Amazing Matches Show What The Fans Will Be Missing When The County Championship Ends

 

The County Championship Throws Up Another Surprise

 

September 13^th 2015

 

As we reach mid-September, a significant fraction of the population realises that, soon, something very important will be missing from their life. The cricket season is ending and, with it, something that has filled our days for almost six months.

Today is the final international match of the season. An England side, unsurprisingly written-off my many in April – let’s face it, who in their right mind would have predicted that England would finish the season with an overall winning record in Tests and that it has every chance to finish with an unbeaten series record in all formats this summer?

On September 20^th, the surprise package of the season, Gloucestershire – a team that many fans think should disappear in a Championship with a reduced number of First Class counties – will take on a Surrey side that has persistently underachieved for years but which, finally, looks to be building a formidable side for an assault on the top flight, in the One Day Cup Final. While no longer the occasion that it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s, a Lord’s Final still means a lot to players and fans. More about that another day.

The County Championship though, is what most fans will miss. Sixty-four days of passion and emotions. This season has broken an extraordinary run of seasons where there has been incredible tension down to the last session of play. Yorkshire were crowned Champions and Surrey and Lancashire were promoted mathematically with two rounds to play. The main doubt is whether Lancashire, runaway leaders for most of the season, will go up as winners of Division 2 or Surrey, 54 points behind on June 16^th, will pip them.

A measure of what fans will be missing has been the extraordinary events of the last four days at Lord’s. Middlesex completed one of the great comeback wins of all time to send Yorkshire crashing to their first defeat of the season. That in itself would be remarkable, but Middlesex were 0-3 after just six deliveries and bowled out for 106, conceding a first innings lead of 193.  At 145-5 second time around, 48 behind, the match should have been over that night. Somehow though Middlesex put on 440 runs for the last five wickets and knocked the stuffing out of the Champions, who capitulated tamely on the final afternoon, with a noisy crowd cheering and singing all the way.

As Middlesex were fighting back as similar story was being told at Trent Bridge, as Nottinghamshire came back from a deficit of 168 to beat Durham and Hampshire produced an extraordinary escape to come back from 390 behind on first innings and keep their survival hopes alive with a draw at Taunton. Try telling the players in these three, extraordinary matches, that the Championship does not matter and produces low-quality cricket. No other First Class Competition in the world is as tough, or as well supported.

Although the wooden spoon will mathematically become Leicestershire’s again in the next round of games, even they have won two matches and made real progress, to give their fans something to cheer.

The two issues that remain are the minor places in the Championship, although it will take something pretty amazing to stop Middlesex and Nottinghamshire being second and third respectively and Warwickshire to take fourth with its not-to-be-despised prize money. Poor Durham: runaway leaders, 29 points ahead of Warwickshire and 33 ahead of Yorkshire on June 18^th, they have taken just 37 points from their next 7 games, losing six of them and look set to finish out of the money. Indeed, Durham look set to finish only just above the relegation zone.

Only wins in their last two games can save Worcestershire and not just wins: it is quite possible that even two, twenty point wins will not be enough; hope for them comes from the fact that they play free-falling Durham on Monday, although at Chester-le-Street where batting points are grudgingly won. Hampshire too, need at least one good win and a high-scoring draw and even then will depend on Somerset or Sussex to finish badly in their last two games. Given though that they play each other starting Monday and could all but see themselves safe with a high-scoring draw, it will be interesting to see what pitch is served up at Hove.

It is not yet impossible that we may be served-up more last evening of the season drama like last season when Lancashire, needing a win to survive and send Middlesex down instead, backed Middlesex up against the wall, only to be denied in extremis by Chris Rogers.

Ah, Middlesex!!! Who, seeing their desperate plunge down the table last season from early pace-setters to a desperate last afternoon struggle for survival, would imagine that they would be Yorkshire’s closest challengers? Not for nothing were they many people’s tip to be relegated, as the Middlesex fans are reminding everyone with some relish. And they have done it the hard way.

Looking at the bare details, seven wins and only one defeat (to Champions, Yorkshire) looks pretty good, but then look how those wins have been achieved:

·         Only 5 times in 15 matches have Middlesex taken a first innings lead.

·         Middlesex’s average first innings score is under 250 – they have thrown away around 25-30 batting points.

·         In 7 of 9 completed innings, Middlesex have scored more runs in the second innings than in the first.

Middlesex’s success in 2015 has come on the basis of a stuttering batting line-up, far too dependent on tail-end runs from the likes of James Harris and Toby Roland-Jones. Seemingly all season it has been getting into a hole and then counter-punching, often through an 8^th or 9^th wicket stand, to recover a desperate situation after a top-order failure.

Whereas Yorkshire can boast eight batsmen who average over 40 and five more who average over 30, Middlesex have just three averaging over 40 and three more averaging over 30.

Five bowlers for Yorkshire have taken at least 25 wickets, while only four of the Middlesex attack have done so, yet Middlesex are finding ways somehow to win games, helped by the extraordinary figures of James Harris (69 wickets @ 24.6 and 455 runs @ 25.3, including 3x50) who needs 45 runs in his final game of the season to reach the modern all-rounder’s double of 500 runs and 50 wickets in the Championship.

Despite a huge number of Test calls that have robbed them of half their side at times, Yorkshire have been able to dig into a seeming bottomless array of talent and reserves and are deservedly Champions. No one would argue that they have been far and away the class side of the year yet, for all their problems (struggling openers, a shaky middle order and the lack of an attacking spinner), Middlesex though have got closer than anyone could ever imagine. After years of underachievement, could it be that Middlesex will get it right finally in 2016? Middlesex, being Middlesex, their supporters will know to expect the unexpected from their side: maybe 2016 Champions, maybe relegated.

 

The tens of thousands of passionate supporters of the County Championship will count the months until more thrills and spills start again next April. However, with the uncertainty about the future form of the Championship, 2015 may be the last one in which we see it in its present form.