A Masterclass at Bristol

Olly Hannon-Dalby’s career has had its engaging quirks. He has denied two colleagues an all-ten with the ball and delivered some staunch and highly entertaining tail-end offerings with the bat. The standout ingredient of his career, however, as illustrated by his 331 first class wickets at 24.88 apiece for Warwickshire, is his bowling excellence.

The Bears’ supporters will all have their own memories of OHD’s exploits (please do share below – let’s make this an OHD appreciation post!) but I’ll throw this one in the pot - one of his best displays which almost nobody saw.

When Warwickshire played Gloucestershire at Bristol in August 2020, there were no spectators due to the pandemic. The few of us who were permitted to attend observed a seam-bowling masterclass. On a pitch offering some but by no means massive assistance to the seamers. OHD sent down 23.3-11-33-6 and 23-5-77-6. It was bowling of the highest accuracy, consistency and class, as illustrated by his match figures, 12 for 110, compared to the collective five for 296 of Warwickshire’s other specialist seamers.

In such a strange occasion in a near-deserted ground, some players appeared to struggle for intensity, but Olly was a paragon of professionalism and skill. He richly deserved to be on the winning side, but the game was something of a microcosm of OHD’s Warwickshire career, certainly the last five years of it, as he almost single-handedly carried an otherwise toothless attack in an uphill battle. Gloucestershire won by 78 runs.

That career has continued to go from strength to strength and hopefully has many miles still to run. And then? Well, as he tells Reports from Arbroath, he’s not sure what the future holds and, as with most professional cricketers, the certainty that at some point you will have to hang up the boots and find some other way to earn a living comes with a bit of trepidation.

Well, Olly, here’s some news: whatever you do, mate, be it coaching, umpiring, river-widening or becoming the next James Bond, you’ll do it well. You’ll be fine…never mind cricket skills, your attributes as a strong, compassionate, capable human being will always be in demand.

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