Watching County Cricket on YouTube #1
The Greek and the Kid, who is Sam Northeast and Willy Washy win it for Lancs.
Being from far away New Zealand, I’ve never fully understood the complexities of the English County Championship. I’ve always kept half an eye on it, perusing scorecards for exceptional feats and numbers, checking in on the fortunes of the overseas pros or the well known English players.
I’m aware of teams like Yorkshire and Lancashire, power houses from the North, and I know Middlesex play at Lords and Surrey at the Oval, because I watched a couple of days play at both grounds on my travels before I headed for the Scottish hills all those years ago. I could tell you Glamorgan is in Wales and Sir Alistair Cook plays for Essex but ask me to find Gloucestershire, Leicestershire or Worcestershire on a map and I’d struggle.
And in amongst these 18 teams there are varying degrees of success and failure, regional rivalries and streams of history, and a host of professional and semi-professional cricketers plying their trade and chasing a boyhood dream, and others just working for a pay cheque. It astonishes me, the size and the character of the thing, with it’s long storied, glorious past and it’s ever decreasing prospects for the future. So, while it is still alive and kicking, possibly on it’s last legs, I thought I’d take a closer look and try to wrap my head around it properly.
The other night, after a failed attempt at sleeping, I went looking for live streams from the mother country. I found myself oddly glued to the match at Lord’s as two of the “Sexes” battled it out, with Sussex batting for survival against Middlesex. Despite having a first innings lead, Sussex were in danger of handing their opponents a golden opportunity for an afternoon chase on the last day as they folded to 96 for 7. I joined the action as South African born, Greek international Aristides Karvelas batted with the 17 year old leg-spinner Archie Lenham, a third generation Sussex representative. Boyish and short, Lenham was compact in his batting as he fought to survive, practicing his blocks and nudges after every ball, full of fidgeting, nervous energy as he bounced about between balls. At the other end the much taller and more assured looking Karvelas played each ball then turned and tapped his bat twice on the crease before re-scratching his guard with his boot. Facing the Indian Test bowler Umesh Yadav at one end and the mid career pro Tom Helm at the other (who was searching for one more wicket for a 10 wicket match haul) the batsmen worked hard and with each ball survived and run scored they fought off the vultures. As I watched the equation grew to around 180 from 40 odd overs if Middlesex could just wrap the innings up, but Lenham hit a couple of nice drives and Karvelas did his thing, until just before tea when Lenham was bowled by Toby Roland-Jones leaving a ball that angled back in off the famous Lord’s slope.
I went to sleep and the match ultimately ended in a draw, but this is the majesty of cricket. Each ball and scenario holds many opportunities and potentialities. A few more wickets, or even a brave, maybe reckless declaration, would have meant an exciting chase and a whole host of other possibilities, but as it was Sussex chose survival, as they languish near the bottom of Division Two.
The match at Lord’s had previously supplied the slow majesty of a Cheteshwar Pujara double ton, the stand-in Sussex captain making 231 from 403 balls, his fifth century of the summer for the county. Sussex featured a young, locally brewed opening pair of Ali Orr and Tom Clark, while at number three they had the in-form Tom Alsop. In their middle-order they had another local lad, wicket-keeper Oliver Carter, and a Bermudan all-rounder in Delray Rawlins. There was another 17 year old in Danial Ibrahim alongside an ex-England fast bowler with over 100 Test wickets in Steven Finn, and a young Scottish pace bowler named Bradley Currie, who took 6 for 93 on what was his First-Class debut.
Middlesex were captained by the 40 year old, Irish Test pace bowler Tim Murtagh, and had two tried and discarded English Test opening batsmen at the top of their order in Sam Robson and Mark Stoneman. Then there were two South African born batsmen at 3 and 4, Stephen Eskinazi and Pieter Malan, the latter of whom had played 3 Tests for South Africa against England in 2020. There were two former England Under-19s in Max Holden and Luke Hollman, while the wicket-keeper John Simpson was part of the replacement England team who played three ODI’s versus Pakistan last summer after Covid had struck down the first choice squad. Along with the aforementioned Yadav and Helm, was another former Test player in Roland-Jones, a pace bowler who performed admirably for England in the summer of 2017, with 17 Test wickets from 4 Tests at an average of 19.64, including an impressive start of 5 for 57 against South Africa at The Oval.
Now Sam Northeast is a name I’d seen in passing, during my perusals of years and years of County scorecards, but I knew very little of his story. Turns out, he’s a pretty talented batsman, as his recent score of 410 not out would indicate. Playing for Glamorgan against Leicestershire at Grace Road in Leicester, his massive score turned the tide of the match after the Leics had posted 584 in their first innings. Coming in with his side 2 down for 9 runs in the seventh over, he proceeded to bat for over 150 overs and was part of a 306 run 3rd wicket partnership with the South African Colin Ingram (139) and an unbeaten 6th wicket stand of 461 with wicket-keeper Chris Cooke (191*) as Glamorgan posted 795/5 declared. Their well rested bowlers then toppled a dispirited Leics for 183, with a handful of overs left on the final day, to win the match by an innings and 28 runs in an outstanding performance.
Leicestershire vs Glamorgan Scorecard
The man himself made his mammoth score of 410* off 450 balls with 45 fours and 3 sixes, two of which came in the last over of the innings as he hit out just before lunch and the impending declaration. A 32 year old batsman who has never seemed to be on the radar for national selection despite his obvious talents, he averages 40 in First-Class cricket and his quadruple century was his 27th First-Class ton, and comes off the back of 105* against Nottinghamshire in Cardiff last week, meaning he has 515 runs without being dismissed, and counting. (Remember Tom Bruce from Central Districts, who has 502 runs, and counting, as mentioned in my New Zealand prospects article, link below)
Also mentioned in that article was Will Williams, a fast bowler for Canterbury who I thought would be knocking on the door for Black Caps selection in the near future. However a week or so after I published that, Williams decided to ditch his Canterbury connection and signed for Lancashire on a long-term basis as a local player, thanks to his holding a British passport alongside his Kiwi one, effectively ruling himself out of Black Caps contention. Hopefully Baz McCullum doesn’t have his eyes on him for England, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he did! Playing for Lancs against Northamptonshire, he took 5 for 41 in Northants second dig as the bowlers turned around a dismal first up effort from their batsmen, and giving them a chance at redemption after setting themselves a target of 278 for victory. Josh Bohannon, another potential England Test prospect, hit 103 before Williams, at seven, and the Indian all-rounder Washington Sundar (he of Gabba fame and boasting a Test batting average of 66.25 from 4 Tests) batting at eight put on an unbeaten 7th wicket stand of 69 to help win the match by 4 wickets. Sundar himself took 5 wickets in Northants first innings (5 for 76), while another example of the majestic and humbling nature of cricket was Keaton Jennings, who last week hit a sparkling 318 against Somerset at Southport, but this week was reduced to just 27 and 1.
Northamptonshire v Lancashire Scorecard
Elsewhere around the heat stricken English countryside, former South African Test paceman Kyle Abbott claimed a hat-trick as he took 6 for 76 for Hampshire in Gloucestershire’s second innings. After dismissing Miles Hammond for his highest FC score of 169, he then got Pakistan international Zafar Gohar first ball before trapping young Tom Price leg before wicket, helping Hampshire to a 6 wicket win. At Taunton, rain spoilt Somerset’s opportunity to declare and set Yorkshire a sizeable last day target, while a batters paradise at Derby saw a draw between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, despite big hundreds from two other English discards, who unlike Robson and Stoneman of Middlesex, probably still harbor hopes of returning to the international stage. Haseeb Hameed made 196, falling just short of a maiden FC double ton, while Ben Duckett made an aggressive 241 from 273 balls, the pair adding 402 for the 2nd wicket.
At The Oval in London, Simon Harmer, the South African spinner who takes wickets for fun in County cricket, was unable to spin his Essex team to victory this time with not enough runs to play with, despite making 50 and 38 not out himself. A Surrey side full of Test match players (Hashim Amla, Kemar Roach, Rory Burns, Ben Foakes, Ollie Pope and Jamie Overton) were led to victory by a 23 year old named Will Jacks, whose counter-attacking 150 not out from 184 balls (which included 10 fours and 8 sixes as he hit out as wickets fell) proved crucial, and 31 year old Australian pace bowler Daniel Worrall, who took 11 wickets in the match (6 for 56 and 5-66).
At Edgbaston former English Test batsman Joe Denly hit 141 while current English squad member and wicket-keeper Sam Billings took 12 catches, and Indian paceman Navdeep Saini (also of Gabba fame) took 5 for 72 and 2 for 39 as Kent beat Warwickshire by 177 runs.
Now that’s a wrap of all the matches, but I’m still not entirely sure how the whole thing works, points wise. It’s a convoluted system seemingly made especially for the cricket boffins, but Surrey sit atop Divison One while Nottinghamshire rule the roost in Division Two. The race continues for the title, as does my quest to understand this profound slice of Englishness before it disappears*.
*My hope is that it doesn’t, but with recent developments with T20 leagues around the world, I can see it slipping further and further into insignificance. My belief is that in writing about it, and other first-class competitions around the world, I can somehow contribute to prolonging, hell even halting, it’s demise.