First-Class Counties Second Eleven Annual 2011

REVIEW OF THE SEASON I have pleasure in detailing belowmy first review as Editor of this publication. To readers of this tome who do not know me, my first love in cricket is scoring and I have officiated at all levels since I began in 1963. I am now the scorer for the England Under-19s (21 years) and the Leeds MCCU (10 years) and seem to think that, while it obviously rained last summer in England (it wouldn’t be this green and pleasant land without occasional precipitation), I had the least number of interruptions during my season for many years and hardly any full days lost. Indeed, Keith Coburn, who officiated in 2010 as an umpire in first-class cricket, was heard to welcome a rain-break as he had had the previous 30 days on his feet without a single interruption. Surrey retained the Championship, to record their seventh win overall, one behind neighbours Kent, who have eight victories, including a joint one with Yorkshire in 1987. The final at Wormsley was a high scoring affair with Surrey defeating Warwickshire by 70 runs. They owed much to Stewart Walters, who made a century in each innings, and to Tim Linley, who recorded his highest individual score with the bat and his personal best bowling figures exactly when it mattered most for the team. It is a truism of this most wonderful game that, if bowlers win matches, batters most certainly provide the opportunities. Surrey’s batsmen could not have done their part better as the team prospered, with 16 individual three-figure scores being registered by nine different members of the team. They also provided the only two instances of batsmen making twin hundreds in a game as Laurie Evans, against Northamptonshire at Whitgift School, and Stewart Walters (described above) accomplished the feat. Billy Bragg of Glamorgan almost equalled this double, with scores of 104 and 99 against Durham. The highest score with the bat went to Darren Maddy, who made 252 in his only Championship appearance for Warwickshire. I suppose he felt he had shown the youngsters how to do it so could withdraw and leave them to try to emulate his performance. A total of 121 centuries was scored in the Championship. Four individual centuries were recorded in the matches between Nottinghamshire and MCC YC at the Notts Sports Club, Leicestershire v Durham at Oakham and in the game at Whitgift School, between Surrey and Northamptonshire. But the most productive game for batsmen was the Rose Bowl encounter between Hampshire and Surrey, where five batsmen notched three figures. No team remained unbeaten in 2010, and Warwickshire’s six wins was the highest number for any county. Only Kent failed to win a Championship game. Their season could, perhaps, best be illustrated by their performance against Hampshire at Canterbury. The visitors managed only 235 but still won by an innings. Chris Wood’s return of 9-48, the season’s best, for Hampshire went some way to cementing this astonishing victory. 4