Letter to the parents: Chris Waters’s T20 half-term report on Yorkshire CCC

As your sons have now completed the first half of their T20 group campaign, here is their collective half-term report.

In a nutshell, they have done very well indeed and shown an excellent attitude to their studies, winning four of their first six games to sit top of the North Group.

As we discussed when you came in prior to the new term, they needed to get their act together in the game’s shortest format, and this they have done, Sunday’s surprise defeat in Leicester notwithstanding.

For too long they have underachieved in their T20 work; why, as the headmaster himself pointed out, and with some justification, I felt, they are one of only four student groups in England and Wales - the others in Derbyshire, Durham and Glamorgan - never to have won the T20 tournament.

However, having observed their attitude, behaviour and character from close quarters in recent weeks, one feels confident enough to suggest that they are genuine contenders this year, provided they maintain the standards set.

Granted, the students in the Central & West Group, along with the South Group, may have something to say about the matter - one observes that Northamptonshire, for example, under the tutelage of headmaster D.S. Lehmann have won five from five, and Gloucestershire and Hampshire five from six.

But, all things considered, there has been a significant improvement up to now and only once has it been necessary to reach for the cane, when Yorkshire somehow lost seven wickets for 35 runs to be bowled out for 135 in pursuit of 148 to win the aforementioned match in Leicester, when the boys’ minds - and one is only surmising - were perhaps distracted by the girls’ game that took place beforehand.

Of course, a good example is invariably set by the parents/leaders, so credit is due to Gavin Hamilton, the general manager of cricket, and to Anthony McGrath, the head coach, in addition to Jonny Bairstow, the head boy/captain.

Hamilton and McGrath have recruited well, bringing in experienced campaigners such as Hassan Ali and Moeen Ali, who have done particularly well with the ball. Hassan is the leading wicket-taker in class with 11 at an average of just 10.36, with Moeen (eight wickets) boasting the next-best average of 12.12.

Moeen also has the best economy rate (5.70) and made a fine half-century in the win against Derbyshire; at 38, he is certainly one of our more mature students, one that the younger class members rightly look up to.

Jonny, of course, is similarly esteemed, having been one of our most impressive pupils for many years now. He has led from the front in his first season as T20 captain and tops the batting averages with 250 runs at an average of 50 exactly.

Jonny made key contributions to the wins over Notts Outlaws, Durham and Lancashire, his 73 in the latter fixture at Headingley on Friday underpinning a superb all-round class display as the old enemy were dispatched by 106 runs.

Mandy Zaltswoman, the school statistician, informs me that this was actually Yorkshire’s joint second-biggest T20 victory by a runs margin and Lancashire’s heaviest T20 runs defeat. As I always tell her, a job on Test Match Special awaits, although she would certainly be a big loss to us.

Yorkshire’s 213-7 was also the club’s highest home total in a Roses T20; small wonder, then, that it was cherry pop and ice-cream all-round in the school canteen later (yum yuck).

Young James Wharton has also batted well, with an excellent cameo in that game to follow half-centuries in the wins at Notts and Durham. James certainly hits a long ball and is an excellent fielder; again, you must be very proud.

One could go on - and go on one must until the damn word count has been filled. Sorry.

Let me see now… well, Jafer Chohan has impressed again with the ball (10 wickets at 14.30), admirably filling the leg-spinning gap left by Adil Rashid, this teacher’s favourite pet. It would be nice to see young Adil again but the school’s medical staff informs me that he has some sort of shoulder problem. At any rate, one is in possession of a sick note that seems to date back to June 2022. Hmm...

Will Luxton has lately shown glimpses of his potential with the bat (by Jove, he does like to hit a big six over the leg-side, does William).

Adam Lyth struck the highest score of our school year so far – 97 in the defeat to Gloucestershire. And Hassan and A.J. Tye – or old school Tye, as we call him – memorably combined with the bat in the win against Derbyshire, sharing 56 from 23 balls for the ninth wicket to lead the lads home with four balls left, although Hassan was a bit of a cheeky monkey for doing a “mic drop” with his bat at the end of it all, a moment of exuberance for which we can forgive him under the circumstances.

Others have chipped in at various stages and, as Jonny told Christine Waterpipe, cricket correspondent of our school newspaper, The Yorkshire Postgraduate, after the Leicester setback: “If you’d have said at the start of the competition that we would have been four from six, then we’d have taken that.”

Quite so, and as the T20 breaks now for a couple of weeks for the County Championship, it remains only for me to commend again the performance of your sons.

There remains, of course, a long way to go, but it would seem that the penny has dropped in some cases and that the boys are starting to fulfil their potential.

Bravo, and if there is ever anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely,

Chris Waters

Head of Double Dutch