Glamorgan return to action in the LV=Insurance County Championship as they travel to Hove to meet bottom-of-the-table Sussex at Hove with the four-day match scheduled to start at 1100 on Sunday, 4 July. (writes Andrew Hignell)
Hove has been something of a bogey ground for Glamorgan in recent years, with the Welsh county not having defeated Sussex at their headquarters in Championship cricket since July 1975, with the contest in 2018 seeing Glamorgan dismissed for 85 and 88 in a game that ended on day two. Their batsmen fared much better in 2019, with Marnus Labuschagne and Nick Selman sharing a Club record second wicket stand of 291 in 75.2 overs in a match which ended in a draw after Marnus had posted what, at the time, was a career-best 182.
The game between the two teams at Hove in 2016 proved to be a high-scoring encounter with Ed Joyce, Luke Wells and Ben Brown all scoring centuries, before a fine hundred by David Lloyd saw Glamorgan secure a draw. Their previous visit in August 2010 saw the game decimated by inclement weather, with torrential rain delaying the start of play until the second day, with the contest also ending in a draw, after Mark Cosgrove had posted a feisty hundred.
Although Glamorgan’s most recent Championship success against Sussex was at Colwyn Bay in 2000, you have to go back to July 1975 for Glamorgan’s last Championship success in Sussex. In that match forty-one years ago at Hove, Roger Davis scored a fine hundred in Glamorgan’s first innings, before John Solanky and Tony Cordle took four and three wickets respectively to bowl Glamorgan to a 96-run victory.
This is one of five Championship victories Glamorgan have recorded in 38 Championship matches at Hove with their other successes coming in 1952 by 47 runs, 1964 by 117 runs, 1965 by 64 runs and in 1966 by four wickets. Sussex have beaten the Welsh county 21 times in Championship games at the Eaton Road ground with Chris Cooke and his team looking to prevent the 2021 contest from being added to this list as Glamorgan look to further consolidate their position, currently in fourth place, in the group table, 27 points behind leaders Lancashire.