Following the full 2018 domestic fixture list announcement earlier, Andrew Hignell takes a look at some of the highlights in next summer’s calendar.
The relegation into Division Two of the Specsavers County Championship of Middlesex and Warwickshire means that Glamorgan will be visiting Lord’s and Edgbaston for Championship matches during 2018.
The Welsh county last played a Championship match at Lord’s in 2011, with an eight-wicket haul by James Harris, plus a century from Ben Wright, 87 by Will Bragg, 75 by Gareth Rees and 63 from Graham Wagg laid the foundations for a nine-wicket victory. Thanks to probing spells of seam bowling by David Harrison and Huw Waters, Glamorgan were also victorious at Lord’s in 2010 as they defeated Middlesex by 78 runs so Michael Hogan and his team will be seeking a third successive victory in first-class matches at the historic ground.
In contrast, Glamorgan’s recent record in Championship games at Edgbaston is a modest one and you have to go back to August 1988 for their most recent success. In that closely-fought contest the Welsh county, under the captaincy of Alan Butcher, won by just four runs with Greg Thomas having a fine all-round game scoring 110 and taking 6/70, whilst Steve Watkin returned career-best figures of 8/59 in Warwickshire’s first innings.
Glamorgan’s most recent visit to Edgbaston, in September 2008, saw Warwickshire win by 179 runs as they completed a home and away double having earlier in the summer beaten Glamorgan at Cardiff by five wickets. Warwickshire also completed a home and away double over the Welsh county in 2005, winning by an innings at Edgbaston and by ten wickets at Colwyn Bay, and the 2018 season will see the West Midlands side return to the Rhos-on-Sea ground as the North Wales Festival of Cricket takes place between August 27th and 30th.
Once again, the St. Helen’s ground in Swansea plays host to two fixtures, with a Championship match against Derbyshire between June 20th and 23rd, as well as a contest in the Royal London One-Day Cup on June 3rd against Hampshire. The 50 overs competition will commence on May 18th with a game against Gloucestershire at The SSE SWALEC, followed by a series of group matches over the subsequent three weeks, with the final group game seeing Glamorgan visit The Kia Oval to meet Surrey on June 6th.
The domestic Twenty20 season gets underway on July 6th with Glamorgan’s first home match in the NatWest T20 Blast taking place two days later at The SSE SWALEC when the Sussex Sharks will be the visitors. No doubt they will be looking to erase the memory of Colin Ingram’s awesome 46-ball hundred in the competition in 2017 at Arundel Castle.
The T20 group games, which also includes a visit to the Cheltenham Festival on July 27th, continue until August 17th when Surrey visit The SSE SWALEC. However, the schedule of white-ball games takes a break during late July for another pink ball contest as Glamorgan travel to the South Coast to meet Sussex in a day-night contest under the Hove floodlights, with the Championship match scheduled to start on July 22nd.
The quarter-final stages of the NatWest T20 Blast occur in the last week of August with Finals Day, once again, at Edgbaston, but the timing is slightly later than last year with the showpiece event in the domestic calendar taking place on September 15th. The last two rounds of Championship matches then follow, with Glamorgan’s first-class season ending with the four-day contest against Leicestershire at The SSE SWALEC, starting on September 24th.
Glamorgan membership is now available priced £142 during the early bird window which expires on 30th November. T20 season tickets are also now available priced £60 for all 7 games. CLICK HERE for more information.