Hampshire have eyes on first title in 50 years but Lancashire have recruited well and champions Surrey will be tough to beatCaptain Tom Westley (Championship and 50-over Cup) Coach: Anthony McGrath Last season: 4th Continue reading...
Lancashire and Warwickshire look most likely to fight for the title, with Jimmy Anderson’s availability potentially decisive, while Hampshire benefit from a bolstered batting lineup Continue reading...
Last year’s runners-up are in bullish mood as they embark on a historic joint pre-season tour with their women’s teamThe lowest temperature recorded in the UK on Monday was -7.8C, at the village of Braemar in the Cairngorms. Much of Britain has had a sun-kissed few days, however, and in the Cornish town of Bude the temperature at one stage hit 17.7C – nevertheless at Taunton and the Ageas Bowl cricketers still pulled on their long-sleeve cable knits as they headed out for the first domestic friendlies of 2022. A new season is upon us, the start of the County Championship just a fortnight away.They may be defending champions but Warwickshire approach the new campaign third in the bookies’ estimations,...
Of the few bowlers to have reached four figures, none of them did so at such an appropriate venue as the master of swingMost people don’t get an end named after them at a sports ground. Those that do usually have to wait until they’ve finished playing. Poor Fred Trueman was long dead before Headingley belatedly got round to honouring him with an enclosure. But most people aren’t Jimmy Anderson.It was from his very own James Anderson End that he took his 1,000th first-class wicket on Monday afternoon. And his 996th, 997th, 998th, 999th, 1,001st and 1,002nd wickets in an exhibition spell of swing and seam bowling: deadly crotchet after deadly crotchet. Not a note wasted. Seven Kent wickets in...
It is 100 years since Britain’s sports grounds were last used to treat the sick – none of us expected it to happen in our lifetimeIn the last months of the first world war, a ship arrived at Manchester from the US, its passengers deathly ill. They were mostly southerners, infected with a powerful influenza that had overtaken them on their transatlantic journey and quickly turned into pneumonia. The matron of a nearby Red Cross hospital, Mrs Geldart, heard of their plight and took them in, at no small risk to the health of her own – mostly voluntary – staff. For the next 12 weeks her hospital struggled and suffered through the deadliest trial it had faced in four...