Posted by At some point in 2013, Leicestershire were cut by the thunder. From then on, draws and losses appeared to be the only possible outcomes following four days of championship cricket. That’s a dispiriting world in which to live, sounding almost like something imposed on them by a judge.
However, the great thing about the County Championship is that you can end a run of 992 days without a win and immediately start talking about promotion to the top flight. Lewis Hill hit the winning runs to end Leicestershire’s extraordinary winless streak and then did precisely that.
It’s a way less forgiving environment than it used to be though. Back in the day you could have gone that long as the whipping boys for the other 17 first-class counties and still been in with a chance of winning the title the following year. Glorious redemption takes a little longer these days.
But has a baton been passed (and doubtless dropped)? The beaten side, Essex, are now bottom of the second division and haven’t won since the first match of the season. Start the clock!
Shove it up yers, best team in the world etc. etc. Surely it doesn’t count until they win a first division match?
It’s quite hard to win a first-division match from the third division, however optimistic you are!
Still awaiting a triumphant update to Lewis Hill’s wikipedia page. He must be nursing some serious celebratory aftereffects having singlehandedly setting Leicestershire on the path to the title. Not even an umpire with clearly no bottle can stop them now!
Lol, updated and tidied a little, Mike.
Looking forward to him smashing more all sorts of records this season, delightfully.
Nice work Gedd Ladd. He’s now Big Star without the time to do this work himself. As long as he doesn’t forget those who gave him a foot up on the climb to greatness.
He’s Big Star?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Star
The odds of a Leicestershire win were apparently two to the power 16344 to one against. The only possible explanation for this win is that they had The Golden Bail of Prosperity on one of the wickets (Wikkits).
One for the Twitter pages? https://twitter.com/finnysteve/status/606427840519794688/photo/1
Although between Nando’s, cricketers on planes, Neesham, Roach, and #justsaying, they must almost write themselves nowadays.
We can assure you it absolutely, positively does not. It’s the most labour intensive piece of work we do.
As such, thanks for the tweet.
Ah, apologies. I didn’t mean to suggest a lack of work. #justsaying that you have a few good rich veins of material to tap.
I find it kind of amusing that after one win against Essex, suddenly the papers (or at least the Graun) are talking about how Leics regularly over-perform given their resources/players (3 CCs, 3 T20s, etc etc).
It seems that this year they’re copying the NZ/Surrey route of picking as many WK/batsmen as possible.
I do wonder if Leics’ much vaunted production of young players has much to do with them, and more to do with their not having any senior players and a couple of good nearby private schools.
Few things in modern cricket can bring a smile to my face like Haddin getting out. Especially with a ball spinning “past a nervy prod”.
Careful, he’s most likely becoming due. For the Ashes. But no, it is lovely to see them struggling against the probing spin of Devendra Bishoo (44 test wickets at 40.7 prior to this match).
Who is this SOD (Shame Omari Dowrich) who has seemingly ended the test career of Shiv, a mere 86 runs short of Lara?
Haddin still plays for Australia?! For some reason I just assumed he’d have retired by now.
Oh no, he was still actively playing (and very actively being a cunt) in the World Cup.
Language! Please refrain from using terms like Haddin, BJ around here. He’s hanging around just long enough to torture us one last time this summer.
Meanwhile, another ageing Antipodean washed-up county stalwart is grinding his way to a fifty on day-boo…
For some perspective as to how vacuous most Australian sports ‘journos’ are over here they are comparing Haddin’s dismissal to the ‘ball of the century’ that bowled Gatting. This does Gatting a massive disservice, the Bishoo delivery looked like a standard leg break and had Haddin used a straight bat rather than chopping sideways he would have been ok.
And now he’s failed at a stumping and is letting byes through like he’s Jos Buttler. Great stuff.
They still won by virtue of their 9th- and 10th-wicket first innings stands. Take note, England. Please.
On the subject of Wikipedia entries for obscure and retired county cricketers, this is an excellent example of the opportunity it presents to their current club mates:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Bramhall
Oh boy. I think that text needs to be preserved for future generations:
“Bramhall’s career shockingly returned to the big time again in 2012 with his appointment as captain of Timperley Cricket Club. With hands quicker than Matt Macquet’s at Factory, Bramhall continues to snaffle many a wicket behind the sticks.
2013 has seen Bramhall relinquish the gloves to concentrate on perfecting the role of non-playing captain, a role he has started in superbly with Timperley providing opposition players with more sore arses than Michael Barrymore at a pool party. His defining moment of getting Chris Page to bowl uphill and into the wind at Irby will go down as one of the greatest decisions of all time.
Bramhall continues to defy the enormity of his current age and will again lead Timperley CC out on to the field for 2014. This time though it will be in Division 1 as Timperley cruised to the Division 2 title last year thanks in part to golden boy Michael Stevens, who’s successful pre-match routine of acquainting himself with half the ladies of Manchester will surely look to be emulated in the coming months, especially with the latest hi-tech equipment available in the form of Tinder. Bramhall has done good work so far in the transfer market, replacing Patrick Ashling with the far better looking Mike Rudd and will once again be optimistic for the upcoming season.”