The ECB have announced the fixture list for next season and the White Rose County’s travelling support will be gearing up for a change of scene as they follow their side’s bid for promotion back to Division One of the LV= County Championship in 2012.

Home supporters may also be packing their thermos flasks and wearing their winter woollies when the first round of LV= County Championship fixtures get underway as early as 5th April with Yorkshire hosting Kent at a potentially chilly Headingley.

As in 2010 and 2011 that opening match starts a run of 8 four-day fixtures through April, May and early June, with five of these games played at home. Supporters that like to follow the team’s fortunes away from home can look forward to trips to Canterbury, Bristol, Colwyn Bay, Southampton, Chesterfield, Leicester, Northampton and Yorkshire will travel to Chelmsford to play Essex in the final Championship game of the season between 11 and 14 September.

Members and supporters looking forward to a trip to the east coast will need to put August in their diaries for the Scarborough Cricket Festival. Gloucestershire play in the Championship from Tuesday 28 August and that match is preceded by a Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Warwickshire Bears on 27 August. Scarborough retains its Friends Life t20 fixture which in 2012 will be against Nottinghamshire Outlaws on Sunday 24 June. You will also notice that three home matches are marked venue to be confirmed (TBC) as the Club and Scarborough CC discuss when additional home matches at North Marine Road should be played. 

The Clydesdale Bank 40 competition runs throughout the season once more with Yorkshire Carnegie playing 6 home and 6 away matches in Group C. The first Carnegie fixture is against Kent at Headingley Carnegie on Sunday 6 May and a match at Scarborough against Warwickshire Bears on 27 August is the final group game. The competition format once again sees the 18 First-Class Counties joined by Scotland, the Netherlands and the Unicorns. The Final marks the end of the 2012 domestic season and will be played on Saturday 15th September at Lord's - let’s hope we all have some London travel arrangements to make that weekend.

The Friends Life t20 involves the 18 First-Class Counties divided into three geographical groups with each team playing every other side in their group both home and away. The top two teams in each group plus the two third-placed teams with the best records progress to the quarter-final stage.

Yorkshire Carnegie’s t20 campaign gets underway on 15 June at Headingley Carnegie as 5 home and 5 away matches are played in an un-interrupted three week period until the group stage ends on 8 July. Yorkshire Carnegie will be keen to end their hoodoo in the shortest format of the game and will hope they are travelling to the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday 25 August for Finals Day.

Lovers of the cross-Pennine Roses battles are on light rations in 2012 with only t20 matches on 29 June at Headingley Carnegie and the return leg at Old Trafford a week later scheduled. Roses encounters in the final stages of both one-day competitions would be most welcome!

Yorkshire begins the summer with a pre-season tour of Barbados. Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Derbyshire have also confirmed their participation in the Caribbean. If you are interested in following the Yorkshire team to Barbados click on the Yorkshire in Barbados 2012 link in the Related Content area on the right hand side of this page.

Seven international teams are scheduled to play series in this country next summer with West Indies, South Africa, Australia, Australia A, India women, West Indies women and Ireland Under-19s all touring. Headingley Carnegie plays host to an ODI between England and West Indies on Friday 22 June and a Test Match between England and South Africa between Thursday 2 August and Monday 6 August. Tickets are available for both matches on the YCCC website HERE...

In reviewing the fixture schedule the Club is aware that there will be some disappointment amongst Members that the Club have no home 1st XI matches in the LV= County Championship between the start of June and mid-August. Members and Supporters should be aware that the original fixture submission that the Club made to the ECB specifically requested home Championship cricket in both June and July, and this request was reiterated firmly once the Club received the first draft of fixtures earlier in November, but alas these efforts to make changes have not been successful. The Club is as frustrated as many of our Supporters by this outcome and in developing the 2nd XI fixtures will endeavour to ensure that these include some 2nd XI Championship cricket during this period.

Whatever matches you decide to come along to we hope you enjoy some good weather and some great Yorkshire cricket!

JAMES BUTTLER

YORKSHIRE CCC 2012 FIXTURES

A complete domestic fixture list is available at www.ecb.co.uk/stats