2013 saw Glamorgan successfully stage a series of matches in the ICC Champions Trophy besides playing, yet again, at a Lord’s final against the Notts Outlaws in the Final of the Yorkshire Bank40 competition. Matthew Mott had announced towards the end of the season that he would be returning to Australia to assume coaching roles in the KFC Big Bash as well as in the Cricket Australia Pathway programme for female cricketers before becoming Head Coach of the Australian Women’s team. Winning the final of the Yorkshire Bank40 game at Lord’s would therefore have been the perfect send-off for the Australian, as well as for Simon Jones, who had announced that he was retiring from first-class and List A cricket at the end of the summer.
Their journey to St. John’s Wood had begun on successive afternoons in early May as they completed back-to-back victories at Colwyn Bay and Lord’s, with Marcus North, who began the summer as one-day captain, leading the way with a career-best hundred against Middlesex as the Welsh county, wearing retro kit from the summer of 1993, got off to the perfect start. After the competition took a two-month break, Glamorgan boosted their hopes of a semi-final spot against Somerset in a floodlit match at Cardiff. It saw late night drama which was not for the faint-hearted as Glamorgan’s last pair scrambled the eight runs they needed from the final fifteen balls. Two nights later at Cardiff, Ben Wright and Graham Wagg engineered a late recovery against Middlesex, adding 53 runs from the last five overs before Allenby and Michael Hogan, the Club’s new acquisition from Australia, made incisions with the new ball as another hard-fought victory saw the Welsh county rise into second place, but level on points with leaders Somerset.
Following a defeat at Bristol, Glamorgan needed to win their last two matches in order to progress to the last four. A bumper total of 303-6 was then achieved against an inexperienced Leicestershire Foxes attack at Swansea with Chris Cooke leading the way with 85 before a brutal cameo of 48 off 19 balls by Murray Goodwin, the vastly experienced Zimbabwean who had been signed from Sussex. The Foxes were duly beaten by 68-runs victory before the Glamorgan team and support staff made a four-hour journey to Leeds for the final group game the following day. They were in pole position to qualify as the best runner-up, although a close eye had to be kept on matches elsewhere in case others improved their run rate. As it was, Glamorgan restricted a youthful Yorkshire Vikings side to 215-5 before Cooke posted another forceful fifty, with a fusillade of four sixes by Wagg overcoming a late wobble as Glamorgan clinched a semi-final place against the Hampshire Royals at the Ageas Bowl.
7 September 2013 duly saw the Welsh county complete a defining victory against one of the most successful one-day outfits in recent years, and all on their own soil where they had remained unbeaten for over a dozen one-day games. With the injured North having returned to Australia, it was Club captain Mark Wallace who was at the helm and the 31-run victory proved to be a fine collective effort from his team, decorated by some standout individual performances especially from Jim Allenby whose unbeaten 74 underpinned the decent total of 234-4 before a miserly eight-over spell at the start of the Royals innings which prevented the home side from getting off to a flyer. The visiting spinners, Dean Cosker and his youthful apprentice, Andrew Salter – the young off-spinner from Pembrokeshire – then kept the Royals in check before Hogan took four wickets during his second and final spell before the visiting supporters were proudly waving their Welsh flags and daffodil emblems beneath the balcony of the visitors’ dressing room they celebrated a clinical victory and a place in a Lord’s Final.
Click here to read about the final of the Yorkshire Bank40 competition at Lord’s.
Michael Hogan ended the 2013 season as the country’s leading wicket-taker with a haul of 67 Championship scalps but Glamorgan finished last but one in the Division Two table and failed to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 competition. They had admittedly been dealt a couple of blows before the first ball was even bowled as winter signing Dirk Nannes, the Australian T20 specialist, was ruled out with a stress fracture in his back before Simon Jones also sustained a shoulder injury a week before the first game.
Opposite – Simon Jones is congratulated by Graham Wagg after taking the wicket of James Taylor in the Yorkshire Bank40 Final at Lord’s. Photo Credit – Glamorgan Cricket Archives.
With the Champions Trophy taking place in Cardiff, they were able to secure the services of Nathan McCullum, before Graham Wagg made a fine start to the campaign with 5/14 at Worcester. Home and away victories were then secured against the Warwickshire Bears before Somerset cruised to a nine-wicket win at Cardiff against Somerset. But this proved to be the zenith of their achievements in 2013 as they only tasted victory once more in the remaining six games and were humbled by ten wickets at Cheltenham College by bottom-of-the-table Gloucestershire.
Photo Credit – Glamorgan Cricket Archives.
Nevertheless, there was much for Glamorgan to be proud about in the way they acted as one of the host venues for the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Staged across a three-week window in mid-season, it was arguably one of the largest logistical challenges ever faced by the Club, but the hard-working operations team and other officials at the Welsh county left no stone unturned as the Club’s headquarters – known for the tournament as the Cardiff Wales Stadium – successfully hosted two warm-up matches, four group games plus a semi-final between India and Sri Lanka which drew a capacity 16,500 crowd to the Cardiff ground. Their efforts drew many plaudits for the organisation and attention to detail, which had followed copious planning meetings during the months and weeks leading up to the prestigious tournament, with Spytty Park – the home of Newport CC – being used as a satellite training venue by the international teams.