Roses Match
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Roses Match

The Roses Match refers to any game of cricket played between Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Lancashire County Cricket Club. Yorkshire's emblem is the white rose, while Lancashire's is the red rose. The associations go back to the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century. These matches have a long and proud history and are traditionally the hardest fought matches in the English first class game, with many dour draws recorded as both teams battled to avoid the ignominy of defeat.

The term is occasionally used in connection with other sports where Lancashire play Yorkshire, such as rugby union and rugby league (War of the Roses).

The first First Class Match between Yorkshire and Lancashire was in 1849 with Yorkshire winning by 5 wickets at the Hyde Park Ground in Sheffield. The very first "Roses Match" was played in 1867 at the Station Road Cricket Ground, Whalley near Blackburn and was won by Yorkshire by 5 wickets. The first match in the newly constituted County Championship, in 1890, ended in the inevitable draw. Including first class matches, second team fixtures, one day games and other representative matches there have been over 600 Roses Matches over the century and a half since the first one.

In the match played over the Whitsuntide bank holiday in June 1924 Lancashire were skittled for just 74 in their second innings, leaving Yorkshire a target of just 58 the next day. Despite opening with Percy Holmes and Herbert Sutcliffe Yorkshire were dispatched for just 33 by Cecil Parkin and Dick Tyldesley, Lancashire's first win in Yorkshire for 25 years.

At the Old Trafford Roses Match in 1926, a record 78,617 spectators paid to watch the match peter out into a high scoring draw, with centuries from Lancashire's Harry Makepeace (126), Ernest Tyldesley (139) and 92 from Frank Watson being answered by Yorkshire legends Percy Holmes (143) and Herbert Sutcliffe (89) who put on 199 as if to make amends for events 2 years previously. Leonard Green, Lancashire's captain, was batting when the score stood at 499. Neville Cardus relates the story that Green said to himself "It's not likely that Lancashire ever again will score 500 against Yorkshire, so I'm going to get this single run if it kills me." He pushed a ball from Wilfred Rhodes to the off-side and ran 'like the wind'. The ball was hurled back in anger by Yorkshire legend Emmott Robinson, striking Rhodes on the wrist while Green dived to make his ground. Picking himself up he heard Rhodes muttering to himself:

"There's somebody runnin' up and down this wicket. Ah don't know who it is, but there's some-body runnin' up and down this wicket." The operative words in that famous lamentation are, "Ah don't know who it is."

Lancashire finally surpassed their 1926 record total of 509 for 9 declared in 2005 in another high scoring draw when they posted 537 thanks to skipper Mark Chilton and Iain Sutcliffe's opening partnership of 223. This was their side's highest first-wicket stand against Yorkshire, beating Reggie Spooner and Harry Makepeace's 181 at Old Trafford in 1912. In 2021 Lancashire matched the exact total from 2005 going 509/9(dec) with huge efforts from Keaton Jennings 114(260) a rapid fire 52(57) from Alex Davies & Josh Bohannon 127(277).

In an effort to break the dominance of the batsmen on such featherbed pitches, and years before the infamous bodyline series, Ted McDonald, an Australian fast bowler, used a version of 'leg theory' in the Roses match at Old Trafford the following year in 1927, bowling to a 4-man leg trap with no slips.

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