2017

SEASON 2017

• Specsavers County Championship (Division 2) – 2nd (promoted)
• Royal London One-Day Cup (50 overs) – Winners
• NatWest t20 Blast – Winners
• Captain (CC and 50ov): Chris Read; (t20): Dan Christian

After nine years of topflight cricket, the Club were playing in Division Two of the County Championship. Following relegation, changes were made in the coaching set-up with Peter Moores taking over as Head Coach from Mick Newell (Director of Cricket). Paul Franks was installed as Assistant Head Coach and Ant Botha was brought in to look after the 2nd XI and Academy. Long serving coaches Wayne Noon and Chris Tolley left. In March, Peter Moores assured supporters that, “One-day cricket and player development were key priorities, alongside the ultimate aim of promotion.” All three were achieved with victories in both white ball finals, promotion back to Division One and the introduction of young players. It was a season of records for individuals and the team.

Long serving captain Chris Read announced that he would retire at the end of the season after 20 years at the Club. The season started in earnest in April with three emphatic Championship victories. Notts included England players Stuart Broad, Jake Ball and Alex Hales plus Australian fast bowler James Pattinson (brother of former player Darren) who was recruited to replace the injured Peter Siddle and they were far too good for the opposition. In the five matches Pattinson played he took 32 wickets as well as hitting a career best 89* against Leics. Luke Fletcher equalled his career best batting with 92 at Durham whilst Riki Wessels hit his career best 202* in the victory in just two days over Sussex.

A change in the structure of fixtures for 2017 saw the white ball tournaments being played in blocks. The 50 over Royal London Cup started badly with two defeats but was then followed by four wins and an abandonment to see the Outlaws qualify for the quarter-finals in third spot of the North group. In these games there was the usual victory at Welbeck, Billy Root scored his maiden List A century, Alex Hales scored a hundred (with one of his sixes sailing through the radio commentary box window) and Samit Patel scored 103* against Lancashire on a day that saw Chris Read take his 258th one day catch overtaking Bruce French’s record.

Back in the Championship Notts, despite Jake Libby scoring 109 and Wessels 120, were frustrated by Glamorgan batting out 171 overs for a draw. This was soon forgotten when Gloucestershire were crushed by an innings at Trent Bridge. The Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara (replacing Pattinson) scored 112 and Michael Lumb 117 whilst Steven Mullaney took his first five wicket haul. Weather intervened in the drawn game against Derbyshire with Derbys well placed before Notts had another frustrating draw at Gloucester which saw just 23 wickets fall in 4 days. In this game Samit Patel passed his career best score with 257*.

It was then back to the One Day Cup and two exhilarating away victories got the Outlaws to the final at Lord’s. In the quarter-final at Somerset, 154 from Brendan Taylor helped the Outlaws win by 24 runs after scoring their highest List A total 429-9. Another record fell in the semi-final when the Outlaws completed the highest successful run chase in List A cricket in this country. Essex scored 370-5 but Patel 122* and Mullaney 111* saw Notts home with just three balls to spare.

There were two Championship games before the Lord’s final. Notts demolished Leicestershire again (Patel 247) then we witnessed the first day-night game with a pink ball against Kent. A victory looked inevitable after Mullaney took 3-2 then hit a career best 168 but rain intervened with Notts requiring just 75 in their 2nd innings.

A Lord’s one-day best of 187* by Man of the Match Alex Hales powered Outlaws to a Royal London One Day Cup victory over Surrey. Chris Read, in his final senior appearance at Lord’s, scored a memorable 58 as Notts recovered from 150-5 to eventually win by four wickets with 13 balls remaining.

It was then onto the NatWest t20 Blast where two defeats and an injury almost wrecked the campaign. Having been hammered by Yorkshire, a last ball defeat in Birmingham was over-shadowed by a horrific incident when Luke Fletcher was struck on his head whilst bowling. This ruled out Fletcher for the rest of the season.

The loss of Fletcher was followed by the announcement of two retirements: Michael Lumb and Greg Smith.

After the Test Match in July (when England lost heavily to South Africa by 340 runs) a Trent Bridge domestic record crowd of 14,123 saw Riki Wessels hit the Club’s first t20 century in the win over Derbyshire. At the end of the month, the Outlaws completed a record t20 run chase with Alex Hales scoring 101 against Yorks.

August saw four more t20 wins and an innings defeat of Derbyshire in the Championship (Alex Hales 218 and Brett Hutton 10 wickets). This game also saw Chris Read take his 968th 1st class dismissal breaking a Notts wicket-keeping record held by Tom Oates since 1925. In the t20 game against Derby Hales bludgeoned a 30-ball 95 that almost equalled the fastest t20 hundred whilst in the game against Durham Hales and Wessels posted a world-record powerplay of 106. Outlaws finished top of the North group.

A quarter-final victory at home to Somerset put the Outlaws through to t20 Finals Day at Edgbaston. Meanwhile, Notts picked up their 7th victory in the Championship with a vital win at Trent Bridge against Northamptonshire. This game proved crucial for Northants as they were docked five points for a slow over rate that eventually cost them promotion.

A large contingent of Outlaws supporters travelled to Edgbaston to see Notts beat Hampshire in the semi final before a Finals Day record stand of 132 between Man of Match Samit Patel and Brendan Taylor, followed by 23 in the final over from skipper Dan Christian took Outlaws to a formidable 190-4 in their 20 overs. Harry Gurney’s bowling at the end restricted Birmingham Bears and Notts picked up their 2nd white ball trophy in the season.

Notts had led the Division for all the season but consecutive defeats against promotion rivals Worcestershire and Northants meant that 12 points were needed in the final game at Hove to gain that vital 2nd promotion spot. Sussex batted first and scored 565. In reply, Notts were 65-5 but recovered thanks to a 242 partnership between retiring captain Chris Read (124) and Billy Root (132) plus a career best 42* from Harry Gurney. In the end the game was drawn and Notts gained promotion back to Division 1 at the first time of asking.

As the season ended Brendan Taylor announced he was returning to Zimbabwe and Brett Hutton (Notts leading wicket taker in the Championship with 37 wickets) signed for Northants. Joining Notts were new signings Paul Coughlin from Durham and Chris Nash from Sussex whilst Mark Footitt rejoined the Club mid-season from Surrey.

Samit Patel was named Notts Player of the Season, PCA MVP and PCA Players’ Player of the Year.