Glamorgan head to Edgbaston for the first time since 2008 for a red ball contest as the Welsh county meet Warwickshire in the Specsavers County Championship, with the four-day contest scheduled to get underway at 11am on Saturday, June 9th.
Warwickshire are currently leaders of Division Two, having won their last three contests, by an innings and 48 runs against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road, by eight wickets against Derbyshire at Edgbaston and by six wickets in the return contest at Edgbaston against Northamptonshire. In contrast, Glamorgan are in ninth position with their sole victory coming against Gloucestershire at Bristol in April, although their most recent red ball game, against Leicestershire at Grace Road, saw the Welsh county agonizingly fall four runs short, with a magnificent and career-best 90 by Marchant de Lange nearly seeing Glamorgan home.
Glamorgan’s most recent visit to Edgbaston was last August when they appeared at Finals Day of the NatWest T20 Blast, and with Warwickshire having been relegated last summer from Division One of the Specsavers County Championship, the Welsh county will have an early opportunity to erase the memories of the narrow defeat to the Birmingham Bears in the all-action competition
The Welsh county’s last visit to the Birmingham ground for a County Championship fixture was in September 2008 when Warwickshire won by 179 runs thanks to a ten-wicket haul by Chris Woakes, then an up and coming all-rounder. The efforts of the England bowler helped the West Midlands side complete 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 also by ten wickets at Colwyn Bay, so Glamorgan will be looking to end a sequence of a dozen Championship games against the West Midlands side, stretching back to 1994 which have either ended in a draw or defeat.
Glamorgan won by two wickets in a low-scoring encounter at Sophia Gardens in August 1993, with Adrian Dale claiming career-best figures of 6/18 as Warwickshire were bundled out for a paltry 125. His efforts though did not go to waste as a watchful half-century by captain Hugh Morris saw Glamorgan to victory with a day to spare.
As far as Glamorgan victories in Championship cricket at Edgbaston are concerned, you have to go back to August 1988 for the Welsh county’s most recent success. In that closely-fought contest almost 30 years ago, 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.