Northern captain James Cole reckons his side will take some stopping as they make their play for club cricket immortality.
Norfolk’s Swardeston, in 2019, are the only team ever to do the national cup double of both the ECB National Club T20 and the 40-over National Club Championship.
And Cole, towards the end of his 15th season as skipper, believes his side have what it takes to repeat the feat.
Standing in their way are Brentwood from Essex in whites and Oundle Town from Northamptonshire in colours, worthy opponents with their own dreams of glory.
But Cole insists if the Northern stars align, there’s little any side can do to stop them – starting with Brentwood at Worcester’s New Road on Sunday.
He says: “We know that if we don’t perform, we won’t win the game, but equally the flipside is that if we play our best cricket then we don’t think anyone will beat us.
“This is probably the most well-rounded side we’ve had, especially in cup cricket.
“We’ve got fellas that can go really hard at it, and fellas that can dig in and get you out of trouble.
“Bowling-wise we’ve got plenty of options too – we’ve got a very well-rounded cup side, and that shows in how well we’ve done in the national competitions.”
In particular, the captain believes his side’s 40-over displays this year have been at their absolute peak.
In their quarter-final, at home to old adversaries Ormskirk, they gave a lesson in the art of the middle-over squeeze after Chris Laker’s century set an imposing target; in the semi-final at Kimberley Institute, the whole batting order chipped in with runs before the bowling and fielding unit reduced their hosts to the ruins of 17/5.
“Both powerplays were nearly perfect,” Cole reflects.
“Especially in the 40-over cup, we’ve played some really good cricket, that’s where our best performances have come this year.
“In the T20, we’ve had the rub of the green and some special wins, defending some low scores and having a little bit of luck to some extent, but you make your own luck.
“We’ve played a lot of Sunday cricket, and a lot of finals days, and some of the sides we’ve got over the line against didn’t have that experience.
“Sometimes those things happen when you’ve been in those pressure situations before. It can give you a bit of an edge at times.”
Cole has been in the game too long to completely write off his side’s chances in the league, but he accepts Ormskirk’s relentless form, combined with a slight dip from his side, have cast that particular die.
Since Northern froze their rivals out for a draw at Brook Lane in June, Gary Knight’s side have won eight out of 10 in the league, tying one and drawing one; against such a run, any slip-up is going to be punished.
Tom Sephton took three wickets in four balls with the scores level to retrieve a tie with Southport & Birkdale on Saturday, but the real damage was done in the previous week’s failure to defend 220 at Wallasey.
Cole admits: “In the league, we’ve fallen away a bit and don’t feel like we’ve played as well as we could have done – we’re still in it, but it’s out of our hands now, we’re relying on Ormskirk to not win.
“But if someone offered you two national cup finals at the start of the year, you’d take it every day of the week.
“We’ve said as a group that we haven’t played as well as we could on a Saturday.
“It’s not that we’ve taken our eye off the ball, it’s that there’s so many good cricketers in the league, you can’t afford to have an off-day.
“Ormskirk are relentless at the moment, whereas we lost a bit of momentum.
“But we’ve still got an outside chance of doing something – we’ve got to win on Saturday, and then that rolls into Sunday.”
Two great rivals spurring each other on to greater heights is one of the oldest tropes in sport, and Cole agrees there’s a case for the Love Lane Liverpool Competition giants being among the strongest club sides in the country.
“They’ve got to be, really,” he says. “We’ve got into two national finals in the same year, and they’re ahead of us in the league.
“We’ve had some great battles over the years and hopefully we’ll continue to do that.”
Northern’s template is to bat first, set a score then put on the squeeze.
The Kimberley game, or last year’s Lancashire Cup final win over Longridge, are the template – but Cole believes they’re a more adaptable side than they used to be.
He adds: “You have to take a decision on the day as to what kind of cricket to play.
“Last year, we were really lucky at Old Trafford, it was a flat wicket and 25 degrees and we got to bat first – we like to set a score, but if conditions dictate otherwise then we’ll make that call accordingly.
“If you’d asked me 10 years ago, a lot was reliant on the toss and batting first, putting pressure on them that way, but we feel like we’ve got a lot of experience of doing both now.
“So whatever we have to do, we’ll try to go about it in the best way we can.”
And with busloads of fans making the long journeys to Worcester, then to Derby, the skipper hopes to make it all worthwhile for those on and off the pitch.
He says: “It’s a hell of a commitment with the amount of cricket we play – people sacrifice their personal lives and family lives to play the best standard of cricket they can, so it’s nice to share occasions like Sunday.”
Courtesy of Tom Evans @ Merseyside Cricket Online
