By Jeremy Horne
December 2 2002

So, August began and if July was the month of boredom then August was the month of changing fortunes. We began well, slipped in the middle and closed on the highest note possible. In part three of our review, we look how August shook up the race for the county championship title. The month began with two one-day games inside 3 days. First up was Essex at Lord’s, a match that was bound to be heated given the ill affairs at Southgate a couple of weeks beforehand. The ‘sex bowled with discipline for most of the innings managing to reduce Essex to 131-7, but a magnificent century from Will Jefferson, in difficult conditions allowed Essex to reach 194-8 before rain intervened and cut the Essex innings short by 19 balls. Persistent rain looked to have washed out any chances of a Middlesex chase, but in the end the showers relented and Middlesex were set 77 to win in 10 overs. A reshuffled batting order saw the likes of Strauss, Koenig and Weekes batting lower down the list to allow the more aggressive players to come in higher up. Big blows from Owais Shah and Jamie Dalrymple looked to seal victory for the ‘sex, but the loss of two wickets right at the death put the pressure back on, until the winning four was hit by Paul Weekes.

The second one-day fixture was at Whitgift School, against Surrey. The ‘sex began positively and a partnership developed between Strauss and Shah, which was only ended when Strauss was controversially run out. Shah continued his dominance and scored a breathtaking century. It was Middlesex’s first one-day league hundred for nearly 3 years and ironically the same player, against the same opposition, scored it. Surrey’s innings began badly, Ward was out in the first over and after taking fearful abuse from some unknown crowd members, Judas soon followed to another dodgy run out. Ally Brown’s hard hitting kept the home team in it, but when he was dismissed, he took the lions hopes with him and we secured an easy 65 run win. That was to be our last moment of glory before the final match of the month.

The next day we began our Championship game against Northants and despite centuries from Shah and Hutton rain prevented what would have been a maximum points victory. However the rain held back for the one day game and with the ‘sex having won their last three NUL matches, spirits were high. However, injuries to bowlers weakened the attack and Northants capitalised, scoring a massive 286 for 7 with Michael Hussey making 110. When the ‘sex batted, fortunes were slightly different. Both openers were out before a run was scored and the Whitgift hero Owais Shah soon followed. The rest of the innings followed the same pattern with only Michael Brown and David Alleyne reaching double figures. We were bowled out for 72 and left totally humiliated.

Meanwhile, the county season was continuing to flow, but we had to be careful, as it was this time last year when things began to go wrong. A trip to Nottingham followed and a double century from Kevin Pieterson put the home team in the box seat. After that the batting was woeful and there were signs of end of season nerves again. We lost by an innings with only a Andrew Strauss’s 2nd innings century to show for. The following week we were back at Lord’s playing Derbyshire. A huge hundred from Michael Di Venuto put the visitors in control, despite 6 wickets from Ashley Noffke. Derby were all out for 414, having at one stage been 177-5. Once again, Middlesex’s batting was poor and we slipped to 5-3, which would have been 5-4 if Shah wasn’t dropped at slip. It wasn’t costly anyway and when he was out the score became 37-4. Enter Ed Joyce. He, together with Paul Weekes, David Nash and Aaron Laraman he guided us to 304 all out and we avoided the follow on. However another ton from Di Venuto meant that Middlesex were left to play out a draw. It was going well until a collapse in the final session left us with one wicket remaining and about 15 overs to see out. We nearly survived, but with only a few overs remaining Phil Tufnell was removed and victory was Derby’s. Like last year, we were faltering at the last hurdle. We were also defeated in the one-day game again after playing another ‘reserve’ team.

We had now lost 4 games on the trot, 2 in the Championship and 2 in the NUL. We needed a lift and that came at Worcester. Batting first, Ed Joyce scored another hundred and Sven Koenig also scored 81 as Middlesex batted well on the first day and scored nearly 400 for the loss of 7 wickets. Worcester would have expected to wrap up the tail on day 2, but all hopes were dashed by David Nash, who turned an overnight 50 into his first ton of the year, and Ashley Noffke who smashed 76. This allowed us to reach a score of over 500. Worcester then began well and looked as if they were going to avoid the follow on, before Chad Keegan and Noffke sparked a third morning collapse, taking four wickets each as the hosts followed on. They battled bravely second time around and when they were eventually bowled out Middlesex needed just under 200 in around 50 overs. We got off to another good start thanks to Strauss and Koenig and after a little blip, Joyce and Weekes both scored unbeaten 40’s to take us home. This was a vital win, which put us back in the hunt for promotion, but it wasn’t over yet.

Next week: The final part of the season review looks at those vital last games.