Lovely Weather For Ducks

Well, what did I expect? First day of the season proper and a complete washout. It looked like we would get some play in the afternoon after the morning rain cleared up, but those April showers just kept drizzling along.

On the upside, Mick Newell has signed a new three-year contract. "With an ageing team, there is bound to be a big turnover of players," he told the BBC. Now I've always been an admirer of Mick Newell: even as a batsman who, as someone in the crowd once said, "couldn't hit it off the square" (he was always a bugger to get out, and every team should have someone like that); but maybe the average age of the squad wouldn't be quite so high if we hadn't let go of one of the most promising young players in the country. It came as a shock at the start of last season to hear that Bilal Shafayat had moved to Northants, and every time he scores a hundred for them (like he did today) - or, inevitably, England - it is going to rankle.