Counties risking it all and the Lashings circus - the best of Huw Turbervill in 2024

As The Cricketer reviews 2024, we're looking back on our favourite pieces from the last 12 months that you may have missed

As The Cricketer reviews 2024, we're looking back at the outstanding journalism and reporting delivered by our team over the past 12 months.

Magazine editor Huw Turbervill took on a wide range of subjects across the sport in 2024 while surveying everything from The Hundred to the England men's Test team. Here, we look at some of his stand-out pieces from the past year.

A huge year of cricket lies ahead, with both men’s and women’s Ashes series to come and India touring our shores. Sign up now for just £1 to read exclusive news, features, analysis and opinion from our award-winning team every day – including unrivalled county cricket coverage as we approach a new English season.

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It is well-known that England cricket teams used to embark on epic expeditions to Australia, lasting more than four months. They would dart about from pillar to post, playing in the cities, and up country. Many marriages were lost. When fathers returned, children often didn't recognise them.

Read: England's failure to prepare for the 2025/26 Ashes could cost them dearly

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The BBC's budgets have been squeezed by successive Conservative governments and their bid for the T20Is was reportedly too low this time. All that rejoicing by the ECB that the Beeb was back, with its vast reach, social-media armoury and so on, has been diluted.

Read: People call me a dinosaur but England's Tests should be on BBC television

^{James Hildreth's 18,000 first-class runs weren't enough to win an England appearance (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

For those who have been watching for decades, however, there has to be room for Ken Barrington, Geoffrey Boycott, Chris Tavaré and Jonathan Trott types. They wear the opposition bowlers down, and just as importantly give their own seam bowlers a rest.

Read: Brendon McCullum's England do not need a batting unit of seven Brendon McCullums

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 In The Cricketer magazine's April issue, the BBC's Harry Everett picked James Hildreth as his favourite cricketer. The former Somerset batter has to be a candidate for best player not to win a Test cap for England. It got us talking about other players who would count themselves unlucky.

Read: Unlucky, discarded and overlooked: Remembering those who slipped through England's net

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They are guns for hire – pay a couple of grand, and they will come and face your club. Opponents listed on Cricket Archive include Cherry Tree, King's College Hospital, and a Mangotsfield Junior Football Club Invitation XI. The team arrives with booze tents, bouncy castles, ice cream vans and pop music. They coach the youngsters beforehand. There is a running commentary from the pavilion, supplied by the likes of Henry Blofeld. It is a proper circus.

Read: The pub side of Test stars: The story of Lashings Cricket Club

^{Phil Tufnell preparing before his Lashings CC debut in 2003 (Craig Prentis/Getty Images)}

"I still get calls from broadcasters. 'Glenn McGrath has just mentioned a wicket, can you send us the clip please?' I live near Bill Lawry. He's not on social media, but we talk about the channel. Warnie loved it. Lots of top players did – Dean Jones and Ian Healy, Nasser and Mike Atherton. Simon Jones messaged me the other day – he wanted an interview he did on one of his first days. He said it was embarrassingly bad, and his mates wanted to see it."

Read: Cricket's great digital chronicler: The rise and fall of Rob Moody

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For debt-ridden counties, it looks attractive. Go back into the black, have money to spend on ground improvements, or give your star players more dosh. The amounts counties might receive appear anomalous, however.

Read: Counties welcoming private investment in The Hundred better be sure what they're doing

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It doesn't matter how many times we argue – correctly – that Test cricket makes up most of the Sky TV deal, so therefore you need a functioning Championship competition – it seems to fall on deaf ears. They don't listen. It doesn't matter how erratic and unreliable the British weather is. They don't listen. It doesn't matter that the members and fans want a good amount of red-ball cricket. They don't listen.

Read: County Championship: The last bastion of domestic red-ball cricket?

^{Graham Thorpe in fearless mood (Adrian Murrell/Allsport)}

The crispness of Thorpe's hooking and pulling was breathtaking, however. I am sure I can still hear the crack of one as it sprinted to the square-leg fence. Those innings sealed his place on the trip to Australia that winter - and I was lucky enough to see him down under. 

Read: Absorbing a barrage and battling the Brisbane heat

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