Lancashire: Fairbrother eyes milestone (21 Aug 1998)

21 August 1998

Fairbrother eyes milestone

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Neil Fairbrother is one innings away from a place in Lancashire history - as the first man to score centuries against the other 17 first class counties.

Fairbrother hit a brilliant 138 yesterday as Lancashire piled up 434 to seize control of their championship match against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

It was his 39th first class century leaving him eighth on the list of Lancashire century makers three behind Harry Makepeace but still 51 behind Ernest Tyldesley.

But it was his first against Durham, one of the two counties he needed to complete the set.

"I was hoping to get a 100 coming into this game because I was aware of the record," said the 34-year-old afterwards. "Now I only need one against Kent. I was a bit nervous at lunch on 97. But I didn't tell any of the rest of the lads until I had got it."

Fairbrother had made golden ducks in his last two innings, but insisted: "That didn't bother me. I feel I've been batting pretty well and I wasn't in long enough to get out of nick. I just got two absolute jaffas." He destroyed Durham's attack and dominated a third wicket stand with Nathan Wood, racing to three figures for 111 balls and scoring 133 out of 162.

Wood grafted to a valuable 48, then Graham Lloyd came in to blaze his first century of the season from 112 balls and Wasim Akram added another half century after scoring his first of the year in the first innings.

Wasim hammered 63 including two towering straight sixes - one of which smashed the headlight of BBC commentator John Gwynne's car.

The only other worries for Lancashire were the continuing poor form of Andy Flintoff, who made another duck and has now scored 116 runs in his last 15 innings in all cricket.

And even though they look certain to beat Durham, they will actually lose ground in the title race after failing to take a batting bonus point, with Leicestershire and Gloucestershire set for maximum 24 point victories.

Lancashire Under-19s completed a 95-run win over Yorkshire to win the Sanderson Cup at Todmorden.

Having made 334, thanks largely to 118 from Burnley's Michael Brown, Lancashire then restricted Yorkshire to 239-7.

Source :: Lancashire Evening Telegraph (https://www.reednews.co.uk/let/)