Championship Glory Secured!

Shortly after 11.30 am on Friday the twelfth of September, history was made as Richard Pyrah took a catch off the bowling of the exceptional Ryan Sidebottom to dismiss the talented James Taylor, thereby clinching a 31st County Championship for Yorkshire CCC and ending twelve barren, trophy-less years. Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, our nearest challengers, can have no complaints, as this formidable Yorkshire team have comprehensively dismantled all and sundry in 2014.

 Many of Yorkshire's victories have been inflicted with a whole innings to spare. There have been no narrow triumphs, whilst the one defeat owed itself to a freakishly good batting performance from the Aussie maestro Chris Rogers which denied another potential win. For Yorkshire to achieve their runaway success in the 2014 County Championship is all the more extraordinary, given that it was accomplished in the absence of such international players as Ballance, Plunkett, Root, and Williamson of New Zealand. The white rose county is indebted to the efforts of coach Jason Gillespie and Director of Cricket Martyn Moxon. This brains trust cajoled and inspired the squad to reach the heights, and the extremely talented team duly rose to the challenge. It is a measure of the progress that Yorkshire have made in recent times that the first eleven have lost a mere three first-class matches in three years, an astonishing feat. Finally, the last word should be allocated to the superb Ryan Sidebottom who was instrumental in securing his fourth Championship winners' medal, twice with Nottinghamshire and now twice with his mother county. Bravo.

Nottinghamshire versus YORKSHIRE; at Nottingham; 9th-12th September. YORKSHIRE won the toss.

YORKSHIRE first innings: 532 for nine declared (Lyth 122, Ballance 99, Bresnan 95, Lees 86; Keedy 5-163)

Nottinghamshire first innings: 203 (Read 81*; Brooks 4-58, Sidebottom 3-35, Rashid 3-52)

Nottinghamshire second innings: 177 (Taylor 75; Sidebottom 6-30)

YORKSHIRE win by an innings and 152 runs. Nottinghamshire 2 points, YORKSHIRE 23 points.

Lyth - Yet another colossal effort was achieved by the red-hot Lyth. Calls for his inclusion in the England test team are justifiably reaching high decibel levels.

Lees - Never mind the growing clamour for Lyth to be upgraded to test cricket, Alex Lees won't be far behind his partner in the queue. Their stand was worth 176 here.

Ballance - The England maestro narrowly missed out on a ton but he typically knitted the innings together and cemented the great start that the openers had achieved.

Root - He only made eleven runs, but his calm, assured role as stand-in captain won't be lost on the national selectors.

Bairstow - Jonny failed with the bat on this occasion, but he atoned somewhat with three catches and the important stumping of the dangerous Patel.

Leaning - He can count himself fortunate to be preferred to Will Rhodes, but Jack contributed a decent 42 runs. Will he build on this effort or remain inconsistent?

Rashid - His 31 overs yielded four wickets at a cost of eighty-five runs. He also weighed in with forty-two runs. Adil is definitely knocking loudly on the England door.

Bresnan - The class clown proved again to be a fine back-up bowler as his fifteen overs only cost 36 runs. Tim also tormented his opponents with a valuable innings.

Patterson - Steve was a bit peripheral as his bowling amounted to one solitary wicket for fifty-seven runs from seventeen overs. He did contribute 17 runs to his team.

Sidebottom - His thirty overs cost 65 runs and produced nine wickets. This man deserves to be considered for next year's Ashes summer. He truly does!

Brooks - The prolific 'headband warrior' took six wickets at a cost of 122 runs. He is not an economical bowler but his strike rate might attract the national selectors.