Queens Park, Chesterfield
Posted by Tony Hutton
Trying to catch up with the second half of August brings the County Championship into focus.
One thing I can't catch up on however, is the amount of food Peter Davies seems to have consumed in recent weeks !
Wednesday 14th August - Derbyshire v Northamptonshire at Chesterfield.
I missed the first county match here earlier in the season at yet another of my favourite grounds, so it was with some relief that I made it for day one of this game. The ground looked spick and span, a large marquee for the sponsors guests and a good sized crowd, bigger than any at Derby all season I was told.
Apart from the fact that a large proportion of the players on both sides were of overseas origin, mostly South African - even with Northants captain Nicky Boje not playing, it was something like an old fashioned county match. Chesterfield in the good old days was always a green wicket on which Les Jackson and Cliff Gladwin bowled out the opposition for very few.
The highest innings score in this match was 255 by Derbyshire on day one. Northants were then dismissed for nine runs short of this, proceeded to bowl out Derby again for 233 and then in an exciting finish on the last day Northants won by two wickets finishing on 245-8.
On day one Derbyshire lost wickets at regular intervals and only the efforts of Gary Park, another South African recruited from Durham this season and wicketkeeper James Pipe, once of the Yorkshire Academy, who both made half centuries kept them afloat. Pipe in particular played with aggresive intent, particularly against the pace of Van der Wath (you guessed it, another South African). He carved him through or over the slips for four on several occasions causing the poor bowler to express his disgust in no uncertain manner.
In fact it was a young man making his debut for Northants, 25 year old Jack Brooks, who finished with the best figures of 4-76. Van der Wath had to settle for 3-92. When Northants batted the following day yet another South African, this time Tim Groenewald stole the honours with 6-61. So it was a relief to many that the match was won in the end by a fine innings of 42 by a true blue Englishman in the form of David Willey, son of non-other than former England all-rounder and current umpire Peter Willey. Willey, who isonly 19, shared in an important partnership with Alex Wakely, another local product who has played for England under 19s. So there are still some local lads playing in this game after all.
The highlight of the afternoon for me came when I suddenly realised how quiet and peaceful it all was, unlike the bangs and crashes of the permanent building site at Headingley. The only noise of note was the toot-toot of the minature railway engine going round the lake in Queens Park.
Thursday 20th August - Yorkshire v Lancashire at Headingley.
So back to the building site, with the two huge cranes building the vast new pavilion working away all day long, a totally different world from Queens Park, Chesterfield. This was day two of the Roses match, with Lancashire having made 226-7 on the first day which was rather slow going apparently. Former captain Mark Chilton was the mainstay of their innings with 73 not out overnight.
Lancashire put on another 50 runs during the morning, with Chilton going to a well deserved century and finishing on 111 not out out of the total of 276. The bowling honours went to the young leg spinner, Adil Rashid, whose two wickets this morning took him to 5-97.
Yorkshire started badly when Rudolph, their leading batsman, was out to the very first ball of the innings. It soon went from bad to worse - Yorkshire moving on to 35-3 then 131-5 at close of play on day two. The man doing the damage was the on loan signing from Derbyshire, Tom Lungley, with three early wickets. Lancashire have so many bowlers on the injured list that they had been forced into recruiting a player who has never been a regular in the Derbyshire first team, but he did them proud today.
The following day was a totally different story after Bresnan was out without adding to his overnight score, Brophy and Adil Rashid proceeded to bat Lancashire out of the game. They put on 168 for the seventh wicket before Brophy was unluckily out for 99. Brophy had batted for five hours in a very workmanlike display.
Young Rashid went from strength to strength now putting on a partnership of 100 for the eighth wicket with Ajmal Shahzad and going to his highest ever score of 157 not out before the innings ended at 429 all out. With some time lost to the weather Yorkshire did not have time to bowl Lancashire out again and the game petered out into a tame draw on Saturday with Lancashire finishing on 196-2. However some positive performances at last for Yorkshire who need every point they can get to avoid relegation.
Thursday 27th August - Yorkshire v Warwickshire at Scarborough
Another change of scene for Yorkshire's next match with fellow relegation strugglers Warwickshire. Cricket by the seaside is always a pleasure and with the sun shining after a cool, wet day yesterday there was an excellent crowd in for the second day. Only 22 overs were bowled yesterday and Warwickshire were struggling on 53-4.
Not so today, the runs came thick and fast it has to be said thanks to some very poor stuff from the Yorkshire bowlers. They seemed to feed Tim Ambrose in particular with a series of long hops and full tosses out side leg stump which saw him race to 113 with no less than 21 fours.
Neil Carter, coming in at number eight, joined in the fun and scored a quickfire 67 off only 59 balls, including ten fours and two sixes. So 320 was a good total after yesterday's poor start.
It went from bad to worse for sorry Yorkshire and at the end of day two they were on the ropes at 100-7. The first over from Indian test player Sreesanth was a disaster, with Rudolph going for another first ball duck and McGrath also out in the same over again without troubling the scorers. Only the reliable Brophy (28 not out) and the last three of Wainwright, Hoggard and Kruis remained at close of play. So the drive home was of mixed emotions, a grand day out in the sun with plenty of action, meeting a lot of acquaintances from all over the north of England, but everything going against Yorkshire.
I did not travel the next day, but it is well worth recording that Yorkshire got themselves out of trouble on day three with Brophy and Wainwright putting on 144 for the eighth wicket, Wainwright and Hoggard 48 for the ninth wicket and Wainwright and Kruis 37 for the tenth wicket. Yorkshire finishing just eight runs ahead with the heroic Wainwright 102 not out.
So Warwickshire then finished day three on 111-2 and hopes were high that a quick break through on the last day could bring a rare and much needed victory, but it was not to be. The bowling, without Adil Rashid and Tim Bresnan, both on England one day duty, could not get wickets quickly enough and the game fizzled out yet again into a draw. An eventful game none the less, the big crowds suggesting that Scarborough is here to stay as a county venue, despite recent criticisms.
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