2021 – Glamorgan win the Royal London One-Day Cup

The hectic schedule meant that three days after beating the Essex Eagles in the semi-final, Glamorgan were back in action at Trent Bridge for the final against Durham, played out in front of a crowd of 7,291 at Nottingham. It proved to be the consummate team performance as the Welsh county won by 58 runs to clinch their first silverware for seventeen years and their first-ever Cup Final win in, by coincidence, 58 years of one-day cricket. They also won over the neutrals by sticking with the same side which had beaten Essex, whereas Durham amended their line-up to include a couple of returnees from The Hundred after the ECB decreed that those from the franchises who had been eliminated could take part in the season’s showpiece final.

Nevertheless, Club captain Chris Cooke, Head Coach Matthew Maynard and most of the Welsh county’s other players, plus their leading officials were at the Nottingham ground and watching present in a nearby hospitality suite and, following the formal presentation to Kiran Carlson and his team in front of the pavilion, they all joined in with the joyous celebrations. It was fitting that Michael Hogan, a wonderful servant to the Club, should claim the final wicket as Chris Rushworth edged a ball into Tom Cullen’s gloves. The 40 year-old veteran, along with Andrew Salter, were the sole survivors from Glamorgan’s previous Cup final appearance at Lord’s in 2013, with the off-spinner also winning the Man-of-the-Match Award after an outstanding all-round performance with a vital innings which maintained the Welsh county’s progress towards a decent total after they had been put in to bat under a heavy cloud cover and with a hint of rain in the air.

Whilst at the crease, Salter hit three fours plus a massive six from just 22 balls as he oversaw Glamorgan’s progress from 203-6 in the 39th over to their eventual 296-9, with Hogan and Lukas Carey maintaining the momentum with an unbeaten 36 from the last 23 balls, with Hogan swatting what should have been the final delivery of the innings from Matty Potts, but called a no-ball on height, into the stands at mid-wicket. Salter had entered the attack at the Radcliffe Road End for the 11th over of the Durham innings with openers Graham Clark and Alex Lees playing with ease. With the in-form middle order still to come in and Clark, the competition’s leading run-maker, already finding the ropes with regularity, Durham appeared well-set in their pursuit of 297. But the Pembrokeshire-born spinner dismissed Lees with his fourth ball before, with the last ball of his third over, dismissing Clark who became the first of two fine catches for Weighell whilst stationed at deep mid-wicket against his former employers. A few overs later, Weighell also caught David Bedingham for a duck as Durham’s much vaunted line-up misfired with Salter putting a brake on their hitherto serene progress.

Carlson also safely pouched a skier as Luke Doneathy miscued an over-ambitious drive against Lukas Carey, but perhaps the most important catch had come a few overs earlier as Andy Gorvin, fielding as a substitute for Hamish Rutherford, ran in from deep backward square-leg to cling onto a top-edge from Bancroft as the Australian looked like mounting a fightback. Although Sean Dickson continued the rally and ended with the day’s highest individual score, Glamorgan had enough runs in the bank and were indebted to their captain for a game-changing innings earlier in the day.

With Rushworth having bowled his ten overs straight through, in a throwback to the old days of Sunday League cricket, Carlson arrived in the middle with his team on 51-2 from a dozen overs having been kept in check by the vastly experienced leader of the Durham attack. But Carlson responded with a quickfire 82 from a mere 59 balls with his fusillade of thirteen boundaries including a huge blow into the Pavilion car park and reminding the Glamorgan faithful of Mike Llewellyn’s massive six in the Lord’s final of 1977.

For a while, it also looked as if Carlson would emulate the achievement of Maynard at Lord’s in 2000 by posting a century in the final, but eighteen short of this landmark he was caught behind against Potts. A few hours later though, the 23 year-old had the broadest of smiles across his young face – plus a host of worthy accolades for his calm and purposeful captaincy – as he lifted the Royal London trophy on the presentation podium, surrounded by his jubilant colleagues with the accompanying fireworks being the cue for a heady night of Welsh celebration in Nottingham.