First-Class Counties Second Eleven Annual 2010

REVIEW OF THE SEASON The 2009 Second Eleven Competitions had their biggest shake-up since 1997, the last year that all 18 counties played each other in the Championship. Both the Championship and the Trophy consisted of 10 teams, each playing the other nine in a three-day Championship game and a one-day Trophy game. The North Division consisted of Derbyshire, Durham, Glamorgan, Lancashire, Leicestershire, MCC Young Cricketers, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire. The South Division covered Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Surrey and Sussex, plus MCC Universities in the Championship and Minor Counties in the Trophy. The Championship was decided in a play-off between the Divisional winners, but the Trophy had a semi-final round as well. Since the Counties were now restricted to nine three-day games, many of them arranged three- or four-day friendlies. Results of these games are included in the Annual, but all records are for Championship games only. However, player biographies reflect best batting and bowling performances in all three- and four-day games. Any player who played only in a friendly game is denoted with an asterisk, both in the County details and in the index of players. Scotland Lions played friendly games only. Lancashire won the Championship for the fourth time, and the first since 1997. In the final they beat Surrey on first innings (by a margin of 62 runs) after a high-scoring draw at Old Trafford. These two teams plus Yorkshire and Hampshire were undefeated, but five teams did not manage a victory. The North Division was decided in Lancashire’s favour by the margin of one point over Yorkshire when Lancashire took 9 points and Yorkshire 8 points from their final rain-interrupted game of the season. The weather was an improvement on 2008, with only four games out of 90 being abandoned without a ball being bowled. However Derbyshire drew six of their games largely because of rain interruptions. 39 friendlies were arranged (seven of them were four-day games), of which four did not start. Only Kent did not arrange any such games. 708 players took part in the Championship or Trophy, of which 43 represented more than one team. The highest team score was by MCC Universities (bottom of the South Division), who scored 549 against Surrey (top of the Division) at Whitgift School. Second on the list were Nottinghamshire with 519-5d against Derbyshire at Derby, but they were also dismissed under 100 on three occasions. The lowest team score was 57 by Leicestershire against Lancashire at Uppingham School. The highest individual score was 246 by Alex Hales for Nottinghamshire against Derbyshire – this was a new record for Nottinghamshire. Leading run scorer was Alex Blake of Kent with 746 runs, closely followed by Christopher Jones with 704 runs. However, the Second XI Player of the Year (so winning the Les Hatton Trophy) was Andrew Carter of Nottinghamshire. He took 54 wickets at an average of 12.16, with an innings best of 7 for 56, and a match best of 13 for 99, both against 3