Photo Credit – Glamorgan Cricket Archives.
2001 was a year which, quite literally, had it ups and downs as Glamorgan won Division Two of the National League and gained promotion into the top division of the one-day competition, but were also relegated from Division One of the County Championship. The latter was certainly not what new captain Steve James had hoped for as he took over the leadership baton from Matthew Maynard. Previous changes of captaincy had happened during a trough of despair or in the midst of a poor run of form, but this was not the case in 2001, following the Club’s appearance at Lord’s the year before, with the pre-season targets being a top three spot in Division One of the Championship and further success in the one-day. However, a combination of injuries, less effective bowling and the loss of 25% of playing time in the Championship meant that only some of the one-day goals were achieved.
With Matthew Elliott unable to return for 2001, the Club replaced him with another Australian – Jimmy Maher, the 27 year old opener from Queensland who was a member of the Australian one-day squad. Maher quickly adjusted to the demands of English wickets, and in early May, the Queenslander struck an unbeaten 142 against Gloucestershire in the zonal rounds of the Benson and Hedges competition. But no other Glamorgan batter went past 30 and, on the slow wicket, Gloucestershire`s batsmen easily reached their target of 237.
To make matters worse, James suffered a knee injury and the Glamorgan captain was on the sidelines as his team went on to lose all of their games in the 50 overs competition, and swiftly exited the competition. There was little joy as well in the Nat West Trophy where after beating Derbyshire at Cardiff, Glamorgan went down to a seven-wicket defeat in the next game at Taunton, as Somerset`s Marcus Trescothick tore the Glamorgan attack apart, scoring a scintillating 121 off 83 balls.
Glamorgan opened their National League campaign with a visit to Old Trafford and, almost by accident, discovered a winning formula that was to stand them in good great stead for the rest of the season, and beyond. As James later recalled, “It was not the greatest of wickets and with leg-spinner Murali in the Lancashire team, we felt that our best chance of winning was to whack as many as possible in the first 15 overs when the fielding restrictions were operating. Keith Newell went in first with Jimmy, and Crofty came in at number three. It can be a high risk strategy if the ball is moving around, but this time it worked a treat, so we decided to stick with it for the next few games, and after more success, it turned out to be our game-plan for the rest of the season.”
The strategy worked again in early June as the Glamorgan Dragons, as they were branded, recorded another fine win at Chelmsford in the National League twenty-four hours after they had recorded a stunning Championship victory over Essex. The latter came after Essex had been forced to follow-on, only to mount a dramatic recovery and, not for the only time in 2001, expose the limitations of the visiting attack. On the final day Ronnie Irani set Glamorgan a seemingly improbable target of 364 to win from 84 overs. Only once in their history had the Welsh county reached such a mammoth target batting last, but Maynard and James shared a boundary-laden stand of 194 in just 38 overs. James eventually departed for 156, whilst Maynard blasted 90 from 115 balls, before Adrian Dale guided the visitors home with 25 balls to spare.
But if this was an audacious display of batting by captains past and present, the run chase the following day in the Norwich Union contest simply defied belief and proved that the Club’s ambitions in the One-Day League had not been misplaced. Chasing a target of 254 in just 34 overs, Newell and Maynard launched another withering assault on the Essex bowlers, with the former making 97 from just 53 deliveries before being caught in the deep. His departure only brought an equally aggressive Mike Powell to the wicket and, together with Maynard, they saw Glamorgan home with two overs in hand.
The following weekend at Cardiff, it was the Worcestershire bowlers who were slain by the Dragon’s batters, as Maher struck 94 from 76 balls and together with forceful fifties from Croft and Dale, Glamorgan ended on 305-6. But James’ side could not translate their one-day form into success in the longer format and languished in the relegation zone of the First Division for most of the Championship season. Maher and Dale were the only batsmen to show any consistency, with both men passing a thousand and scoring double-hundreds during the summer, but a crop of injuries did not help matters. Firstly, Maher fracturing a finger before Alex Wharf picked up shin and ankle ailments, and then when James recovered from his knee operation, he became another casualty when his hand was fractured at Taunton by his old adversary Andy Caddick.
Wicket-keeper Adrian Shaw was also taken ill before the start of the match against Kent at Maidstone in mid-June, with his wicket-keeping understudy Mark Wallace being summoned from a 2nd XI match at his home ground at Abergavenny. The youngster marked his call-up to Maidstone with a gritty 80, as well as eight catches, and subsequently retained his place. For Shaw, a great team-man, his illness effectively ended his 1st XI career as at the end of the summer he was appointed the 2nd XI captain for 2002. Wallace’s outstanding potential was one crumb of comfort as Glamorgan continued to be plagued by poor weather in their Championship games. The teenager scored a mature half-century in Glamorgan’s first innings at The Oval, before the Glamorgan new ball made mayhem in Surrey`s second innings with the pace of Simon Jones accounting for Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash, before the seam and swing of Watkin and Andrew Davies left Glamorgan requiring 200 runs to win.
Surrey had not lost at The Oval for nearly three years, and after the early loss of Maher, it looked like this trend would continue, but Mike Powell and Ian Thomas, the 22 year-old left-hander ,both scored impressive half-centuries. For Thomas, it was another determined innings for the former UWIC student who on his first-class debut, had made a composed 82 against Essex at Southend. During the game at The Oval, Thomas showed great character in compiling a fluent fifty to take his side within sight of their target, before Martin Bicknell took four quick wickets in as many overs to leave the game tantalisingly poised. But this was the cue for young Wallace, together with Davies to calmly see Glamorgan to their first Championship win at The Oval for sixteen years.
The Dragons consolidated their position in the top three of the National League by inflicting a 178-run victory over the Essex Eagles at Sophia Gardens with Davies taking 5/39, before defeating leaders, the Durham Dynamos at the same ground to go to the top of the table, courtesy of another fine new ball spell by the swing bowler, plus some destructive batting by Maher and Maynard, who by know was also keeping wicket in the one-day games. A couple of days later against Hampshire, the gifted cricketer helped his team guarantee promotion into Division One of the Norwich Union League as Maynard completed an audacious century, reviving memories of his batting at Lord`s the previous year.
After gaining two vital points from the abandoned match at Worcester, the Dragons lost their floodlit game at Hove to the Sussex Sharks. But as they headed to Leicester for a Championship match, they knew knowing that if Durham beat Worcestershire in their one-day encounter, Glamorgan would still secure the title. The Championship match ended in another heavy defeat for Glamorgan, but Durham came to Glamorgan`s aide by defeating Worcestershire, and the Dragons had won Division Two.