The inside story of Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s 2014 Championship victory by Myles Hodgson and Graham Hardcastle with a foreword by Dickie Bird
YORKSHIRE A CHAMPION YEAR First edition published in October 2014 by Well Done Media Ltd Ilkley, United Kingdom Copyright Š Well Done Media Ltd Photography copyright resides with SWpix.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publishers. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. The publisher will be glad to rectify in future editions any inadvertent ommissions brought to their attention.
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4
CONTENTS Foreword
6
Introduction
8
Planning the campaign
10
THE MATCHES 1
Somerset Away
16
2
Northamptonshire Home
24
3
Middlesex Away
30
4
Durham Away
38
5
Warwickshire Home
44
6
Lancashire Home
50
7
Northamptonshire Away
58
8
Nottinghamshire Home
62
9
Sussex Away
66
10
Warwickshire Away
74
11
Durham Home
80
12
Middlesex Home
88
13
Sussex Home
94
14
Lancashire Away
102
15
Nottinghamshire Away
112
16
Somerset Home
124
Andrew Gale
132
The team behind the team
134
Buckingham Palace
138
Winning Champion Years
142
Acknowledgements
144
5
Colin Graves, Chairman
Headingley Cricket Ground
8
INTRODUCTION COLIN GRAVES
I
t is hard to put into words quite what Yorkshire winning the Championship means to me, but it’s a fantastic achievement. When you look at where we were and what we’ve done over the last 12 years, it’s incredible. There have been a lot of low points but winning the Championship “It’s a fantastic at Trent Bridge made it all achievement. When you worthwhile. When we got relegated look at where we were to the Second Division in I just couldn’t believe and what we’ve done 2011, that had happened to us over the last 12 years, it’s with what we had put in and who we had in incredible.” place the team. That’s why I was critical of the players and said what I said: it should not have happened. That was the low point to me, but in such a short space of time, we’ve gone from there to where we are now, with virtually the same players. One or two young ones have come in but it’s the same players, so I’ve been proved right, that team should not have got relegated. A lot of people have asked me why I got involved in the first place and said I must be nuts. They all say ‘Whatever you put in, you won’t get it back,’ and the rest of it. I have never even thought about getting it back, it’s not about that. Why did I do it? Purely and simply because I couldn’t sit there and watch Yorkshire County Cricket Club go bust. I have been a cricket nut all my life, I have played league cricket in Yorkshire, I enjoyed every minute of it, I have made a lot of friends in Yorkshire and cricket’s my passion, it’s my hobby, and when I knew Yorkshire was in the state it was
in, there was no way I could sit there and watch it disappear, simple as that. I’ve done it for the members. It is a members’ club and it will always be a members’ club. To see what we’ve done this year is beyond my wildest dreams. To win the Championship was one of the proudest days I’ve had in my life and to support the team is what it’s all about. Never once, since I’ve been involved, have we cut the cricket budget because, as I keep reminding everybody, we are a cricket club. We are now in a much stronger position, financially. There are floodlights going in this winter and we have to complete the refurbishment of Headingley, which we will do. We are looking at different ways without incurring any more debt. The debt we have is £20 million, but I’ve got various ideas of how we can restructure that and we’re hoping to finish the reconstruction within three “I think we can have to five years. Yorkshire are also in a another 1960s and 1970s strong position on the pitch. I’ve said to Martyn Moxon of dominating cricket. and Jason Gillespie that I Once you’re successful you believe it could be the start of an era for the next 10 get a taste for it.” years and that’s the target I’m setting them - for this team to dominate county cricket and one-day cricket over the next 10 years. I think we’ve got the coaching staff, the players and the Academy to achieve that. I think we can have another 1960s and 1970s of dominating cricket. Once you’re successful you get a taste for it. In football, once Manchester United started winning, they won it again and again and again. I think you’ll see the same with this lot.
9
22
Yorkshire celebrate the wicket of Northants’ Rob Newton
23
™
MATCH
HOME 0 6 LANCASHIRE 25 - 28 | MAY 2014
MATCH DRAWN
“When I look back at that game I remember how Lancashire were dominating. Then I got that 95 not out, but if we had lost, the whole season could have changed. Who knows?” Andrew Gale
T
Captain Andrew Gale tosses the coin alongside Lancashire’s captain Glen Chapple
50
he emphatic victory over title contenders Warwickshire, set out Yorkshire’s Championship credentials and kept them in touch with the top of the table. They still trailed leaders Middlesex by 19 points but, crucially, they had a game in hand as they approached the first Roses match of the summer. The Roses rivalry stretches back to 1849 when Yorkshire won their maiden first-class match at Sheffield. The fixture has become part of the fabric of county cricket, but as any old-timer from either side of the Pennines knows only too well, it is also a match where it is wise to disregard current form. That was all too evident in their first Championship encounter since 2011. Yorkshire harboured title ambitions, while Lancashire had not adapted well to Division One following their promotion the previous summer. They arrived at Headingley lying second bottom, trailing Yorkshire by 28 points. Eager to close the gap on Middlesex, Yorkshire were frustrated on the opening day by rain delaying the start until 4.45pm, which at least gave them the opportunity to settle in their new overseas signing, Australian batsman Aaron Finch, who would make his Yorkshire debut in a NatWest T20 Blast match against Derbyshire at the end of the week. Recruited as a temporary replacement for Kane Williamson, who was shortly to depart on New Zealand’s tour to West Indies, Finch was signed with a stellar reputation for hard-hitting stroke play. His aggressive batting style during the one-day
New signing Aaron Finch poses for a photo in the Yorkshire Vikings one-day kit
series in England the previous year had alerted Andrew Gale, who watched him again during his spell in Melbourne grade cricket during the winter. “I’d been to see him a few times in the Big Bash and I’d seen his record in first-class cricket as well and I knew we needed someone when Kane went off for the West Indies series,” Gale said. “I was looking out for people and texting Dizzy [Gillespie] suggesting names. I saw Finch and I was surprised he hadn’t got more runs in firstclass cricket. His technique was good enough, but he opens the batting in state cricket and plays at the MCG where the ball nips around a little bit. For me, he’s not an opening batsman. He kept nicking off and hardly got any runs but I texted Dizzy, who had known him on an Australia A tour, and said he was a really good lad.” Over lunch in the Melbourne suburbs, Gale immediately warmed to Finch’s personality and correctly judged he would be popular inside the Yorkshire dressing room. “Walking towards this restaurant he was having a cig, chatting and bouncing around, and I thought straight away he would fit in well at Yorkshire. He ordered his burger and chips and kept disappearing for a cig and I thought, ‘We’ve got the new Darren Lehmann on our hands’.” Finch quickly became known as ‘Boof Two’, in homage to Lehmann’s nickname. Now the Australian coach, he
became Yorkshire’s most successful overseas player, averaging 68.76 from 88 Championship matches for the club between 1997 and 2006, and helping Yorkshire win the Championship in 2001, though his larger-than-life antics away from cricket were almost as memorable. Finch quickly established himself as a kindred spirit after agreeing a contract to play Twenty20 and
Championship cricket in Williamson’s absence. The opportunity was mutually beneficial with Yorkshire needing another batsman, particularly for their one-day side, while Finch wanted to force his way into Australia’s Test side. He made an immediate impression on his new team-mates on the second evening of the Roses match, when the Yorkshire and Lancashire players had arranged to go for a drink after play. “We were batting the next day,” Gale said, “So I just had a pint and disappeared, but when I got in the next day, Dizzy asked me if I’d heard what had happened to Aaron. He was staying at an apartment in Leeds and had snapped his keycard in half, so couldn’t get in. He rang Dizzy about midnight because he didn’t know anyone else, but he couldn’t go and get him because he’d had a few pints, so Dizzy’s wife had to get out of bed. They’ve got four kids she’s looking after, and now she has to drive down to meet Finch, who she doesn’t know from Adam, pick him up and then they have to get one of the kids out of bed and put Finchy in there. By the time he woke up, Dizzy had already left, so the kids are prodding Finchy, asking who he is. He has his breakfast with them and comes to the ground and apologises straight away to Dizzy, who loves all that sort of stuff, anyway. That was his first night, so the lads warmed to him straightaway. He lives life to the full.” That first night adventure was the first of
Jack Brooks celebrates the wicket of Lancashire’s Alex Davies
51
several escapades for Finch during his stay with Yorkshire, but Gillespie also knew there was a competitive cricketer dying to get out. They had met several years earlier when Gillespie was assistant coach of the Australian A squad touring Zimbabwe, where Finch’s talent was evident. “He’d been pigeon-holed as a Twenty20 player, but I thought he had a good technique and backed him to adapt well to first-class cricket given a clear role,” said Gillespie. “For Victoria, he’s batted in every position. Left out,
he bats three, then opens, then bats five. They’d knocked him around a bit. The messages he got back are about guts-ing it out and all that sort of stuff. That, for me, is not the kind of language you use with Aaron. He needs to express himself. He’s a stroke maker, and you allow that. I just felt that he’d be a really good fit in the dressing room, he’d have something to prove. For me, when it comes to overseas players, I only want ones who have something to prove. In Aaron’s case, he wants a baggy green [cap]. He knew he
was signed here primarily for T20, but he can do that. What really attracted him was the chance to play some four-day cricket, which we didn’t guarantee to him before he arrived. All we said was ‘there’s a chance’, which he accepted. From what I gather, he was offered some pretty good deals elsewhere, but only for T20. He wanted to show his worth in the long form of the game. I said to Martyn Moxon: ‘Forget his first-class record. I know he’s been moved up and down the order and hasn’t really been backed in that regard. I think he can perform for us in county cricket batting at six’.” Yorkshire’s promising position in Division One was not reflected in dominance over their Roses rivals as, after being put in under murky skies, Lancashire belied their place in the relegation zone to reach 325, their highest score of the season so far. Following an opening day limited to only 28 overs by the weather, Yorkshire were hindered by a hamstring injury to Ryan Sidebottom that ruled him out of action after lunch on the second day. Withdrawn from their attack initially as a precaution, it was an injury that would sideline him for nearly
“AARON FINCH ORDERED HIS BURGER AND CHIPS AND KEPT DISAPPEARING FOR A CIG AND I THOUGHT, ‘WE’VE GOT THE NEW DARREN LEHMANN ON OUR HANDS!’.” Andrew Gale
Jack Brooks and Liam Plunkett celebrate another wicket
52
a month. In Sidebottom’s absence, Yorkshire needed another bowler to step up and ensure they remained competitive. Not for the last time, Jack Brooks stole the limelight with his second five-wicket haul of the summer, taking his tally to 26 Championship victims in only his sixth match of the season. Bowling full and quick, in accordance with Gillespie’s plans for his seam attack, he exploited humid conditions and took wickets with the older ball early on the second day. Brooks returned later to strike again with the second new ball, removing three
of Lancashire’s key players: Paul Horton, Tom Smith and Glen Chapple, their captain. Prior to the Roses game, Yorkshire had reached 400 in every match, but Lancashire’s mastery of the swing ensured this time they fell well short. Seven Yorkshire wickets fell for 116 runs with Smith claiming a five-wicket haul, while Kabir Ali produced two good spells from the Kirkstall Lane End. Yorkshire could have been in far greater difficulty had Andrew Gale not benefited from a controversial recall on 25 just after lunch on the third day, an incident that would have far-reaching consequences. Given out caught behind down the leg side off Chapple, the Yorkshire captain gestured several times to umpire Peter Willey that the ball had missed his bat and instead brushed his thigh pad. After consulting with square leg umpire, Ian Gould, Willey recalled Gale, who had not left the square. He went on to score 95 vital runs to guide Yorkshire to 243, 82 runs behind. Despite apologising to the umpires, Gale knew he could face further disciplinary action for his clear show of dissent, regardless of the fact that Willey had made a mistake. “Because I’d got a reprimand which was a week away from clearing off my slate from two years ago, it jumped straight to six points for a report,” explained Gale. “Chapple said I’d showed dissent and said their lads have been done for
“AARON NEEDS TO EXPRESS HIMSELF. HE’S A STROKE MAKER, AND YOU ALLOW THAT.” Jason Gillespie that in the past so I should be reported. I was reported because I think they felt they had to. Over the last few years I’ve mellowed a lot from where I was earlier in my career. I used to be a gung-ho captain and start a lot of battles on the pitch, but in the last few years I haven’t really said much. When I look back at that game I remember how Lancashire were dominating. Then I got that 95 not out, but if we had lost the whole season could have changed. Who knows ?” After a recent history of bad blood between the sides, not least during Lancashire’s bad
Tim Bresnan runs in to bowl
53
tempered victory at Aigburth in 2011, Chapple attempted to play down the incident to the media afterwards, claiming: “I’ve no problem with an umpire changing his mind, none at all.” It would not be the last confrontation of the season between the two captains. A final day wash out ensured Lancashire could not exploit their advantage and perhaps Yorkshire’s performance, sub-standard in comparison to their recent victory over Warwickshire, was the sort of display they needed for Gillespie to remind them of the need for improvement if they were to secure the title. “We did some pretty good things in this game,
“I’VE MELLOWED A LOT FROM WHERE I WAS EARLIER IN MY CAREER. I USED TO START A LOT OF BATTLES ON THE PITCH, BUT IN THE LAST FEW YEARS I HAVEN’T REALLY SAID MUCH.”
The match started with a minute’s silence for Yorkshire legend Philip Sharpe
54
Andrew Gale
but we have to be honest with ourselves – we just weren’t quite as disciplined as we have been,” he told the media. “Lancashire played some good cricket, but I thought we allowed them to play good cricket at times, it’s something to learn from and make sure we’re better next time.” The big test, however, was ahead for Yorkshire. Already handicapped by England calls for Gary Ballance and Joe Root in the one-day series against Sri Lanka, this was also Williamson’s final match before his departure to the Caribbean, but his absence for five Championship matches would give Finch a chance to shine.
MATCH 0 6
LANCASHIRE HOME
SCORECARD
25 - 28 | MAY 2014
MATCH DRAWN
SUMMARY
Lancashire 1st Innings 325 all out (104.3 overs)
Runs
Mins
Balls
4s
6s
Paul Horton
b Jack Brooks
66
167
143
8
0
b Liam Plunkett
23
69
39
3
0
Luis Reece
c Ryan Sidebottom
Bowler
Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
Ryan Sidebottom
14
1
39
0
Jack Brooks
31
9
90
5
Tim Bresnan
27
7
69
1
Liam Plunkett
21
2
74
4
Karl Brown
lbw
b Tim Bresnan
3
36
28
0
0
Ashwell Prince
lbw
b Liam Plunkett
29
101
56
3
0
Kane Williamson
6
4
2
0
Adil Rashid
5
0
29
0
Steven Croft
c Jonny Bairstow
Tom Smith Alex Davies
c Adam Lyth
Glen Chapple Kyle Hogg Kabir Ali Simon Kerrigan
b Liam Plunkett
5
21
27
1
0
Fall of Wicket
b Jack Brooks
54
151
138
7
1
70
Luis Reece
b Jack Brooks
17
39
32
2
0
86
Karl Brown
b Jack Brooks
33
72
52
4
0
123
Paul Horton
136
Steven Croft
47
79
50
6
0
155
Ashwell Prince
0
183
Alex Davies
251
Glen Chapple
267
Tom Smith
298
Kabir Ali
325
Simon Kerrigan
not out c Andy Hodd lbw
b Jack Brooks
12
28
6
Extras
8nb 0w 5b 17lb
30
Total
all out
325
(104.3 ovs)
Yorkshire 1st Innings 243 all out (71.0 overs)
Runs
Mins
Balls
4s
6s
Adam Lyth
c Luis Reece
b Tom Smith
50
121
97
6
Alex Lees
c Alex Davies
b Tom Smith
21
97
68
3
b Tom Smith
Kane Williamson
c Steven Croft not out
Jonny Bairstow
lbw
Adil Rashid
c Alex Davies
Andy Hodd Tim Bresnan
c Paul Horton
38
1
b Liam Plunkett
Andrew Gale
33
28
1
0
243
Bowler
Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
Kyle Hogg
15
2
69
1
0
Glen Chapple
20
6
56
1
0
Kabir Ali
15
4
35
2
4
9
5
1
0
Tom Smith
13
3
49
5
95
170
113
13
0
Simon Kerrigan
8
0
24
1
b Kyle Hogg
20
39
39
4
0
Fall of Wicket
b Tom Smith
12
41
31
1
0
b Kabir Ali
0
6
7
0
0
b Kabir Ali
1
16
14
0
66
Alex Lees
82
Kane Williamson
97
Adam Lyth
0
132
Andrew Gale
RUNS SCORED
Liam Plunkett
lbw
b Tom Smith
12
6
6
2
0
136
Jonny Bairstow
Ryan Sidebottom
c Tom Smith
b Simon Kerrigan
9
40
44
1
0
178
Adil Rashid
179
Andy Hodd
183
Tim Bresnan
196
Liam Plunkett
234
Ryan Sidebottom
243
Jack Brooks
Bowler
Overs Maidens Runs Wickets
Tim Bresnan
7
3
9
3
Jack Brooks
4
0
11
0
Liam Plunkett
2
0
15
0
Adil Rashid
2
0
4
0
Kane Williamson
2
1
5
0
Jack Brooks
c Glen Chapple
b Glen Chapple
0
7
3
0
0
Steven Patterson Extras
6nb 3w 2b 8lb
19
Total
all out
243
(71.0 ovs)
Lancashire 2nd Innings 48-3 (17.0 overs)
Runs
Mins
Balls
4s
6s
Paul Horton
c Adam Lyth
b Tim Bresnan
6
16
14
1
0
Luis Reece
lbw
b Tim Bresnan
10
41
28
1
0
b Tim Bresnan
Karl Brown
lbw
0
3
4
0
0
Steven Croft
not out
23
47
38
3
0
Tom Smith
not out
5
26
18
1
0
Ashwell Prince Alex Davies
13
Fall of Wicket
Glen Chapple Kyle Hogg Kabir Ali Simon Kerrigan Extras
0nb 0w 4b 0lb
4
Total
for 3
48
(17.0 ovs)
10
Paul Horton
10
Karl Brown
31
Luis Reece
WICKETS TAKEN
55
100
Kane Williamson walks out to bat at Scarborough
101
£30:00