County Cricket Predictions

The new season started this week, so to hold myself to account, here are my predictions for the 2014 season:

LV County Championship Division One

Winners - I'm assuming Durham have second season syndrome (though that hasn't been a problem for them in the past), so the real competitors for the title race will be Sussex, Warwickshire and Notts for me. Lancs are still quite a young side, and Yorkshire don't have the consistency over a season in my opinion. On that basis, I'm going to hand the Championship to Sussex who have the benefit of a fiery Matt Prior this season, as well as one of the strongest squads in the league even without him. Second place (I may be biased) Notts and third to Warwickshire. My surprise fourth place is Northamptonshire - they look like a team very much on an upwards trajectory.

Relegated - The two going down for me are Middlesex and Somerset. Middlesex I think will be there at the bottom by a considerable margin. Somerset may show a little more resilience, though they simply have not added enough to their squad, and it's about time for a transition period anyway.

LV County Championship Division Two

Leicestershire in one image.

Winners - Division Two is not so much my territory, though I get the odd update on the sad-goings on at the bottom from some of my Leicestershire friends (yes Jon, that means you). My champions are Glamorgan. They've been there or thereabouts for the last few seasons, and their excellent performance against an admittedly shaky Surrey team suggests they're likely to be there again. Clinching second, I'm going with Hampshire, who have a very strong team and are very much up for the challenge. My outsiders are Kent, who have clinched the signing of Doug Bollinger, as well as having a good few talented youngsters on their books. As for Surrey, they'll take a season with all those great players to adjust to Division Two. Also, bar the excellent Stuart Meaker and the decent Chris Jordan, who do they even have for bowlers (I don't count Dernbach)?

Wooden Spoon - Leicestershire. Doesn't even need explaining.

Royal London One-Day Cup - I'm not going to be popular for this, but I really do fancy Notts to retain the trophy. All I'm saying is we could've won it by a canter last year (we won it anyway), and the only change we've made is that of Peter Siddle replacing the admittedly superb David Hussey. If Alex Hales and Lumby can find the form they're both capable of, I simply can't look further than us. One thing that is notable is that Group B is quite self-evidently much harder to win. Group A looks to me like it only has two big claims - Lancashire and Northamptonshire. Of those two, I think Northants will take it, as they just have the edge in terms of experience and top performances in the past few seasons. So an all East Midlands final of Northants V Notts...

Simply the best.

T20 Blast (No, me neither) - For the kings of corporate title, anyone could be in the hunt, as seems always to be the case. Going along similar lines as last season, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that Northants are going to be the first team to make back-to-back wins. Of their opponents in the final, my guesses are as good as any of - Surrey, Somerset, Glamorgan, Leicestershire
and (why not) Notts... Though, to be frank, it really is pure guess-work.