National Cricket League

Yorkshire versus Worcestershire

at North Marine Road, Scarborough

Sunday 17 August 2024

By Roy D Wilkinson


This Sunday’s match will be only the fourth time Worcestershire have visited Scarborough to play this form of cricket. Previous matches have been in 1971, 1989 and 1995.

Worcestershire won in 1989 and 1995, Yorkshire in 1971.

In the 1971 match the Worcestershire bowlers restricted Yorkshire to a modest 178 for 8 wickets off the allotted 40 overs. John Hampshire made 47 before being run out and the only other major contributor was Colin Johnson with 31. Vanburn Holder (8 overs 1 for 21), Brian Brain (2 for 28 off his 8 overs) and Ted Hemsley (1 for 27 off 8 overs) were particularly economical.

But the Yorkshire bowlers were even more effective - and miserly. The visitors could manage only 126 all out in the 37th over, with Chris Old taking 2 for 14 off 6.1 overs, John Woodford 2 for 28 off his eight overs and Richard Hutton taking 3 for 28 off six overs. The only Worcestershire batsmen
to make any contribution were Peter Stimpson with 43 and Basil D’Oliveira with 35.

Kevin Sharp set the pace in 1989, his 80, and Phil Carrick’s 48*, were the only two innings of note in a Yorkshire innings of 204 for 7 wickets in the 40 overs.

In the Worcestershire reply an opening partnership of 138 seemed to have sealed the match. Tim Curtis (79) and Ian Botham with 68 appeared to have left little for the remaining batsmen to do, but the winning runs were made off only the last possible ball for the loss of just four wickets. A feature of the Yorkshire bowling was that David Byas returned an analysis of seven overs for 28 runs.

The 1995 match produced 469 runs in 80 overs - 5.86 per over. This along with the high scoring 4-day Championship match gave a total over the five days of 1942 runs for 30 wickets (avge 64.73) scored at a rate of 3.73 runs per over. Runs galore!

Graeme Hick, who failed twice in the Championship match, scored a blistering 113* to lead Worcestershire to 251 for 4 wickets. Only Michael Bevan could match Hick, but his 101 was not enough to put Yorkshire in with a chance and they finally subsided to 218 for 9 wickets off the 40 overs to lose by 33 runs.

Since 1969, in this form of cricket, Yorkshire and Worcestershire are level pegging with seventeen wins each. In addition there have been two ‘no results’. Worcestershire have won the three most recent games - two at Leeds and one at Worcester. 

Who will pull ahead this Sunday?