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Read relief after 'terrible' season

There was a mixture of delight and relief for Chris Read after he played a key role in helping Nottinghamshire end a 24-year wait for one-day silverware with the YB40

Andrew McGlashan
Andrew McGlashan
21-Sep-2013
Chris Read: 'This is something that is been nagging at me for a number of years - can we get to a Lord's final, can we do it my career'  •  Getty Images

Chris Read: 'This is something that is been nagging at me for a number of years - can we get to a Lord's final, can we do it my career'  •  Getty Images

There was a mixture of delight and relief for Chris Read after he played a key role in helping Nottinghamshire end a 24-year wait for one-day silverware with the YB40 title.
His run-a-ball 53 helped them recover from a precarious 90 for 4 and also provided Read with a rare success with the bat in what was been a lean season for the Nottinghamshire captain. This was just his second half-century in all cricket for the summer; he has averaged 19 in the Championship and before Lord's had 93 runs in nine innings during the YB40.
However, his final effort was the best of Read with scampering running, deft placement and some thumping boundaries and he believes the make-or-break nature of the contest helped free his mind for the crucial innings.
"I've been terrible," he said. "In all honesty I've done nothing different, I've worked so, so hard hitting balls left, right and centre and it just hasn't worked for me this season. I've been consistent for a lot of seasons now so it's had me thinking this season about what exactly is going wrong.
"At the end of the day sometimes it takes a big game like this to actually say that what it's about is watching that ball and trying to do the best you can for your team. That's what I set out to do from the start and did it pretty well."
Read has been part of two Championship triumphs with Nottinghamshire but he admitted there were times when he wondered if he would ever play a showpiece final at Lord's.
"This is something that is been nagging at me for a number of years - can we get to a Lord's final, can we do it in my career? So to have got there, to have won and lifted the trophy is a fantastic feeling, it's right up there."
Although the last trophy of the season has now been decided - to go alongside Northamptonshire's FLt20 success, the Division One crown for Durham and Lancashire's Division Two title - it is not quite the end of the domestic season. For Nottinghamshire there is much still riding on the final week of the Championship.
They and Somerset, who play each other at Trent Bridge, are jostling near the relegation zone and even though there is 15-point cushion to Derbyshire it is too close to comfort for Read's liking but he hopes the confidence from their Lord's victory can give them one final push.
"I hope the momentum and the joy we've experienced today will carry on through next week. We have played some good red-ball cricket, although for the most part it has been a mightily disappointing season. To go into the last game not knowing if you'll be in Division One next year, for a side as big as we are and with a squad of such quality, is very disappointing. It's a different form, one we've not been overly successful in in recent months but we've got to come out fighting on Tuesday. We are fighting for survival which is integral for the club."
And neither is Read's future at Trent Bridge entirely signed and sealed. He has been offered a new contract, but with the club still battling Championship safety and having the YB40 to focus on further talks have been put on the backburner.
"The situation we've been in, with our precarious position in the Championship and this final, we decided to park it until the end of the season and see where we are at," Read said. "We'll have a good sit down and work out where the club needs to go and where I need to go and how we can go about building Nottinghamshire for the future."

Andrew McGlashan is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo