Our last but not least County Cricket hero of 2011 is the most (only?) popular Yorkshireman to ever step foot in Lancashire – the indestructible Glen Chapple, come on down.
Up until this season, Chapple had been one of the foremost unsung heroes of county cricket. Too good and certainly too canny for the majority of county batsmen, but not quite good enough (or just plain unlucky depending on your opinion) to make the final step up to international honours.
Like Marcus Trescothick, whose impressive consistency we highlighted a few days ago, Chapple has a remarkable record over the last five seasons:
2011: 55 wickets at 19.81
2010: 52 wickets at 19.75
2009: 35 wickets at 25.25
2008: 42 wickets at 20.50
2007: 47 wickets at 21.85
Overall that is 231 wickets at 21.16. So Chapple’s performances this season shouldn’t come as any real surprise to regular followers of county cricket. Except, and this is the crux, that he took most of his 55 wickets this season pretty much on one leg.
Chapple’s bravery and downright doggedness epitomised Lancashire’s title challenge where the whole grossly exceeded the sum of the individual parts.
As captain, Chapple must take a lot of credit for his team’s formidable spirit. Playing alongside such an exceptional leader of men seems to have proved inspirational to his team-mates.
In that final game at Taunton, Lancashire were behind the eight ball after day one, but Chapple’s refusal to stay in the dressing room despite a bad hamstring injury seemed to act as the spur for a stirring fightback and the ensuing infamy that the first Lancashire team to win the title for 77 years so richly deserved.
We’ve already likened Chapple to the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and just like John Cleese’s character you just know that even if Chapple had lost all his limbs, you still wouldn’t have been able to get the ball out of his hands.
If that’s not heroic, we don’t know what is.
Where next?
10 reasons why neutrals should be glad Lancashire won the County Championship
County Cricket 2011 Heroes: The Tiflex cricket ball
County Cricket 2011 Heroes: Marcus Trescothick
County Cricket 2011 Heroes: Rory Hamilton-Brown
County Cricket 2011 Heroes: Michael Carberry
County Championship XI of the season
County Championship Division 1 XI of the season
County Championship Division 2 XI of the season
Read all of our County Cricket coverage
Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes
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