Hi everyone!
Some thoughts from Up in the
Deckchairs
on
Season 2025
Up in the Deckchairs we’ve long know that when telling ( yet again !! ) Top Tales
Get in the way of
What Really Happened
Please enjoy:
I couldn’t care less about Statistics
I couldn’t care less about
Statistics.
It's all about Team Success.
Karl-Anthony ('KAT') Towns
KAT is a 5-time NBA All-Star, a 3-time All-NBA Team member, and the first center to win the NBA Three-Point Contest.
---
Looking back over Season 2025, what wonderful weather
we have had.
Scarcely any substantial amount of time lost to bad weather at Hove until the final game of the season v Yorkshire. Of which more later.
Looking at my Fixtures there were 20 days of cricket.
Due mainly to being on holiday in Canada for most of July and early August, rather fewer than the 30+ days of recent years.
Of the 20 days, 15 were Up in the Deckchairs at Hove,
with 4 days out on those much-loved annual trips to Beckenham, Chelmsford, Lord's and the Oval.
Plus, a hugely enjoyable afternoon watching Brighton Aldridge Cricket Academy at home versus the Sussex Martlets.
---
Of course, watching cricket is very much about those you are watching with.
My thanks to both those who invited me to be their guest and to those who joined me at Hove and at Lord’s.
The gentleman in the photo is Chris Potter, for many years the Master in Charge of Cricket at Wellington College, where the pavilion is named in his honour.
It was a privilege to meet and chat with Chris in early September during the Championship match v Hampshire.
Chris knew well David Mordaunt, who was also the Master in Charge of Cricket at Wellington College.
65 seasons ago in the very first game I ever watched from the Deckchairs at Hove, David was playing for the Mighty Sussex.
Not out 52 in the 1st innings.
DNB in the 2nd.
Truly; We are all connected !!
---
As we will see, Season 2025 was a strong one for Sussex.
But every Season inevitably has its disappointments …
Due to being a family holiday in Suffolk, I wasn’t able to get to Arundel for the One Day Cup game v Kent.
What a game it was !
In front of a full house, the Old Rivals scored 287 for
9 in their 50 overs.
Love Outground Cricket
e-following the game from Suffolk, even I began to fear the worst when the 7th Sussex wicket fell at 200, with 88 still needed for victory.
Of course, I didn’t need to worry.
No further wickets were lost, with 50 not out (five
fours and a six) from Jack Carson and
45 not out (six fours and a six) from Archie Lenham seeing the Mighty Sussex
home against the Old Rivals with 10 balls to spare !
#NeverInDoubt !!!
At the end of September Sussex announced that several
players were being released.
Including Archie Lenham & Bertie Foreman, whose
grandfathers I had seen play for Sussex.
Professional cricket can be a cruel mistress.
I hope that Archie & Bertie - both of whom have played for England U-19s - find other clubs
I mentioned bad weather in the game v Yorkshire.
This meant I wasn’t able to watch with Pete, an old friend over in the UK from New Zealand, who I first watched cricket with over 60 years ago.
Nor with my grandson Joseph, at what would have been
his first game of cricket at Hove.
v Yorkshire, the same opponents as it had been in my first ever visit to the Deckchairs back in May 1960 !
Next Season, Young JJ … Grandad Ric promises !!
---
So what of Sussex in 2025 ?
In the One Day Cup 4 wins & 4 losses meant it was
mid table.
With a fairly similar performance in the T20 Vitality Blast, with 6 wins & 7 losses leading to 6th place.
I especially enjoyed my first T20 Double- Header games
– a women’s game followed by a men’s game on the same afternoon – at both Hove
& the Oval.
More please in 2026 !
---
But as for most Ol’ Boys like me, the blue ribbon event is the County Championship.
After 9 long years in Division 2, at the end of 2024 Sussex were promoted as Champions back to Division 1.
As the Season started there was plenty of chatter Up in
the Deckchairs and online …
Where would Sussex finish the
Season ?
Would they survive ?
As always, it was useful to see what the Bookies
thought:
·
Surrey to win, as they had in the three previous seasons
· Worcestershire to be relegated, with Nottinghamshire and the two promoted Counties Sussex and Yorkshire in the other relegation place
For all those of us - and frankly who doesn’t ? - who love a Stat, I will be showing you the Correlation between the Bookies’ Prediction and the Final Positions.
Just for Fun:
How close do You think the Predicted was with the Final ?
On Batting, Sussex scored 20 bonus points.
Only Hampshire and Worcestershire with 12 each scored fewer.
However, James Coles, Tom Haines and skipper John Simpson had excellent seasons:
|
|
Runs |
Average |
|
John Simpson |
1,086 |
60 |
|
James Coles |
1,032 |
47 |
|
Tom Haines |
843 |
37 |
Both Mr Coles and Mr Simpson were in Wisden's County championship Team of the Season, with Sussex the only County to have more than one player
selected !
With a season’s record in all First Class games of 1,075 at an average of 41, Mr Haines was selected for the England Lions who will tour Australia during the Northern Hemisphere winter.
Since leaving Middlesex to join Sussex for the start of Season 2024, it has been two Anni Miraculosi for the Skipper:
What a tremendous recruitment Simmo has been !!
[ Editor: Ol’ Ric must have accidentally forgotten to compare Mr Simpson’s Sussex average of 36.7 with that of Young Jim’s 36,673 First Class runs at 34.8 !!]
Daniel Hughes scored 815 runs at 35 and there were ‘quieter’ Seasons for Tom Alsop and Tom Clark with averages 26 and 23 respectively.
Turning to the Bowling, Sussex scored 40 bonus points, more than any other County.
The bowling attack was led by Ollie Robinson who - in an injury affected season – in 10 games took 39 wickets at an average of 25.
Overseas player Jaydev Unadkat in just 3 games took 16 wickets at 17.
Though injured for much of 2025, the two younger fast bowlers Henry Crocombe and Sean Hunt took 23 wickets in the 7 games they played.
The two main Allrounders – Jack Carson and Fynn Hudson Prentice - both had decent Seasons.
Perhaps, like me, you may be somewhat surprised who scored more runs and took more wickets and had the better average …
|
|
Batting |
Bowling |
||
|
|
Runs |
Average |
Wickets |
Average |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fynn Hudson-Prentice |
488 |
24.4 |
27 |
27.2 |
|
Jack Carson |
454 |
23.9 |
26 |
39.9 |
But in the end, and as KAT said:
I couldn’t care less about Statistics.
It's all about Team Success.
It was a tremendous run into the end of the Season.
Potential changes to the structure of the County Championship for 2026 – including fewer games – meant that a side-effect could have been no relegation from Division 1 at the end of 2025.
Not least because there was insufficient agreement amongst the Counties (and hence 2026 will continue to have 14 games), fortunately to staunch supporters of Promotion & Relegation this was avoided.
On the final morning of the Season Hampshire lost to Surrey and for all the world it looked like they would go down with Worcestershire.
“All” Durham needed to do was bat out two and a bit sessions.
Collapsing to 85 all out and losing by an innings and 44 runs, they were relegated !
As Chuck Berry used to sing … You never can tell !!
So finally, let’s turn to the Division 1 table ....
Compared with the Bookies’ Predictions the two standout
performers were:
Nottinghamshire – Champions with +7
Sussex – in 4th place with +4
As for the Correlation Stat … 0.31
Even my feeble Schoolboy Maths from almost six decades ago tells me there was only a Weak Positive relationship between Predicted and Final Position, with only a slight tendency for the variables to move together.
I know … whatever the Bookies were predicting – at the
start of the Season we could have told them that Sussex would be 4th
!!!!
Tied on 172 points with Warwickshire and Essex, Sussex’s 4 Wins compared with 3 each for the other two Counties made all the difference !
Because the number of games played and the points systems have varied over the Seasons, Win Rate (Wins as % of Games Played) is my preferred stat for Team Success.
Paul Farbrace has achieved a dramatic improvement in performance in his first 3 Seasons at Coach:
|
Seasons |
Played |
Won |
Win Rate |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2020 - 2022 |
33 |
3 |
9.1% |
|
2023 - 2025 |
42 |
15 |
35.7% |
Up in the Deckchairs we like to take the Long View …
|
1890 to 2025 |
||
|
|
|
|
|
Wins |
810 |
Win Rate: 28.5% |
|
Losses |
912 |
|
|
Draws & Ties |
1,119 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
2,841 |
|
If Sussex have to Win for you to enjoy the game … Prepare for disappointment 3 times out of 4!
Don’t worry … Up in the Deckchairs we agree with Jim Senior:
---
So that’s Season 2025 done & dusted.
Winter Well, my friends !!
And in Season 2026 …
I really hope you will come down to Hove Actually … I’ve Saved a Deckchair for YOU!!!
After all ….
Why read a Lord Ric Cricket Blog, when you can star in your own.
See you soon!!
Lord Ric of Beckley Furnace
Dozing up in
the Deckchairs
PS
2026 will be the 75th Anniversary of my
Favourite Game EVER !!
Kent v Sussex at The Nevill,
Tunbridge Wells
On Tuesday 23rd June at 6.30PM I
will be back at the ground for a Special Celebration.
“ That Saturday evening now long, long ago it had all come down - as it always should - to the Final Ball.
3 needed.”
I
have told the story a Million Times.
Indeed; as in all the Best Stories I
Never let the Facts
Get in the way of
What Really Happened
But
there is one Fact which I have never mentioned …
On
23rd June I will be saying exactly what it is.
Prepare to be AMAZED !!!!
Join
me at the Nevill for:
The Ball that Changed the World Forever
Young Jim at The Nevill in June 1951
For Some Days are Never To Be Forgotten
