh but has now become predictable, sterile and academic. We need to liven it up.

This sums things up for me. We have two players of genuine quality who can generally be relied on to put in a performance. Of course, you would have to add Jordan and Prior to that list, though how much we'll see of them I don't know. As you say, we need to add quality to the squad, at least two players I would have thought. How much room will we have to manoeuvre come the winter? Well, after handing out two year contracts to Zaidi, Liddle and Anyon, probably not a lot. Hopefully Jordan will get a central contract so that should free up some money. With only 4 players out of contract, two of those, Wells and Magoffin, it's likely we'll have to increase the budget. It certainly isn't all doom and gloom, but somehow over the last couple of years we've lost our way. We needed to recruit a third seamer, then Monty left and wasn't replaced, and now we've lost the services of Chris Jordan.