BERKSHIRE WINS FIRST EVER ONE-DAY TROPHY
Berkshire v Northumberland at Lord’s Cricket Ground 6th September 2004
(Northumberland 237 all out v Berkshire 240 for 3 – Berkshire won by 7 wkts)
Berkshire won the toss and elected to field, not uncommon in September finals at Lord’s. They stuck to their task well and restricted Northumberland to 237, a manageable target.
Captain, Julian Wood commented, “We bowled and fielded superbly throughout and picked up wickets at crucial stages to keep them down to 237 in 50 overs. This was a great effort considering the short boundary on the Tavern side.”
In reply, Tom Fray and Johnny Perkins provided a solid start before Fray was caught behind for 21. Bjorn Mordt joined Perkins who was next out at 116- 2. Perkins had played superbly for 73, an innings that earned him the man of the match award.
Captain Wood then blasted his way to 51 to put the Royal County in sight of victory. His partnership with Mordt effectively sealed the game. Former Essex batsman, Paul Pritchard then joined Mordt to see us home with Mordt hitting the winning runs to finish on 72 not out.
That then set off great scenes of celebration in front of the famous pavilion as Wood was presented with the trophy with hundreds of Berkshire supporters gathered on the outfield.
Julian Wood summed up the day, “that feeling when we had won will stay with me forever; a real sense of achievement. I feel honoured to have been part of a squad that has made history”.
On his winning the Man-of-the-match award, Johnny Perkins recently said, “Looking back I was incredibly nervous to start with, but the feeling of being ‘in’ at Lord’s was fantastic and then I treated it like any other innings. It was an experience that I will never forget”.
Bjorn Mordt had been equally nervous before batting, “I was puffing on a cigarette when I knew I was the next man in. When Tom Fray was out I quickly grabbed my stuff and got down through the long room and out to the wicket. It was only a couple of balls later I realised that I still had my cigarettes and lighter in my pocket!” His nerves soon went and he finished the game with two big sixes into the Tavern stand!
It was also a fitting result for Berkshire manager, Gordon Child. As a former county wicket-keeper and captain, Gordon had been manager since the late 1980s and was nearing the end of his tenure. As the captain said at the time, “….. many thanks to Gordon who deserves this as much as anyone”.
Current Berkshire coach, Tom Lambert, remembers the post-match celebrations well, but his day had an anxious start. Uncertain of whether
or not he would be playing he was nervous when the captain approached him at the end of the warm-up and began the conversation with “Sorry Lambo….” but quickly followed it up with “…..but you’re not going to take the new ball”! All in that brief moment, Tom went from thinking he wasn’t playing to having it confirmed that he was, albeit in an indirect manner!
But it could all so easily have been different. The first-round game
v Cheshire was washed out and Berkshire won a bowl-out 3-1! The bowlers who bowled straight that day would have had no idea how significant their contributions would be!
Subsequent victories against a strong Wales side at Swansea, and then a home semi-final at Finchampstead against Suffolk, showed more than
a glimpse of Berkshire’s strength set us up for what would turn out to be a fantastic day at Lord’s.
Berks batsman Paul Pritchard had played at Lord’s numerous times during his years at Essex, including a couple of one-day finals. He famously said in the dressing room after the semi-final that “there is only one thing worse than losing a semi-final and that is losing a final”. Julian Wood remembered those words and then his team went out and made history!
Footnote – in the 20 years since that first one-day win Berkshire has won the trophy eight times.
