Richard Montgomerie had two reasons to celebrate at the end of August. After 16 summers divided equally between Northampton and Hove he was awarded a benefit, then avoided the chastening experience of becoming known as the man who dropped the C&G Trophy, which might have made chequebooks harder to prise open.

Kyle Hogg and Dominic Cork had hauled Lancashire back into contention when Montgomerie dropped Hogg at mid-on. Remarkably, six runs later, in the same Luke Wright over, came redemption. “The first one came very quickly,” he says. “I didn’t pick up the pace and I didn’t pick the ball up at all until it was too late, probably because of the crowd in the background. I thought to myself, ‘I hope this doesn’t mean we don’t win’, or something like that, so I was lucky to get the chance to redeem myself so soon. This time he didn’t get hold of it and it came relatively slowly. It was a bit of a relief, yes. And a lovely ending for James [Kirtley].”

After that C&G triumph, says Montgomerie, hair was duly let down, albeit “for 12 hours rather than 24”. Chris Adams is understood to have slept with the trophy on the Saturday night. “I can’t confirm that I’m afraid,” deadpans Montgomerie.

Rob Steen, The Wisden Cricketer