One of the most important weeks in the recent history of Glamorgan County Cricket Club starts with the Welsh county travelling to Chelmsford for their LV=County Championship match against Essex starting at 10.30am on Tuesday, September 17th.
Match Preview
The two teams met earlier in the summer at Cardiff with Essex winning the contest in May at the SWALEC Stadium by five wickets after Ravi Bopara had posted 145 in Essex's first innings. The England all-rounder also completed a match-winning century the last time Glamorgan visited Chelmsford, in 2011, as Essex recorded a last-day victory against an injury-ravaged Glamorgan attack.
Michael Hogan also took 6/70 in Essex's first innings during the Championship match at Cardiff in May, and if he repeats this feat with another "five-for", the Australian - who currently has 95 wickets to his name this season - will become the first Glamorgan bowler since 2003 to take over a hundred wickets in a season in all forms of cricket for the Welsh county.
The Welsh county's most recent success at Chelmsford came in a quite remarkable contest in 2004, and all after the home side had amassed 642 - the highest-ever total in any first-class game by a side which subsequently lost the contest. In fact, a Glamorgan victory seemed a very distant prospect as they stuttered to 188-5 in reply on the second day and looked in danger of being forced to follow-on.
But thanks to centuries from Matthew Maynard and Robert Croft, plus a career-best 88 from David Harrison, Glamorgan rallied and ended on 587 to concede a first innings lead of just 55. When Essex batted for a second time, they were soon in trouble against the pace attack of Simon Jones and Mick Lewis - the Australian fast bowler who had replaced fellow countryman Michael Kasprowicz who was on international duty. Their fiery bowling helped to dismiss Essex for 165, leaving Glamorgan chasing 221 on the final afternoon.
An excellent 83 from David Hemp guided them home after a mid-innings wobble, with the left-hander sharing a decisive unbroken stand of 70 for the seventh wicket with Croft, before hitting the winning runs with 3.4 overs to spare to give Glamorgan the most unlikely of victories and a place in the record books.
Team News
After a series of decent performances for Glamorgan 2nd XI, David Lloyd has been named in a 12-man squad for the vist to Chelmsford to play Essex in the penultimate Championship match of the summer. With Jim Allenby resting ahead of the YB40 final, the young batsmen features in the squad along with John Glover who could replace Mike Reed from the side that lost to Kent recently at the SWALEC Stadium. The Glamorgan squad in full is - WD Bragg, GP Rees, MW Goodwin, CB Cooke, BJ Wright, Ma Wallace (capt), AG Salter, RAJ Smith, JC Glover, DA Cosker, MG Hogan and DL Lloyd.
