A voice that will be much missed. Contents: Chairman’s Notes 4 Editorial 5 Dates for your Diary 8 AGM 10 David Callaghan 13 News from Headingley 15 Good on paper… Report on Yorkshire’s AGM 17 Three Graces 21 Book Review 24 Letters 25 Fixtures 26 NEIL LLOYD YOUNG PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2017 Please note the inclusion of a voting form for this award. Our apologies that this was not included as usual with the annual membership form. We do hope that members will take the time to participate in awarding this annual prize, either by post or email as indicated on the form. Thoughts of Chairman Chris: It seems that cricket and controversy are bedfellows at present. The ICC have reduced the 2019 Cricket World Cup to 10 teams. The past two World Cups each comprised 14 teams. Many voices have been strident in condemnation, commercial/financial interests are at heart here, and have called on the ICC to reverse its decision. The result is that fringe countries like Scotland, Afghanistan and Ireland are obviously highly unlikely to be amongst the 10 countries. If we are to develop the game world-wide then we need to expand the participation and not restrict it to the elite countries. The ECB is also at the centre of another furore. Director Andy Nash has resigned over the issue of compensation payments of £500,000 to the major cricket grounds in the summers when they do not host tests. It seems the board were kept in the dark over this issue and there is a fear that this will further widen the gap between the large and small counties. The Chairman, Colin Graves (Yorkshire’s financial saviour), is under much pressure to resolve the conflict. Money is again “talking”. I feel that we are rapidly moving to separate coaches for the three formats of international cricket. The demands, with the intensive nature of the scheduling of matches, place undue pressure on one coach and are too onerous. Likewise, as we are seeing players opting for specific formats, we are also moving to a situation where we have three specialised teams. England’s Test struggles continue with the only ray of sunshine, from a Yorkshire perspective, being the century by Kane Williamson, our overseas signing for the coming season. ‘It’s not cricket!’ is a common cry and it certainly isn’t when played by the present Australian team! You could say “what goes around, comes around” and there will be no sympathy for such ball tampering amongst cricket lovers the world over. I feel the “win at all costs” mentality which has been prevalent in recent Australian teams has now been their undoing. It is all the more sad that their head coach, Darren Lehmann, gave such sterling service to Yorkshire cricket over a number of years. It is a matter of conjecture as to whether such behaviour was operating in the last Ashes tests, but certainly it appears that Bancroft likes not only sugar in his tea but also in his pockets! The Southern Group will again be arranging a number of match day events involving Yorkshire CCC around the country and these will be listed with application forms in the newsletters. These are opportunities for members and guests to enjoy cricket, camaraderie and conviviality. Please make every effort to participate and I look forward to meeting many of you throughout the season. These will be my last “thoughts” as my two year tenure as Chairman finishes at the AGM in May. It has been a pleasure and privilege to have held the office and my sincere thanks are due to all the members of the committee who have so stoutly supported me during this time and who by their efforts have contributed to the work and success of the Southern Group. And my thanks to all the members who have supported the Group at matches, events, lunches etc.. It just remains for me to wish both the new Chairman and Yorkshire CCC every success for the future. May I draw your attention to the Southern group AGM - notes on which are posted in this Newsletter. Can I urge you to attend the meeting and make the plea that we need new blood on the committee, especially some younger members. Paraphrasing Kitchener, “your Southern Group needs you”! Please make every effort to attend. Chris Marshall, March 2018. Editorial: By the time you receive this issue, the 2018 season will be upon us, and we can then begin to see whether Yorkshire’s undeniable down-turn of 2017 is to be reversed. Certainly some players, particularly batsmen, will know that another year of similar performances will place them in some jeopardy. The Champions of 2014 and 2015 still have more than a few years of cricket to offer, and the opportunity to place themselves beyond challenge amongst the great Yorkshire sides. Let us hope that they will do so. I have received a number of comments in relation to the Newsletter. Most have been very positive, but those with constructive comments/criticisms are equally welcome. To address two of them: I am aware that the ‘house style’ of the Newsletter could be more up to date. While being instinctively hostile to ‘trendiness’ for its own sake, I accept that view. The problem lies not in innate editorial conservatism, but in the editor’s limited technical skills! I am acquiring some remedial tuition and hope to be able to demonstrate a few modest advances over the forthcoming issues. A little tentative progress may even be evident in these pages. The second comment was that a Readers’ Forum, unafraid of having one or two more controversial debates, would be a good idea. All I can say to this is that nothing would please me more, and I welcome any increase in correspondence to my email or home address (see page 2) over the coming months. A decision I often face with the editorial is how far to comment on current cricket matches, issues or controversies. One problem is that by the time the Newsletter arrives on your doormat, let alone by the time you read any of it, a lot can have happened and comments can be hopelessly out of date. For instance the reactions to the ‘ball-tampering’ crisis in South Africa have quickly gone through a number of changes. As I write, exactly a week after the incident, there have already been significant changes in response. The first reactions from the Australian camp, which included Steve Smith’s statement that he would carry on as captain, were clearly extraordinarily naïve. Over the following days the stupid behaviour of three young(ish) games players was put through a pretty brutal mincer, inducing quite significant dramatic comment from, among others, the Australian Prime Minister, who should surely be too busy to hold press conferences about this sort of thing. By today (Saturday March 30th), one paper carried the unpleasant and unnecessary headline ‘Captain Crybaby’. However, the more sober school of genuine cricket writers (see Atherton and Syed in the Times), while they were rightly critical of both the behaviour and the brief attempt at a cover-up, were starting to suggest that the boot had been put in long and hard enough. Sadly, the game will not get what it needs here. It is difficult to write about this without sounding old-fashioned or pompous or both, and I recognise that younger spectators want their sports to be rather more ‘red in tooth and claw’ than was true a generation or two ago. What is needed however is not a week or two’s feeding frenzy from the media, until they smell blood in the water elsewhere and move on to a doping cyclist or an adulterous footballer. What is required is a recalibration, significant but not dramatic, of the culture of international cricket. Much of current on-field and off-field practice is not worthy of the game. I think, to give one example, it might be a good idea if the management of all national sides stopped trying to play immature mind games and agreed to curtail the amount of antagonistic pre-series hype they are prepared to encourage or allow. On the field, I suspect that players know deep down what is acceptable and what is not. No-one with sense would want to see the verbal side of the game, as practised for instance by one Frederick Sewards Trueman, in some way prohibited, but much of what is now described as ‘sledging’ is simply crude, childish, and utterly unamusing. There was much talk after the death of Phillip Hughes about it changing things, but it hasn’t. If a death can’t make a difference, it’s hard to imagine what can. And incidentally, if, during his habitual visits to opposition dressing rooms, Fred ever made threats to life and limb, e.g by marking an imaginary cross on an opponent’s forehead, everyone knew it was a joke. It was if he just said ‘Ah’ll sithee later’ that you were in trouble. He’d have despised a comment like ‘I’m going to kill you,’ or ‘get ready for a broken arm’. So that’s my half pennorth, as of 5.30 p.m. on March 30th. Do write and tell me where I’m wrong, if events haven’t already done so. Ned Holt DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2018 June Hirst The following match events have been organised for the next few months and we hope you will be able to join us.