Lancashire: Neil aims for Lord's final (9 Jul 1998)

9 July 1998

Neil aims for Lord's final

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph

NEIL Fairbrother is gunning for Lord's yet again.

But first the Lancashire veteran, who steered them to a tense victory over Yorkshire in the NatWest Trophy yesterday, must beat old mate Jason Gallian in the last eight.

Lancashire were today drawn at home to Gallian's new county, Nottinghamshire, in the July 28 quarter final.

Gallian, whose departure from Old Trafford at the end of last season left a bitter taste, is not the only former Lancashire man now at Trent Bridge.

The quarter final will also be a big day for Alan Ormrod, Lancashire manager for their Lord's double in 1990, who is now coaching Notts.

But as skipper Wasim Akram said after yesterday's three wicket win: "We have no need to fear anyone."

Especially with Fairbrother clearly set on making an amazing 10th appearance in a Lord's final.

His battle with another old pal, Darren Gough, held the key to the latest Roses drama. Gough had already made the top score of 42 in Yorkshire's innings, allowing them to recover from 82-6 to 178-9 in their 60 overs despite a wonderful spell of 12-8-12-2 from Ian Austin.

Then he fired out Andy Flintoff early in Lancashire's reply, and returned to bowl Graham Lloyd and Mike Watkinson with consecutive balls. But Fairbrother, who had already shared a clever fourth wicket stand of 100 with Lloyd, linked up with gutsy Warren Hegg, holding a bat for the first time in three weeks after his thumb injury, to see off the rest of Gough's pacy burst. He survived a loud caught behind appeal on 54, and was dropped by Yorkshire wicket keeper Richard Blakey two overs later, in a fascinating battle with both Gough and his impressive young pace partner Chris Silverwood.

So even though Gough came back for a third time to dismiss Hegg, Fairbrother had the last laugh, ending unbeaten on 76 from 165 balls and taking the man of the match award.

"Goughy said to me at the end that I'd even done him for man of the match," laughed the Lancashire hero. "But that's just the way it goes.

"We never had any problem with time, and although we had lost a few wickets we still had plenty of batting to come. It was just a case of sticking in and blocking the hell out of it."

Fairbrother's innings took him beyond 1300 runs in the NatWest Trophy, second only to Clive Lloyd in Lancashire history, at a superb average of over 45 even though he has never scored a century in the competition. Gallian, Ormrod and co will know that he tolds the key to the quarter final.

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