All-rounder Dom Bess may not have thought it at the time, but he now admits there has been a positive side to the frustrations he has endured in recent seasons surrounding the sporadic nature of his first-team exposure with Yorkshire.
Bess has been reflecting on his second-innings century and brilliant catch at cover, both secured during Sunday’s final day of the record-breaking Rothesay County Championship victory by 504 runs over Worcestershire at Headingley.
He has also been looking ahead to the Easter weekend trip to the Banks Homes Riverside to tackle Durham in the third round of summer, starting at 11am tomorrow.
In 2022, Bess played 13 of the 14 Championship matches in the Division One relegation campaign. But the following two summers, he played for Yorkshire only eight times in each.
In 2023, he went briefly on loan to both Warwickshire and his home county Somerset.
But he ended last season nicely with bat and ball and and signed a new two-year contract, extending a stay at Headingley which began with a couple of loan spells from Somerset in 2019 before a permanent move in 2021.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Dom Bess celebrates his century against Worcestershire.
The off-spinning all-rounder said: “Getting left out last year for five, six weeks and probably not knowing where I was sat with the club, I look back now and think it’s only made me a better cricketer, to be honest.
“Fortunately, I spent a lot of time with Mala (Dawid Malan) batting. I actually had five, six weeks of batting.
“I obviously had opportunities in the second team to bat and lead the teams on certain occasions as well, and bide my time.
“Probably the proudest moment I’ve had in the last 12 months was really understanding what I can do day-to-day and keep working on my game.
“The back end of last summer and then obviously coming into this year with a new group and new objectives, I think it’s been a really exciting one.”
Bess continued: “You’ve always got a point to prove when you play for Yorkshire. It’s such a prestigious club, and my journey at Yorkshire has been an incredible one.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Dom Bess now has two first-class centuries to his name.
“I’ve gone through probably three, four years – this will be my fifth year now – of real adversity, I guess, as a club.
“I remember saying last year to my partner that I feel like I’ve done all the tough stuff. It’s now having a look forward, and hopefully there are a lot of positives, a lot of wins and a lot of feelings like the one against Worcestershire.”
Although Bess, whose off-spin bowling is widely recognised as his main suit, described his superb final day cover catch to help Jordan Thompson dismiss Gareth Roderick as “one of them that just stick”, he did admit to working hard on his slip catching recently.
When George Hill has been bowling this season, he has filled in at first slip and took another catch there on Sunday.
“I’ve mentioned about being a three-dimensional cricketer,” he said. “Those half chances you take, I think, kill games.”
Durham head into this fixture bottom of the embryonic Division One table having lost both of their opening games.
Picture by YCCC. New Zealand fast bowler Ben Sears is set for an Easter weekend debut.
The Division Two champions of 2023 were beaten by one wicket late on the fourth evening against Warwickshire at home on Monday, the visitors chasing a 339-target.
Captained by Alex Lees and coached by Ryan Campbell, they were also beaten by Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge during the opening week.
Conversely, Yorkshire head to the North East in a chipper mood having bounced back from defeat at Hampshire to beat Worcestershire.
“I know at Hampshire it probably looked, by the end, pretty comfortable, but there were chances in there,” added Bess.
“We certainly felt if we could have levelled the score, we would have won that game. We gave it a good crack, even trying to defend 140. We gave them a bit of a scare.
“That was something we certainly took into last week, making sure that firstly we know how good we are and secondly taking those chances and being ruthless.
Picture by Stu Forster/Getty Images. Former Yorkshire Championship winner Alex Lees is captaining Durham.
“I think that (Worcester win) will give us real confidence in terms of a group.”
Durham will field two overseas players in South Africa Test batter David Bedingham and Australian seamer Brendan Doggett. Former Yorkshire all-rounder Will Rhodes is also likely to feature having joined the county from Warwickshire over the winter.
White Rose coach Anthony McGrath will almost certainly hand a debut to overseas fast-bowling recruit Ben Sears, the New Zealander who is available for the next five Division One matches through until late May. All-rounder Matthew Revis is also in contention having recovered from a back stress fracture.
McGrath added: “It’s always a tough game up there. Durham have been good over the last couple of years, so that’ll be a different challenge.
“It’ll be interesting to see what wicket they go with. So, getting a couple of lads into the squad gives us an extra option if we need it.
“It should be a good game.”
