Yorkshire CCC end wretched season on a fitting low

At 5.31pm precisely, on a gloomy day with the floodlights on, Patterson cut a ball from Gloucestershire’s David Payne to Chris Dent at backward-point and Yorkshire had lost by 18 runs.

So concluded one of the worst campaigns in the club’s history with a sixth defeat in eight Championship games.

It was a thoroughly unfitting denouement for Patterson, one of the finest servants to have worn the White Rose, and a thoroughly fitting one for the club in general, one ripped apart by the racism affair.

Whether Yorkshire’s disastrous slump in the second half of the season will result in an even more fitting conclusion on Thursday remains to be seen.

Now third-bottom of Division One, they would be relegated if second-bottom Warwickshire beat Hampshire at Edgbaston, where the hosts are 62-2 in their second innings, a lead of 23.

That Yorkshire have to rely on a result elsewhere tells you everything you need to know about the state of the club.

Yorkshire could end up getting relegated anyway pending the outcome of the England and Wales Cricket Board disciplinary hearings into the racism affair, which are likely to take place in late November.

All that, however, is for the miserable future; let us focus, for the moment, on the miserable present.

Yorkshire won only one Championship game all season - their opening one at Gloucestershire - and which division they will be playing in next year almost feels like the least of their troubles.

Although it might appear that they came close to winning this match, with the margin tight just as it was when they went down by one-wicket to Essex and by two wickets to Hampshire, it never felt as though Yorkshire would achieve a target of 241.

Fifty runs were needed when Patterson, the last man, walked to the crease to another standing ovation; he perhaps had three or four in the course of the match, a tribute to his service and popularity.

That Yorkshire are letting him go seems either a brave or crazy move by the coaches, given that he still has what it takes to perform at this level.

He retires - from Yorkshire cricket at any rate, and possibly for good - with 489 first-class wickets to his name at 27.57, a credit to his profession and an example to all who aspire to wear the White Rose.

“Thank you Steven!” shone the electronic scoreboard in the gloom straight after play, a message that alternated with “Thank you Tom!” in honour of the Somerset-bound batsman Tom Kohler-Cadmore.

The latter has been a good servant too, although deathly silence greeted his dismissal here, third out for seven with the total on 82 when he chanced his arm and was caught on the long-off boundary - not a good look when it doesn’t come off.

Fourteen wickets fell in the day, which began in sunny conditions with Gloucestershire 204-6 in their second innings, a lead of 211.

Patterson struck first, trapping Zafar Gohar lbw, and then George Hill nipped in with the wickets of Ollie Price - bowled for the top score of 68 - and his brother, Tom, trapped lbw.

Matty Fisher finished the innings with a direct hit from mid-off that ran out Ajeet Singh Dale as he tried to steal a single off Hill.

Yorkshire were one-down after just four balls of their chase, James Wharton chopping on an attempted cover drive.

Hill and Adam Lyth added 64 for the second wicket, a stand full of handsome boundaries and not much alarm.

But Hill was lbw driving at Dale - and then Kohler-Cadmore had his rush of blood against spinner Gohar. Jonny Tattersall had his off stump knocked out of the ground by Payne, who then bowled Harry Duke as he tried to leave, and Yorkshire slid to 119-6 when they lost the key wicket of Adam Lyth, caught at slip off Gohar for 49.

Dom Bess is a fine man to have coming in at No 7, and he helped to take the total to 155 before Yorkshire lost their seventh wicket, Jordan Thompson turning Gohar to leg slip. Fisher edged Payne to first, and Yorkshire’s goose looked cooked when Ben Coad was lbw to Gohar.

Bess biffed away and Patterson blocked, the old stager contributing a 27-ball duck in 40 minutes, Bess finishing on 79 not out from 103 balls with nine fours and a six.

Prior to the match, on Monday morning, Miles Hammond and James Bracey, the Gloucestershire batsmen, had entertained early arrivals by re-enacting the final ball of the 2019 Headingley Ashes Test, which England won by one wicket.

Hammond played the Ben Stokes role and Bracey was Jack Leach, Bracey even wiping clean an imaginary pair of glasses.

But hopes that Bess and Patterson would provide a far more authentic re-enactment were dashed at the death.