Whatever happened to?

 

By Mike Latham

One thing that has always interested me, whether in football, rugby league or cricket is to attend second team fixtures. It is fascinating to watch a game in a different, less pressurised environment and see a mixture of either established players working their back to fitness or form or young, aspiring players, some of whom go on to big things.

One good piece of advice an old groundhopping sage once imparted to me was to keep the scorecard or team sheet as it’s intriguing to look back on in years to come at some of the names that feature.

Such it was in mid-September 2009 as Lancashire and Surrey, respective winners of the north and south groups in the Second Eleven Championship played off for the title in a three-day game at Old Trafford.

The match started on Wednesday 16^th and, unusually for that time of year, the weather was dry and settled. The Old Trafford outfield was parched in places and clouds of dust flew up on occasions.

The result was to be decided on first innings if no result could be obtained and it soon became apparent that was how the game would play out.

Old Trafford was undergoing the start of the vast changes that were soon to transform the appearance of the ground. The Point hospitality building was in the early course of construction and the pitch was soon to be changed around 90 degrees. The usual devoted band of cricket enthusiasts gathered for what they saw as a bonus three days’ extension to their cricket season and the weather was glorious throughout.

The Old Trafford pavilion, the Point being built alongside

Old Trafford pre modernisation

Played 12-a-side with eleven to bat or field, Surrey won the toss and batted, and batted, and batted.

Openers Seren Walters and Tom Lancefield put on 61 before the latter was caught behind off Steven Croft, the former reached fifty before falling leg before to Oliver Newby. Joshua Lawrence became Croft’s second victim to leave Surrey 138 for 3, but that was the closest Lancashire came to establishing control of the game.

Coming in at number 5 Jason Roy, then aged 19, made a fluent 50, skipper Jonathan Batty bolstering the innings with 70. But the real star of the show was Chris Jordan, batting at six, who played outstandingly to reach 135, adding a mammoth 170 for the seventh wicket with Tom Smith, who was undefeated on 88 when the declaration eventually came with the second day well advanced, Surrey 500 for 8 after 151 overs of toil for the home attack.

Looking back, it wasn’t a bad Lancashire bowling attack. Stephen Parry and Simon Kerrigan went on to play international cricket, Newby, Croft, Steven Mullaney and Luke Procter all forging good county careers, but the bat dominated the ball in this late season game.

Setting off in pursuit of their mammoth target Lancashire lost Procter at 43, Croft at 73 but a third wicket stand of 125 revived their hopes. Opener Karl Brown and wicketkeeper Gareth Cross both batted with style and fluency, but both fell in quick succession, Cross for 65, Brown for 83 and at 201 for 4 the pendulum had swung Surrey’s way.

A ground view on the third day

We then saw another long partnership between Mullaney, an outstanding prospect who I’d seen score a double hundred earlier in the season in a second team game at Southport, and the mysterious Adrian Shankar, Lancashire captain for the match.

The Old Trafford scoreboard charts Lancashire’s chase

Shankar was subsequently to make the headlines two years later after his sudden departure from Worcestershire, an amazing story that needs no repeat here. Suffice to say that memory serves he looked a decent if limited batsman in this pressure game, though losing out by comparison with Mullaney who somehow never got the opportunities in the first team at Old Trafford many felt he deserved.

At 338 for 4 Lancashire looked well placed before Mullaney, who had reached 77, was bowled by Richard Stevens, a 19-year-old medium paced bowler, perhaps the game’s pivotal moment.

Mullaney bowled Stevens

Shankar and Chris Tipper then added another 76 to take Lancashire within one hundred runs of their target when Smith’s slow left arm unlocked both batsmen, Shankar caught behind for 79, Tipper leg before, 45.

Nicky Caunce hits out just before the end

The end came fairly swiftly after that, Lancashire bowled out after tea on the final day for 438, Smith hastening their demise with a spell of five for 90 in 34 overs as the evening shadows lengthened, Surrey winners by 62 on first innings after a marathon three days of cricket.

The end

What became of the 24 participants in this memorable game?

On the Surrey side, Jason Roy, Chris Jordan and Rory Burns went on to play for England, Smith has enjoyed a long county career and is still playing while skipper Batty’s long career extended to three years with Gloucestershire. Walters went on to play 20 ODIs for Kenya. Lancashire born opening bowler James Anyon went on to play for Sussex.

Lancefield, Tom Jewell and Simon King each got relatively few first team opportunities, and all had left Surrey by the end of 2014. Lawrence and Stevens did not go onto play first-class cricket.

On the Lancashire side Croft became a Lancashire stalwart, earning a benefit in 2018, while Parry, who has just left the staff and Kerrigan played for England, the latter reviving his career at Northants. Karl Brown left the staff in 2018 after a long career and became a league professional while Procter moved to Northants to earn a regular place. Mullaney left for Nottinghamshire to become one of the most consistent county all-rounders in all three formats of the game and Notts captain for the past three seasons.

Oliver Newby and Gareth Cross both played a lot of first-class cricket before leaving the county scene in 2014 and Shankar we know all about.

Of the remainder, former professional soccer goalkeeper Gary Montgomery, a left arm opening bowler, played three List A games but failed to win a longer contract while Chris Tipper and Nicky Caunce continued as outstanding club cricketers without breaking into the first-class ranks.

The umpires, incidentally, were former Shropshire stalwart Steve Gale, who stayed on the first-class list to 2017 and Keith Coburn, who I got to know well in his role as Cambridgeshire CCC team manager. Yogi, as he is known to all, is a wonderful cricketing enthusiast and very good umpire, but maybe found not having played the first-class game a hindrance to his ambitions. A couple of years ago while chatting on a sunlit evening at Wisbech we recalled this Second Eleven Championship Final and what a memorable occasion it was.