Chris Waters

ABSENT from almost any discussion about England’s Test series defeat in Pakistan will be the impact of our domestic schedule on the team’s display.

WHEN Apollo 11 made its groundbreaking mission to the moon in 1969, no one was quite sure what would happen when Neil Armstrong took his one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.

A FRIEND living down south contacted this correspondent on Wednesday night to say that he needed Harry Brook to get out as he had put a small wager on Joe Root to finish top scorer in the England first innings.

THE moment, when it came, was gloriously low-key.

PERHAPS the key question as Anthony McGrath returns to Yorkshire is not whether the club can end its decade-long wait for silverware (of course it can) but whether the phantom sock-snipper of old Headingley town will magically reappear.

AS the champagne celebrations subside and the hangovers clear (just about) so sinks in the realisation that Yorkshire County Cricket Club is back where it belongs.

RATHER like the fact that Santa Claus doesn’t exist (unless you’re a five-year-old reading this article, in which case he does exist), it’s a poorly kept secret that Matthew Fisher is off to Surrey.

THE principle that press releases can be packed with PR piffle is well-established in this line of work.

“MIRROR, mirror on the wall, who in this land is fairest of all?”

ENGLAND will have to review their decision to drop Jonny Bairstow if he continues scoring runs for Yorkshire, believes Ottis Gibson, the club’s head coach.

YORKSHIRE’s visit to Rugby School earlier this month to face Warwickshire in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup was the first time that they had played at the West Midlands venue.

MANY have tried - David Byas, Martyn Moxon, Jason Gillespie, Andrew Gale, Darren Gough, Ottis Gibson, even Rich Pyrah and Ali Maiden - but none have succeeded in the quest to coach Yorkshire to a white-ball trophy.

OTTIS GIBSON said Yorkshire’s youngsters had made “massive strides” forward in the One-Day Cup.

“THIS stone commemorates the exploit of William Webb Ellis, who with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the rugby game. AD. 1823.”

“THE possession of a criminal record will not necessarily prevent an applicant from obtaining this post, as all cases are judged individually according to the nature of the role and information provided.”

YORKSHIRE have announced that head coach Ottis Gibson is to leave at the end of the season.

White Rose on a shirt, C&G still gleaming, No more years of hurt, No more need for dreaming.

ONE of the greatest players in the history of women’s cricket has been appointed to the board of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

“GOOD evening. I hope you’ve done your Sunday chores, cooked your Sunday roast, watched the Wimbledon final, stopped worrying about work in the morning, and instead are looking ahead to a night that could change the story of football in our country forever. No England team has ever won a major tournament on foreign soil. Sporting immortality is within their grasp.”

SO near and yet so far.