I do declare

posted by John Winn

In a couple of recent postings I have made references to the last occasion on which Northants were in contention for promotion to Division 1 of the championship. This was in September 2009 when a declaration by Chris Rogers, captain of Derbyshire at the time but who had previously been at Wantage Road, gave Essex the key to the side door which they duly accepted in scoring 359 to win with ten Doeschate hitting 108 from 59 balls. Northants coach David Capel did his best to imitate Tom the cabin boy who you may recall invariably 'smiled and said nothing' for rather than suggesting any conspiracy theories Capel pointed to other games in which positive results rather than draws   would not have left Northants relying on what happened at Derby, although I doubt whether he smiled.

Wantage Road

 

 Midway through 2012 Capel was sacked and replaced by David Ripley, a shake- up which this season has brought perhaps the least fashionable of counties (three times as many people saw Madness at Wantage Road on Sunday as watched 8 championship matches there last season), success in T20 and at 4:20 yesterday promotion for the first time in ten years. It would have been nice had the defining moment occurred in front of some of the faithful, perhaps via a splendid cover drive or a dazzling catch, but instead, and with a nice touch of irony it will be recorded as MS Panesar ct Adams b Coles 3. The same Panesar who left Northants in 2009 to join Sussex and who has been on loan to Essex, and if rumour be true paid a silly amount of money for the six games he has played, six games in which he has taken 14 wickets. His  dismissal at the Rose Bowl meant that Essex could not gain the bonus points needed to catch Northants and thus celebrations could begin for the 'Rose among Shires'.

Last time Northants escaped from Div 2 it was on the back of runs scored by Michael Hussey and Phil Jaques and the wickets of off spinner Jason Brown. Leading pace bowler was the fiery Andre Nel. Hussey, Jaques and Nel all left and Northants went straight back down. They will of course hope for better this time and look to Yorkshire rather than Derbyshire as an example of how promoted teams can fare. They are one of three counties not to have won the championship but have claimed second place four times. On one of these occasions, 1965, the title was snatched from them by Worcestershire and involved another controversial declaration at a time when umpires were under orders to inform MCC if they suspected collusion between skippers.

The match in question was between Worcestershire and Hampshire at Bournemouth: the circumstances of which were describe by Northants' historian Matthew Engel as 'fishy'. Judge for yourselves for after Worcestershire had made 363 for 9 (Headley 123, Graveney 104) Hampshire skipper Ingleby-Mackenzie declared his team's first innings at 217 for 6 and then bowled the only ball of Worcestershire's second innings at which point Don Kenyon declared the innings closed and his pace attack of Flavell and Coldwell bowled Hants out for 31. Engel is fair minded enough to point out that Northants had indulged in similar shenanigans four weeks earlier when Keith Andrew had declared their second innings closed at 0 for 0 and Essex were then bowled out for 88. Leading wicket taker was Tynesider Malcolm Scott* who was a classy left half for Darlington FC. The following year Northants finished fifth which meant that they had occupied every position bar one. 47 years later that remains true.

* You will probably find it hard to believe that Darlington ever had anybody 'classy' but Scott did also play for Newcastle United. There is a short autobiography of him available but it may be elusive. Regrettably I have let my copy slip through my hands. It is called 'A Geordie All-Rounder'.