After their victory against Somerset in their final pre-season game at Taunton, Glamorgan start their campaign in the LV=County Championship on Thursday 8 April by visiting Headingley for their first match on Yorkshire soil since 2012 (writes Andrew Hignell)
David Lloyd is the only member of Glamorgan’s team that played at Headingley in September 2012 who is set to play in this year’s match which is scheduled to start at 1100 on 8 April. However, the Welsh county’s vice-captain is unlikely to look back fondly on that particular game as he bagged a pair on his first-class debut as Yorkshire posted an eight-wicket victory.
In contrast, Matthew Maynard, now the Club’s Head Coach, will have very warm memories of his efforts at the Leeds ground in September 1999 when Glamorgan recorded their most recent Championship victory over Yorkshire. He scored a majestic 186 before Steve Watkin claimed four wickets as the Tykes were forced to follow-on. Owen Parkin took the bowling honours during Yorkshire’s second innings as, despite a century from Richard Blakey, Glamorgan wrapped up victory by an innings and 52 runs inside three days.
Matthew’s hundred is one of only thirteen centuries to have been scored by Glamorgan batsmen on Yorkshire soil in Championship cricket with the most recent being Matthew Elliott’s 125 at Headingley in September 2004. As far as the bowling records for the Welsh county in Yorkshire are concerned, they are held – like so many in the Club’s annals – by the legendary Don Shepherd, with the off-cutter returning match figures of 9/56 in the game at Scarborough in 1966.
Glamorgan’s victory at Leeds in 1999 remains as their sole victory in the County Championship at Headingley, with their other victories on Yorkshire soil coming at Harrogate in 1955, Sheffield (Bramall Lane) in 1957 and 1968, as well as at Middlesbrough in 1970 and 1993.
This year’s encounter between Yorkshire and Glamorgan is also set to see the Root brothers, Billy and Joe, go head-to-head for the first-ever time in the County Championship. The pair did play against each other in the Royal London One-Day Cup game between Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire at Trent Bridge in April 2017, with Joe winning the bragging rights after his unbeaten 75 had seen Yorkshire to a seven-wicket victory. Glamorgan supporters will be hoping for a different outcome this time around, with Glamorgan launching in style the season when they celebrate their 100th anniversary of being elevated into the world of first-class cricket.