The 2025 Royal London One-Day Cup launched this week without the Hundred’s hullabaloo but threw the spotlight on some of the less lauded counties and individuals more often seen plying their trade in the Seconds.
With few players lost to the more lucrative competition, Gloucestershire would be expected to thrive in the 50-over cup and they duly won all three opening fixtures, racking up plenty of runs in the process. They swept aside Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Surrey, the latter fielding a host of unknowns and little-knowns. Ben Charlesworth, Oliver Price and James Taylor enjoyed their time at the crease, and James Bracey was one of several wicketkeepers to shine during the past week and a half.
Welbeck CC’s ground at Sookholme played host to Nottinghamshire’s home fixtures, including a high-scoring tie with Worcestershire. Tom Moores thrashed 140 off 93 balls, following it up with a golden duck! Jake Libby and Kashif Ali each reached three figures in the nailbiting Notts defeat. Somerset’s Rew brothers enjoyed a couple of big partnerships but failed in a two-wicket surrender to Lancashire.
Somerset’s victims included Durham, who nonetheless had easy wins over Sussex and Kent. In the first match, Ollie Robinson claimed the rare distinction of making a hundred and taking six catches. Yet even his performance was eclipsed by team-mate Will Rhodes who ended the week as both the tournament’s highest run-scorer and wicket-taker. In that same Sussex encounter, he fashioned 96 then took 5-30 with his seamers.
The highest score of the week was Imam ul-Haq’s 159 in Yorkshire’s 202-run massacre of Northants. The county are the only one in Group B with two wins from two, which also owed much to young Ben Cliff’s seven wickets, including 5-46 at Northampton. Other five-fors were achieved by the likes of Alfie Ogborne (Somerset) and Leicestershire’s teenage quick, Alex Green, who took five not once but twice in his two games.
I should also mention a couple of players who excelled in a losing cause. Essex suffered a run of three defeats despite Tom Westley’s sterling efforts with bat and ball. At Neath, Glamorgan’s only completed match was notable for two substantial individual innings. Hampshire’s skipper Nick Gubbins stroked an unbeaten 144, before his opposite number Kiran Carlson reacted to the steady fall of wickets at the other end (all caught) by lashing ten sixes in a 92-ball 135. The home side’s innings lasted only five balls later, still 72 adrift.
The next batch of fixtures includes the Roses tie at York, Glamorgan’s trip over the Severn Bridge to Gloucestershire, whose position atop Group A will be matched by Hampshire should they overcome Worcestershire and Leicestershire. In Group B, the Yorkshire-Somerset clash could be critical, but Lancashire need to make up for lost time and their Sedburgh washout with a successful South Coast jaunt to Sussex and Kent.
Team of the Week:- Imam ul-Huq (Yor), Bracey (Glo +), Libby (Wor),
Rhodes (Dur), Carlson (Gla), Kashif Ali (Wor), Westley (Ess), Ogborne (Som),
Zaman Akhtar (Glo), A Green (Lei), Cliff (Yor)
