The Yorkshire County Cricket Club Yearbook 2019 (Hardcover)

Although no trophies were lifted by Yorkshire in 2018 they fought hard throughout the summer and finished with their heads held high and looking forward immensely to the coming season which promises to be one of the most important and thrill-packed in the Club's proud history. Emerald Headingley in 2019 is hosting a Royal London one-day international between England and Pakistan, four ICC Cricket World Cup matches and a mouth-watering Ashes Test match, in addition to its county cricket programme. All these games will be played out in front of the new multi-million pound Emerald Stand which replaces the old cricket-rugby stand and is nearing completion after 18 months of frenzied construction work. Yorkshire were acutely aware last season that they needed to preserve their Specsavers County Championship First Division status with such a big summer coming up in 2019 and after one or two scares on the way they managed it by securing a respectable fourth place in the table. The Yearbook follows their fortunes in great detail and tells how fast bowler Steve Patterson eventually took over the reins of captaincy on a permanent basis after Gary Ballance had stepped down from the job because the pressures were affecting his playing form. It describes how Ballance's playing fortunes were restored to such an extent that he topped the County Championship batting averages with 906 runs at an average of 39.39 with three centuries and four halfcenturies, well supported by dynamic opening batsman Adam Lyth and young Harry Brook who looks to have a promising international career ahead of him. Others to make their mark with the bat included the hard-hitting Tom Kohler-Cadmore and wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Tattersall who experienced a fairy tale rise to prominence in the first team setup after making the most of a second chance when all had seemed lost. Ben Coad, who gained his county cap, and the evergreen Tim Bresnan both enjoyed success with the ball, along with Patterson in between two spells out with injury, but the leading wicket-taker with 51 dismissals was speed merchant Jack Brooks who said farewell in great style before leaving at the end of the campaign for Somerset. It was tough luck on Yorkshire that they failed to get over the last hurdle to what would have been a place at Lord's in the final of the Royal London 50-overs Cup. Four consecutive victories in the group stages assured them of a quarter-final appearance against Essex which they won but they were then undone by a brilliant 171 by James Vince for Hampshire. Even so, the crowds had earlier been richly entertained at various times by the broad bats of Lyth, Kohler- Cadmore and India's Cheteshwar Pujara who all hit centuries. A few too many off moments resulted in Yorkshire missing out on the knockout stages of the Vitality T20 Blast but they played in front of record home crowds and their batsmen often ran riot in providing great entertainment, not least Lyth who smashed his way beyond the 400-runs mark with David Willey and Tom Kohler-Cadmore in close pursuit. Every exciting innings and every fine bowling performance is faithfully recorded in the 2019 Yearbook which is again packed with interesting and informative articles by a wide range of expert writers who were in close touch with events throughout the long hot summer.