County Crowds

[Swervy]

Which would be the least supported county in England?

Derby????

 

[vic_orthdox]

Derby????

Surely their popularity has skyrocketed since Corky left?

 

[Swervy]

Surely their popularity has skyrocketed since Corky left?

yeah they get one man and 2 dogs in now

 

[badgerhair]

Which would be the least supported county in England?

Derbyshire. It's a small county very near a lot of others and they have, and always have had, a rubbish side. They have old players who are basically retreads from other counties serving out their days until retirement, and young blokes who haven't yet managed to impress another county enough to be able to escape. It's a bit of a vicious circle, because the fact that the team spends most of its time losing means that the committee spend most of their time blaming each other for the debacles, which means that the team is unsettled and develops into contendiing factions, so they perform worse, the results remain appalling, and the committee get on with the internecine warfare.... and so on.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[vic_orthdox]

No wonder they have no support. If I had to go and watch Steve Stubbings play every week, I'd be turned off too. He has one of the most inappropriate heads in world cricket. It's completely out of proportion to his body.

 

[Swervy]

Derbyshire. It's a small county very near a lot of others and they have, and always have had, a rubbish side. They have old players who are basically retreads from other counties serving out their days until retirement, and young blokes who haven't yet managed to impress another county enough to be able to escape. It's a bit of a vicious circle, because the fact that the team spends most of its time losing means that the committee spend most of their time blaming each other for the debacles, which means that the team is unsettled and develops into contendiing factions, so they perform worse, the results remain appalling, and the committee get on with the internecine warfare.... and so on.

Cheers,

Mike

yeah they have always seemed to have a poor team..although didnt they come second (???) a few years back

 

[vic_orthdox]

They do alright when I play with them in ICC

 

[Swervy]

I'm interested in what harm it has done?
Were England really such a fantastic team in the 1920s and 30s, at the height of domestic-First-Class-cricket's popularity?

well, its hard to say whether England were a fantastic team back then considering the lack of opposition (in the late 20's England were good relative to their nearest rivals Australia).....however really you should be looking at how England played maybe 10-20 years later to see the effects.
The late 40's with Compton and all that saw a huge boost for English domestic cricket (post war euphoria maybe!!!)..I dont think its a coincidence that England were a great team in the late 50's....young players were inspired by Compton , and I am sure that is partly due to crickets popularity a few years earlier.

Despite Englands success, the type of cricket played in the 50's was by all accounts pretty uninspiring, save the odd player (someone like Dexter)...it was around then I believe domestic cricket was falling by the wayside,it didnt have crowd pulling power....so less kids were going to see the games and get inspired to take the game up. Again I dont think its a coincidence that England performances slipped through out the 60's and into the 70's.....England then slipped into a vicious circle of declining domestic attendances,poor standards of play domestically (3 day cricket on uncovered pitches, loads of contrived results etc), and poor test results (bar the odd series like 1981)....that cycle is obviously very hard to break....its great for England that internationally, the results are coming through again....But I think thats why something like 2020 is a top idea for domestic cricket, the crowds are coming back,and although maybe Englands test results MAY slip back a bit in a few years, I think all these kids taking an interest in the(very) short version of the game has to have a good long term effect on England international performances (by that I mean 10 to 20 years)....as long as the 20/20 goose isnt strangled by overexposure.

So in short I still maintain that healthy CC attendances (and surely a knock on effect of 20/20 is a renewed interest in how ones county is doing in the first class game) can only be a good thing for the England game as a whole

 

[aliG]

this i think is sooo relevant to domestic cricket.

link

from an avearge of 30 to 10000 + per match. feel good story of the year in my opinion.

 

[marc71178]

Lets just say I usually bat in front of more people at college than would attend an evening session of Somerset v Whoever in the CC... Sad state of affairs..

False advertising - I think they all turn up to see the great Rikki!

 

[superkingdave]

Don't know about Australia but the domestic-First-Class game gets about 6 or 7 games covered per season - out of... I can't remember how many.

nope, 2/3 max. This year, Middx vs Surrey, Lancs vs Yorks.

last year i think it was Warks - Lancs at Stratford-upon-Avon and another, year before Lancs vs Kent at Blackpool and another.

 

[Langeveldt]

False advertising - I think they all turn up to see the great Rikki!

Rikki? Thats not what your mother said last night..

 

[Richard]

No wonder they have no support. If I had to go and watch Steve Stubbings play every week, I'd be turned off too. He has one of the most inappropriate heads in world cricket. It's completely out of proportion to his body.

Still a reasonable batsman who's been unbelievably harshly treated by a club he's shown unusual loyalty to.

 

[chekmeout]

And whats the most well-supported county in England?

 

[Richard]

well, its hard to say whether England were a fantastic team back then considering the lack of opposition (in the late 20's England were good relative to their nearest rivals Australia).....however really you should be looking at how England played maybe 10-20 years later to see the effects.
The late 40's with Compton and all that saw a huge boost for English domestic cricket (post war euphoria maybe!!!)..I dont think its a coincidence that England were a great team in the late 50's....young players were inspired by Compton , and I am sure that is partly due to crickets popularity a few years earlier.

Despite Englands success, the type of cricket played in the 50's was by all accounts pretty uninspiring, save the odd player (someone like Dexter)...it was around then I believe domestic cricket was falling by the wayside,it didnt have crowd pulling power....so less kids were going to see the games and get inspired to take the game up. Again I dont think its a coincidence that England performances slipped through out the 60's and into the 70's.....England then slipped into a vicious circle of declining domestic attendances,poor standards of play domestically (3 day cricket on uncovered pitches, loads of contrived results etc), and poor test results (bar the odd series like 1981)....that cycle is obviously very hard to break....its great for England that internationally, the results are coming through again....But I think thats why something like 2020 is a top idea for domestic cricket, the crowds are coming back,and although maybe Englands test results MAY slip back a bit in a few years, I think all these kids taking an interest in the(very) short version of the game has to have a good long term effect on England international performances (by that I mean 10 to 20 years)....as long as the 20/20 goose isnt strangled by overexposure.

So in short I still maintain that healthy CC attendances (and surely a knock on effect of 20/20 is a renewed interest in how ones county is doing in the first class game) can only be a good thing for the England game as a whole

Why? No other country needs it.
Twenty20, by accounts of everyone, has been greeted with exactly the same ecstasy that surrounded 65-over cricket in 1963, and 40-over cricket in 1968. While both maintain more popularity than the First-Class game (which, I repeat, hasn't been well attended since the early 1930s - except in the post-war euphoria you mentioned, very briefly for 3 or 4 seasons) they've slipped, and most people of an age to remember it's initial popularity expect Twenty20 to do similar.
One thing that hasn't changed in England, in over 80 years, is the popularity of the Test-match game; and in 32 years the popularity of the ODI game. It hasn't really changed as much as people think anywhere else, either - while Tests in South Africa and the subcontinent are poorly attended it's still much the more discussed form of the game, and you only need to look at the members from those countries on these boards.
So in conclusion, England's most successful period had little to do with the popularity, nor the subsequent slide. There'd been slides before, and there have been little perks since (1968-1972; 1981; 2000-2000\01; 2004), but none have had the slightest to do with the popularity of attending the domestic game. Domestic cricket started falling by the wayside in the second half of the 1930s, as Tests took the limelight. I don't know what patterns were in the countries who joined the Test scene later was; I'm pretty sure the pattern in England, South Africa and Australia was fairly similar. Equally I'm not certain whether or not the domestic game was ever popular in Aus or SA.
The domestic limited-overs game, in every country, retains potential for popular appeal, you only need to look at crowds and TV audiences for day\night matches especially. With a little more proactive marketing, and maybe some help from the 20-over game - only maybe, the two are very different and because someone wants to watch 40 overs doesn't neccesarily mean they want to watch 80 and 100 (and it works the other way around, too - as in my case) - I believe the domestic-one-day game could regain something close to the sort of popularity it had at the times of it's creation.
But that won't alter at all England's chances in ODIs. Only a strong system does that, and the strength and height of competition doesn't bear relation to the popularity. Even if people like to think otherwise, that's the truth and if you think about it you know it. ODIs are more popular now than ever, despite a largely deplorable standard of bowling.

 

[Richard]

And whats the most well-supported county in England?

Surrey and Lancs have the largest membership IIRR - best supported is anyone's guess.

 

[Richard]

nope, 2/3 max. This year, Middx vs Surrey, Lancs vs Yorks.

last year i think it was Warks - Lancs at Stratford-upon-Avon and another, year before Lancs vs Kent at Blackpool and another.

Blimey, things deteriorate by the season!
Didn't even see a single Championship game last season, and in 2001 they were still showing 6 and promising another 6 the next season...

 

[sledger]

Surrey and Lancs have the largest membership IIRR - best supported is anyone's guess.

i imagine traditionally anyway that yorkshire enjoyed quite a large amount of support, not sure what theyre membership figures are this season.

 

[Richard]

Certainly we've always been up there.

 

[superkingdave]

Well they did have the membership numbers in the times preseason preview and Lancashire has comfortably the highest.