Cricket chief Ed Home hails ‘Herculean’ Shropshire effort
Head of cricket Ed Home hailed “a great effort” from Shropshire as Herefordshire completed a four-wicket victory late on the final day to win Western Division Two of the NCCA Championship.
Shropshire closed their three-day campaign in second place in the table, 12 points behind Herefordshire, as the home side sealed an instant return to the top division.
After being 75-7 at one stage on day one Shropshire fought valiantly to take the game to the final session on the third day.
“It was a great effort,” said Home. “We probably put ourselves in a tough position on the first morning of the game, going from 45-0 to 75-7.
“From that situation, to end up going into the last hour of the game and getting Herefordshire six down, was a Herculean effort really.”
He added: “We’ll come back harder and stronger next year. If you look back and reflect on the season, we got out of the group stages of the T20 competition, which we didn’t do last year.
“We had two good wins in the NCCA Trophy, including a memorable victory over Staffordshire, and we had two Championship victories this season rather than one last year, so I think the general trend is upwards.”
Shropshire were bowled out for 178 in their first innings while Hereford replied with 416-6. They showed great fight to then bat almost 125 overs for 369 all out.
But Herefordshire then chased down 132 runs they needed to win for the loss of six wickets.
“When you get into that situation, you want to win,” said Ed Home. “But you’ve also got to be honest and recognise over three days did we ever get a situation when we were on top of Herefordshire in the game? The answer to that is probably not and the reason for that was the first morning.
“Congratulations to Herefordshire on gaining promotion. There’s a lot of friendships on both sides. In many ways it was like an old fashioned game of cricket. They played very hard on the pitch, but the players shared a drink and conversations after the end of play on all three days.”
Home added: “A special mention for Peter Clark (94) as that was his first major innings for Shropshire and I’m sure he will only kick on from there. Tom Fell (154), as he was last year, has been the cornerstone of everything and he played very well once again.”
