The Twelfth Man 2020

Features ing no shot, before a dramatic over from Kapala, including being hit for 6 and striking the batsmen in the helmet, saw him nick Sean Tidey off to make it 15 for 2. An early LBW shout from Kapala on skipper Tom Greaves was turned down but this would be the last chance for a long while. Greaves and left hander Robert Lankester looked solid and picked up boundaries as Houghton’s bowlers strove to produce some magic. The partnership passed 50 and approached 100 before Michael Bates nearly produced a magic caught and bowled off Lankester. When the partnership passed 100, with the game gone, Houghton Main tried a few things including one that bounced twice from Callum Honeyman and one bowled straight to slip from Yousaf Rehman. Imran Khan returned and dismissed Lankester thanks to an extremely sharp leg side stumping from Simon Ward, having made 59 in a 122-run partner- ship with Greaves who saw his side home finishing on 67. Reed recorded their third National Village Cup title in just seven years and he was rightfully awarded man of the match. A disappointed Houghton Main re- turned to the dressing room to be greeted with a crate of free beer - al- ways helpful in cheering anyone up - before getting suited and booted for the post-match dinner. The crab and crevette cocktail proved a little too ex- otic for some of our squad, but nothing was left to waste as seconds were had at any given opportunity. The same applied to the sour cream and yuzu mousse. An entertaining after-dinner speech was given by former pro and cricket analyst, Simon Hughes before the two captains gave contrasting opin- ions and anecdotes about dressing room behaviour. Once goodbyes and thank yous were done all round, the coach was loaded up for the long trip up the M1, arriv- ing back at Houghton Main at around 12:30am. A long day but one that will last long in the memory of everyone at the club, despite the result and the unfortunate injury to Ian Simon. Here’s hoping for a repeat in the near future. Photo courtesy of Sarah Williams BETWEEN TWELFTH MEN A round-up of events in the cricket world since the 2019 Magazine On 24 August Yorkshire CCC announced that Jack Lean- ing would leave the county at the end of the season and would be on Kent’s books from 1 October. Leaning was capped in 2016 and has played 68 first-class matches for Yorkshire. In late August it was an- nounced by Lancashire CCC that Haseeb Hameed would be released at the end of the season. In November, Hameed was confirmed to be joining Nottingham- shire to further his career. Hameed, at 19 years old, made a promising start to an England Test career in 2016, but suffered injury. His county form declined thereafter and he nev- er regained a Test place. Darren Lehmann, the Aus- tralian who enjoyed huge popularity during his time as overseas batsman at Yorkshire at the turn of the century, is to return to Headingley as coach of the Northern Supercharg- ers, the Hundred team to be based in Leeds in 2020. Lehmann was coach of Australia until he stepped down in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town in March 2018. Photo courtesy of Sarah Williams