Rain robs Seconds of victory for the taking
What Yorkshire Seconds could not finish in the extra half-hour yesterday the rain washed out today - so the winning position set up by Simon Guy, right, in their Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Headingley Carnegie was lost.
It was the Seconds' ninth blank day of the season - and that does not include two Twenty20 friendlies.
The rain was forecast to arrive on Day 3 11 o’clock. It did not arrive until four minutes past - but the umpires already were holding up play because of the poor light.
It was at 2.45pm, after it had rained almost continuously for nearly four hours, that the captains and umpires splodged onto the field, shook hands ceremoniously and abandoned hope of any further play.
The Seconds take the field again next Thurday, July 9, at Abbeydale Park, Sheffield, in a match against the PCA Masters XI in aid of the PCA Benevolent Fund and other charities. Wickets pitched 2pm.
Day 2: Simon Guy top-scored with 72 in Yorkshire's second innings to set up hopes of victory on Day 3 of their Second Eleven Championship match with Nottinghamshire at Headingley Carnegie.
The visitors - chasing 218 to win - are 144-7, and Yorkshire expect to finish it this morning. Left-arm spinner David Wainwright took 4-50 as testament to his recovery from injury.
It was another eventful day in this low-scoring match. Only 29 balls were needed to end Nottinghamshire's first innings at 141 - 14 runs shy of Yorkshire, who now set out to make the most of improving batting conditions.
Four Yorkshire wickets went down for 78 runs, but Lee Hodgson and Guy built a century partnership that formed the backbone of the innings. Hodgson’s dismissal for 38 heralded the fall of three quick wickets - the third being Guy for the highest individual score of the match. The tail-enders did not add many, Yorkshire closing at 203 - a total of 217 ahead.
Nottinghamshire had four sessions in which to chase 218: Alex Hales did his best, but his partners did not match his endeavours. Wickets fell at regular intervals during the evening session - which ended with six wickets lost and still 102 needed for victory. Wainwright, with four wickets and Oliver Hannon-Dalby with two were the successful bowlers.
Skipper Craig White now claimed the extra half hour to secure a rsult. The umpires agreed - but the only success of the eight extra overs came in the second when Hales was caught and bowled by Hannon-Dalby for a hard-fought 57.
Yorkshire need three more wickets with the whole of the last day to go - minus those eight overs. It will yet take guile for the bowlers to winkle out the remaining batsmen - bear in mind that one of them is Andre Adams: a repeat of his first-innings fireworks could still swing the game back to the visitors.
Day 1: Oliver Hannon-Dalby took 5-43 in an extraordinary day at Headingley Carnegie in which 19 wickets crashed in Yorkshire's Second Eleven Championship match with Nottinghamshire.
It was the second bowlers' day running on the same pitch where Yorkshire lost their Trophy game to the same opponents on Tuesday.
Nottinghamshire won the toss and, not surprisingly, sent their bowlers straight into action. Openers Gary Ballance and Callum Geldart made a better fist of it, seeing off the initial onslaught for an hour and a half.
Then Yorkshire exile Greg Wood took two catches at the wicket in successive balls off skipper Paul Franks: Geldart, 31, was the first at 74, and No. 3 Richard Pyrah was next.
The hat-trick was prevented by debutant Billy Root, younger scion of Joe, who has been called up for England Under-18 training. Summoned at 8am to replace Chris Taylor, who was injured the day before, Billy survived the rest of the over, only to be run out without breaking his duck.
Lee Hodgson was another caught behind, and four wickets were down by the lunch break for 92. Yorkshire added 30 runs before Ballance was leg-before to Carter for 61: his was far and away the best innings for Yorkshire, and represented half the total when his wicket fell.
Wicket-keeper Simon Guy, batting with more circumspection than the day before, followed in the next over, and left-arm spinner Gurman Randhawa went first ball like Pyrah. The tailenders added a couple of dozen before the innings ended in mid-afternoon, but Yorkshire picked up only one batting point while the Nottinghamshire bowlers earned the maximum four. Franks topped the list with 4-14.
Hannon-Dalby struck back in his opening six-over spell with three wickets in six deliveries. Pyrah chipped in with another, and Nottinghamshire were 45-4 at tea. The fifth went down in the second over afterwards.
Three Woods fell in succession: Matthew - formerly Somerset, not Yorkshire - was leg-before to Hannon-Dalby; Greg was trapped in front by Ben Sanderson, and Sam was caught behind off left-arm spinner David Wainwright.
Scott Elstone was caught behind off Pyrah, and the pyrotechnics of Andre Adams - a brace each of fours and sixes in six balls - were extinguished by Hannon-Dalby as Elstone tried to repeat his six of the previous ball, only to see the ball drop short of the boundary and into the hands of Sanderson.
Sam Kelsall stood firm at the other end. He came in with four wickets down, and ended the day on 30 not out. Nine Nottinghamshire wickets had fallen by the close, and they still trailed Yorkshire by 24.
Yorkshire 2nd XI 1st Innings: GS Ballance lbw b Carter 61 (7 fours), CJ Geldart c G L Wood b Franks 31 (3 fours), RM Pyrah c G L Wood b Franks 0, WT Root run out 0, LJ Hodgson c GL Wood b Carter 3, SM Guy (wicket-keeper) lbw b Adams 11 (2 fours), DJ Wainwright c Franks b Footitt 17 (1 four), G Randhawa b Carter 0, BW Sanderson c Patel b Franks 2, MS Chadwick c Fletcher b Franks 2, OJ Hannon-Dalby not out 4 (1 four). Extras (b 9, lb 6, w 5,nb 4) 24
Total (54.5 overs) 155
Twelfth man: C White (captain)
FoW: 1-74 (Geldart), 2-74 (Pyrah), 3-80 (Root), 4-89 (Hodgson), 5-122 (Ballance), 6-126 (Guy), 7-127 (Randhawa), 8-149 (Sanderson), 9-151 (Wainwright), 10-155 (Chadwick)
Bowling: Footitt 7-1-12-1, Carter 14-1-54-3, Adams 15-2-43-1, Franks 10.5-3-14-4, Fletcher 8-1-17-0
Nottinghamshire 2nd XI 1st Innings: MJ Wood lbw b Hannon-Dalby 28 (3 fours), AD Hales c Geldart b Hannon-Dalby 8, PJ Franks (captain) b Hannon-Dalby 4 (1 four), A Patel lbw b Pyrah 0, LJ Fletcher c Ballance b Hannon-Dalby 0, S Kelsall c Hodgson b Hannon-Dalby 36 (3 fours), GL Wood (wicket-keeper) lbw b Sanderson 24 (3 fours), SWK Wood c Guy b Wainwright 1, SL Elstone c Guy b Pyrah 6, AR Adams c Sanderson b Hannon-Dalby 21 (2 fours and 2 sixes), A Carter not out 4. Extras (lb 4, w 1, nb 4) 9
Total (51.5 overs) 141
Twelfth man: MHA Footitt
FoW: 1-25 (Hales), 2-29 (Franks), 3-30 (Patel), 4-31 (Fletcher), 5-46 (MJ Wood), 6-88 (GL Wood), 7-89 (SWK Wood), 8-102 (Elstone), 9-129 (Adams), 10-141 (Kelsall)
Bowling: Hannon-Dalby 14.5-4-49-6, Pyrah 15-2-44-2, Chadwick 5-0-19-0, Wainwright 8-3-9-1, Sanderson 6-2-10-1, Hodgson 3-1-6-0
Yorkshire 2nd XI 2nd Innings: GS Ballance c Hales b Fletcher 11, CJ Geldart c Hales b Adams 9, RM Pyrah c MJ Wood b Footitt 33 (6 fours), WT Root b Franks 20 (2 fours), LJ Hodgson c Hales b Adams 38 (3 fours), SM Guy (wicket-keeper) c GL Wood b Franks 72 (13 fours), DJ Wainwright run out 0, G Randhawa lbw b Footitt 4, BW Sanderson b Footitt 4, MS Chadwick c GL Wood b Carter 2, OJ Hannon-Dalby not out 0. Extras (b 4, lb 1, w 1, nb 4) 10
Total (61.4 overs) 203
FoW: 1-18 (Geldart), 2-32 (Ballance), 3-78 (Root), 4-78 (Pyrah), 5-187 (Hodgson), 6-188 (Wainwright), 7-188 (Guy), 8-196 (Sanderson), 9-203 (Chadwick), 10-203 (Randhawa)
Bowling: Fletcher 14-3-34-1, Adams 18-3-64-2, Carter 6-2-27-1, Franks 13-3-35-2, Footitt 7.4-1-13-3, Patel 3-0-25-0
Nottinghamshire 2nd XI 2nd Innings: MJ Wood c White b Hannon-Dalby 0, AD Hales c and b Hannon-Dalby 57 (6 fours and 1 six), PJ Franks (captain) c Sanderson b Wainwright 28, A Patel c Geldart b Wainwright 8 (2 fours), LJ Fletcher st Guy b Wainwright 14 (2 fours), S Kelsall c Pyrah b Wainwright 0, GL Wood (wicket-keeper) c Hodgson b Hannon-Dalby 0, SKW Wood not out 24 (3 fours), SL Elstone not out 3. Extras (b 6, lb 4) 10
Total (7 wkts, 45 overs) 144
FoW: 1-0 (MJ Wood), 2-57 (Franks), 3-80 (Patel), 4-102 (Fletcher), 5-108 (Kelsall), 6-111 (GL Wood), 7-120 (Hales)
Bowling: Hannon-Dalby 10-5-27-3, Pyrah 5-0-16-0, Sanderson 6-1-16-0, Wainwright 16-4-50-4, Chadwick 5-0-23-0, Randhawa 2-2-0-0, Ballance 1-0-2-0
Umpires: SJ Malone and D Warburton. Scorers: M Snook and R Marshall