Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2017

11 www.sheffieldcricketlovers.org.uk Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society ...Always being the bridesmaid but never the bride! 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, which includes BBC Radio Sheffield. Dave reveals here, the 2016 campaign was a case of Yorkshire always being the bridesmaid but never the bride! Times are changing at Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the 2017 season will bring in fresh challenges for new coach Andrew Gale, who has retired from playing to succeed Jason Gillespie at the coaching helm. ‘Dizzy’ ended his time at Headingley with a remarkable record of just seven Championship defeats out of 80 matches. But in 2016 – his final season – there were no trophies for the White Rose team. Yorkshire went into the 2016 campaign with back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015. The most successful team in English cricketing history appeared to be streets ahead of their rivals. But the season of 2016 turned out to be a case of so near yet so far for the Yorkshire boys. They improved in white ball cricket but defeats in the latter stages of T20 and the 50 Over competition proved that the side are not yet the finished article in this important part of the game. Once Gillespie announced his intention to return home to Adelaide, there was a real hope within the Club that a third Championship on the trot would be achieved. Yorkshire gave it their all but in the end lost out in a winner-takes-all four-day encounter with eventual winners Middlesex at Lord’s. But let’s not cry over spilt milk. In this season, Yorkshire were not quite good enough. The batting as a unit failed to fire consistently. The Tykes missed the volume of runs from Jonny Bairstow . His highly impressive batting quite rightly was recognised by England - but in 2016 he was a big loss to Yorkshire. There were plenty of plus points including the wonderful all round form of Tim Bresnan but Yorkshire also suffered from the loss of pace bowler Ryan Sidebottom to a freak injury which led to a three-month absence. The bowling attack as ever proved to be one of the best in the Championship and in many ways it was another splendid season considering Yorkshire were never able to put out their strongest side due to the England call ups. So, Andrew Gale , now retired as a player, joins the coaching set up with ‘big boots’ to fill after the Gillespie reign. ‘Galey’ will get great support just as he had as Captain. At the time of writing, Director of Cricket, Martyn Moxon , is looking to strengthen the side, especially in the batting area. An interesting 2017 lies ahead. Dave Callaghan