Frizzell County Championship

Worcestershire versus Yorkshire

At New Road, Worcester

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday
12, 13, 14, 15 September 2024

By Roy D Wilkinson


Yorkshire have played 56 Championship matches at the New Road Ground, winning 24, losing 9 and 23 have been drawn.

Beyond those bald figures lies an immense amount of tense, exciting cricket. Some games have resulted it massive wins (or defeats) and in some the result has been the closest possible.

Worcestershire were promoted to first-class status and entry to the County Championship for the 1899 season and Yorkshire were their very first opponents in the first first-class match to be played on the new Road Ground. If the 1898 County Champions thought they would have little trouble overcoming the newcomers, they were in for a rude awakening. A strong batting line-up which included Brown Tunnicliffe, Denton, Mitchell and Wainwright were put out for just 139 with George Wilson taking 8 for 70 with his fast right-arm bowling. Worcestershire’s 211 gave them a first innings lead of 72 and Yorkshire were again in trouble at 67 for 5. Ted Wainwright with 86 and George Hirst (35) added 115 for the 6th wicket and Worcestershire were eventually required to make 134 to win and produce a major upset. At 100 for 4 they were almost there but John Thomas Brown - the fast bowler from Darfield - had gone on as second change and in 9 overs he took 6 wickets for just 19 runs to put Worcestershire out for 122 and secure a Yorkshire win by 11 runs.

Leonard Hutton had contrasting experiences at Worcester. In 1934 he made his maiden first-class century before being bowled by Reg Perks for 196. Fifteen years later, in August 1949, Hutton was
in glorious form making 1,050 runs to add to the 1,293 he had made in June. But at Worcester Hutton was lbw b Perks 0 and b Perks 0. He had also bagged another pair versus Worcestershire, at Stourbridge in 1936.

Yorkshire won the 1959 Championship by a magnificent display of batting versus Sussex at Hove.
But it so nearly all went wrong. Losing heavily to Gloucestershire at Bristol after being all out for just 35 (Tony Brown 7 for 11) in their first innings, Yorkshire went to Worcester knowing that they just had to win the retain any chance of the Championship. Thanks to Bryan Stott carrying his bat for 144* in the first innings, Yorkshire eventually managed to win by six wickets - and then came Hove!

Don Wilson was involved in two matches at Worcester where broken bones played a considerable part
in the outcome. The first was in 1961 when he suffered a broken thumb early in the game and went in at number 11 in the second innings with Yorkshire needing 36 to win. With his left arm in plaster, and in some pain, he could hold the bat with only one hand. Nevertheless, even after Jack Flavell and Len Coldwell had taken the new ball, Wilson made 29 not out (including six 4’s) in an unbroken partnership with Bob Platt (7*) to secure a nerve-tingling win by just one wicket.

The other broken bone came in the 1968 match when, just before lunch on the first day, Wilson and Umpire Lay collided with the result that Lay suffered a broken leg. A substitute umpired at square-leg for the rest of the match with George Pope standing at the bowlers’ end for three days of intense concentration. In the four innings 527 runs were scored off 298.1 overs - a rate of 1.76 runs per over!
37% of the overs were maidens.

Needing 139 to win in about five hours Yorkshire inched their way to the target. Runs were accumulated. Jimmy Binks was at the crease for 160 minutes for his gritty 34. Wickets fell. Nine of them for 123. Fred Trueman and Tony Nicholson came together with sixteen to win and only one wicket left. Ever so slowly the runs were scored. Appeals were made - and rejected! Two to win and Trueman went to turn Bob Carter to leg. Up went yet another appeal and this time a very tired Umpire Pope raised the finger - of doom for Yorkshire, of elation for Worcestershire and for Roy Booth, their Yorkshire-born captain for this match. Trueman, and the many Yorkshire spectators sitting behind the bowlers arm are convinced the ball would have ‘missed another set’! Yorkshire went on to win the Championship, for the last time until 2001, so all was well in the end!

These two matches had produced hard-fought cricket that left spectators limp, breathless and emotionally drained with the stomach-wrenching tension of it all.

You present compiler had the privilege of being present at both encounters and to this day the details remain firmly etched in the memory. (And I can’t remember who won the last-but-one World Cup!)

Turning to events much more recent, it may be worth mentioning that the Worcestershire second innings of the last three matches have been 73 in 1994, 121 in 1996 and 94 in 1998 and Yorkshire have won all three.

Given good weather it seems certain that we can look forward to another thrilling match.

Including that first, tight, encounter in 1899 Yorkshire and Worcestershire have played 129 Championship matches, Yorkshire have won 64, lost 19 and there have been 46 draws.

Highest totals
By Yorkshire 600 for 4 wkts dec at Scarborough in 1995
By Worcestershire 456 for 8 wkts at Worcester in 1904

Lowest totals
By Yorkshire 62 at Bradford in 1907
By Worcestershire 24 at Huddersfield in 1903

Highest individual scores
For Yorkshire 274* M D Moxon at Worcester in 1994
For Worcestershire 259 D Kenyon at Kidderminster in 1956

Best bowling in an innings
For Yorkshire 9 for 41 G H Hirst at Worcester in 1911
For Worcestershire 9 for 38 J A Cuffe at Bradford in 1907

Best bowling in a match
For Yorkshire 14 for 211 W Rhodes at Worcester in 1903
For Worcestershire 13 for 76 J A Cuffe at Bradford in 1907