Catch us if you can!

The “catch us if you can” message from Berkshire coach Tom Lambert after another trophy-laden season was a familiar one and it is a challenge that few other National Counties have been able to meet in recent seasons. 

Last summer Berkshire became the most successful side in the history of National Counties/Minor Counties history as they won their 16^th piece of silverware by adding a ninth Championship title to the sixth Trophy they had won a week earlier. Berkshire’s other title came when they won the T20 competition in 2018 meaning that ten of their 16 trophies have been won in the last six seasons. 

Berkshire have made no secret of the fact that they regard the three-day Championship - which will be known as the Durant Cricket National Counties Championship for the next two seasons thanks to the generous support from the cricket equipment supplier – as their priority. 

Oxfordshire may have denied Berkshire a record fifth consecutive title in 2021 but, having reclaimed their crown last season, Lambert has now set his side the target of winning the Championship for the sixth time in seven seasons, a challenge that will demand high standards of not only his players but of those who play against them. 

“We need to do it again in 2023. We need to push on with this side. Other teams need to catch us and they will have to work harder to catch us,” Lambert said after last season’s final.  

“But we also had to work harder to catch Oxfordshire after missing out to them in 2021. We knew we had to do certain things, replace certain people and find a new way of doing things.  

“That way has won us two trophies and we have got to go again because the target is back on our back which it probably wasn’t this year. Maybe it was more on Oxfordshire’s and certain other teams’ backs.”  

Berkshire may not have won the title in the grand manner as the final against Lincolnshire at West Bromwich Dartmouth ended as a soggy draw after four rain-ruined days and was decided on first innings lead. 

A century from Euan Woods ensured Berkshire passed Lincolnshire’s first day 176 on the fourth evening with six wickets down. 

Nor was Berkshire’s record en route to the final a perfect one. They were beaten by 253 runs – the third heaviest defeat by runs margin in their history – when they were shot out for 84 by Cheshire in their penultimate Western Division One match at Nantwich in August. 

That defeat left Berkshire with work to do in their final group match against Herefordshire at the Falkland club in Newbury where an innings win enabled them to deny Oxfordshire top spot and a place in the final. 

Berkshire’s success was achieved with a much-changed side that adapted well under the leadership of Dan Lincoln to the retirements of stalwarts James and Richard Morris, Chris Peploe and Stewart Davison after the 2021 season. 

Lincoln, Woods and debutant Imran Malik all passed 250 runs for the season in four divisional matches while slow left-armer Luke Beaven emerged from Peploe’s shadow and took 26 wickets at 16 apiece. 

Woods also contributed 17 wickets with his off-spin, seamer Tom Nugent took 12 wickets and leg-spinner Rhodri Lewis claimed a maiden five wickets haul in the 319 runs hammering of Dorset at Wimborne. 

Lincolnshire’s side also included a new faces and they changed coach after the early-season T20 competition with Eddie Burke succeeding the long-serving Mark Fell. 

They won Eastern Division One thanks to a last day rearguard action, led by Tom Keast, who batted four-and-a-half hours for his 92, as they batted out the final day at Manor Park to deny Norfolk victory and a place in the final. 

Keast finished as Lincolnshire’s leading run-scorer with Leicestershire’s Sam Evans among those who also contributed important runs. 

Mark Footitt, the former Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Surrey left-arm paceman claimed 30  wickets including ten in the match to help clinch victory over Bedfordshire at Grantham. 

Footitt’s efforts were eclipsed by Cumbria slow left-armer who took 40 wickets in four Eastern Division Two matches. 

Sidall re-wrote Cumbria’s record books by taking five or more wickets in each of his first six innings of the season and became the first bowler from the county to take six five wicket hauls in a season. 

He began the season with three ten wicket match returns including a Cumbria record of 14 in the against Buckinghamshire at Chesham. 

Despite Siddall’s efforts he finished on the losing side against Buckinghamshire who eased to the Eastern Division Two title and promotion in place of Bedfordshire who were relegated 12 months after going up. 

Dorset were relegated from the Western Division and will be replaced by Devon who recovered from losing to Wales in their opener at Abergavenny to win their next three matches.  

Cheshire captain Rob Sehmi scored most Championship runs – 464 – closely followed by Suffolk’s Darren Ironside (459), Staffordshire’s Michael Hill, who 453 included three centuries with two in the match with the draw against Lincolnshire at Cleethorpes and Hertfordshire’s former Essex batter Kishen Velani (410). 

Devon’s Matt Thompson topped the wicketkeeping tables with 20 dismissals – 19 catches and a stumping – which was one more than Keast and Shropshire’s Ben Lees. 

Suki Kang, who kept wicket in all of Berkshire’s divisional matches but missed out on the final, had 14 dismissals including five stumpings which reflected playing in a side that always included three spinners. 

Alex Bone of Cornwall had the rare distinction of having more stumpings – five -than he did catches in his season’s tally of nine dismissals.

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