By Gary Watton
August 29 2014

As the curtain falls on another season of second eleven cricket, it is time for me to briefly review the endeavours of Yorkshire's second string cricketers. Before I do so, the reserve team concluded their Second Eleven Championship engagements with a draw at neighbours Derbyshire. Nobody in the away team constructed any innings of note, but our bowling was more noteworthy.

Everyone bowled tidily in the first innings, with the exception of Josh Shaw, while in the second innings only Ashraf and Waite produced economical bowling figures. Here are the scores underneath:

Derbyshire Second Eleven versus YORKSHIRE SECOND ELEVEN; at Denby; August 27th-29th. YORKSHIRE SECOND ELEVEN won the toss.

Derbyshire Second Eleven first innings: 209 (Hosein 64; Carver 3-29, Ashraf 3-39)

YORKSHIRE SECOND ELEVEN first innings: 185 (Davis 3-41, Higginbottom 3-45)

Derbyshire Second Eleven second innings: 249 for eight declared (Slater 112*, Cork 55; Wainman 3-44)

YORKSHIRE SECOND ELEVEN second innings: 25 for one

Match drawn. Derbyshire Second Eleven 11 points, YORKSHIRE SECOND ELEVEN 10 points.

Meanwhile, I nominate young James Wainman as the Yorkshire Second Eleven player of the season. James could well be in line to become the successor to Ryan Sidebottom as Yorkshire's left-handed seamer. However competition for places in the high-flying first team is ferocious. Consequently, James will either have to be patient, or if he is not fast-tracked into the first eleven, then he could become the latest in a long line of promising young Tykes obliged to relocate to another county in order to obtain regular first-class cricket.

The best of the rest has to be Jack Leaning who excelled for the seconds in early season before enjoying a prolonged stint in the first eleven. Joint third in my 'poll' for best second eleven player of the year are the admirable Richard Pyrah and the talented Will Rhodes. Also worthy of commendation are Ryan Gibson, Andrew Hodd, and Josh Shaw. Finally, Dan Hodgson and Jonny Tattersall had satisfactory seasons too.

As for the rest, I believe that Moin Ashraf's career has drastically stalled while Elliot Calls and Ben Coad were also disappointing in 2014. Regrettably Oliver Robinson was asked to leave, mid-season, while Azeem Rafiq, the first eleven's best bowler in Twenty20 cricket is leaving on better terms. Clearly Yorkshire CCC regard Karl Carver as the short-term understudy to the rejuvenated Adil Rashid. Although his second eleven performances were largely undistinguished, Carver did carve out a fine first-class debut in the County Championship, before returning to the reserves.

Finally, our teenage prodigy, Matthew Fisher may not have enjoyed a particularly fruitful year in the seconds, but his ability to bowl economically prompted his upgrade to the first eleven's campaign in the Royal London One-Day Cup.

The trouble for some of our most promising second string is that while the first eleven continue to flourish in the County Championship and to a lesser extent in the one-day tournaments, then opportunities for promotion to the first eleven will ominously be thin on the ground. In such circumstances, will the white rose county be able and willing to hold on to Wainman and his talented team mates?