Partnerships and Milestones
Rain brought an end to the record-breaking partnership by Will Young and Joe Clarke against Somerset at Taunton but not before the pair had consolidated their place in Nottinghamshire’s roll of honour.
Twenty-two more runs were added on the morning of Day Four, bringing their unbroken partnership to 392; Clarke finished on 213no and Young with an unbeaten 174. Together they batted for 102 overs and transformed a game that Somerset looked to have in their control after establishing a first innings lead of 261.
That reinforced the landmark that the two had reached at stumps on Day Three, setting the highest third wicket partnership in Notts’ history, beating the 367 set by Billy Gunn and his nephew John in 1903.
Not only that, theirs is the biggest partnership in the history of First-Class matches between Notts and Somerset and third in the list of all partnerships for Nottinghamshire.
Only current skipper Haseeb Hameed and Ben Duckett, who made 402 against Derbyshire for the second wicket in 2022, and Darren Bicknell and Guy Welton, with 406 opening partnership versus Warwickshire in 2000, have made more.#
Will Young, making his first appearance this season for the Trent Bridge side, having arrived from New Zealand a few days earlier, made his highest ever First-Class score with 16 fours and two sixes.
Clarke, who has shown a taste for milestones – his only previous double hundred, 229no made last year in a similar game-saving cause against Warwickshire, was the 100th score of 200+ by a Notts player – had made centuries in each of Nottinghamshire’s two previous Championship games to give him an early season average in excess of 96!
Clarke’s innings contained 25 fours and one six.
Looking at the record for each wicket for Nottinghamshire shows that six of the ten records have come this century but the oldest is almost 120 years old; AO Jones and John Gunn put on 361 for the fourth wicket against Essex in 1905. Six years later, Ted Alletson’s extraordinary hitting in his 189 against Sussex put on 152 with William Riley for the 10th wicket that was equalled in 2000 by Uzman Afzaal and AJ Harris against Worcestershire.
The oddest thing about the partnership list is the 5, 6 and 3 for the 11th, 12th and 13th wicket – all set in a match of 1845, a Notts XIV against an England XI at Trent Bridge!
The full list of partnership records can be seen here
April 2024