The strange case of Hodd in the field

posted by John Winn

The rain that prevented any play between Middlesex and Sussex and after lunch at Trent Bridge spared a good crowd at Headingley until only eight overs were left in the day and allowed an absorbing day's cricket in which Lancashire's batsmen posted their best first innings of the season.

I was one of a car of four that travelled from the Lower Ure Valley and we pitched camp in the FST just in time to see the red rose resume their innings. Horton, for whom I have generally played the part of the albatross made good progress in partnership with Prince who was batting under the handicap of a back ailment that necessitated on field treatment, but the switch of Brooks to the football stand end persuaded the Lancashire opener to leave one and he was bowled on 123. We lunched on 177 for 5 which made it Yorkshire's morning and my tuna salad was capped by my chauffeur's roast duck which made it his morning too.

 

Lancashire's last five wickets used the afternoon well to more than double the score and pick up 3 points, as many as they had previously gained all season. Yorkshire were handicapped by the absence from the field of Sidebottom who was replaced by Pyrah and when Williamson had a spell in the hutch we were given a glimpse of Tom Deighton-Brown, later renamed as Tom Geeson-Brown. I would love to have said 'thought so' but it would have been a lie.

 Lancashire's best work was done by Chappell and Smith who added 68 for the seventh wicket. Chappell was generously applauded from the field, the crowd perhaps feeling that this might be his last appearance at Headingley in championship cricket. Hogg hit 47 not out to secure the third point leaving the first innings as a 3-3 score draw. Brooks five wickets and Plunkett four: the last of which was caught Hodd, not behind the wicket as you might assume but in the gulley for it was Bairstow who was keeping. Hodd fielded well and Bairstow's keeping was tidy and the former resisted the temptation to hurl one in at Jonny's toes but I was not alone in finding this something of a mystery.

Lyth and Lees saw us comfortably through to 5:30 and the arrival of rain. The forecast suggests that, having allowed us a day of pleasant temperatures, it will be reluctant to leave and it is hard to see how anything other than a draw can come out of the next two days. This will leave us plenty of time to pick our squads for the first test and some may well have Plunkett and/or Brooks amongst the seamers and Bairstow seems more likely to keep than Hodd.

For me it is no more cricket until Monday when I am off to Chelmsford. The intervening days will be filled by a trip to Scotland via the Lake District where it will be hot and sunny and the pigs have wings.