At this time of the year cricket fans are as happy as a dog with it’s head stuck out of the car window, the wind in their gums and ears pricked for the summer ahead.
But backing Northants to do well these days is like when your granny picks the 500-1 outsider in the Grand National because the name has something to do with the Royal Family.
We are not fancied with the bookies and have 40 big fences ahead of us, clearing just four last year and collecting the rest, finishing in the bottom two in all three of those jump classics.
As one-day captain Alex Wakely told Radio Northampton: ‘It was embarrassing what happened’.
The cricket and attitude was as messed up as the weather, the season and one-day pitches as entertaining as a three-horse handicapper in January at a frosty Uttoxeter.
The club needs to improve across the board to pay back the fans’ tested loyalty.
The management have made positive moves this winter, creating a more vibrant playing environment with fresh leadership and exciting young players coming in, the off-pitch cricket nets and more floodlit games also bringing a fresh buzz to the place.
Which is why our chief exec was brought in.
The new blue team strip maybe a step too far for some, but I have always hated the claret anyway, and maybe this sexier colour will improve on our single Twenty20 victory last time up.
On the pitch, and most importantly, we have new fast bowlers.
Signing an Aussie seamer is always a good idea as they don’t mess about and are always up for winning, and the chance of a late Ashes call up is not impossible for Trent Copeland if he takes big wickets and so that is extra motivation to perform for Northants.
The return of fellow Aussie Steven Crook I’m not so convinced about, although he has made a cracking start to the season with bat and ball.
If he stays fit then we will know exactly what we have been missing when we let him go. If he doesn’t then we know exactly what we have got. We shall see.
The Pakistani quickie Mohammad Azharullah I don’t know much about, and thought we already had a promising British Pakistani quickie by the name of Afaq Babar. But he has left for the MCC team, so we can only hope Azza can prove a better deal.
Lee Daggett struggled with the Duke Ball last year in a seamers’ paradise, and Luke Evans will need to be followed by one of those trackside ambulances at the National judging by his injury record.
Someone has got to do a really good job with that new ball, or we can forget the championship. Olly Stone could be that man.
Captaincy wise, I was a fan of Andrew Hall, but splitting the captaincy between Wakely and Stephen Peters makes no real sense, and almost as if we are sectioning off the championship as a secondary concern, when to most of the fans it’s the only concern.
For me, Wakeely should lead in the 40 and first class, and IPL star Cameron White lead the Twenty20.
Gales in Wales…
Not surprisingly there would be no minute’s silence for Baroness Thatcher for the opening game of the season in Cardiff last week, the chorus of boos likely to have been equal to that of Mohammed Akram coming on to bowl at Wantage Road!
Alas, when the cold goes in April the rain arrives, and the Principality is a real car wash at this time of year.
There was time enough for Glamorgan to be put in and shot out just as quickly on a greenish seamer,
Steven Crook’s four for 30 suggested the doubters may be wrong, and now Andrew Hall has to play for his place, his three for from 10 overs suggests he intends to do exactly that.
Yes, the pitch behaved as badly as it should in chilly April, but 139 all out was way above par, a top effort by the boys.
A captain’s innings by Peters (67) steadied the ship from 57 for three in reply, and there was a little less in the pitch as rain swept in off the Bristol Channel to finish day one.
I like Peters, but he didn’t fancy it like most openers last year in the rain and so needs the 1,000 runs to get back on track. A 50 in the first match for an opening bat is like an early goal for Manchester United at Old Trafford.
A rather pensive Rob Newton (39) edged Northants ahead in the game, and any sort of first innings lead was worth double in those conditions, rain seeing off most of day two at 145 for five.
The deluge relented on day three as James Middlebrook (70) dug in to guide Northants to 292 all out for what could have be a winning 153 first innings lead if the rain had backed off.
Midders also has pressure on his place, with new boy Matt Spriegel itching for a go.
Northants had Glamorgan rocking at 94 for four at the close of day three, but rain again gathered itself again and washed away the final day, a victory stolen.
The plusses here have to be the effective bowling on show and the middle order batting looking like it could do some damage this year, especially with Middlebrook at seven and Willey at eight.
The negative has to be we still don’t have an opener to partner Peters and so the door ajar.
Wakely is the obvious candidate because he simply can’t score quickly enough in the middle order for me.
But we can’t have everything when money is so tight.