v Yorkshire 53 for 2
County Championship Division 1
Close on Day Two
Friday 13 May 2022
Played at Headingley
I am afraid this Blog is going to drift into sentiment & nostalgia. Please accept my apologies. That is because this is the One Thousandth Blog I have published since the debut in July 2014. At times, it got very lazy. One Blog covering two, three, four or more games. As my "other creative writing projects" expanded, some Blogs weren't even about a game or a beer!!!
For long periods, the Blog got formulaic - went to this, drank that. And, I know that on many, many occasions it looks like I'm searching for any controversy or pivot point upon which to start a ruck. My excuse is - there are only so many different ways to say the same thing a thousand times.
I'm now going to get a bit evangelical. I'm a statistician by academic training & career path. So, I've amazed myself by just how much I've enjoyed trying to write creatively. It has led me down avenues I never thought possible - quotes of mine lifted for newspapers, chapters in other people's books, the truly marvellous Dem Blades football fanzine & a great new writing project called The Pinch.
Hell. I even got my name in Wisden. (I entered their annual writing competition, didn't win, but got listed in the also rans - still counts, mate). But, mainly, I've just enjoyed writing it for the sake of writing it. If you ever feel like doing some writing, even for yourself, particularly for yourself, DO IT.
I often claim "it's just my diary". I write it as my head says it to the page. That's why there's so much fucking swearing in it!!!
But, I'm not a fucking mug (there, swearing again). It's a conceit. Look at Me, Me, Me. With all me travel & different games & counting this, that and the other and shit. Sorry. Indulge me.
You have just been informed by the Carrier Bag Firm.
As it's The Roses game. Let's continue the Nostalgia Tip. I was at an amazing game at Bramall Lane in August 1969. As always with Carrier Bag Firm stories, I remember it differently to how it actually happened. But, I've now checked the #FACTS.
It was three day Championship cricket in those days. All based on time. No minimum overs. Just a minimum of (I think) 20 overs in the final hour on Day 3. But, the Captains knew the deal. They'd have a good idea of how many overs would be available in the game. Let's call it 310 overs. Give or take.
The Lankies batted first and made 171 all out in 88 overs. Bowler Peter Lever top scored with 57. Chris Old took 5 for 34.
Yorkshire replied with 290 for 8 declared. A lead of 119. Geoff Boycott top scored with 80. And John Hampshire got to 62. The aforementioned Peter Lever took 5 for 61. Yorkshire's innings took another 101 overs out of the game. Jack Bond the Lancashire Captain would have calculated maybe 120 overs left in the game, trailing by 119. The scoring rate to date in the game had been around 2.4 an over.
Today, I put it to the Carrier Bag Firm in the North East Lower. What would you have done if you'd been Bond? Trail by 119, maybe 120 overs left. The consensus was - try to bat out those overs for a Draw. Or at least bat it deep so that Yorkshire didn't have a chase. Which is essentially what Lancashire tried.
Nought for one. Ten for two. They were looking down the barrel. But a big third wicket stand took it to 150 for 3. At least Yorkshire would have to bat again. 150 for 4, 157 for 5, 159 for 6, 159 for 7. A lead of just 40. In real time, when I was eleven, I couldn't fathom why The Red Rose had been blocking & taking an age to get to 160, hardly playing a shot. But, now, unfathomably to an eleven year old, they were trying to cart it on the John Street Terrace, on to The Shoreham, and into the BLLT.
At that stage, with seven gone already, runs had become more important than overs consumed. 160 for 8, 167 for 9, 183 all out. Farokh Engineer a magnificent 96 & Clive Lloyd a battling 50. The Umpires got the abacus out. Yorkshire would chase 65 in 19 overs.
Remember, there was no T20 in those days. The Gillette Cup had been introduced in 1963, and had become a 60 overs a side one day County Cricket Competition. The 40 overs John Player League was actually introduced the same year (1969) as this Roses Game. Big scores in a few overs was a thing of the future in 1969.
But, 65 off 19 it was. At 59 for 3, needing just 6 to win, Yorkshire looked well set. But, were running out of balls to score off. They scrabbled it to 64 for 3, one to win.
But, fucking hell, wickets 4 & 5 went on the same score. Including Engineer stumping Chris Old standing up to fast bowler Ken Higgs. Here we go…
Richard Hutton coming to the crease for Yorkshire. Wickets aren't important now. One ball left (Higgs). One to win. An almighty heave. The ball off the edge, which edge I don't know. Let's say Top Edge. Held by Harry Pilling in a slip (ish) position. Ridic. Three wickets going on 64, with the scores level. DRAWN MATCH WITH SCORES LEVEL. (If you batted fourth in one of those games in those days, as Yorkshire did, you got some extra points).
Not going to be like that in 2022 I fear. Lancashire just batted on & on today. Keaton Jennings eventually run out in a kerfuffle for 238. Vilas eventually hauled them in with 9 gone. 566.
Lyth left one and was LBW to Bailey for 10. Malan gone for 23 before the close. All fairly dismal.
Elusive Brewing (Wokingham), Skyline Drive, American Pale Ale on Cask at 4.5%
Interesting balance. It's quite dry & earthy at first. But, there's a growing bitterness that fills in after that.
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I have now Blogged from 1,108 games in 2,824 days
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