JACK BROOKS COLUMN

There has been a lot of cricket played since my last column and I’m writing this before our big game with Nottinghamshire, which could decide the County Championship title.

While we are now firmly back in four-day mode, we had a decent crack at the Royal London One-Day Cup.

Some great cricket saw us finish top of our group and earn a home quarter-final with Durham.

Unfortunately, we managed to mess that up and failed to chase down 237 on a slow wicket.

The lads were bitterly disappointed afterwards that we had thrown away a fantastic opportunity to possibly get to a Lord’s final.

Luckily, we have still been playing exceptional first-class cricket in between the limited overs games and have been sitting pretty top of the league for the majority of the summer.

We spent two home games playing at beautiful Scarborough (aka Scarbados), where we managed two fine wins over Middlesex and Sussex.

It’s a unique place to play being an out ground and games there are well supported, making for a cracking atmosphere.

The town itself doesn’t lend itself to much entertainment for me, particularly when we stayed in the hotel for nine days and nights in a row for a Championship match and two 50-over games.

To say I was ready to leave by the end is an understatement.

There are only so many visits to the pier and arcades I can handle without getting mortally bored.

You can get a marvellous fish and chips though!

The next Championship game was our big clash with our big rivals Lancashire at Old Trafford.

Going into the game, Yorkshire had not won any of the previous 12 Roses clashes.

So the lads were pretty pumped and excitable after we got the better of the old enemy on their own patch to give ourselves a healthy lead.

The Championship is now certainly ours to lose and whilst it is a great position to be in with two games remaining that’s all it is.

Sport can throw up pretty strange results and we know we have a massive job to do.

It is also nice to have Joe Root and Gary Ballance back in the side to offset the loss of our overseas gun Kane Williamson and unfortunate suspension of our captain Andrew Gale.

Galey was distraught after the Lancashire game when he found out his on-field actions were being penalised.

It meant he received three penalty points, which when added to his previous misdemeanours triggered a two-game ban, which ended his season.

His batting will be missed, but more importantly he has led the team superbly this season and he will be gutted not to be involved.

His career ambition, other than to play for England, is to be there to lift the Championship trophy as captain of Yorkshire and he is a typical bullish proud Yorkie, so you know it will be hurting his professional pride.

As for me, I’m just elated I’m still fit and firing at this time of year.

I’m two games from staying fit for a whole season for the first time as a professional.

Fingers crossed it stays that way and we can get a win to round off a season I can be very proud of.

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