Background
Nottinghamshire return to red ball action when they face Yorkshire at Trent Bridge this week.
The sides drew at Scarborough earlier in the season but go into this fixture separated by 47 points in the LV=county championship first division table.
Yorkshire currently sit on top of the standings, with 158 points from their first 11 matches, which includes five victories.
Notts are sixth, on 111 points, with only two wins from their opening eleven games.
Head To Head
Nottinghamshire have hosted their northern neighbours on 125 occasions over the 150 years they have been competing together. Between 1960 and 1991 thirteen of the meetings were played at the Town Ground in Worksop. Otherwise Trent Bridge has been the regular venue, where 22 home victories have been registered, 33 victories have gone to the away side and the remaining 57 clashes were drawn.
Notts’ last three wins in the fixture came in 1993, 1995 and 2008. Yorkshire’s most recent successes were in 1991, 1999 and 2010, with the last three draws being 2006, 2009 and 2011.
First & Last Meeting
The maiden first class match on Nottinghamshire soil took place 150 years ago, in July 1863.
Having been made to follow-on, Notts turned the tables by bowling Yorkshire out for 94 in the final innings of the match, to claim victory by 6 runs.
Two years ago bat dominated ball as Notts and Yorkshire fought out a draw in their most recent meeting at Trent Bridge.
Yorkshire’s decision to bat first was fully vindicated as they rattled up a colossal 534 for nine declared. Jonathan Bairstow extended his initial first class century into a double-hundred, before being dismissed on 205, after Joe Root had earlier scored 95.
Bairstow found stoic support from Ryan Sidebottom (45 not out) in a 9th-wicket stand of 151 – a county record v Notts.
Coincidentally, it was a Notts’ record 9th-wicket stand (v Yorks) that swung the match back towards parity.
At 291-8 Nottinghamshire were still 94 runs away from saving the follow-on. Ben Phillips, on his county debut, and Andre Adams, decided that if they were going down, then they were going down fighting. When they were parted, just 16.4 overs later, the pair had clubbed 114 for the ninth wicket in one of the most destructive displays of clean hitting ever seen on the ground. With each man clearing the ropes on three occasions, they took Notts to safety before Adams eventually fell for 54 (from 47 balls), leaving Phillips unbeaten on 70.
History
History has brought up a number of remarkable feats in meetings between the two counties. Back in 1901 Nottinghamshire were dismissed for their lowest ever first class score here, as Yorkshire’s Wilfred Rhodes (6-4) and Schofield Haigh (4-8) whipped out their hosts for just 13.
A notable feat belongs to Nottinghamshire’s George Gunn, who scored a century in each innings in the 1913 encounter here – but even that outstanding contribution pales into insignificance compared to Franklyn Stephenson’s ‘career game’ in 1988.
Before him, only another Nottinghamshire player, Richard Hadlee in 1984, had achieved the modern ‘double’ of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in a first class season since the number of games was reduced in 1969.
‘Franky’ went into the final game of his debut season at home to Yorkshire still well short on the number of runs. He reached his landmark by making scores of 111 and 117 and celebrated by taking eleven wickets in the match also. Staggeringly, Notts somehow contrived to lose the contest.
James Shaw has the best figures by a Notts bowler at Trent Bridge against Yorkshire, taking 8-32 in 1865.
No Nottinghamshire bowler has ever taken a hat-trick against Yorkshire yet the feat has been done seven times by Tykes’ bowlers.
Only one of those achievements was recorded at Trent Bridge, by Fred Trueman in 1951. On the opening day of a championship match he helped reduce the home side to 18 for six, by claiming the wickets of Reg Simpson, Alan Armitage and Peter Harvey in successive deliveries on his way to an analysis of 8-53 as the tail wagged to reach 122. Len Hutton scored 194 for the visitors in their nine-wicket success.
Hedley Verity’s 10-10 at Headingley in 1932 is the best figures by anyone against Notts. It surpassed Wilfred Rhodes’ 8-38 in 1899, the best by the White Rose county in Nottingham.
In 1990 Tim Robinson scored an unbeaten 220, the highest by a home batsman v Yorkshire. Percy Holmes holds the record for Yorkshire’s highest score at Trent Bridge, 285 in 1929. Jonathan Bairstow’s 205 two years ago is the only other double-hundred scored.
Played For Both
Two current Nottinghamshire favourites, Michael Lumb and Ajmal Shahzad, began their careers with the Headingley club.
Others to have appeared for both counties include: Ryan Sidebottom (pictured), Gareth Clough, Mike Bore, Greg Blewett, Barry Stead, Younis Ahmed, Brian Bolus, Alex Wharf, Richard Stemp, Ashley Metcalfe and Mark Broadhurst.
Stats
With James Taylor on England Lions duty this week he may be overtaken in the race to reach 1,000 first class runs. Taylor has registered 997 (which includes fc performances for England Lions & Sussex also), while Michael Lumb has 883 in his account and Samit Patel has scored 831.
Milestones
In first class cricket:
Alex Hales has completed 99 innings for Notts.
Steven Mullaney has played in 49 matches, scoring 2,448 runs.
David Hussey has scored 5,994 runs for Notts at an average of 63.09. A total of 832 of those runs have come against Yorkshire, from six matches, with four hundreds, at an average of 138.66.
Chris Read is closing in on a number of milestones. He has taken 893 career victims (846 catches 47 stumpings).
Of those catches 734 have been for Notts, putting him 3 behind Bruce French – and potentially only 11 behind Thomas Oates’ county record of 745 which remains unsubstantiated.
Read has also scored 5,952 runs solely at Trent Bridge.
Andre Adams has taken 293 wickets for Notts, 143 of them on his home ground.
Luke Fletcher has taken 143 wickets
Tickets
Tickets cost £14 for Adults, £8 for Juniors, Senior Citizens and Students.
Coverage
Live ball-by-ball commentary by the BBC is available online.For live score updates follow @TrentBridge on Twitter and to join in on the conversation use the hashtag #NottsvYorks