Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 2005 were in the second divisions of both the County Championship and the totesport League. At 6–1 odds to win the Second Division of the County Championship, they were likely to struggle again – as they had done since they won the First Division championship in 2001. They were not strong on seam bowling, which may mean that Headingley was prepared as a spinning wicket.
They started the County Championship poorly, being on the wrong end of a draw with Essex. One day after they went to the Oval for their first game in the totesport League, and won a high-scoring thriller. The second Championship game, however, was a comprehensive innings victory over Somerset, who they also beat easily on the Sunday by 5 wickets. The following Sunday they took on, and beat, the Sharks.
They then beat Ireland in Belfast on 3 and 4 May to progress to the Second Round of the C&G Trophy, before going on to record two comfortable victories in the Championship against Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
They then went down to Durham Dynamos in the Sunday League. On 17 May they beat Worcestershire to progress to the Quarter-Finals of the C&G Trophy. They then drew with Durham and Essex in the Championship to leave them second in Division Two at the end of May. Yorkshire then beat Bradford/Leeds UCCE in two days of actual play, before drawing the 4-day Roses clash with Lancashire and going down heavily in a low-scoring match against Leicestershire in the one-day league.
Another loss followed, a humiliating one to Lancashire in the inaugural Twenty20 match, before winning a close second game, against Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Trent Bridge. Three losses in the middle of the group stage sent them virtually out of the tournament, though, as they would never have qualified with four losses. However, their Twenty20 wounds were quickly healed, with three victories – in the County Championship, the National League and the C&G Trophy semi-final. They moved into the top three on 23 July when they beat Leicestershire by six wickets, coming back from a first-innings deficit of 179 runs.
The following day, they lost to Warwickshire by eight wickets in the National League, to lose sight of the three promotion spots in Division 2. A draw with Derbyshire in the County Championship followed, which saw them jump up to second place in the table. In the National League two days later, however, they lost to Kent by five wickets. A virtual second XI beat Bangladesh A by 126 runs in the first week of August, declaring twice, but the first XI was back to beat Scotland by five wickets in the National League. Three days later, the team travelled to Somerset to draw a Championship game and lose a National League game. Their third draw in succession came in the third week of August, when they drew with Lancashire at Old Trafford, which sent them down to third place in the Division Two table. Their fourth match without a victory came at Southampton in the C&G Trophy semi-final, where they lost to Hampshire.
Yorkshire's last Championship match of August was their eighth draw of the season and the fourth in a row against Durham, a result that temporarily put them into second place in the table. However, Lancashire's victory the following day meant they fell back to third. They finished August with two National League losses to Derbyshire and Kent, and continued in the same vein as they lost by 133 runs to Leicestershire at home.
A busy September month, including eight matches, did not yield a single victory. After the Leicestershire loss, they drew with Worcestershire, before the team lost two National League games to Durham and Derbyshire. On 19 September Yorkshire secured promotion, drawing with Derbyshire and taking full bonus points to go an unassailable 22.5 points ahead of Essex. In the National League, however, they reinforced their place as the worst of the 18 counties (Scotland excluded) with a loss to Warwickshire, before losing to Northamptonshire and Sussex Sharks in the Championship and League respectively.
Famous quotes containing the words county, cricket and/or club:
“It would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens of your County who twelve years ago knew me a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat—at ten dollars per month to learn that I have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“All cries are thin and terse;
The field has droned the summer’s final mass;
A cricket like a dwindled hearse
Crawls from the dry grass.”
—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)
“I spoke at a woman’s club in Philadelphia yesterday and a young lady said to me afterwards, “Well, that sounds very nice, but don’t you think it is better to be the power behind the throne?” I answered that I had not had much experience with thrones, but a woman who has been on a throne, and who is now behind it, seems to prefer to be on the throne.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)