Yorkshire quadruple - or was it a dream?

(From Yorkshire Post)

Chris Waters IT is Sunday, September 25, 2005. Yorkshire have just completed a crushing victory over Sussex at Hove in their final match of the season to secure the Totesport League Second Division title.

The previous evening, fanned by a cooling breeze in glorious late summer conditions at Northampton, Yorkshire sealed first place in the County Championship Second Division following another stunning performance.

At the beginning of the month they won the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy - in the process gaining sweet revenge over holders Gloucestershire, who eliminated them at the semi-final stage the previous year, and earlier in the summer captured the Twenty20 Cup on a night of high drama at The Oval, defeating Surrey by one wicket off the last ball of a pulsating final.

Thus Yorkshire - following a barren 2004 - became the first county to do the 'quadruple'.

As celebrations raged in the Hove pavilion, David Byas, the club's director of cricket, put pen to paper on a lucrative new five-year contract.

Ian Harvey, having endured a wretched first season at Headingley, could hardly keep the smile from his face as he reflected on a blistering innings of 142 from just 49 balls - the Australian all-rounder's hundred at Hove representing his 15th of the summer in all competitions.