HISTORIC MATCH AT NORTHAMPTON

By Brian Sanderson,

While John was going down to Essex I went with Brian Workman to watch Yorkshire at The County Ground Northampton. I had been twice before to the ground in about fifteen years.The ground  had been modernised and looked a picture in the sunshine. Brian had booked the tickets before hand and cost £10 which was excellent value.

We sat at the pavilion end in the shade looking at the new indoor nets.

From were we sat we could see two churches. The majority of the crowd  supported Yorkshire and were fearing the worse when they had been bowled out for 136 on Saturday.Duckett , the England under 19 player, batted well to reach 51 before falling to a awful shot to the bowling of Rashid who finished with two wickets for one run.

Then we settled back to watch  a opening stand between Lyth and Lees.Chambers was Northants best bowler and troubled Lyth after lunch which seem to slow him down but he was still there at the end of Sunday together with Lees who looked class.

On Monday we looking at the record books for highest opening stands.The first record to be broken was 279 by Holmes and Sutcliffe in 1919 at  Northampton and then they beat 299 for the record partnereship against Northampton by Yorkshire. That had been held by Holmes and Kilner.Next record to go was 330 which was the highest first wicket partnership against  any county against Northants which had been held by Jones and Fredericks of Glamorgan.Lees was first to go after scoring 138 and the score on 375 which equalled the the ground,s first wicket partnership shared by White and Powell in 2002.

A photograph of Lees leaving the field showing the score at 375 and they had taken his score of the board.
Next to come in was Finch on his Championship debut which start the quiz of naming other Yorkshire players who had bird names.Lyth finished on 230.Yorkshire finished on 523 for 3 which beat Yorkshire highest score in Northampton which had been 523 at Wellingborough School in 1949.Northants lost three wickets by the end of the day.
On Tuesday it started to rain  which caused the supporters to worry

 however the rain stopped after half an hour and Yorkshire went on to win the match. Excellent three days and a beautiful small county ground.