End of year review Part 1

By David Slater
November 18 2002

The season began with the shock announcement that Gus Fraser; a Middlesex stalwart would retire from Cricket at the end of the B&H group stage.

The season began at Cambridge University with a match against their first XI. It was also the start of a successful partnership between Andy Strauss and newcomer Sven Koenig from South Africa. In their first innings together they both scored centuries, along with Paul Weekes to record a comfortable victory for Middlesex.

The County Championship started with a trip to Durham. It was an easy match for the ‘Sex that was won inside three days by 10 wickets. The most pleasing aspect of the win was another century for new boy Sven Koenig.

The might ‘Sex then made it two out of two with an emphatic demolition of Nottinghamshire at Lord’s by an innings and 31 runs. The star of the show was Australian Ashley Noffke who was at the club on a tempary basis until Abdul Razzaq finished his international commitments. Noffke’s career best seconding innings display of 7-100 ensured the win.

The B&H Cup, in its final season then took priority. First up was a certain Mr Runsforcash’s return to Lord’s to face Middlesex. The Surrey batsmen never got going with Judas being caught by Weekes of Chad Keegan’s bowling for 4. Set a target of 124 to win, Middlesex survived the early loss of Strauss and Koenig to record an 8 wicket win.

The next match against Essex was rained off. Then the tide began to turn. An 8-wicket defeat by Kent at Canterbury was followed by defeats to Sussex and Hampshire as the curtain came down on the career of Gus.

Following the B&H Cup came a tourist match at Shenley against Sri Lanka. The match was drawn as rain ruined what would have been an exiting final day.

At trip to John Embury’s former county followed. Northants tried to produce a pitch of low quality to help prevent them being steam rollered by the ‘Sex but it backfired on them. Super Sven got another century but the star of the show was Simon Cook who took 8-63 as Middlesex won by an innings at 2 runs. The NUL season then started. And it was a bad start for the Crusaders who lost to Northants by 6 wickets. It would be one of those seasons for the one-day team.

The C&G Trophy was the next thing on Middlesex’s agenda. Despite a 116 from Sven and a total of 292, Middlesex still lost due to a woeful performance by the bowlers. Essex deserved their win as they had taken their chances when they had them.

Next week: Part 2 of our end of season review.