Let’s start this week’s blog off by saying the most northern thing possible, or should I say by talking about a thing that people in the north love to talk about, the weather.
In the space of a week we’ve gone from soaring temperatures to a large amount of rain, which was needed to be honest, and if we think about it we really don’t want what most of Europe have got at the minute with their ridiculously high temperatures so, it’s not really worth complaining about.
When it rains it pours though, and that’s exactly what we’ve had all weekend, for ducks and plants it’s great weather, for humans, not so much.
Although as I’m typing this blog up it’s meant to hammer it down any moment now so, I wish we didn’t have that today, could’ve waited.
Anyways, the rain didn’t stop me refereeing all weekend, but on Saturday I got soaked that much I actually dried up a little in the shower which just showed how bad it was.
We still have plenty to discuss as always in this blog though so, we will put the weather on hold, and we will get into some of the sport.
I’ll start by talking some cricket, and the T20 finals day on Saturday was thrilling as it always is, plenty of big hits, and a fantastic atmosphere from the crowd meant that despite the weather threatening to derail all the action we were still treated to the usual experience that comes along with these days.
Lancashire might’ve won the mascot race, in controversial circumstances may I add, he looked as though he started before the go call but it wouldn’t have mattered as he surged clear in the straight to win easily, handicapper really needs to take that into account for next year’s contest, but it was Somerset who came out on top in the cricket.
Somerset made up for their defeat in the 2022 semi-final to clinch their second ever victory in the limited overs format, 18 years after they won their first, and they have been brilliant throughout the full tournament.
In the group stage format they broke the record for the most wins, and their success in the final meant they had won 15 out of 17 games that they played in the competition.
For me, the shorter formats of cricket require a lot of skill and ability, because you need to be able to constantly keep the scoreboard going if you are the batting team, while if your bowling you need to make sure that the batters can’t hit you all over the place.
People think that batting is easy because all they do is smack the ball as hard as they can, but one thing that made Somerset so good through the blast was their running between the wickets, and creating pressure on the bowlers in a different way.
That was shown really by their two performances on Saturday, the semi-final against Surrey saw them only put 142 on the board when batting first, the game beforehand had seen Hampshire score 170, meaning it seemed to be a below par score.
However, they bowled magnificently, never letting Surrey to gather any real momentum in the chase, and ended up bowling them out for 118 to set-up their spot in the final against Essex.
Essex looked really good in their run chase in the opening game on finals day, reaching the target which was reduced due to the rain with only three balls to spare, but they were going at 10 runs an over, which meant if they had the full amount of overs to bat they could’ve reached 200.
Simon Harmer, captaining Essex, won the important toss for the final and sent Somerset into bat, and at the halfway stage it looked like a very good decision, Somerset struggling to put together any real partnerships and stuck at 68-4.
Sean Dickson managed to keep his cool and put an excellent score of 53 together to eventually push his team towards 145 all out, and despite still being a very competitive score it seemed as though Essex were favourites to knock it off and hand Somerset only their third defeat of the tournament.
They started off strongly in their run chase as well, smashing 35 off the opening three overs, but crucially losing two wickets.
Somerset’s key man Matt Henry was proving his worth, the New Zealand international only signed for a three month period back in February, which would see him be available from 11 May until 31 July, and he managed to pick up the wickets of the top three at the batting order for Essex to bring it back to 38-3.
The skipper Lewis Gregory then got in on the action alongside one of Henry’s New Zealand team-mates in Ish Sodhi to leave Essex 106-7 with five overs to go, but the danger man Daniel Sams was still at the crease and starting to warm to the task, the game not done with just yet.
Sams made his move, trying to wrestle back control of the innings, but when Sodhi picked up another two wickets he only had one partner remaining, and still needed 29 runs from 15 balls.
They tried hard but there was only ever going to be one man that was going to seal the deal for Somerset and that was Henry.
The 31-year-old got hit for six by Sams at the start of his last over, but regained his composure to get his man, largely thanks to a wonderful one-handed catch by Tom Kolher-Cadmore at gully, as Somerset won by 14 runs, que the celebrations.
From ecstasy to heartbreak, England women lost by three runs to Australia in the second ODI to bring to an end their fightback in the Ashes.
A real shame because they worked so hard to give themselves a chance but they had definitely entertained the crowd, and still have a chance at least to make sure the scores finish level with the final game.
From big hits to big transfers then, and Declan Rice has finally got his move to Arsenal.
This move to me just makes complete sense, you’ve got a player who is quite frankly looking to make that next move in his career and play in the Champions League and compete for Premier League titles, but still wants game time, and that’s what he can get at Arsenal.
West Ham have been brilliant with him, he’s been such an integral part to how they’ve operated and been so successful under David Moyes, but when you get offered that amount of money for a player it’s hard to turn down, especially when you know he has those ambitions to compete from titles.
That’s nothing against West Ham of course, but you feel Arsenal are in the middle of creating something special under Mikel Arteta, and Rice can spearhead that charge towards domestic success with his solid style of play that he brings to the midfield.
Is the price tag of £105 million for the 24-year-old going to create pressure? Yes, but I think he can handle it with no issues because he is very level headed and mature, and that is shown by how he plays the game.
What makes Rice so good for me is his ability to control and dictate the tempo of the game, he’s very similar to how Ruben Neves operates as he knows when to speed things up but also calm things down.
His defensive work rate also allows his other midfielders to go forward more and play more freely, and in that Arsenal team he will slot right in.
I hear people talking though that if he was from any other country he wouldn’t cost that much, seemingly it’s called ‘English tax’.
What they mean is that English players always end up costing more in this country because they are from England, take the Harry Maguire transfer to Manchester United for example, that’s another talking point actually as well, it’s desperately sad to see Maguire lose the captaincy at United but he quite simply hasn’t been good enough over a long period of time in domestic action, and a move away from Old Trafford is now on the cards.
Maguire needs this fresh start, at Leicester he really caught my eye as a solid defender who rarely gave the ball away or got caught out, but the system they played there with the three at the back suited him because he could get away with his lack of pace.
I remember at the time comparing him to Coady at Wolves, because both players were really good at dictating play and commanding their backline, but they were playing in a back three so that they didn’t get caught out for their speed, and when Wolves moved to a back four it didn’t seem to suit Coady as much as the three.
Same with Maguire, Manchester United don’t want to sit back and defend, they want to play a high line and be aggressive, and that’s where he’s been found out.
Varane is used to this style with playing for Real Madrid, and Martinez played for Ajax which is a side also known for their high pressing football so, it just suits them more than Maguire.
Maguire and Coady are still solid defenders, I think Coady moving to Leicester for that fresh start will suit him and get him back to his Wolves days, and the same can be said for Maguire, this opportunity to start again and get back to basics almost can kick start it all for him again.
Back to Rice though, and when you see that Jude Bellingham’s transfer to Real Madrid cost less, £88.5 million, you could argue that the price is an overpay.
Bellingham is only 19, which means in another five years he could end up costing way more than Rice because this move to Spain is just the start for him, but that’s the same for Rice I feel, yes he has been excellent at West Ham but this move to Arsenal signals the start of what could be a golden period for him.
Money is just money at the end of the day, there’s human beings involved which matter a whole lot more than that, and I hope Rice can really kick on and show people what he’s worth, and why Arsenal paid that amount for him.
Enough of the money talk now, time to dive into some of the teams that are closer to home here in Cumbria and assess how they’ve been getting on in pre-season.
Carlisle are still seemingly riding high on their promotion success from League Two in the play-off final, and why wouldn’t you be?
From the minute he came back to the club, manager Paul Simpson dragged them out of all the negativity that was surrounding them at the time of his appointment, and brought the feel good factor back to the place.
That win at Wembley against Stockport on penalties sealed their return to League One for the first time in nine years, and they’ve had a busy transfer window as expected.
Former Blackburn forward Dan Butterworth is the latest to join after being released from the Lancashire club early on this summer, making him the sixth signing so far, Sam Lavelle and Ben Barclay, who was on loan at the club last season are two really solid additions, while the retention of skipper Callum Guy appeared to be the news that every Carlisle supporter wanted to hear.
They lost Morgan Feeney to Shrewsbury after he didn’t sign a new contract, but I think everything about what has developed at Carlisle in the last few seasons just shows how important a manager can be.
Without Simpson coming back it almost felt like the club were slipping into very dangerous territory and getting too close to being relegated to the Conference, but because the fans love him, he’s got them going again and built something special there.
I think that’s the same at Barrow really, Pete Wild came in last season and no one gave them a chance.
People expected them to be relegated, but he created that same togetherness in the team, it was like an us against them mentality and lets make sure we prove everyone who doubted us wrong.
They certainly did that, and at times they didn’t look far off from being in the play-offs thanks to the large goal threat they had up front.
While it has been sad to see him go, Josh Gordon was dangerous for most of the season with his blistering pace, but the star most of the time was Ben Whitfield who just created so much for the likes of Gordon.
Whitfield joined from Stockport at the start of the campaign and just had this ability to create chances out of nothing, keeping hold of him could be really vital ahead of the new season, and I don’t think many people will be saying they’ll get relegated this time around.
The running theme through all the bits I’ve talked today seems to be that togetherness between groups and the fact that they all want to prove people wrong.
Everyone loves the underdog story or the comeback kid, so in future I think it’s definitely not important to write teams off before the season has even began, I’ll take that into account when my premier league predictions all go wrong again.
I’m off now though to go and enjoy the lovely weather, oh wait it’s raining again, never mind…
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