Introduction

With England's winter trial by spin drawn to a close and the county season well under way, it seems an appropriate time to welcome you to Around the Wicket. After many conversations trying to come up with a witty blog title, we settled on Around the Wicket because it accurately describes what we're spending our summer doing, namely following wickets around the country.

Unfortunately the Daily Mail decided to show just how hilarious we are by naming their county cricket blog the same thing.

However, we plough on. The aim of this blog is to provide you with an insight into life in the stands at domestic and international cricket matches, to give you a flavour of what it's like watching modern cricket as two young women and also combine this with analysis and opinions on what has taken place, both at the ground we've been sat at and in the wider cricketing world. We are likely to be found mostly at matches involving England and the counties we support, but don't be surprised to find us watching a match like Derbyshire v Leicestershire at some point this season.

That's the formalities over. To kick off the blog, here's a summary of what the first couple of weeks of the county season has offered our respective counties.

The Essex Perspective

It’s been a fairly turbulent off season for Essex after an incredibly disappointing 2011. The imprisonment of Mervyn Westfield and silence over the spot-fixing case from the club has dominated headlines in the close season. The signing of Alviro Petersen has also seen Essex have the limelight, as Glamorgan, and some in the media, were not too happy with the acquirement. With all this going on behind the scenes, it would be easy to forget that there was actually cricket to be played.

But cricket there was. Unlike previous seasons, Essex decided to stay on British shores for their pre-season warm ups. In balmy March conditions, Essex played three warm-up matches at Chelmsford, ending in two draws and a defeat. They also drew with the Cambridge MCCU side at Fenner’s, but not before Greg Smith,James Foster and Graham Napier had had a bit of a slog against the young Cambridge attack.

The season began on 5^th April and Essex managed to rack up 364 against Gloucestershire, thanks to a career best 130 from Billy Godleman. It was then over to the bowling “unit” who managed to condemn poor Gloucestershire batting to an innings defeat. Had it not been for bad light, Essex may well have finished them off in two days. Dave Masters started where he left off last season and finished with six in the match and Graham Napier picked up 5-58 in Gloucestershire’s second innings as he played his first match in his benefit year.

It was a good start for Essex, especially compared to the poor start last season, but with stronger sides coming up we should not get ahead of ourselves, even with the weird sense of optimism that seems to be floating around the ground.

The Yorkshire Perspective

After the telling off of a lifetime from chairman Colin Graves following relegation, Yorkshire went into this season with a lot to prove. Reshuffling came in the form of Jason Gillespie as first team coach, Phil Jaques as an overseas player and a shy and retiring fellow by the name of Boycott as club president.

The pre-season in Barbados saw Yorkshire win possibly the ugliest trophy in the county game so far. The signs were good. Yorkshire's main issue last season was never really firing as a unit. Batting wise, there were hundreds for Gale and Jonny Bairstow, and good signs from Anthony McGrath. Ryan Sidebottom was as consistent as ever, and there were hints of Adil Rashid and Ajmal Shahzad finding their form after a turbulent 2011.

So, to the first game of the season, against Kent. Yorkshire must have felt positive after the pre-season, but they were made to toil. The bowling unit was off colour on the first morning, and allowed the Kent openers to amass a huge total. Lower order biffing also stopped Yorkshire from bowling Kent out. There were increasingly good signs for Bairstow as he blasted his third first class hundred - remarkable, considering he began 2011 with none - and Root showed the class that has many pencilling his name in as the next England opener. Rashid's change in approach also paid off as he took four wickets in Kent's innings.

The game petered out to a draw, mostly thanks to bad light and typical Yorkshire weather. Yorkshire are a proud club, and the President has already made it clear that nothing but instant promotion will be acceptable. They have a good reserve of young players in the second XI, and it will be interesting to see if they can push their way back into Division One in time for their 150th anniversary.