ECB National Club Championship final preview: Grey taking nothing for granted as Northern approach the summit

Liam Grey celebrates his century in the Lancashire Cup final last year
Picture by GEORGE FRANKS

In Liam Grey’s first season at Northern, in 2015, they reached the final of the ECB National Club Championship.

So the all-rounder admits he took it a little bit for granted. 

“We got on a bit of a roll,” he recalls. “With it being my first year, I didn’t really appreciate the achievement. 

“Then for the next nine years, it’s been what we’re striving to get back to, and I didn’t realise how difficult it really is.”

One of three survivors of that 2015 defeat at the hands of Blackheath – captain James Cole and spinner Tom Sephton the others – Grey now knows all too well how tough it can be.

The Love Lane Liverpool Competition is rightly regarded as one of the strongest in the country, but the lack of a national title sometimes counts against it in these conversations.

Northern failed to defend 161 at Beckenham, and two years later Ormskirk came agonisingly close against Wanstead & Snaresbrook at Chelmsford. 

But other than that, nothing. Even in the mid-2000s, when Bootle were winning four successive Lancashire Cups, they didn’t get closer than a quarter-final; Wallasey, Northern and Ormskirk reached one semi each in the past five years but all fell short.  

Hard-luck stories abound – Northern fell foul of a bowl-out in last year’s knockout stages – but that’s sport for you. 

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Sunday’s clash with Brentwood at Worcestershire’s New Road ground is a chance to put an end to those years of hurt, and plant the Comp’s flag firmly at the top of the club game.

Grey says: “We don’t enter it every year just to play in it, we enter it to win. 

“It’s the pinnacle of club cricket. It’s what we work hard for throughout the season, for games like Sunday. This is why we sacrifice all our Sundays as well as Saturdays.

“It would be a nice feeling to be the first side from the Comp to win it, but there’s a lot of work to be done. 

“It’s the final of the national knockout, it’s probably one of the hardest games you’re going to have in club cricket.”

Grey was the star of Northern’s last cup success, hitting an unbeaten 118 to set up a thumping Lancashire Cup final win over Longridge at Emirates Old Trafford last year.

He followed that up with two wickets in the power play, bowling in tandem with Sephton – that combination has been a huge part of the side’s limited-overs success.

Nowhere was that laid out more plainly than in their semi-final win at Kimberley Institute. Setting off in pursuit of 242, the hosts were 17/5 before they could catch their breath; Grey’s six overs with the field up cost just 19 runs.

“When we beat Kimberley, I went and had a look at the team from 2015,” he says, finding the badger-est way to celebrate a win.

“It was a great team, but this one we’ve got now has all the bases covered. 

“It’s up there with the best I have played in, man for man. Everyone has each other’s backs.

“Me and Sephy have been at the club for years now and that’s our model, we open the bowling, try to take early wickets and restrict them to as few runs as possible.

“We know our roles, we’ve done it that often, and it’s worked really well for us. 

“The whole team have been phenomenal in Sunday cricket.”

Click here for the latest Love Lane Liverpool Competition statistics

Sunday’s final is just part one of a double-header for Northern, one of only three sides to reach the final of both the 40-over knockout and the ECB National Club T20.

Ormskirk, who replay their rained-off Lancashire Cup final with Prestwich on the same day as the T20 showdown, have the high ground in the league and are unlikely to yield it.

Nonetheless, Grey believes his side have proved their quality by getting to the finals. Now it’s just a case of winning the damn things.

He adds: “To get to two national finals speaks for itself regarding how good our team is at the moment.

“You don’t get many opportunities to play in a national final, let alone two in seven days. 

“The defeat in 2015, losing a bowl-out last year, the previous semi-finals… it all makes you more hungry, it makes your appetite for success grow and grow.”

from Merseyside Cricket Online https://ift.tt/AxQGIma