First-Class Counties Second Eleven Annual 2012

5 The stand described above is a new Second Eleven Championship record for the sixth wicket. The full scorecard can be viewed on Cricket Archive at http://www. cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/330/330758.html A new second-wicket record for Second Eleven Championship cricket was also established as Josh Cobb and Matthew Boyce each hit double centuries for Leicestershire against Lancashire to add 402 at Leicester Ivanhoe in the quaintly named village of Kirby Muxloe, just outside Leicester. This game began just two days after the start of the game described above. This scorecard can be found at http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/ Scorecards/330/330760.html At the other end of the scale, we have the game between Gloucestershire and Sussex at Bristol, also in the same May period, which saw the whole game, which entered its fourth innings, completed in just over 120 overs on the second day. Gloucestershire were dismissed for just 45 in their first innings, their lowest-ever score in the Championship. This scorecard can be found at http://www.cricketarchive . com/Archive/Scorecards/330/330765.html There was also a tied game in 2011 as Leicestershire and Yorkshire achieved the ultimate equality in their late-season game at Hinckley. It was the first such result for either county in the Championship, only the ninth in total and the first for thirteen seasons. And cricket would not be cricket without a good, old-fashioned collapse. Essex achieved one to rival all-comers against Surrey at Coggeshall in June. They began the match and their first innings well and were 52 for no wicket when the rot set in, as all ten wickets promptly fell for the addition of just 30 runs. Essex were dismissed for just 82 and lost, ultimately, by an innings. The scorecard can be found at http:// www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/330/330774.html Three players made twin hundreds in 2011. Ian Westwood of Warwickshire got his against Nottinghamshire at the Notts Sports Ground, otherwise known as Lady Bay (and previously the Boots Ground). Jaik Mickleburgh of Essex scored his double at the King’s School in Canterbury against Kent and finally, a relative newcomer, Matthew Birrell, playing for Kent at Beckenham, put the MCC Young Cricketers to the sword. The highest score with the bat went to Laurie Evans, who made 239 for Warwickshire against the MCC Universities at Edgbaston in front of the splendid new structure at that ground. .This was one of two double hundreds made by Evans in 2011. Another player who passed 200 twice was Bilal Shafayat, trialling at Sussex, Hampshire and Northamptonshire and he made centuries for all of them in his brief stays, including the undefeated double hundreds. Michael Thornely, released by Sussex in 2010, also roamed the country to promote himself, playing for five different teams in the season, these being Essex, Kent, Nottinghamshire, Somerset