Robinson: “It’s a dreamlike game”

Mark Robinson was rightfully chuffed after seeing his side lift the Abu Dhabi Counties Super Cup.

The First Team Coach watched on as the Bears emphatically defeated Team Abu Dhabi (six wickets) and Yorkshire Vikings (23 runs) in the group stages and Notts Outlaws by nine-wickets in the final.

The Bears opted to rotate throughout the three days, giving younger guys the opportunity to shine, and it’s fair to say that everyone took the chance gifted to them.

“Look, it’s a bit of a dreamlike game, really,” said Robinson. “You’ve got lots of objectives that you want to get out of a tour, and the match, and we sort of ticked a lot of those. We’ve managed to give good experience to the majority of the squad. Some players have played three on the bounce, which is a bit of an ask physically, but they’ve done and managed that brilliantly.

“We’ve just felt we’ve achieved a lot throughout and then we had a very slick game performance today. We were magnificent in the field, bowled well, and all the things that Al Davis as Captain demands. You just have one of those perfect displays where you knock over the opposition easily and then canter to a victory.”

The Outlaws are regular foe for the Bears with the East Midlands outfit heading to Edgbaston for Blast Off on Saturday 1 June. Does that mean a marker has been set?

“It counts for nothing In the big scheme of things, we know that, but there’s four or five teams watching how you go about your business,” added the 57-year-old. We talked about that. You’re always on the show and people are always looking at your attitude, how you go about things, so you want to try and put markers down for the summer. That’s something that you’re constantly trying to do and we’ve done that.

“There’s some big players missing. Sam [Hain] hasn’t played in any of the games. Yatesy has been rested with a bit of a niggle. You’ve got Gleeson to come in, Hass hopefully. So, we’ve got some big players to come involved.

“But what it showed is we’ve got a bit of depth in our squad as we keep growing players. I’m really pleased with the work that Jake Lintott has done over the winter. Yes he hasn’t had the game time, but he’s used his time to to work on a few things, which looks like that’s gone well.

“Benji, a couple of things technically from a hitting point of view, and that seems to have gone well, but you’ve got other players in Will Rhodes and Michael Burgess, who’s worked on different aspects in the winter.”

Bears will now turn to the Bear and Ragged Staff by putting on their whites in preparation for the County Championship campaign which starts in just 18 days.

“We turn our attention to red ball now, but from a white ball point of view, to have the opportunity to play three T20 game with a bit more on them is great. It gives an extra edge and we won which is always sweeter.

“The boys have got a day off, a bit of recovery and then we’ve got a red ball practice before we go into a two-day game against Yorkshire.

“We’ll try and get a couple of our other players into a combined game against Notts as well, so we’ll just see how that works.”