Wednesday, June 03, 2015

They'll be dancing in the streets of Leicester tonight



Leicestershire beat Essex by six wickets at Chelmsford today. Just another county game? Not quite.

The Guardian explains:
It had been a long time coming, 993 days to be precise, so while the head coach, Andrew McDonald, gently let it be known he considered a one-off championship victory worthy of only relatively restrained celebration, the moment when Leicestershire’s Lewis Hill pushed the winning run was understandably greeted with an explosion of joy by long-suffering supporters. 
That it was Hill, Leicester-born and a product of the county’s academy, who hit the winning stroke – having swept the previous delivery for six – made the moment even more special.
Leicestershire, in fact, were the only county to have gone two whole season without a win since the Second World War.

It's no wonder BBC Radio Leicester's Richard Rae got rather emotional.

The photograph shows the Leicestershire XI of 1975 that won both the County Championship and the Benson & Hedges Cup.

Note the 18-year-old David Gower in the back row, alighted like an exotic butterfly among the team of gnarled old professionals.

No comments: