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