(writes Andrew Hignell)
Glamorgan will play their first-ever County Championship match at Radlett as they meet Middlesex in their next game in the four-day competition with the contest scheduled to start on Sunday, June 16th at 11am.
The Welsh county arrive in the leafy green North London suburbs still in second place in the Division Two table after the high-scoring draw with Derbyshire at Swansea. They are nine points behind Lancashire who were frustrated by the weather at New Road last week, besides being unable to secure any batting points and capitalize on dismissing Worcestershire for a paltry 98.
Middlesex were also hit by the weather in the east Midlands with their game against Leicestershire at Grace Road having just 11 overs, during which the Middlesex attack secured a solitary bonus point, and consequently remain in eighth spot in the table.
Glamorgan also arrive at Radlett with the top two run-scorers in Division Two with Marnus Labuschagne having amassed 653 runs in first-class cricket this summer whilst Billy Root has 517 runs to his name in the premier county competition. In fact, Labuschagne goes into this match as the country’s leading run-scorer with his tally being 44 more than Yorkshire’s Gary Ballance.
This will be the first time that the Glamorgan have visited The Brunton Memorial Ground for a first-class match, with the ground having previously staged contests between the Welsh county’s second string and their counterparts from Middlesex. In May 2017 Glamorgan also visited Radlett for their List A game against Middlesex but the contest at the tree-lined ground in the Hertfordshire suburbs – surrounded by the homes of several celebrities including Simon Cowell, the reality TV judge and producer – ended in a 16-run defeat for the Welsh county who, on that particular day, lacked the X Factor to win a game during which they had several chances to secure victory. Workmanlike fifties from Dawid Malan and James Franklin, plus a high-class 40 from veteran Australian, Adam Voges, laid the foundation of what proved to be a winning total for Middlesex after they had opted to bat first on a dry and well-grassed surface.
Out of the 48 previous County Championship matches between Glamorgan and Middlesex away from Wales, 46 have been staged at Lord’s, with two at Southgate – in 2000 and 2005. In fact, this will be the inaugural first-class game at the ground which since 1999 has hosted 8 List A matches besides staging 57 Second Eleven Championship matches since 2005.