First-Class Counties Second Eleven Annual 2009

his fourth century of the competition – he finished with 619 runs at an average of 154.75. Although the qualifying groups were not hit by the weather as badly as in 2007, there was still considerable disruption, with 22 games having no result. The West Group fared the worst, losing 8 games. Worcestershire (360-4 v Warwickshire) and Essex (342-6 v Minor Counties) both made their highest scores in the competition, and the lowest score was 77 by Warwickshire against Somerset. Highest individual score was 170 by James Adams for Hampshire against Glamorgan at Cardiff in the semi-final. Alex Blake of Kent and Christopher Jordan of Surrey both achieved the hat-trick, only the thirteenth and fourteenth time the feat has been done in 23 years of Trophy cricket. The unusual aspect of the Second Eleven season was the number of Test players who made an appearance, in most cases only fleetingly. These included Nantie Hayward (Hampshire), Andrew Flintoff (Lancashire), Jermaine Lawson (Leicestershire), Peter Fulton, Daren Ganga and James Marshall (MCCYC), Andy Caddick (Somerset), Grant Elliott, Mushtaq Ahmed and Dwayne Smith (Sussex) and Darren Gough (Yorkshire). Finally, mention must be made of the feat by Martin Saggers in a friendly game between the combined team of Kent and Northants against Yorkshire at Beckenham. At lunch on the second day after a first day badly interrupted by rain, Yorkshire had lost nine wickets, all of them taken by Saggers. The game was then abandoned due to Kent’s Friends Provident game being switched from Canterbury, so denying him the chance of an “all 10”. 4