Picture by Geoff Bruce/Getty Images. Kevin Sharp in his playing days with Yorkshire.
Cards on the table. Kevin Sharp doesn’t remember too much about the game we have chosen for this latest bygones piece ahead of Yorkshire’s home fixture with Sussex at Headingley. But it’s entirely understandable given the one-wicket win over the Martlets at the same venue in 1986 came amidst a season which only saw the county finish 10th in the County Championship.
We show former batter Sharp, currently an assistant coach within the Yorkshire women’s set-up, the scorecard of the early May clash.
It was a three-day game which was affected by rain. No play on the first day was followed by Sussex being bowled out for 195 early on day three. Paul Jarvis and Peter Hartley claimed three wickets apiece.
Yorkshire then forfeited their first innings before Sussex added 55-1 in 9.1 overs, declaring to set a target of 251.
The White Rose then slipped to 219-9, only for last-wicket pair Graham Stevenson – he top-scored with 58 not out – and Jarvis with an unbeaten 16 too see them over the line.
“Now I know why I can’t remember it too well,” chuckled Sharp. “I didn’t get many runs. You always remember the runs you get, don’t you.”
Sharp pauses before his eyes light up…
“Hang on,” he said. “Have you seen who opened the bowling in Sussex’s second innings?
Picture by Adrian Murrell/Getty Images. Kevin Sharp bats for Yorkshire.
“It was me, and I got Neil Lenham out bowled. It was one of my 12 first-class wickets. I remember that!”
We then let Sharp digress.
“You know, I remember getting Don Topley out against Essex at Headingley (1987).
“They were trying to save a game on the last day and were nine down. Don had come in as nightwatchman and was batting beautifully.
“Anyway, we were into the last 20 overs and Essex were still behind. But we just couldn’t get Don out.
“So, with the overs whittling down, David Bairstow threw the ball to me. He’d tried everything he could.
“In my first over, I bowled a couple to Don and then bowled him a wide long-hop, which he nicked. I was running around and jumping up and down, and we went on to win the game (chasing only nine).”
Looking back at the aforementioned Sussex game leads us to chat about a couple of topics.
Picture by Dennis Oulds/Getty Images. David Bairstow was captain of Yorkshire against Sussex at Headingley in 1986.
The first, captain David Bairstow and how good a player he was.
“David was a match-winner,” said Sharp. “He was belligerent, he was a stroke-maker, he was very smart as well. He played some fabulous match-winning innings, and he was a very, very tidy wicketkeeper.
“He lived life in the fast lane. Catching a catch, scoring a fifty, it was a big event. He wanted to win so much, and it was highly motivating playing with him.
“I remember a Benson and Hedges Cup game that I didn’t actually play in against Derbyshire at Derby (in 1981). We were chasing 203 in 55 overs and ended up being 123-9. And we won, because Bluey got an unbeaten hundred. It was incredible.”
The second, the subject of three-day Championship cricket and manufacturing finishes following weather interruptions, etc.
“With there being no relegation in those days, you weren’t penalised for finishing bottom, and teams were more willing to set games up,” said Sharp.
“We played this game against Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens (1987).
“It got to lunchtime on the final day, and it appeared as if it was going nowhere. There hadn’t been much communication between the dressing rooms at that point. But then the two captains had lunch together.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Kevin Sharp is back with Yorkshire as a women’s assistant coach.
“It was Phil Carrick and Hugh Morris, and Phil came in and said, ‘Right, we need to give them 75 runs in four overs and then we’ll chase. Sharpy, you’re bowling’.
“Matthew Maynard was batting, and I knew him quite well. We always got on well.
“So I lobbed them up, and hit three fours and three sixes in the over.
“I actually went down to him and said, ‘Come on, mate, we could have been going on the news at 10 tonight, me and you.’
“Six sixes in an over, it had only ever happened twice in the history of first-class cricket at that stage, Sobers and Shastri. They both had Glamorgan connections. Shastri was actually playing in that game.
“I know it sounds stupid, but I wanted it, you know. I wanted to be the third bowler in the history of the game to be hit for six sixes. I would have been really proud of it.
“In fact, I gave him a right old rollocking!”
Maynard finished 61 not out as Glamorgan set Yorkshire 280 to win, which they failed to achieve and were beaten. His fifty came in 19 balls and 14 minutes, his county’s fastest half-century. Sharp went for 52 in two overs after lunch.
Picture by Stu Forster/Getty Images. Former Glamorgan and England batter Matthew Maynard.
“I remember another game at Scarborough (that was 1986, the same year as the aforementioned Sussex game),” Sharp added. “We played Kent, and Terry Alderman was playing for them.
“Now, I knew Terry quite well from when I’d played over in Perth.
“The agreement on the final morning was that Kent would bowl properly for an hour and try to bowl us out. If they couldn’t, we’d set a game up.
“Terry bowled beautifully at me, and it was so hard. But I stayed in. Then, Terry was bowling this last over before midday when we’d be setting a game up. After that over, it was going to be freebies.
“But he swung one back into me, hit me full on the big toe and broke it.
“I got carried off by Wayne Morton, our physio, and as I’m leaving the ground on Wayne’s shoulders to go to A&E, Phil Robinson is hitting sixes off some pies coming down.
“I’m thinking, well I can’t repeat what I was thinking.”
