Yorkshire v Middlesex: Gillespie applauds Durham’s ‘incredible title effort’

YORKSHIRE first-team coach 
Jason Gillespie believes his players can hold their heads high despite missing out on the County Championship title.
Durham captain Paul Collingwood celebrates with the teamDurham captain Paul Collingwood celebrates with the team
Durham captain Paul Collingwood celebrates with the team

Yorkshire’s dream of marking their historic 150th year with the title ended yesterday when Durham clinched their third Championship in six years.

Durham confirmed first place with an eight-wicket win against Nottinghamshire at Chester-le-Street.

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But Gillespie said his second-placed side could be proud of their efforts and backed them to come back stronger in 2014.

“It would have been a fairytale to win the Championship in our 150th year, but it wasn’t to be,” he said.

“There’s always disappointment because you think of what might have been, but there’s a hell of a lot of pride there as well.

“The players are naturally disappointed that we’re no longer in a position to win the title but there’s already talk about how we can improve next year.

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“I certainly can’t fault the lads’ attitude and effort because they’ve been absolutely brilliant throughout the season.”

Yorkshire will seal second place today if they avoid defeat against Middlesex at Headingley.

They are 130-5 in their second innings, a lead of 212, and have one hand firmly on the £235,000 runners-up cheque – £162,000 of which goes to the players.

Durham pocket £550,000 and Gillespie believes they are worthy winners.

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Paul Collingwood’s men gained their 10th win of the season – and fifth in succession – with a three-day victory at the Riverside ground.

“When all’s said and done, there’s a team just been crowned who’ve won 10 out of 15 Championship games, which is an incredible effort,” said Gillespie.

“They deserve all the plaudits and praise that will come their way and all you can do is take your hat off to them.

“We always knew Durham were a strong team and although we led the table for quite a long time, I kept saying that it’s not over until the end, and Durham have played some wonderful cricket in the last few weeks.

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“All we can do is congratulate them on what’s been an incredible year for them really, and they fully deserve to have a few quiet ones to celebrate their success.”

The history books will show that Yorkshire’s challenge effectively ended with a seven-wicket defeat to Durham at Scarborough.

Yorkshire led their rivals by 25.5 points going into that game three weeks ago, and although Durham had the advantage of a match in hand, the way they have surged ahead subsequently has been quite remarkable.

“Durham completely outplayed us at Scarborough,” conceded Gillespie.

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“They played some wonderful cricket and, although we’ve come back from that result and played well since, that game was obviously very important.

“If we’d managed to win it, or at least draw it, we might still have found ourselves with a chance of winning the Championship.

“But that’s not to be and all we can focus on now is trying to beat Middlesex and then our last game against Surrey at The Oval next week.”

Although Yorkshire held pole position for much of the campaign, Gillespie said he never thought they were home and hosed.

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“I never thought we had it in the bag, absolutely not,” he insisted. “Durham probably only thought in the last two weeks or so that they had it because it’s been very close throughout the summer. Things can change so quickly in Championship cricket and you can take nothing for granted.

“We had some wonderful wins along the way but, at the end of the day, it just wasn’t enough.”

Attention will shortly turn to next season as Yorkshire strive to go one better in 2014.

Having operated without an overseas player for much of the campaign, the club are keen to pursue their stated target of re-signing Kane Williamson, the New Zealand batsman who joined the county last month on a short-term contract.

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“Kane has been a wonderful addition to our squad and he’s happy here and we’re delighted with how he’s gone,” said Gillespie. “We’ll have those discussions with him (about coming back) and, if that’s something he wants to do and something we can do, then we’ll get our heads together and try and come up with a way we can make that happen.

“They’re conversations for Kane and his management to have with the club and, if it all comes to fruition, that would be great.

“He’s a great young lad who we respect highly and he could potentially fulfil a very important role for us.”

Williamson suffered a rare failure at Headingley yesterday on day three of Yorkshire’s match with Middlesex.

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He was bowled for two by Tim Murtagh as Yorkshire, who resumed on 4-0, fell to 7-2 after play began at 2.40pm following morning rain.

Adam Lyth went lbw for a duck to Corey Collymore, Phil Jaques was superbly caught by Dawid Malan running back from first slip off Murtagh for 21, and Yorkshire slid to 50-4 when Jonny Bairstow was bowled by Collymore for three

But Andrew Gale (40) and Gary Ballance (53*) added 79 for the fifth wicket before Gale was lbw to Tom Helm, the Yorkshire captain passing 1,000 Championship runs for the season during the course of his innings.