“Very worthwhile”, was how Mick Newell summed up the two day pre-season match against Hampshire on the Barbados tour.
After seeing Jake Libby score a century on the opening day, the Director of Cricket then watched on as his bowlers put in an intense session with the ball in searing heat.
Hampshire scored 209 for six, of which Lewis McManus made 51 not out, with Harry Gurney, Brett Hutton, Luke Wood and Steven Mullaney sharing the wickets for the Trent Bridge side.
In the final session of the match Notts scored 81 for five, after coming up against an old adversary in Fidel Edwards. The Barbadian pace ace took one wicket but it was Brad Wheal who took the bowling honours for Hampshire with three for 13.
Newell expressed his satisfaction at the facilities provided by Windward Cricket Club. “Every time we have played here it’s been good practice for us,” said Newell. “We’ve had a pretty flat pitch and two warm days.”
He added: “It’s been exactly what we’re looking for at this time of year. You want everybody to get a good, fair crack of it and that’s exactly what we’ve done over the two days.
"We'll have another look at the team that we want to play against Northants because we really want to see our key first team players delivering as we get closer to the season.
“Obviously Jake Libby has impressed with the bat in this match and I think Hutton, Gurney and Wood were excellent with the ball today.”
Gurney and Hutton opened the bowling for Notts on the second morning and each enjoyed an early success.
Jimmy Adams was beaten by a beautiful delivery from Hutton that nipped back through the gate and kissed the top of the off bail. Adams had gone for 15 and his partner followed in the next over for 9, mistiming Gurney into the hands of Jake Libby at mid off.
Former Outlaw Will Smith combined forces with Sean Ervine to take the total to 52, at which point Notts struck again. The first ball of Mullaney’s third over found the outside edge of Ervine’s bat and Riki Wessels, at a widish first slip position, pouched an excellent catch.
With Wood, Ben Kitt, Matt Carter and Libby all getting spells before the break, Hampshire consolidated through Smith and Adam Wheater, who added 51 together in reaching 103 for three at lunch.
Nelson was on the board when Notts broke the stand, Smith playing on to Gurney for 39.
Elsewhere, the ICC World T20 match between West Indies and England was nearing its conclusion and it’s fair to say the majority of the spectators were distracted from the events in front of them at the Lucas Street ground.
Chris Gayle’s century coincided with another Hampshire wicket falling and a chorus of ‘what happened?’ was answered with the news that Wheater had hit Wood straight to Hutton at extra cover for 38.
A sharp shower drove the players from the field for around 10 minutes but the stifling heat soon returned and the batsmen again prospered.
Another promising stand was ended when Greg Smith executed a superb reflex catch at square leg to take Chris Wood’s pull, off Hutton’s bowling, for 29.
McManus, batting at six in the order, reached 50 from 63 balls and was on 51 not out as the innings closed.
Eight Nottinghamshire bowlers turned their arm over, returning the following figures: Gurney 11-1-35-2; Hutton 10-2-27-2; Wood 8-2-23-1; Mullaney 10-3-18-1, Kitt 4-0-20-0; Carter 12-0-68-0; Libby 3-1-2-0 and Dal 2-0-12-0.
The menacing figure of Edwards appeared during the tea interval, just in time to renew acquaintances with the Nottinghamshire batsmen.
On last year’s pre-season tour he took eight wickets against the county and ran amok again at Trent Bridge in the final game of last year.
This time it took the former West Indian Test bowler only nine deliveries to open his account, trapping Mullaney lbw for 6.
Edwards produced a six over burst that cost him 22 runs, with 12 of them coming in the space of four deliveries as Chris Read fought fire with fire.
Read batted beautifully in his first innings of the tour but on 25 he hit Brad Wheal straight to extra cover.
Wheal, who picked up five wickets in the weekend’s Plate final, snared two more scalps soon afterwards as Hutton edged through to the ‘keeper for 2 and Dal was bowled for a single.
Wessels was given out lbw for 27, sweeping at a Mason Crane, leaving Greg Smith and Jake Libby to play out the final overs. Smith ended with an unbeaten 10 to his name, taking his record to 169 runs from four not out innings on the tour. Libby followed his first innings century with 9 not out.
Notts close out their tour with another two day fixture at Windward CC, when they face Northants over Friday and Saturday.
The 2015 season saw dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
Next season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.