Hill turns Roses game after Jennings makes history

The early signs were inconclusive, Lancashire reaching 272-8 after winning the toss.

While the national focus was on the race to become the new Prime Minister, effectively a choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee for all the good it may do, parochial interest was on the 277th Roses game.

It was going decidedly badly for Yorkshire until George Hill, rather like Truss, came with a late surge to take a career-best 6-26 from 16 overs as Lancashire relinquished the dominant position of 180-0, Hill’s figures his best, according to the man himself, at any level of the game.

Bowling from The James Anderson End, as though something of the England man's magic had rubbed off on him, Hill found just enough movement with the old ball - in fact, a changed ball, after the previous sphere had been hit into a puddle.

It was outstanding stuff from the 21-year-old all-rounder, Hill’s performance arguably overshadowing Keaton Jennings’s achievement in becoming the first man to score four successive Roses hundreds, the former England player making 119 in almost five hours at the crease.

After he had taken his first wicket - Luke Wells caught in the penultimate over before tea from a lazy loft to deep square-leg - Hill said that Tom Kohler-Cadmore, his Yorkshire team-mate, had quipped that he was on for all ten wickets.

It was starting to look like a serious prediction as opposed to a throwaway joke when Hill then claimed the next five wickets for five runs in 41 balls after tea as Lancashire collapsed from 231-1 to 251-6, Hill changing the complexion of the match in his first run out with the ball since breaking a big toe at Scarborough in June.

Jennings was squared-up and bowled, Josh Bohannon drove to short extra-cover, and then Hill removed Dane Vilas, Steven Croft and George Balderson with the aid of three catches in the first slip region by Kohler-Cadmore.

A fine Yorkshire comeback was capped when Ben Coad, who had a splendid day himself, trapped Tom Hartley lbw before having Tom Bailey caught behind for a golden duck.

“I think the boys will be very happy with that,” said Hill after play.

“We knew the wicket would be quite flat, especially day one, quite tired and a little bit slow.

“If we can bowl them out for 320, say, we’re well in the game. We just kept plugging away and got our rewards.”

Of his own efforts, Hill said: “I haven’t bowled for a while. When ‘Tatts’ (Yorkshire captain Jonny Tattersall) chucked me the ball to start with, I was just happy to be back bowling again.

“I just tried to hit one area as consistently as I could. The odd one nibbled a bit and I felt in good rhythm.

“I said to ‘Tatts’ after I got my second or third wicket, ‘Get me off and put the strike bowlers on’, but thankfully he kept me on and the old ball continued to help me just enough.”

Before play began, with a crowd of around 2,000 dotted around the ground, a smattering of applause could be heard emanating from the Yorkshire huddle.

That invariably means one thing and, sure enough, it was duly confirmed that there was to be a first-class debutant on show in the form of Fin Bean, a 20-year-old Harrogate-born batsman who recently hit the headlines with a record innings of 441 in second-team cricket.

It was pretty much the only thing that anyone of a Yorkshire persuasion had to applaud for about five hours until Hill got rid of Wells for 84, prior to which one wondered where a wicket was coming from.

Yorkshire should have had one not long before lunch with the score on 82, but Steve Patterson inexplicably dropped Wells on 43 at mid-on off Dom Bess, a simple opportunity.

Yorkshire turned to Bess’s off-spin after just 14 overs following some fine new-ball bowling from Coad especially.

Spin could play an increasing part as the game goes on, with Bess flying the flag for Yorkshire in that regard against opponents who are fielding two specialist spinners and one part-timer.

In warm and windy conditions, with summer apparently not quite ready to relinquish its grip, the Lancashire openers had looked in little trouble.

Wells’s innings was replete with whipped and well-timed leg-side strokes and Jennings’s full of seemingly effortless drives and smartly scampered singles, particularly into the offside.

There was transparent joy in Jennings’s celebration on reaching three figures, from 220 deliveries, as though he was fully cognisant of the Roses history he had created after previous scores, in reverse chronological sequence, of 238, 132 and 114 against the White Rose.

Barely had Jennings exited to a loud ovation when Lyth copped a painful blow on the nose and had to go off clutching a towel to his face.

The injury occurred when a sharp opportunity deflected off Lyth’s hands at mid-wicket when Steven Croft, on nought, clipped Waite off his pads, but the opener is made of strong stuff and was said to be alright.