Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Year Book 2014

28 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society Dave Callaghan is the Yorkshire Cricket correspondent for the BBC and covers every Yorkshire fixture throughout the season. Dave, on behalf of the BBC in Yorkshire, provides Internet commentary on every Yorkshire game in addition to 31 daily reports for five BBC local radio stations. As he reveals here, the 2013 campaign was a season which nearly ended in glory. The 2013 campaign will be remembered as a fine season for Yorkshire in the County Championship, which sadly fell short of being a great one. What an achievement it would have been if Yorkshire had won the Championship in its 150th Anniversary year and for some time it did look as if the Tykes might have had the title in the bag. Yorkshire went into the game with Durham at Scarborough in late August with a lead of 25.5 points over their opponents at the seaside. Durham had a game in hand but there was only a month of the season to go. Durham dominated that crucial fixture winning by seven wickets. Paul Collingwood and his talented side then surged away at the top leaving Yorkshire in second spot. However, there was still plenty to admire about Yorkshire’s cricket during 2013. Under the coaching team of Martyn Moxon and Jason Gillespie, the side played an attractive brand of cricket which reaped reward with superb performances against Derbyshire (twice), Middlesex (twice), Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Durham. These were not just victories - they were devastating victories. Along the way there were also some fine individual performances. Martyn Moxon Liam Plunkett Gary Ballance The voice of ‘ball-by-ball’ By DAVID CALLAGHAN, BBC twitter: @scloverssociety