- YORKSHIRE v DERBYSHIRE
- LIMITED–OVERS (40-65) MATCHES (LIST A)
- 1969-2018
Yorkshire first played against Derbyshire in this form of the game in the first season of the John Player League. The two sides also met in the Gillette Cup final at Lord’s in that same season, Yorkshire being victorious in both encounters. Only 15 of this series of 32 matches in Yorkshire have taken place at Headingley and Paul Dyson looks back at one such game which took place 30 years ago. The photo of Ashley Metcalfe, taken in 1991, comes courtesy of Mick Pope.
May 13, 1989 at Headingley: Yorkshire 208-5 in 55 overs (AA Metcalfe 77); Derbyshire 201-6 in 55 overs (KJ Barnett 101, PJ Hartley 4-32). Yorkshire won by seven runs.
This match was a group game in the Benson & Hedges Cup. Both counties had previiously reached the final of the competition; Yorkshire played in the first final, in 1972 when it lost to Leicestershire but two years prior to this game had emerged victorious but only through losing fewer wickets against Northamptonshire when the scores finished level. Derbyshire had contested the final in in 1978 but had lost to Kent.
In the earlier games of 1989 both teams had beaten the Minor Counties but both had lost to Somerset and Nottinghamshire and so, this being the final match of the stage, neither team could qualify for the quarter-finals.
Derbyshire won the toss and asked Yorkshire to bat but they soon must have wished they had not done so as Richard Blakey (39) and Ashley Metcalfe (77) put on 131 together for the first wicket. The visitors fought back and took five wickets while only 26 runs were being added but the Davids, Byas and Bairstow, added an unbeaten half-century stand together and took Yorkshire to their 55-overs total of 208 for five. Alan Warner and Ole Mortensen each took two wickets and also had the best economy rate of Derbyshire’s battery of five seamers, which included Michael Holding, each of whom bowled their full 11-overs allocation.
Dernyshire’s innings was founded on the rock that was skipper Kim Barnett. He held the innings together so well that he was still at the crease when only 19 runs were required for victory and only three wickets had gone down. Two of these had been taken by Peter Hartley and when he returned to the attack towards the end of the innings he took a further two as three went down for the addition of a mere nine runs. One of these was Barnett for an excellent 101 and, shortly afterwards, the overs ran out and the visitors finished a tantalising seven runs short. Hartley finished with career-best figures of four for 32 but special mention must be made of Byas whose mediuam pace bowling cost only 24 runs in his 11 overs.
Man of the Match:
Kim Barnett was given the match award, Peter Hartley has been previously profiled in this series so attention turns to Ashley Metcalfe. He was the leading light in Yorkshire’s successful campaign in the Benson & Hedges Cup campaign of 1987. With four match awards in the seven games it comes as no surprise to learn that, with 445 runs at an average of 89.00, he was easily both the county’s leading run-scorer and highest-placed in the batting averages. In that season he scored over 1,000 runs in all List A matches and remains one of only three Yorkshire batsmen to have achieved this feat.
